NAPA FOOD GARDEN: 2015

Moving into a new house poses some issues to the pocketbook. Beautifying the surroundings by planting plants and flowers in the garden takes a toll on the finances as well. But with a little know-how, elbow grease and hours and hours of time, we really can make the most out of the first batch of plants and/or flowers and save tons of money.

One factor that is important is patience. I have been known to be very impatient. I tend to go with the motto that leans more towards the immediate gratification theme. Small wonder that the first task in starting a flower garden was to grow "Impatiens" from seed. Not an easy task. It took weeks and a couple of months to see the result as opposed to running to the nursery to purchase a full grown plant.

I noticed too that my impatiens stalks were a lot thicker than the store bought ones. Perhaps is the love and care I put into it which helped.

But I digress. You would have to be patient for the Impatiens story save for later so you can see the progress. Yes, folks, they are still a work in progress.

In this blog I show you how to collect seeds from the flower pods of the ones you already have.

Shown here is a flowering plant I searched high and low for the name. It was actually two stow aways in the pot of hydrangeas that my Mom gave me when she moved. She of course couldn't tell me the name of the flower. So, please, if you know what this flower is called, please leave me a comment. Thank you.

If you can see the black dots, those are its seeds. I collected those itty bitty things and placed them in an enveloped labeled "Unknown flower from the hydrangea pot my mom gave me" lol!

Above are the seeds sown from my Columbine flower. All the pods dried up and I finally got around to dead heading them today. Here are the seed I got from that flower. They're really so pretty, that I purchased the purple ones to contrast my red ones!

Purple Columbine flower above. Isn't she pretty??? I can 't wait for next years blooms!

Lastly, I wanted to show you where I stored those Columbine seeds. Just a little container I got from Daiso, my favorite store!

Red Columbine below

Lack of sleep and walking around all day like a zombie may not be so bad. When your defenses are down from being tired, there is nowhere else to go but up. Glorious days like today, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the temperate climate, became the first positive thing that happened to turn things around for me today. So I guess it was time to replant seeds. Squash, cherry, green bells and lemon. Creativity heightened from gazing at the first group of flowers I had planted the other day. Looking up at the blue sky with the palm trees in the foreground made me realize that I don’t really have to drive anywhere to see beauty, I see it all around me right here in my own backyard. There is a lot of work yet to do, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day, right!
As an artist, I was trained to notice small and simple things because that is after all, the most basic way to translate what we see onto the canvas. So with a little creativity, I snapped these photos. I hope you like!

Until the next update, LOVE ONE ANOTHER!