Now that summer is upon us, let's get to know each other. Please tell us a bit about yourself and your interests.

My name is sanda and I live in North OC. I have been gardening since I was a little tot, with my grandma. I couldn't wait to have my own house with a big yard, and in 1999 that dream came true. I am a big fan of tropical settings. You can click on my profile for more info and pics of my yard.

If you are interested in a local plant swap, mikey will have one in Cypress. Look on the exchange forum or click here
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/calif/exch0414353914591.html?3

Take care,
sanda

We have a house in Santa Ana near South Coast Plaza. We've put some clumping bamboos in the raised bed in the back yard, which have gotten big enough to make the most wonderful sounds in the wind. There's something amazing about growing grass that gets 35 feet tall! We're also trying our first clematis after being encouraged by postings on this forum. I have a small pond with water lilies, 4 goldfish and about 30 mosquito fish,and I'm trying a couple of lotus this year. I also love container gardening--big living bouquets.

Looking forward to hearing from more folks!
Sharon

mikey will have a plant swap on Saurday June 9, at 10AM in Cypress, CA (North OC off 91 fwy). If you want to join, please post to confirm on the exchange forum by following this link
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/calif/exch0414353914591.html?3

This is necessary so mikey will have a head count, and he will email you directions privately after you confirm.

This will be so much fun!!!

sanda

When the house was built 2.5 years ago, the landscaper put in a lot of boring plants that are now overgrowing their beds.

Susan

I love this forum, and I've always loved gardening since I was a kid but never had a plot of land to do it in.

I know, the first question I get is, "I didn't know apples grew here! It doesn't get enough chilling hours". I don't know who started that assumption, but they're wrong- just about any variety does fine in So. Calif.

Right now I have fruit on Ashmead's Kernel, Ribston Pippin, Rome Beauty, Braeburn, Snow, Queen Cox, William's Pride, Mattamuskeet, Hawaii, Royal Limbertwig, Gold Rush, Fuji, Pink Lady, Granny Smith, Whitney Crab, Kerr Crab, Gala, Terry Winter, Lady, and the requisite Anna and Dorsett Golden.

I also grow stonefruits, but they're way more trouble, and of course citrus (just to be polite when living in the citrus capital of Calif.). I leave the vegetable gardening to my wife.

Applenut

The front yard is planted in lots of succulents plus low-water shrubs, bulbs and trees. One side of our property was planted almost entirely in Calif. natives last week, and I can hardly wait to see how lovely it'll be in a few years when our little 1-gallon plants grow into 6' tall shrubs and 15' trees. Last year we put in 10 deciduous fruit trees (peaches, apricots, apples, etc.), and very soon now we'll plant about 12 citrus trees. Next major project - a labyrinth garden with herbs.

I'm also the president and newsletter editor for the San Diego Horticultural Society, and I most cordially invite you all to come to our friendly meetings the 2nd Monday night of every month at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. About 300-350 people usually attend each month, and we have professional speakers, plant vendors, plant displays and lots more.

Barbara

I have the first tiny green tomatoes on my Stupice and cherries. I have also put in a very modest asparagus bed for the first time. It's very, very difficult to see the tiny spears and let them grown on to ferns...

My particular joy this year — being a New York state native and missing many of the beautiful things that I grew up with — is having a peony bud about to open. I put the root in 6 years ago and every year foliage came and then disappeared with the heat. But this year a bud got to walnut size and is just about to unfurl. A couple other tiny buds are coming behind it. WoooHoooo!!!

Married with 6 children who range in age from 6 months to 11 years.

I'm a horticulture student at CalPoly SLO and we spend most of our time up there, but our primary residence is in Camarillo. We live in a small house on a 1/4 acre lot. The landscape is unfinished and will likely remain so until I finish school though some clean up is in order now.

Apart from my primary hobby (which I am trying to make into a career) I also dabble in pottery.

Ryan

This, of course, means problems. My mistakes are showing, and since last year I've been confronted with horrible amarillia fungus that I've never had to deal with in all my years of gardening. I've lost many plants, including beloved roses. I'm pretty much an organic gardener, however, so I'm digging out the dead stuff, letting the soil rest and mixing in new topsoil. I have very low expectations. Sigh.....

I have much shade and minimal planting area, so it's been a challenge. I try to have the plants to double duty and attract hummingbirds, and to a lesser degree butterflies -- lack of sun restricts choices for the latter. Some solutions are vertical planting (make sure a wooden fence is well constructed!), trellis and arbor for climbing roses, and plants that grow vertically (thank heavens for tree fuchsias, iochroma, abutilon, buddleia, etc.) so the hummingbirds are protected from the herd of semi-feral to fully feral cats that are in the neighborhood. Bromeliads and tillandsias also allow me to use overhanging branches and tree trunks to expand my garden.

I'm looking forward to leisurely enjoying the spring and summer after ten weekends of frantic activity to prepare the yard/gardens for the Venice Garden Tour this past weekend. You would be surprised how many leaves and blossoms a fifty-year old pittosporum undulatum can drop in two months.

I live in North Pomona, on the border with Claremont and Montclair literally. Ive been gardening for a few years now and this website is what got me started.

I hate when our seasons are out of whack, like they've been the last few years. I love rainy/cloudy days (which we never get). Newest project is to transform part of my front lawn into a native/drought tolerant area.

I live in Glendora and have been gardening since I was 13 years old. I absolutely love it! I have just started switching two large flower beds in the front from annuals to perennials. I have a large koi pond in the back, with lots of water plants. The back is "tropical" themed. I dabble with bonsai, Occasionally have vegetables tucked in here and there. Would love to meet other gardeners in my area!

Karin

I have been unable to do much gardening the past two years due to personal circumstances, but want to begin again. Tomatoes from Fullerton Arboretum are in pots and growing nicely. I have quite a few huge potted plants that are about 30 to 40 years old. They are like my children. I have a giant Staghorn Fern that has outgrown my yard and I may donate it to the Arboretum.

There seem to be a lot of volunteer plants and trees that come up in my yard. One in particular, a fig tree, which is now about 3 years old. It has grown rapidly and has a limb spread across most of the open back yard. I have been planning a relandscape for the past several years (was thinking of redwood trees) and am now thinking of changing ideas to accommodate this beautiful fig tree as it is perfectly set for placing a table underneath for shady dining.

Happy gardening! Sharon

I'm in West Los Angeles (90034, Westside Village area), in a quiet neighborhood with lots of trees. Front and back yards are steeply sloped; back yard has lots of shade. I love the coolness of the shade, but am finding it hard to find something worth planting, since I'm not a big fan of most of the "usual suspects" that are known to grow in shade and on slopes. We've only been in this house 6 months though, so I'm hoping to learn more and come up with some better planting choices. This forum is great!

I garden in a cottage style with lots of roses, mostly floribundas, austins and shrub type, too many perennials to mention and a potager right in the middle of it all. My DH and I also grow fruit trees and lots of shade trees, with sycamores being our favorites. We are both native So.Ca. kids and will probably never leave. Our other loves are baseball (Angels and Cubs), woodworking (DH) and quilting (me).

Nice to "meet" all of you!

My other interests are classic literature and artglass paperweights. I also co-admin on a large Tolkien board which explains the state of my garden.

Since I moved into my current home about 7 years ago, I have been slowly learning more and more about plants and gardening. I visit this site a lot and I google any questions that come up in my mind, too.

Currently, I have one 4'x12' veggie garden which at the moment is being overtaken by 2 tomato plants that I planted in early March (Early Girl and San Diego). In this garden I also have a makeshift trellis just waiting for some Straight 8 and Lemon cucumbers to take off, as well as 3 corn plants (I know, I know! :-) I plan to hand pollinate, and I'm sowing more seed at 3 week intervals) and a bell pepper that is just sitting there (waiting for the weather to heat up, I assume).

I also have two newly created flower beds that have a mish-mash of flower plants in them, pretty much just anything that caught my eye as I was at HD or Armstrong!

Glad to be here!

Must say I am worrying over most of my plants due to the very low temps we had. My daylilies are struggling, lily of the nile also. My trees are acting as if they are diseased also. I'm not sure what more I can do than offer water, fertility, and good tending. I sure would be open to anyones suggestions.

I will say i'm not a fan of palm trees,at least not in my yard,even though i do have 1. I like to plant things from seed,but dh does not.He doesn't have the patients for it.I enjoy the seeds because the selection is better,not the same ol,same ol,if you know what i mean.

Nice to meet everyone.
Kathi

I'm Susan, and I live with DH and Penny the dog in Burbank. We have a cactus/succulent garden and an orange tree in our back yard, a narrow alley full of pots on one side of our house, and a cottage/potager behind our detached garage. We've lavished endless amounts of attention and money on these areas, with often limited results, hence the name boondoggle.

The front yard is a different story: I do the minimum to keep it up, because I must constantly do battle with a 60 year old camphor tree on our parkway. It's beautiful, but a living debris hell. No one looking at our house from the front would ever know that I had an interest in gardening.

Look forward to seeing everyone at the exchange.

This is the first house were I've been able to have a garden and I'm very excited.

Ironorchid, I love the look of your back yard, I just finished putting up a retaining wall in our front yard that looks somewhat likes yours!! lol A neighbor down the street from me has a small cactus/succulent business, guess I'd better go get better acquainted, but I'm sure drooling over your plantings and design elements.

I have made some garden art in the past and hope to get started with it again this year, after I get some planting done. I've lived in this house for 20 years, but it's only been recently that I wanted to garden, so I'm a bit behind. If I had started 20 years ago, I would have a neat place, but I mostly have dirt right now and it's dusty. We are in the midst of remodeling, inside and out so my energy level is somewhat low, but I love coming to Garden Web for ideas for the future and now I've found this board, I'll be here more....picking your brains!!

I also have a row of miniature roses in the front yard as well as my wife and I have recently discovered day lilies and have started a collection.

Jimnginger- are you close to Tom's Farm? I think I know the location. My husband and I have been wanting to visit but not sure if that is okay? Would you mind telling us the policy? This is a serious enquiry, not a joke.
Thanks.

Gardening is only a recent thing which I started just this past October, planting some Medjool Date seed from store bought dates. Have over 100 of the little critters in pots right now. I like the natural world and I suppose that's one reason to like toying with gardening. However, most of my toying with keeping nature in the backyard till now, have been fauna, not flora. In my time, I've collected fossils, explored computer science, travelled extensively, photographed with an artist's eye, flown airplanes, hiked into the inaccessible and gone scuba.

Bakersfield? It isn't like the Bay Area, let me tell you. There is no cooling sea breeze and fog or low cloud cover that hangs in till noon, making VFR ( Visual Flight Rules ) flying delayed until after lunch. How I used to hate waiting on the cloud cover when I was working on getting my ticket ( Pilot's License ). But here in BKF, I would gladly have that fog and late cloud cover right now.

Soaring temperatures directly from sun-up make BKF a very difficult place to plant seeds and tinker with gardening or landscaping. And we've had that horrible freeze this past January, too! It's no wonder folks, that some of the best nurseries are over along the coast, from the San Francisco Peninsula down to Sunny Diego.

I welcome this forum specifically for California Gardeners and while some of you may not face the same problems as are faced here in BKF, I have seen already that there is a common thread in many ways as far as the types of plants available, the quarantines on obtaining certain plants, and some of the problems unique to the micro climates here in CA.

BKF is an Ag area, cotton, fruit trees and Oil Wells, along with a fair share of parched dry sage brush. The worst part is that the area tends to grow a lot of correctional institutions too and is tainted by gangs and drugs in its culture from the families of those incarcerated who come to live here, near those behind bars. There are indeed, a lot of drawbacks to BKF.

And so, Howdy from the naive run away green thumb from Chicago with 100 baby Medjool Date Palms and more than a few other things growing in the soil.

Who'd 'a thunk it would come to this?

Wellsaid and Cathryn, I LOVE your town. One of my favorite places to shop and visit. DH and I almost bought a home there long ago but couldn't quite wrap our minds around living in a "regular" town - we're too used to being on acreage. Still, I often yearn for one of those old Victorians like a friend of mine owned and I frequent Trader Joe's and the quilt shop when I'm there.

Hello to everyone else, too! What a great, diverse group. How about everyone posting a few pics of their gardens on the gallery? I've noticed it's pretty slow over there. I am usually over on the Cottage forum where things really move.

Diana

Patty in Ventura county, and sad to have missed the exchange. I still enjoy the plants I got at the last exchange I went to in Redlands, a few years ago at this point.

The back yard is small, so I also have a plot at the community garden. I totally dig lasagna gardening, and have had good yields - starting to get the summer veggies now, and will be in the kitchen putting up pestos and tomato suces, pickles, etc - very soon.

We have natives at home, although some parts of the yard still need to be converted.

My obsession is camellias, which means the fun is just getting started for me. I have over a dozen, some in pots, some in ground, different species, including 2 fragrant varieties. I invite you all to check out the camellia clubs in this area, www.socalcamellias.org and www.occamellias.org. Be sure to come to the shows which start up in January - they're not your grandmas camellias.

I also grow roses, gardenias, a michelia, and anything else that smells good. I made the unfortunate decision of planting an emperor maple in the front yard, which has serious leaf margin burn by July each year, no matter what I do. Sigh.

I have a path garden in the back which is much better, and which I would suggest for Lovepoodos, since I have a pair of greyhounds and know how hard dogs can be on a garden. The path is decomposed granite. If you want a lawn, try one of the 'faux' lawns - email me and I'll give you a name. They came to the greyhound picnic, I was quite impressed with the product.

Great meeting you all!

I've visited the forums here off and on, but finally joined in hopes of having all your brains to pick :) Some of my questions are 1) what foods/herbs can I plant now and where to plant them (I have microclimates) and 2) does anyone have links to permaculture and guild planting forums/discussions here or elsewhere? I'm most interested in perennials, fruit, and self-seeding annuals, along with cover crops to hold the moisture or prep/augment the soil to reduce the need for added nutrients for the successive crop.

Thank you!

Sanda..Your yard is impressive, but I am NOT showing my husband... it will give him visions. He is a great visionary, but not a good laborer!

We always had a garden when I was a kid but this is the first year I've grown a garden at the house I bought 5 years ago.

Last year, I dug out one of my flower beds along the property line that had previously had some decorative gravel in it; the gravel had migrated down into the soil about 8 inches. After digging and screening out all the rock and disposing of it, I turned in about 6-8 inches of compost.

This spring, I looked at all that bare composted soil and decided it would be a good place to put a bunch of herbs.

One thing led to another and now I have the following:

cilantro, italian parsley, mex oregano, dill, savory and basil.

I then planted green and yellow bell peppers, jalapenos, serranos, cherry tomatos, roma tomatoes and some beefsteaks.

After getting the gardening bug in full swing, I added more peppers in pots (habanero, cayenne, poblano, anaheim) and some more herbs in pots (curly parsley, oregano, thyme, lemon thyme, chives).

I also built and setup 2 4x4 SFG's which are planted with the following:

sugar peas, broccoli, eggplant, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, romaine, marigolds, spinach, scallions, red onions, yellow onions and arugula.

Almost a year has gone by since I posted this, and my, how this thread has grown!!!
I am so glad to "meet" such a diverse group of people, sharing their dreams, accomplishments and frustrations here. This is a great site to grow and learn.

Enjoy the warm days of summer in your own back yard paradise!

sanda

I really really love vegetables. I don’t eat them just because they are good for you; I adore the flavor of most vegetables. Until about 3 years ago, I always thought I had a black thumb. Maybe my thumb changed, (lucky) or I am keeping better company, because we grow practically all the veggies and fruits we eat, and I am starting on the grains and legumes next. I feel blessed since there is nothing like the taste of a heirloom tomato, or the scent of a fresh carrot being pulled out of the ground. Did you ever taste a pot of fresh black eye peas? In this climate we are harvesting all year around….and you can even grow artichokes, yeah!

I have been harvesting my own seeds for lots of vegetables and herbs. I love doing this because it naturally selects the seeds best suited to our growing conditions/climate. The plants from the seeds I harvest seem to always do better. I am already swapping seeds with folks all over the country, but I would be more interested in LOCAL seed swaps. So take a look at my list and see if there is anything you like?

We have several fruit trees (citrus, stone, loquat, figs) and a pecan tree. Sometimes the fruit gets overwhelming but we learned to can and this helps, plus more yummy things in the pantry….

I also like herbs and I am getting into some medicinal herbs, as well as pest control herbs. Organic gardening and companion planting is what I do, but despite our success feeding ourselves, we have a lot of pests problems too. I would like to exchange information on organic methods of pest control. If you know how to get rid of harlequin beetles, please let me know!

I'm mostly interested in antique roses but I have a hand full of miniature roses.

Recently I started growing 11 apple trees in a planter. They are arranged as a belgian fence. This has been rather fun and very rewarding.

Rather than listing the plants, there are pics in my album below.

Happy gardening.

Craig

I am 18 months into changing a neglected,large, quite bare suburban backyard with our sandy soil into hopefully a shady place with lots of spring blossom and deciduous ornamental trees, with a little summer watering. Hope i can help somebody sometime as i gain experience, i've only just started "doing" really but i've read heaps and have a strange thing where i remember the latin species names.(????)

hm one thing i do know if anyone wants to try these: in this kind of climate the beautiful purple leafed ornamental plums, prunus cerasifera nigra and prunus blireana, are fantastic. To be safe, give a deep water now and then in summer. Almost black purple foliage which glows fiery claret in the light. and i think the blossoms smell exactly like grape flavoured bubble gum. heh bye.

I keep a blog about growing food and cooking it. If you want to know more about my garden and gardening/food interests, you can check it out at the link below:

We live in on a third of an acre in a grove of old mesquite trees. Their shade enables me to grow all sorts of veggies that wouldn't otherwise survive the 110 F temps of August.
My current gardening passion is heirloom tomatoes. I have far more starts than I will be able to raise to maturity, so if there's anyone out there who would like to pick up some plants, drop me an email and I'll send you the variety list.

I live in San Pedro very near the ocean. I can see it from my back yard. I love to garden, but oftentimes let the weeds get the best of me. Since I finished my MLIS, I have more time to fight them and more time to plant. I am expecting a delivery of apple trees from Trees of Antiquity next week. I would like to espalier these trees. I love potagers too. I love flowers and veges!

I also have grand plans for a knot garden, but nothing has come to fruition yet. Maybe this will be the year.

Happy New Year to all and Happy Gardening!

I'm going to germinate seeds for honeydew melon, roma tomatoes, some mystery pole beans and bell peppers this week (or trying to germinate them, in any case) for the first little 3" square raised bed DH and I will build next month, with any luck.

Great to meet you all, I"ll be going back and reading all the posts here in a bit. Right now I'm pretty overwhelmed!

Hey girlfriend!!! I bet I know where you got those mystery pole bean and Roma tomato seeds. :) Which reminds me...didn't I say I was going to start some this week? It's the old story--I got distracted by about a hundred things at the same time.

I was actually doing a search on "Douglas iris seeds" when I stumbled across your post. So far, ONE seed out of the 20 I'm trying to start has actually germinated, one rotted and the rest are just sitting there laughing at me. They were started on November 23rd, so I've been waiting a long time. I think I should probably stick them in the refrigerator for a few weeks to cold-treat them.

--Linda

Water is becoming such a problem here, I've been focusing on planting California natives and other drought tolerant shrubs, and of course succulent plants, they're so easy to propagate and do so well here (no spines either). :)

I raise mostly veg and fruit trees, with a heavy emphasis towards subtropicals, but also do orchids and bromeliads. Crazy about tropical fruit and nuts. I've tried just about everything in the last 20 years, but am NO expert on anything. Some years, it works, and some years, it doesn't. I'm here to improve my gardening know-how, and feed a big family of 6 adults.

I'm Stephanie and mostly just a beginner. Moved to a new house recently going to put as many edibles in it as possible. So far only have moonflowers, sweet peas, 4 o clocks, moss rose (I know, none of them edible). Westminster area. Also kinda nutty about composting. I love coffee grounds.

Thanks

I'll toss out one little question here that is on my mind today - anyone know much about Sweet Alyssium? Much of the large front yard (that was lawn a decade or more ago) bloomed beautiful little Alyssium flowers in about March or April, and over the summer it has grown to about a foot long and is scraggly, and brown (we didn't and still don't really have irrigation sorted out). My questions are: will the Alyssium regrow, or seed itself so will it regrow? Should I leave in place the long brown bushy piles that are left all around the yard, to keep from having bare dirt in the rainy season, or should I cut them back or pull them out? If I want more in the spring (it's a convenient ground cover until we have time to make a better plan) do I need to buy and put out seed? etc.

Thanks in advance, I've already learned a lot after a few weeks reading through the site. I want one of those tree collards!

sb

-jen

I will still have space for my vegetable garden (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, etc).

Thanks,
Jenn