From commentor and desert gardener Jerzy Russian:
The San Diego Botanic Garden is located north of San Diego in the coastal city of Encinitas. It sits on 22 acres, and features, among other things, “four miles of trails wind through its 29 uniquely themed gardens, among them a tropical rainforest, a bamboo garden, and regional desert landscapes.”
Each December they host the “Botanic Wonderland” where guests can go in the evening hours and look at thousands of Christmas lights on display. The show was very popular this year so they added extra hours in January. We took advantage of this and went the evening of Sunday, January 2.
Overall, the event was very impressive. It was pretty dark for the most part, and it was very cold for here (the temperature was around 45F). I tried to capture the impressive displays of lights (using my iPhone XR), and for the most part I failed… Given the darkness, I could not read many of the signs, so I don’t know the exact species of the plants.
Top pic: These are succulents native to South Africa. There were hundreds of these types of plants in this section of the garden.
I think this is a green agave, lit up with green lights.
Here is a variety of palm, which I believe is native to Southern Africa. These types of trees can be seen all over San Diego County.
I think this is some kind of aloe vera plant.
I am not sure what this is, other than the fact that it is native to some arid region.
This shot captures the variety of colors on display.
***********
Posting this here, since anyone reading this will be looking forward to the vaccine:
An mRNA vax that protects against tick bites has been developed by scientists at Yale & UPenn. The vax prevents Lyme disease by deterring the tick. Researchers used a cocktail of 19 different mRNAs to alert the human immune response as well as impede the tick from feeding https://t.co/l8X7tBpWAV pic.twitter.com/CeUxt4nn8r
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) January 8, 2022
It’s garden-catalog season, as most of you already know. My current plan is to pre-order just a half-dozen or so plants from my favorite heirloom tomato source now, while my back still remembers how much of a pain it is to relocate the used rootpouches come winter. (My ‘vegetable garden’ is a strip of asphalt originally intended for the Spousal Unit to leave the car when the snowplow guy is due.)
Bearclaw, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Amazon, Chocolate Stripes, Ruby Gold, and Tati’s Wedding, all of which are extremely delicious and which I can rely upon to produce at least a few fruit for us. Plus a couple of hybrid Chocolate Sprinkles (the Spousal Unit’s favorite), and maybe a Ramapo or another Cherokee Purple, from White Flower Farms — pricey, but when you’re as lazy as I am, sometimes you pay extra for your pleasures…
What’s going on in your garden (memories / indoor / planning), this week?
Baud
I am affirmatively pro-tick.
Barbara
I had zero luck with my heirloom seeds last year but it might have been my failure to boost the soil. Still considering my options.
raven
The University of Georgia Bot Garden did this, I didn’t go but my wife loved it!
Spanky
OMG! I want … I NEED that tick shot. I average 3-5 bites a year, mostly early in the season when I’m not very vigilant. Not very vigilant because they show up earlier and earlier.
Spanky
Mrs. Spanky retires in 3 weeks, and is itching (no tick pun intended) to get back to gardening, so this is probably the year we’ll create the beds and start soil amendment.
Ken
@Baud: You’ll have to do better than that to top DeSantis’s pledges to ban use of the new vaccine, encourage the spread of rodents, and overturn local ordinances to cut long grass.
Disclaimer: He hasn’t done any of those. Yet.
SiubhanDuinne
OMG, the photos are gorgeous!
.
.
.
.
(Well, not the one of the tick.)
Immanentize
@Baud: I was bit by a tick when hiking in Austria once. I got Harry Lyme disease — I swear I heard zither music day and night.
satby
Nice pictures Jerzy, it looks like a very pretty display.Thanks for sharing.
I would take that tick vaccine in a heartbeat, I have a horror of ticks.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
rikyrah
Pretty pictures?
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Immanentize
Jerzy, love the pictures, especially the green-lit agave. When I was in San Antonio, my neighbor grew South African plants -+ mostly crinum. They were beautiful.
OzarkHillbilly
Pretty damn cool plant is what it is. Thanx for the pix, Jerzy.
@raven: The Missouri Botanical Garden did too. My son and DiL are members and they had 2 extra last minute tickets they offered us. Unfortunately the offer was so last minute we couldn’t go.
Baud
@Ken:
Hmmm. Maybe I need to start assembling a tick army.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: They grow bots? What are they, Russians?
OzarkHillbilly
Yeah, I’ll get the tick shot. I get ticks every year, especially in the spring. Last year was particularly bad. I have to wonder how it is I have so far managed to avoid Lyme disease and spotted fever.
Ken
@Baud: Recruitment is easy, it’s training that takes the time — especially if you want them to coordinate operations with the goldfish-driven robots.
Baud
@Ken:
I thought we would be fighting the goldfish driven robots.
I’ve already ordered 10,000 antifi t-shirts.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I got one on my pecker once!
Geminid
@Barbara: Lime is cheap and contains calcium and other minerals that are plant nutrients. Virginia soils typically are acid, and lime is alkaline, so lime would probably help by also making some nutrients more available to plants.
Gypsum is a ph-neutral compound of calcium and sulfer, both good plant nutrients. Gypsum used to be a little expensive, but I’ve noticed that Loew’s was selling bags of a planting mix with gypsum mixed in for ~$7 a bag.
Rock phosphate is another good soil amendment, especially for flowers.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: More than once for me. They have a special attraction for my crotch, dick, ball sack, and any other spot in that locale.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Have you tried gardening with your pants on? ?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Donate them and get a tax break.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: Just got an email from the Home of the Orange Apron, looks like I become a full time employee tomorrow.
Geminid
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I hope that works well. They and their customers are fortunate to have you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Get a soil test kit. They’re cheap and will tell you exactly what you are lacking. I had long expected my garden soil of being too acidic. I tested it and nope, not acidic enough.
I always use organic seed starting soil to get my seeds going. The Jiffy mix works well for me. I use peat pots and never water the plants directly, pouring it into the tray so it can soak up into the soil. I also use a heated germination mat, it makes a big difference.
If they don’t sprout it’s usually because the seeds have gotten too old.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Actually, I think that might be the problem. Even more sweaty.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You have my sympathies, tho I suppose it is a necessary evil.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Geminid: Thanks, I have to be there in about 1/2 an hour from now, the opening shift(hopefully my last).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: It’ll be set hours, which is a whole lot better than opening one day and closing the next.
Gin & Tonic
@Spanky: I got bit last week. It was 14 degrees that morning. WTF?
NB: I have had babesiosis twice.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, being able to get into a rhythm makes a big difference.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
?
satby
@Immanentize: Damn, a Third Man reference! Nice!
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Steady hours are good. Happy for you.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Congrats. Benefits too?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, the first 6 days of this year were opening(7am, 6am, 5am) and then 1pm-10pm for the other 3.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
@Gin & Tonic:
@satby: Thanks, not sure about what additional benefits there may be, as part timers we could already sign up for medical/dental/optical. Set hours will be a benefit unto itself.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yay, yay, yay!
I think you said you chose evenings, what will your hours be?
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, the few times I hiked in New England, long sleeves, tucking pants into boots, etc. turned hiking into a real misery.
WaterGirl
Beautiful and charming photos! I imagine that it was magical at night.
Thanks for sharing them with us!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Ticks are just a part of everyday life here, you really can’t avoid them. Which is why I am so happy to see this vaccine.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I bet. Ticks are a growing problem even here. I’ve seen more than a few posts on my community’s FB page about getting bitten while gardening. I assume the increasing number of deer have left them as gifts.
scav
The whatever it is looks rather like an ocotillo, although very dry and spiney things abound in desserts. It’s at least a local alternative, only now I have to go rest my mind as I learned it’s closely related to blueberries.
Barbara
@Geminid:
Thanks. The tomatoes did well in the prior year but we had done a lot of work to grade the yard that involved a massive amount of compost. So I think we were just lucky and will have to be more intentional going forward.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks to you as well. I will definitely follow up on your suggestions too.
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: We had a clay/dolomite matrix they call “dirt” around here. My first 5 years I tilled 3-4 inches of compost in every spring. I now have at least 12 inches of good soil with lots of organic matter. I suspect it is also how I ended up with such alkaline soil. I thought that is why I always had so much trouble with blossom end rot on my Green Zebra tomatoes.
These days I only compost at the plants and mix in blood meal, bone meal, and an acidifier when planting. Sadly, I still have trouble with GZ maters. Breaks my heart as I do love their tart flavor.
Jerzy Russian
I am glad people liked the pictures. We plan to return to the garden in the daylight hours so we can read more of the signs.
My sympathies to those with tic bites on the junk. We don’t have that many types of biting insects here, so I am spoiled in that regard.
MomSense
Photos are wonderful. It’s sleezing here this morning, ruining the snow we had. I was hoping to take my snowshoes and the pup onto the trails today but that is out. I’ll probably try making some kind of spicy chicken in the air fryer Santa brought. I’ve got a bunch of pastes, sauces and veggies from the Asian market to experiment with.
Geminid
@Barbara: You’re welcome. I’ve only gotten half-serious about horticulture in the last few years, so I don’t speak from much experience. I listen to Andre Viette’s Saturday garden radio show whenever I can, though. Viette is a good source; his grandfather learned horticulture in Switzerland before he emigrated, and Viette grew up around his father and uncle’s plant outfit in Long Island before getting his horticulture degree from Cornell, and setting up his own operation near Staunton, Virginia.
Viette said something interesting once about lime. There is still a lot of wheat, corn and soybeans grown in the Shenandoah Valley, and farmers typically apply lime to their fields every two years. It’s heavier than the soil so it tends to sink out of reach of the plant roots. If a farmer irrigates with well water, though, he can apply lime less often and maybe not at all. This is because the Valley floor sits on a limestone base, and the well water has plenty.
Anyway
@Immanentize:
Ha, one of my favorite movies. I went on a Third Man walking tour when I was in Vienna and there was a guy playing zither along the way.
jnfr
The bud stalk on my amaryllis is almost 15″ tall now, but hasn’t opened yet. I potted it up on Nov. 12 so it’s taking its sweet time to bloom.
MomSense
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Ah, the dreaded clopenings. Hope this new schedule and status works well for you.
StringOnAStick
This past fall we filled the new beds I made with a 50/50 mix of soil (which around here means sand and silt) and compost, and it was steaming when we were moving it to the backyard so I am hoping it isn’t too rich and will burn the things I’ll be planting. We had a lot of snow starting in December and the current warm spell means lots of melting and very wet soil. It’s looking nice enough today that I plan to break out that soil test kit I have
I hope it cools off again so the fruit trees don’t get fooled. The average low for this time of year is 22 and most days next week barely drop to freezing. This place only had a 90 day growing season so my first tomato attempt will be a cherry tomato. It can be warm and mild then turn to snow and ice very suddenly; the average last frost date is mid June but you wouldn’t believe that right now.
JAM
This spring I will be planting my tomatoes in raised beds instead of the ground for the first time. My neighbor gave me her frames and soil (Miracle-Gro), so I wonder if I should have the soil tested or not. Her plants did not do as well as mine, but I think it’s because they didn’t get enough sun and because she put weed fabric under them to kill the grass, which kept the tomato roots too contained to get really big. My soil was great, however, it was infected with sclerotinia mold this last year or two. I solarized it, but I’m not sure how well that worked. I put the new raised beds over the same spot, so I’m crossing my fingers it’s gone now.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: I requested 3pm-12am.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Thanks, it’s nuts there today, lots of folk are out and they’re calling people on their day off to see if they can come in.