On this day exactly three years ago, Kristian and I arrived to our new home city of Santa Monica, California, after driving across the country with our two cats. We moved from Brooklyn for a lifestyle change, plain and simple, as we could both feel New York City slowly wearing us down, much like water gradually erodes even the strongest rock. New York is a wonderful city, but it's challenging to live there. I always describe my experience there as everything feeling hard. Grocery shopping is hard, because the stores are jam-packed, everyone is in a rush, and the lines are treacherous. Order a bagel is hard because you have no chance to deliberate, and are forced to make a swift order. Getting around is hard, what with subways delays and cars honking and crowded streets. In fact, I hated the subway so much that I biked pretty much everywhere I went for the four years I lived in Brooklyn, unless there was snow on the ground.
So after a lifetime on the east coast, with a brief stint for me in San Francisco (I was living there when I met Kristian, who was in town for work), we packed up our belongings, said our farewells, and hit the road for the west coast. Living away from family can be tough at times, but we truly adore living here and have carved out such a lovely little life for ourselves. I'm grateful every single day that we took a chance and moved to a place where we're both so happy. Proximity to nature, the pace, the people...Southern California really has it going on. While leaving our local hardware store the other day, I stopped to examine a big, beautiful yellow dahlia when a man came up and commented on the flower. We all got to chatting, and he said that he had lived in Sweden for a year, but moved to Southern California for sunshine and said, "God bless America -- the sunshine! This is the greatest place to live." Kristian and I nodded in agreement.
At the risk of portraying every day as paradise, let me assure you that it does in fact rain! We have May Gray, June Gloom, and Fog-ust in Santa Monica thanks to the marine layer. And while May is typically only grey and overcast, we've been getting -- gasp -- rain! And I kind of love it. Mainly because that means I don't have to water the garden and Mother Nature can do what she does best. And Southern California can always do with a healthy dose of rain, unless it's after fire season because then there's the risk of mudslides. But, yeah. The rain? I'll take it whenever it comes.
My garden journal here has fallen a bit by the wayside, but after listening to Margaret Roach talk on The Joe Gardener Show podcast about the benefits of blogging for chronicling garden successes and foibles, the changing seasons, plant information, and all of the other nerdy observations that we gardeners make, I decided to pick it back up here for the sake of Future Amy.
May Observations
- Sunflowers have thoroughly exploded to well over 5' tall each and are providing some nice afternoon shade for younger seedlings behind them.
- Mint and bee balm in the wine barrel have taken their sweet time but are finally starting to pick up steam and look like proper seedlings. Note to self: thin them after I publish this.
- One of our zucchinis is a champ and is huuuuge, while the other 3 are lagging a big, because they're different varieties. Darn you, variety pack!
- Concrete block herb and flower garden has taken off nicely. Nasturtium poufs are cute, calendula has opened, sage is popping, and the volunteer basil that I yanked from the ground as a weed in December finally decided to grow and is doing really well. Pinched back all three basils to encourage bushiness.
- Cosmos is a TREE. And I love it. So thankful I didn't yank it when I thought it was a weed!
- Watermelon, cucumbers, peppers are all slow-going, but hanging in there. I think.
- Mustard is going to seed, and planning on saving that as I have none right now and the plant was given to me by Robin.
- Dahlias are starting to poke out of the soil!
- Harvested all of the worm castings yesterday and placed them around the tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and sunflowers. The rain watered them in nicely this afternoon!
- Drip irrigation is set up in new beds, thanks to Kristian!
- Planted a teeny tiny golden raspberry plant that was gifted to me by the woman I get my speshy (special) compost leaves from in Pacific Palisades.
- Still harvesting kale, but the Lacinato looks like it's flowering and I am not too happy about that...but what are ya gonna do?
- Put TrashCan Grow fertilizer down on experimental bed by the wormies.
- Staked corn since it's been blustery as heck here lately.
- Passion fruit vine has grown at least 3 feet in the 2 months since we've planted it!
- Pulled the yellow nasturtium pouf from the corner of bed #8 as it started to yellow and wilt and just look...bad? I don't know if it just ran its course or what. I read that they don't like fertilizer, and I put some kelp fertilizer down a couple months ago. Strange! Maybe should have left it in and just let it stay nice and shady but needed room for new plants.
Aaaaaand just like that, the crazy thunder and lightning storm is over, so I'm about to race outside and inhale the sweet petrichor and admire the rain drops on all of the plants.
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