What to do in betweens?

Is your garden like mine? In a very in-between state? It's no longer summer; it's not quite fall. I am not quite ready to put my garden to sleep. Unfortunately, my garden does not blush with fall-colored leaves. But I am hoping to harvest one more round of lettuces, kale, and legumes. Today was my first attempt on Twitter, to say I'm double-, triple- and quadrupling, digging the dirt in my small vegetable plot. Not so much to improve the soil but to scout out oxalis bulbs and bulblettes. As irritating as slugs and snails for me. Now that that's done, along with having a new battery in my van - which has been sitting across the street for months, serving as a storage unit for earthquake supplies and old paintings - a lot to think about.

Now that I have the dirt overturned, I'll add a soil amendment before planting six packs of lettuces - bronze leaf speckled, two types of oak leaf lettuce, and two types of kale. Oak leaf lettuce and butter lettuce are my favorites. It's still a touch early to plant shelling peas but I'm gonna try to find some more string bean plants.

Tulips

Tulips are in! Cairo tulip, pictured above, is hard to find. I found mine online. They're worth it. No other tulip has this rusty, butterscotch color that matches my Mexican rocks. Look for very specific tulip colors. A color that matches your heart's desire or a garden sculpture.

Tulips come in such an array of wonderful colors. I've already cleaned out my small extra refrigerator that I keep for chilling tulips. In California, tulips need to be refrigerated from 6-8 weeks.

I usually plant tulips just around Christmas time. I like to get them out of the refrigerator by Thanksgiving but often the weather is still too warm to safely plant tulips. It is not recommended to keep tulips in the refrigerator with apples. Recently, a gardening friend asked me if I keep the tulips in the refrigerator with vegetables. My reply: I've never had a problem. I have had a problem though if the tulips aren't refrigerated long enough. All the local nurseries have tulips. You need to plan now for your spring bloom.

This sculpture is made from an actual dress and actually tulips. It's for sale. Since it's bronze, it's expensive: $15,000. For my money, I love combining plants and sculpture. Sculptures serve as great focal features, conversation starters, meditation starters, and general all-around happiness. For example, you could take this red sculpture and match it to red tulips, red ranunculas, and red anemones de Caen. Having a monochrome sculpture can give a monochrome garden more umph!

Happy Garden in the in-between zone,

{My question to myself is to plant again this year or not to plant...my garden is going to look awful bare if I need to wait for bulb season to plant again....}

Keeyla

PS. Please visit Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on College Avenue in Berkeley for some amazing books on gardening!

Food Fiestas

Ola! Two fiestas in two weeks. Fiesta #1 was a great garden birthday party. What food we couldn't harvest from the garden, we picked up from the farmers' market to make this luscious vegetable platter – with haricots jaunes. If you thought haricots were green beans, think again. It could also mean yellow string beans as well. Vert for green, jaune for yellow. What I like about the farmers' market is that there is always a surprise encouraging you to try something new. Since I am thinking about color these days, the yellow brought a really nice constrast to the salad greens.


Lynn, a client and friend, has turned out to be a great cook. I know. For on many a day while working on her garden, she has invited me to stay for dinner. Lynn made the tomato platter as well as the tomato tart, which was part of our Fiesta #2.

Fiesta # 2 turned out to be a filling feast with a tomato tart by Lynn for a starter, poached salmon with a cucumber sauce by me and a salad with goat cheese by Lynn's sister, Marcie. If you haven't seen Julia and Julia yet why not follow our and I'm sure many other's foot food steps into a Julia Child's cook book before heading out to the highly entertaining film. Meryl Streep as Julia is a real treat. Our dessert course we saved for after the film with fromage française, figs, grapes, strawberries and hand sized tarts.

Some young women with cameras and mic in hand stop me at the local farmers' market recently to ask if I'd be willing to go on camera to say why I like shopping at the farmers' market. “Sure,” I said, then proceeded to say how much I like to see what's in season, taste all the different varieties of fruits before making a selection. I enjoy all the colorful displays of fruits and vegetables which inspire me to get out my camera and take pictures.

Sometimes, I pick up vegetable starts like the mesclun mix of lettuces that you can see planted in my garden around the skirt and shovel sculpture. Additionally, I said to the camera: “I like the carnival-like, festive atmosphere of the farmers' market where you can dip cubes of bread into different types of olive oil and flavored vinegars; sample a variety of yogurts and ice creams, made with real fruit from the farmers' market. When traveling, I always check out farmers' markets and I am glad that now we have so many here.” It turned out that the women were working on a documentary for Michael Pollan's ongoing project of researching what attracts people to eating real food.

On a fun note, I was invited into Michael Pollan's garden by his landscape designer, a tall nice man from Columbia. (If you know his name, please let me know by commenting this blog entry.) No surprise – his inner courtyard garden had a stunning display of healthy vegetables. The designer had built beautiful raised beds, filled with American Soil's vegetable mix, Local Hero. What stood out for me was how many vegetables can thrive in small spaces. I remember seeing at least three types of beans, squashes of different variety, lettuces, peppers, and towering sunflowers, along with summer herbs. This is the season for the return of the victory garden. In my opinion, adding some sculptures that make fruits and vegetables shine with glorious sun rays would make the garden even more victorious.

Happy Gardening,

Keeyla Meadows

How long have you lived in your house?

"How long have you lived in your house?" is the most commonly asked question of people who come into my garden. On Sunday August 2^nd 2009, my answer will be thirty years! I was thirty-one on my first birthday in this house. You are invited to come celebrate my sixty-first birthday and thiry years of living in this house.

People ask me how long I've lived here, because the garden has so much detail -- in plants, sculpture, water features, benches, walls, planters, and paving. While this has all happened in a thirty-year period, the whole rear garden was put in with the studio which was finished in 2005. For example, the long mosaic bench, patio, and flying goddess sculpture were installed in 2007.

With a good blueprint to follow, you'd be surprised at how quickly you can turn your garden into a work of art.

In upcoming blog entries, and in my new book titled Fearless Color Gardens, there are lots of tips on how you can quickly transform your garden.

To make a mosaic-covered bench, first start by making a wood form to pour cement in. Once you have removed the forms, you are ready to mosaic the surfaces. This bench has glass tile mats that are adhered to the cement with thin set.

Flat ceramic tiles were also installed with thin set. After the thin set dried, sanded grout smoothed out the surface. The columner bases were wrapped with the glass tiles and were also grouted. Making the form is the hardest part of this process and you may need to employ a contractor to help you figure that out.

Hope to see you in my garden soon!

Keeyla

Pre-order my new book now!

Hi,

The release date for my new book, FEARLESS COLOR GARDENS -- with 250 gorgeous pictures and many useful tips -- is getting closer.

You can pre-order a copy on Amazon by clicking here.

Happy gardening,

Keeyla

Dancing with Matisse video

Here's a mini video of DANCING WITH MATISSE.

Nasturtium

Not being able to stay in one place, running about the garden, making friends easily, wanting to get into everything at once. Not a mirror, but a nasturtium. I identify with this plant. My mother's mantra to me -- "Can't you ever just sit still?" -- rings in my ears with this plant. My answer to her mantra is: "Definitely no!"

There are so many places to go, people to meet, plants to see. Nasturtiums like me are on the run. Born on Runneymead Street. Run Keeyla Run, Run Nasturtium Run. Fits me!

I think of pulling them out as they pop up in unexpected places but then think again. Maybe a touch of orange, a touch of lion-roar yellow, might be nice here. Let's see what happens.

Here's a beautiful tiger lily crossing paths with nasturtiums in a dance of fiery oranges and reds.

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Cultural requirements:

Get a seed from a friend, get a seed from a neighborhood walk, or out of a package and just plop it in somewhere. A corner of a pot, among an already orange planting of perennials or grasses.

Or get seeds from a package. Spread them in your lawn! Never did like all this lawn anyway. I've been wanting to put a color garden here for years, days or just got the idea at this very moment. "What happened to the lawn, honey? It's covered by orange flowers?!"

Well, Monet didn't mind having nasturtiums. They challenge his garden's visitors to try to find a footing on pathways. Plants first, please! Go to Giverny with your sketchbook in the late summer or early fall to sketch the scattering habits of nasturtiums.

Sometimes I purchase small starts, especially if they are labeled for definitive shades of fiery reds or icy white to bespeckle leaves or apricot frills. If I'm not looking, you can sneak some of the delightfully "Owl and the Pussy Cat went to sea in a pea-green boat" pea-green seeds into your purse to help nasturtiums be the great travelers that they are.

Happy gardening,

Keeyla

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show 2009 - Dancing with Matisse

We will be dancing with Matisse all year!  Starting with the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, red figures strongly in this year's color palette.  We invite you on a color journey this season, inside and outside the garden.

Here's a look at what we did with red on the leaf-shaped cement pavers. 

If you are in the Bay Area during the first two Sundays of the month, come check out the reds in my home garden. 

What part of your passion are you exploring in the color red this season? In my garden, red tulips are now being followed by a selection of red roses. My favorite red rose is the single-petaled Altissimo. When you come to my garden, look for it against the pumpkin-orange wall.  Let's talk colors!