lulugardens

I have tried growing cilantro before (a few times really...) and it's never taken. Being new to gardening there really is quite a bit of trial and error. I just planted it once more, and lo and behold, so far it's doing quite well. I think the difference is this time I planted in a sunny spot that gets more water from my sprinklers. I mean if this spot doesn't work out well then I just don't know what the problem could be. I put down a good layer of soil nutrients this time and the weather has been cooperating as well. It's been sunny, but not too warm. That may have been another problem that I encountered before as cilantro apparently will bolt if the soil gets too warm.

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Anyway, now that I've been successfully growing a number of herbs I just can't bring myself to buy herbs in the market any more. I don't know why anyone would shell out $2.00 for a bunch of herbs (that I usually can't...

Spent a couple hours in the garden this morning tweaking this space and that. It's great excercise. By the time I was done, I felt spent and like I had really accomplished something. I had gone to the garden store over the weekend and I was determined to get my new plants into the ground before too much time had gone by and the plants were at risk of suffering from too little water or being neglected in those teeny pots they come in.

So, I pulled up the old arugula and the zuchinni that was taking up half the garden space and put in some asparagus, lettuce and tomatoes instead. I'm excited to see how these new additions are going to do. My old tomato plant that I just pulled up today was a dud and I'm hoping this new one will do better. This spot was such a winner with the tomatoes last year so I'm not sure why I had a hard time with is this time around. I guess I'll be able to tell more about what happened by watching how this new plant does in this same spot.
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We recently went on a little outing to The Getty Villa, one of the many amazing projects of the Getty Trust. It's a beautiful location right off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. And it's free too, so what's not to love? You just need to call ahead or go to their website to make a parking reservation in advance.

I felt a pang of envy at witnessing their herb garden. Not that I would have any idea of what to do if I did manage to grow such a quantity of herbs, but still it was a sight to see....

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The Herb Garden

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The Pool in the Getty Villa Courtyard

Yes, spring is on the way... and groups like The Theodore Payne Foundation want to make sure that you don't miss the fabulous wildflower displays across our state of California. Their Wildflower hotline --(818) 768-3533-- goes into effect on March 6th and is available through May.

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The Theodore Payne Foundation website has an extensive wildflower site list (complete with links), as well as weekly wildflower reports. Very useful information for anyone who would like to take some day trips this spring to see the California Lupines, Indian Paintbrush and blue lupines in their full glory.

This morning the kids and I went to a program over at their school about trees - what we need to do to take care of them and all the wonderful ways that they take care of us.

There were some fun crafts and exercises, including planting sunflower seeds. They passed around photos of past year's sunflower projects and I was blown away by how big these sunflowers grew. They were taller than the house they were planted next to!

The kids planted their seeds in a biodegradable pot, meaning the entire pot can just be planted either in the ground or in a larger pot. A great idea, I thought. We'll have to see how our sunflowers do. Maybe in a few months we'll have some towering beauties of our own!