Welcome to The Jungle!

Happy Valentine's/President's Day Weekend!  I hope you all had a lovely time, whether you actually had the day off or not.  I had the great fortune of going up to Mammoth with our church small group and had a fun time playing in snow and hanging out with friends.  The fresh fluffy snow was a blessing because this season has been unusually dry.  So dry in fact, that a lot of winter sports industries/resorts have suffered... including dog sledding which we were as a result unable to do this weekend.  (I was crushed not to be able to play with a herd of dogs, naturally.  Evan was relieved that he escaped having to do another of my "romantic" ventures.)  But truly though, there has been quite a drought in California.

So what to do in the garden when there's no water?  Go to The Jungle! 

Before you continue, here's some background music...

I made this discovery a few weeks ago.  Someone had suggested this as the place to go for air plants (I will be writing a whole separate post about these wonderful and increasingly popular plants later), but I hadn't actually made the trek until I needed a few succulents for a planter recently.  And oh my, do they have some succulents:

I was quite impressed.  As a regular at Armstrong Garden Center, I am used to a relatively small selection of succulents.  The Jungle, on the other hand, has innumerable species of tropical plants and specifically succulents in a variety of different sizes.  

For the uninitiated, succulents are amazing plants

1) They do not need much water (what drought?)

2) As a result, they are rather hard to kill -- if you forget to water them for a few weeks even, they will forgive you.

3) Thus, they are great for beginners or anyone else who wants to feel like a great gardener.

4) And as a bonus, they are beautiful plants.

As a result of all of these facts, if you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that I have come to love succulents more and more.  They are weird and wonderful and my garden is slowly filling up with them.

I should mention, this place did not disappoint in the air plant department either.  They had tillandsia in several varieties and sizes as well.  The prices were more than I expected -- $10 for a large tillandsia and $3 for a tiny one -- but hey, I haven't found these air plants anywhere else and they cost more than that online.  (I bought 3 little ones... how could I not?)

So I will definitely be coming back to The Jungle, which in addition to the great selection has a great laid-back vibe, down to the reggae music playing by the cash register.  

Here was my loot for the day:

$22 of happiness

Not bad, huh?  The Jungle is located at 1900 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.  Here is there website which has a long list of plants they carry, many with descriptions and some with pictures.  Also in the neighborhood are a couple other plant nurseries which have more flowers and what you typically expect to find at a garden center, as well as all of Little Tokyo West where you can eat a great bowl of ramen after your plant shopping.

To all my LA readers, go visit and see what your fancy leads you to!  For all my non-LA readers..... stay warm!!!

So long, 2013...

I don't know whether it's the prospect of going back to work again, the bit of wistfulness that comes with the end of the year, or the sight of our dead Christmas tree but that post-party blues feeling is hovering overhead.  But that's only true because Christmas was awesome -- got to see family, eat delicious holiday food, open presents (more on that in a second), and most importantly, reflect on our spiritual blessings.  I cannot complain.  And thanks to the loving generosity of some wonderful people in my life, I have a few things to be excited about in my garden...

Making tea:

I was not aware that Williams-Sonoma had this awesome "Agrarian" department online in which they sell everything from chicken coops to bee-keeping equipment to vertical gardens to...

Tea making gardening sets!

Obviously awesome!  In the kit are included 3 plants (Orange Bergamot mentha, peppermint, and German chamomile), honey, a very cute honey dipper, and little tea bags.  

I planted the herbs today with great hopes of future delicious tea.  Fortunately, it's been so nice and warm in Southern California that I think the plants will have time to put some stable roots down before it gets cold again.

Good luck, little dudes

I also intend to continue to check out this Agrarian Williams-Sonoma business.  Some of it looks a little crazy (like a $700 vertical planter... no, thank you) but some of it looks like it may be worth a chance (another shot at tomatoes, anyone?).

Thank you, Cal and Rachel!  You know me too well!


Taking better pictures:

Because I got a new toy...

Thank you, wonderful husband!

For you photophilics, this is a Canon Powershot G16 (in a sweet vintage-y leather case that my husband picked).  It's a pretty new model, but the primary upgrade compared to the previous G15 model is the wifi capabilities, meaning that I can upload photos wirelessly directly onto my computer and smart-objects.  Gone are the days of taking a bunch of pictures which languish unseen forever on my point and shoot.  I also put this model on my Christmas list because it supposedly takes good macro (close-up) shots which, as a flower-lover, I can't help but do.

I played with it in my garden today...  

Super close-up shots of my garden:

String of pearls bloom cluster

The closer you get, the more you realize there is to see!

Ever wonder why citrus skin looks like that?

Sweet Jessamine bloom... such a nice color

Once I get the hang of it, I think the pictures will look even better, which will also hopefully mean this blog will look even better.  I'm excited!

Anyway, today instead of music, I leave you with a TED talk that I enjoyed about how to live Superbetter (because I discovered TED talks on Netflix and kind of love them).  Gardening = +10 points, for sure.  Enjoy the last few days of 2013!

Back! (With blooming succulents!)

Okay, yes, that was the hiatus of hiati...  And here's what's happened with me since we last met:

• I (way over-)studied for the Emergency Medicine Boards.  Because that's what I do best... get totally freaked out and study my butt off.  
• I passed the Boards!  Next up, oral boards which will happen in April or November (tbd).  It is quite possible that I will neglect all else again in the freaking-out period leading up to that test, which will be my last for 10 years. :)
• I've started all of my new jobs and gotten (mostly) adjusted.
• My lovely sister-in-law moved out to LA from Virginia -- woohoo!
• And most of my garden has died.

The top three bullet points are what caused me to neglect almost everything I enjoy doing for pretty much the entirety of the fall season, with the result of the last bullet point.  Perhaps I need to work on work-life balance a bit.

BUT we're back!  And slightly neglected or not, there are lovely things happening in the garden. 

Thank goodness for succulents!  Perhaps it's a Californian mark on my garden that I'm planting more and more of these easy and wonderful plants, but they're such easy care.

That birdhouse was an addition by my husband.  Very cute, is it not?

And now they're all blooming!

Gorgeous echeveria

As far as why they are blooming now...  Some general succulent informational sources will tell you that the keys to making your succulent bloom are:

• Temperature fluctuations -- specifically, cool weather followed by warm summer weather which is when blooms come.
• Sufficient water
• Sufficient food
• Increased light with, for instance, the longer days of summer

Now, it has been kind of weird weather here in LA.  While a couple weeks ago, it got quite chilly, more recently, we've had close to 80 degree weather.  It also rained earlier this week.  So maybe those factors have helped.

But there are also quite a few succulents that specifically bloom in the winter (here is quite a nice list) and I appear to have collected a few of these in my garden as well.

String of pearls

Regardless of the reason, I love it.

I had to give this plant a haircut yesterday

I am interested to find out what will happen to my Aeonium plant which is apparently "monocarpic," meaning it only blooms once and then dies.  I am assuming that only the blooming portion will die, but who knows.  

It has a hat now...  looks weird, to be honest.

I am excited to see what will come out of these buds.  I will keep you updated.

In the meantime, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!  May you stay warm and surrounded with love this holiday season!

My wonderful mother-in-law Belinda gave me this ornament!

Lastly, some holiday music!  (Oh, Charlie Brown!)

Oops, I did it again!

First, a word of wisdom:

On that note...

Oops, I killed a plant!

Soooo, that didn't take long.  I think the problem is too little water for a thirsty plant.  But especially since this has happened to me once before, I have decided that dill may be too fragile for my current gardening abilities (although the other plants are growing like crazy-- the parsley a little too crazy, it's crowding the lavender!  Maybe it's not me, it's you, Dill).

Oops, picked too small of a pot!

Same pot that killed my jasmine! Noooo!!

The rapid growth of my tomato plant was at first exciting.  Until it grew so tall that it started to look disproportionately large for the pot.  So I did some internet research and discovered that for indeterminate tomato plants, the minimum pot size is a 24 inch pot.  "Indeterminate" refers to tomato plants that do not produce all their tomatoes at once (most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate).  This is in contrast to "determinate" tomato plants that do produce fruit all at once that need a pot at least 18 inches in size.  I don't think my pot is even 18 inches...

And oops, my plants are sick!

Once, a nice worker man at Armstrong Garden Center told me in response to my question regarding a serious pest problem in several of my plants that plants really should not get disease unless they are sick.  "That's mean," I thought, "my plants are not all sick."  The string of pearls succulent (with the mildew) could be a little stressed -- I just repotted it recently and it was looking a little tired beforehand.  But the parsley??  (The whitefly are the tiny little white specks.)  Hopefully it is not anything a little Neem oil cannot fix.

Here's another picture of whitefly, closeup (source from this informative site):

Actual size = 1-3mm each

I hope the whitefly do not become a problem -- last year, they got really out of control to the point that I couldn't stand next to my poor plant without feeling like I was going to inhale a swarm of them...

Well, on the upside, yes, I referenced a Britney Spears song today-- for any haters out there, I will just say she and I grew up together, not literally, and her music videos spawned a thousand late night dance routines in front of my mirror.  Mostly in college.  They were happy moments.