The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

Bubblegum Alley

My idea was to take my son on a little vacation, and spend some quality mom/son time with him before jr. high school.

And of course, I wanted to do activities that he liked. So, there were times during our three-day adventure when I ended up in places that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself.

Like Bubble Gum Alley.

Bubble Gum Alley is located between 733 and 734 Higuera Street in downtown San Luis Obispo, California. It’s pretty self-explanatory. But I’ll go ahead and explain it, even though when I think about it, I throw up in my mouth a little. It’s an alley 15-feet high and 70 feet long that is completely covered in multiple layers of chewing gum.

Used chewing gum.

Now to me, this “tourist attraction” would be way better if it was completely erased from my memory bank. But my son loved it, of course. He read about it and came prepared with two pieces of bubble gum, one for him and, gulp, one for me.


I dutifully chewed my piece of gum, as did my son. I bravely approached the alley, holding my breath, because if I had caught a wiff of some unexpectedly bad odor I’d have hurled on the spot.

I pulled the gum out of my mouth and attempted to stick it to the alley wall. I couldn’t get it to stick, so I started squealing and dancing around, not in a good way but in a manner very entertaining to my son.
I finally got it to stick and ran in the opposite direction from the alley.

 It was my son’s turn, and he seemed almost as disgusted as I was when it came right down to applying his gum to the wall. After the sticking ceremony was complete, I couldn’t wait to get away from that particular tourist spot.

And wash my hands.

ROAD TRIP!

My youngest son is ten.

This is his last year in elementary school, and it’s parent/teacher conference week, with half days all week. What better week for a ROAD TRIP!

I won’t be able to do this next year. This is it, my friend. Next year is the dreaded, evil middle school—aka Jr. High.

Since someone has to stay home and take care of my older son and make the money, I need to go on the trip.

So, this car trip consists of my ten-year-old and me. I had originally planned to take him all the way to LegoLand, in San Diego, a place he’s always wanted to visit. But, because of a meeting that falls smack in the middle of the week (you know who you are) I had to shorten the trip.

And what was my son’s second choice—since he couldn’t go to Legoland? That’s right, you guessed it, The Madonna Inn.
 
What do you mean you didn’t guess The Madonna Inn?

Ten reasons why we like the Madonna Inn:

1. It’s located in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
2. It’s located in one of the prettiest towns in California.
3. It has one of the best, brand-new heated pools anywhere.
4. In it’s restaurant, it has the greatest men’s room in the world.
5. Pink chenille bathrobes.
6. Every room has a different tacky theme that you will talk about for years to come.
7. None of those silly pillow top mattresses and fluffy pillows–It’s slabs of foam all the way baby.
8. It’s close to Pismo Beach.
9. It’s never crowded.
10. Really nice people work there.

Fun With Genetics and Pumpkins

I planted seeds from two different pumpkins this year, one was a Galeux d' Eysines (pink warty), and one was a Princess Pumpkin.
Only one or two of the Princess Pumpkin seeds sprouted. Most of the pink warties sprouted but a lot shriveled on the vine.

So almost all, if not every single pumpkin came from pink warty seeds. The variation is impressive. Now I know I don’t have to go out and buy many different seeds or pumpkins to get seeds from.

All I need is one or two.

These two are definitely from the Galeux d’ Eysines.

Pear Butter

I made pear butter and it actually came out great!

Yes, you are reading this correctly.

I, Chigiy, klutz extraordinaire, accident-prone dork, actually made a successful batch of pear butter. A friend of mine ended up with way too many red pears so she passed them on to me, mostly because I said I was going to make pear butter from them. Then of course I had to. I didn’t realize how much time it would take. And it always takes me about twice as long as normal people with normal amounts of brain cells.

I brought the pears home and looked up a recipe on my friend Elise’s recipe blog, Simply Recipes, found a recipe, and made it.

The recipe says to use Bartletts, but all I had were red pears so I used them and not only did the butter turn out tasty, the color is really pretty.

See?

Home And Garden Tour

I was asked to design a garden for a home and garden tour.

Of course I was very excited about this proposition because the home was located in an old established and historic neighborhood called the Rose Garden. Also because I used to live in that neighborhood. The home I was given to work on was a traditional home on a beautiful tree-lined street.

The owners wanted to do a garden using mostly their own furnishings, garden art, pots, etc. They had a very limited budget so I was asked to suggest ways for them to clean up, rearrange, and fill in their yard without lots of trips to the nursery.

I’m proudest of these areas:
This old fountain didn’t work very well. It was missing a few pieces and it was cracked in several places. We turned it into a planter and it looks beautiful.

before

 
after
We cleaned up the stone planting bed, added some more shade plants and freshened it up with redwood bark.

before

after

In the front yard, we trimmed shrubs, took out a couple of tired junipers and replaced them with azaleas, cyclamen and heuchera.

before

after                                                               

We again freshened things up with a layer of redwood bark.

Voila.

My Famous Quince Syrup Recipe

Oh, all right.

It was supposed to be jam, and somehow it all went wrong. So now I have 11 ½ jars of chunky quince syrup.

Everyone knows I can’t follow a darn recipe, which is why I don’t have a food blog.

I have a gardening blog.

And I have to say that even though things didn’t quite go the way I wanted, the chunky syrup is really pretty.

Here is how I made my famous quince syrup. It would be best if you did not try duplicate this unless you would like some pretty pink chunky syrup of your own.

You were suppose to grate the quince with a cheese grater. I injured my shoulder in a freak yoga accident, so I matchsticked them with a very sharp knife then cut the other direction.

I had such high hope at this point.

 
I boiled the quince about twice as long as you were suppose to and it still didn't thicken up.

Aren't they pretty? And so good on waffles.

The recipe came from Simply Recipes. I'm sure it's a great recipe for someone who has way more brain cells than I.

Waste Not Want Not. Yes, Mother.

 
I was walking through the forbidden ranch the other day, and I saw strange yellow bumpy fruit dangling from a gnarled old tree.

They looked—sort of—like lemons. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the fruit was covered with fuzz. Were they furry lemons? No, but they looked just like large fuzzy apple-lemons. I was pretty sure there was no such thing as fuzzy apple-lemons and yet something was so darn familiar about them. I knew what they were. I had to do a little traveling down my (now dusty) memory lane.

Then I remembered they are quince.

My mom used to make quince jam. I think it was jam, at any rate, if I remembered correctly, quince really wasn’t edible and that you had to make something like jelly or jam out of them before you could actually ingest them—and even then it was sketchy.

I don’t know if it was the way the sun hit the tree or the fact that I was in one of my favorite places in the world or it could have been my mother’s voice echoing in my ear. “You can’t let all those perfectly good fuzzy apple-lemons go to waste, there’s a recession going on. You should pick them and make quince jam like I used to do.”

Mothers can guilt you into anything, even when they no longer inhabit this earth.

Damn it.

Stumble It!

The Best Tomatillo Salsa Recipe Ever

It’s harvest time in my tomatillo garden. We have piles of the beautiful green fruit with the papery skin. Our favorite thing to make with them is salsa. The recipe is incredibly easy and when I make it fresh for friends they say that it is the best salsa they ever had.

My Tomatillo Salsa recipe:

3 pounds of fresh ripe tomatillos peeled and rinsed
1 teaspoon +1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small or ½ large onion
2 cloves garlic
1 handful cilantro

Spread the tomatillos on a cookie sheet with sides, or a shallow baking pan. Pour olive oil and teaspoon of salt over tomatillos and use your hands to toss, coating the tomatillos.

Roast at 350 degrees until the tops are brown—about 25 minutes.

Take them out of the oven and let cool.

In a blender or food processor, pour tomatillos along with their  juice, onion, cilantro and salt. Blend until you get your desired texture.

I like it a little chunky.

Eat.

You can also roast a jalapeno or your favorite type of hot pepper and throw that in if you like it spicy. If I make it spicy, my kids wont eat it.

Stumble It!

Nude Carrot Controversy

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS FULL FRONTAL VEGETABLE NUDITY.

In my daily quest to combine art and science with my gardening and cooking, I have created this sculpture.

I found the medium at the local Farmer’s market.

I call it Nude Descending Into Pot of Chicken Soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 
NOTE: ALL TUBERS CONTAINED IN THIS POST WERE NOT ONLY HARMED, THEY WERE CHOPPED, BOILED, AND TURNED INTO FABULOUS CHICKEN SOUP.

Stumble It!

Green Thumb Sunday–Garden Gate

I came across this magnificent gate and the garden beyond yesterday and I wanted to share it with you. Gardeners, as well as plant and nature lovers, can join Green Thumb Sunday
every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.