Le Garden

Well...it's finally done (I think...). I may put in a few more herbs, like rosemary, if the "sproutlets" I bought at the nursery don't multiply.

I did start some herbs from seeds quite some time ago, but some haven't bothered to wake up and perform as needed, while others are just now peeking out, and some are starting to roll along. But at the pace they're going, I wouldn't have had anything until late summer.

I've been going to a nursery called Cornell Farms that's near my home; it's a beautiful, fun place to go. They have lots and lots and lots of everything your little heart could think to plant (well...except maybe for skunk cabbage or crab grass -- if you were the kind of person that wanted to have that in your yard!), and all of the people there are friendly and clearly know what they're doing.

I went to go get my tomato and bell pepper plant (the guy who helped me was very knowledgeable, and I got great advice for the care of all my "sprootlets" as my dad and I call them).

I now have out there:

--Walla Walla Sweet Onions (I found a bound bunch to plant at Cornell Farms, and thought that would be fun, as it said you could plant them closely and get "salad-sized" onions)
-- Two different kinds of leeks
-- Several different kinds of lettuce
-- Spinach
-- Sugar Snap peas (planted from seeds; they exploded with a two inch growth inside a week or so after planting!)
-- Bell Peppers
-- Tomatoes
-- Strawberries
-- Chard (the guy at Cornell Farms talked me into it, and the recipes I've seen sound good; I've never had it, as far as I know. But I like new foods, and with my wide taste, I can't see why I wouldn't like it)
-- Cuban Oregano
-- Greek Oregano
-- Thyme
-- Oregano Thyme (it's quite tasty and has a spiciness to it)
-- Cuban Basil (sweeter taste, but I have more Thai and Italian basil growing in my starter pots)
-- Two different kinds of sage
-- Parsley
-- Sweet Marjoram
-- Rosemary
-- Lavender
-- Tarragon
-- Mint
-- Pineapple Mint (pretty yellow and green leaves, and it does have a pineapple-y taste)

I'd only planned to just get the bell pepper plant and the tomato plant, but I got...inspired...but the amazing variety that was at the nursery; I already had some of the herbs, but there's a bigger variety at Cornell Farms than at Fred Meyer, so I decided to...augment my choices. I decided to get two jasmine plants as well to replace the ones that went in the storm we had; turns out I wasn't watering them correctly and, despite what the man told me at the other nursery where I bought them, I couldn't do two in a pot to have four...so I just got two, and put them each in one pot. I'm also going to be much better about watering them correctly (less often).

I also got a pretty jade plant for my little table that's next to my chair, a splurge of an addition to my pots of geraniums, petunias and marigolds.

I didn't plant ALL of that in one day, of course; Saturday was the last round of about 6 weeks of planting (on weekends).

It sounds like there's a lot out there (well...there is), but it's not crowded. The lettuces, onions, leeks and peas got planted in long planter boxes that sit on the terrace floor, flush with the railing; the herbs are in flowerpots; and the strawberries are in a pot that sits on my railing (as do the planters where I have my flowers).

My dad keeps asking me if he needs to bring over a machete when he visits, and I've told him no...my invisible pandas are doing just fine, especially in keeping my bamboo in check. And if that doesn't work, I could always do what some people are doing in England: buy a wallaby to keep things trim (yes, wallabies).

It's really nice out out there now, and it will be even like, tewtally awesomer in the summer as my dad came over and hung two rolling shades I bought to block out the rather intense afternoon sunshine that was blazing in like a mini-kiln. My apartment now faces South, so it would get the sunshine all...after...noon. It would be okay out there with a fan, but it was still hard when the sun is blazing against your left cheek and arm, giving you rather lopsided tan.

This way I can also pull them down during the day (they're set back enough so that they unroll behind the railing planters) and keep my apartment from getting warm. I tried closing my deck doors (with the curtains closed and without), but my apartment just got stuffy. So I tried opening the deck doors, but pulling the curtains closed and it seemed to get even stuffier.

So the answer became shades.

Next up will be hanging my cute strings of the cut-metal pineapple lights, then setting up my water fountains (small). It sounds like you might have to suck in your gut and walk down the terrace on your tiptoes, but it's quite wide, and it all fits nicely.

We've also seemed to become a wildlife conservatory; both Saturday morning and this morning I was awakened at 5:17 (yes, that time exactly) by a pair of mourning doves who have moved into the plum tree that's right by my bedroom door (they also like to sit on the branches of the locust tree right out side of my bedroom door; I've seen them there in the evening).

It's a lovely, sweet sound -- but it's still five friggin' seventeen in the morning!!!

Sheesh.

On Saturday evening a frog began ribbeting, kind of tentatively in a ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause pause pause................................pause pause pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit pattern all night and into the morning (I know this because I woke up needing to use the bathroom around 4 am or so on Sunday and he was still going).

Then, Sunday evening, he really got into a groove; instead of the lazy-ish way he'd been going the night before, it became ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit-ribbit (pause) ---

(The pause seemed to be just long enough for him to catch his breath).

All. Night. Long.

He was silent last night (too cool, I think). He apparently lives somewhere in the bushes on the other side of the pool, so the two apartment houses apparently create a nice amphitheater effect.

Double sheesh!

Damn nature.

Hee hee.

But...I can say that's far more preferable than the "wake up call" I had the previous Saturday at about 4:20 am.

I was awakened by sirens -- I sometimes am, given that there's a firestation right down the road from me, and they often wail down this street to get to Cedar Hills Boulevard, as it's the fastest route to it. I began thinking, Gee they're getting awfully close.... But when I've had that thought before, they've usually zipped right past.

But as I lay there, getting less groggy, the thought returned, with an additional, "...that's...REALLY close...!" And then my thought was, "Holy [cow], they're right under my window!!!" It was right at that moment I smelled smoke.

I popped out of bed like someone had lit a fire under me. So to speak.

My first thought was, "Is it my place?!" But then I realized no, of course not; if it were, I'd have been awake a lot earlier and faster by my own smoke alarm going off. Then I got the brilliant idea to share the excitement with my dad, as he's frequently awake at that hour. Turns out that's the one time he was actually sound asleep (sorry, Dad!)

I noticed people were clustering under the cover by the office door, so I realized it was like being in a dorm -- everyone had to evacuate until they could go back in. So I pulled out my earplugs (I always sleep with them in, so that means the doves were loud enough to wake me up through them!) and that was when I heard the hallway alarms going.

I noticed it was cool, so I pulled on my slippers and a sweatshirt over the large t-shirt I'd worn to bed...but when I got to my door I thought, "Oh. Pants. Pants would be good -- !" In my sleep-addled brain state, I'd completely missed the fact my legs were bare, despite pulling on slippers and a sweatshirt. So, after making myself decent, I went down with everybody else.

We were let back in after about 20 minutes or so. There were three trucks that came -- a water truck, a "regular" one and a ladder truck -- and at one point when four firemen walked past, it was like watching a children's book coming to life:

This fireman is carrying an extinguisher.
This fireman is carrying a fire ax.
This fireman is carrying a pick.
This fireman is carrying a large exhaust fan to pump out the smoke.

At that point a curious / sort of worried murmur of, "Uh oh!" rippled through the crowd; I knew it couldn't be too bad, given no flames were licking the sky and we hadn't been evacuated to the park that's a half a mile away.

I went around to the back of the building (I'd heard the fire had been on the other side of the building and down a floor) and discovered the damage: the wooden wall between the two terraces was fully burned away, the wall where the door was had been fully scorched, and the ceiling had been whacked away to reveal insulation -- which was also strewn around the ground below. There wasn't a BBQ, so my thought was a cigarette that had somehow started it (this was the same thought the manager had when I asked her when I turned in my rent check).

Not quite the blazing experience Andrew witnessed a few months ago when the top level of a house two lots down from him went the way of a sacrifice to the Fire Gods. From what I hear, it was pretty spectacular.

So...if I had to choose between doves and a frog and sirens ushering in the portent of possible doom -- I'll take the doves and the frog.

And...that's all she wrote for now!

-- H