By Cindy Poore
So just out of the clear blue sky comes a shocker! Someone, you have counted on to be there and just took for granted is suddenly not there. Leaving you with a big hole in your life. Things can change in an instant. Sometimes, you get a second chance. Sometimes not. Far too often I am complacent about the now.
You are with someone. Someone you just met, or someone you love and you are not really THERE. You are thinking ahead of what they are saying, trying to formulate what YOU are going to say next. Not really listening because of course, you already know what they are going to say, right? I am so guilty of this.
That is what I mean. The most important thing you can do today and everyday is to really listen to the person you are talking to. Don’t just jump in with a comment because you don’t want to loose the thought. Be in the now with them and be thoughtful of what they are saying before formulating a response.
This is my New Me Resolution. I don’t have to wait for January 1. I can start NOW. Be patient with me. It will take practice.
We finally got some cool weather along with a bit of rain. Not much, but a good start and just enough to start up a fire. Rain and a good fire reminds me of the restaurant scene in Harry met Sally. Yes, yes, yes!
With the cooler weather and shorter days, you need to be adjusting your sprinkler system like crazy to allow for the reduced water needs of your landscape.
If you haven’t already, fertilize your trees and shrubs soon for a healthier sleep through winter and an quick start in spring.
We just changed back to standard time. Some of you have battery operated sprinkler timers and now is a good time to change the batteries in those if we haven’t already done it for you recently.
Want a fall adventure but can’t get away for a trip? Take an afternoon and drive up to Wrightwood. The road is short and uncomplicated and the drive is worth it! Beautiful pines and fall trees and crisp air. Lots of cute little shops and tasty restaurants to temp you. Go up on a Friday afternoon and stop by the Farmer’s market. I got some terrific organic apples there and made some amazing no sugar apple butter with them.
CRAFTY? While you are there, pick up some pretty fall leaves. Spray one side of the leaves with some spray adhesive and stick to the inside of a quart Mason jar. Place a battery votive candle inside and voila! Instant Thanksgiving table decoration.
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Falling from an autumn tree”
Emily Bronte
Fall is for FOOTBALL!
Football season means Sundays are casual. Have some soup and some chips and dip. Get your onion fix.
Homemade Onion Dip
( no comparison to store bought)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 ½ cups diced yellow onions
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 ½ cups sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
¼ tsp garlic powder (not garlic salt)
½ tsp ground pepper
½ tsp kosher salt
Saute oil and onions and salt in a fry pan slowly over medium heat until they are caramelized (not burnt). This will take about 20-30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Mix the rest of the ingredients and then add the cooled onions and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Mix again and serve with your favorite chips.
Redskins and Onion Soup
3 Tbl olive oil
1 ½ lbs of white onions, chopped
¾ lbs of Redskin potatoes diced into ½” chunks
5 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large soup pan add oil and onions and saute on low until translucent but not brown, about 30 minutes.
While onion is cooking, place potato cubes in a steamer and steam potatoes until soft about 10 minutes. When onions are ready, add the steamed potatoes and the chicken broth to the soup pan with the potatoes and heat through. Puree soup in several batches if necessary in a food processor or use a stick blender and blend right in the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste and heat to serving temperature. Ladle in bowls and top with chopped tomato or shredded cheese and serve with warm french bread and butter.
“Eating is a necessity, but cooking is an art”
The last few years have been crazy dry ones. California is solidly into drought territory now. Oh, I know, we toy with it every year. We hear the same old stuff like “fix leaks” (duh) , Take shorter showers” (awww) and ”Make every drop count” (YES!), and my favorite “If it is yellow, let it mellow, if it is brown, flush it down” (ugh!).
But this is serious stuff folks. According a recent news report, since California has been mandated to save water, like it or not, we have managed to cut back water use 15%. That is a really good start. And everyone that uses water can help. But those of you who have lawns and gardens are going to have to do the most adjusting.
Your landscape uses the majority of your water bill and starting there will bring the most effect on saving water and money. I still find people who are watering their landscapes twice a day, every day, all year long.
Drought or not, just like YOU need a certain amount of calories to maintain your health and proper weight, so do plants need a certain amount of water to THRIVE. What is the definition of thrive?: To grow or develop well or vigorously, prosper, flourish.
Compare that to just surviving: to continue to live or EXIST especially in spite of danger or hardship. Which do you want for your landscape? Or for your life for that matter?
Below are some quick tips that will help you gain better control of your garden water usage.
♦Walk your sprinkling system while running and check for leaks and repair them. Have a kit for fixing drip systems with plugs and replacement emitters and fittings. Keep them in a small tackle box so you can cart it around with you when you do the check.
♦Watch the weather. Adjust your run days and times according to the heat and wind and rain or lack thereof.
♦Which brings us to the percent button on your sprinkler timer/controller. Most timers have one. And in this busy world who has time to go out and change the time for each station and run days and so forth? The percent button is your friend. Use it. Run times should be set for July, the hottest month and at 100%. Then adjust up or down the percentage for temporary or seasonal conditions. We have a chart we recommend for the percentages for each month. This is convenient for quick and minor changes and will only adjust the time each valve (a station on the clock) runs.
♦ Adjust your watering DAYS so that your lawns and especially your shrubs and trees are not watered daily whenever possible with the conditions. If you can wean your lawn off daily watering in the months building up to the summer heat, Your lawn will respond well when the really hot days hit us. The goal is to develop strong healthy plants which THRIVE in your landscape.
♦Don’t water both am and pm. It keeps the root zone wet. Unless we are establishing a new lawn, we want the upper soil to dry out so the roots have to grow deeper to get moisture. Deeper rooted plants, trees and lawns will weather the hot season better. We want to have a dry space between waterings to encourage deep rooting.
“We are living on this planet as if we
had another one to go to”
By Cindy Poore
Love, love, love April. The flowers in our landscapes are bustin’ out all over with blooms and reminding us that everyday is another chance at a more colorful life.
Hope you are making the most of yours.
My tulips under my bedroom window are a riot of reds and yellows. They don’t usually show their colors until mid- to late April but have been blooming since middle of March. This past winter of warmer than expected weather has given all the plants (and weeds) a jump start.
The warmer weather and nice days inspire people to get out in their yards and enjoy the landscape. Or if the landscape isn’t what you want, now is the perfect time to plan what changes you want to make.
We get really busy this time of year with oodles of calls for landscape designs, installations and sometimes just consulting for people who want to do the work themselves and aren’t sure how to get started.
Even if you aren’t sure where and what to do, you can get started on improving your yard and scratching that landscaping itch with some plants in pots. Pots are great for people who want to try their hand at gardening or growing vegetables, but are afraid to make a mistake. Plant
something in a few pots and set them out on the patio and enjoy them for a while. You can plant them in the ground later.
I like to get really big pots of various shapes and size and put some nice drainage in the bottom. Use some shipping peanuts topped with landscape fabric and then really great soil. Make sure you use the regular peanuts and not the biodegradable kind or they will melt under the soil and your plants will sink.
When planting pots for color, I like to put in a foundation shrub, preferably evergreen. Plant it off center and put some single color annual or perennial plants and at least one “spiller” near the edge to fill the bare spots. A spiller is a ground cover or plant that will drape over the side of the pot.
Think in contrasting colors. Use a tall heavenly bamboo with the sharp orange of a Gallardia and a nice gray foliage of Snow-in-Summer for the spiller. This would look stunning in a deep blue pot. Practically a whole landscape in a pot…
Keep your color scheme to only three main colors. Any more and the whole effect is diffused and distracting. Keep in mind, that freezes are still possible, so protect your new plants for at least another month from freezing, by covering at night or keeping in an area close to the house and with overhead protection.
Call us today
For help with your landscape
at (760) 868-6104
Spring is nature’s way of saying “Let’s Party!”
Robin Williams
April Tasks
¤April is when, near the end of the month, you will be safe to trim back your perennials and frost damaged plants. Some of your perennials look a little sad from winter weather (or what little we have had) and I’m sure you have been itching to get going on this.
¤Those of you that have fruit trees, now is the time to thin out some of the fruit while it is still marble sized. Take out about 1/3 to ½ of the fruit and you will get larger fruit in return.
¤Check your small plants for rabbit damage. Rabbits will eat anything except chain link. Put wire cages or fences around susceptible plants or planters to protect them, at least while they are small.
¤ Spray your weeds in your lawns while they are still young. Dandelions are crazy early this year! We can do it for you. Call us! 760 868-6104
¤ Time to prune back your butterfly bush (buddeladia) but leave the lilacs alone until after blooming unless you have ignored them in the past, then a renewal pruning is ok you will just get less blooms.
¤ Sow vegetable seeds like Swiss chard, carrots, peas and leeks in the ground and sow seeds for warm weather vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, squash indoors for later transplanting.
Let Us Help You With All Your Landscape Needs
(760)868-6104
Ssssssssst! Watch out for snakes.
The local paper is reporting that the first snakebite of the season has already happened. Another marker of our early warm weather and short winter. REMEMBER: Constriction injuries are often the most serious part of a snake bite. Loosen or remove the clothing in the affected area of the snake bite, remove ALL jewelry. You will puff up and the damage that the tight clothing or jewelry causes, could result in loosing a finger or even a limb!
Don’t stick your hand into a bush or debris pile without looking first so you can stay out of trouble altogether.
My Favorite Recipes
April means Easter is not far off and lots of BBQs and parties coming up. If you want a really easy cookie to serve, try these. From my friend Annabel. I’ve eaten these baked by her hand and they are heavenly.
Really Easy Pecan Puffs
From Annabel O’Leary
½ cup real butter, room temperature
2 Tbsp. Sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup ground pecans
½ tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
Powdered sugar
Combine all ingredients and roll in 1 inch balls. Bake in 300 degree oven for 45 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar while hot and again when cold.
Chick Salad
By Cindy Poore
I love to find new ways to put healthy, but tasty in my diet. Try this salad for your next BBQ with grilled fish, chicken, beef or Portabellas.
Salad:
1 15 oz can Chick peas drained
1 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 yellow or orange sweet pepper, chopped
2 or 3 chopped Kale leaves
Dressing:
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbs sugar or Stevia to taste
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
Put all salad ingredients in a large bowl.
Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and pour over salad. Mix well and serve alone or over a bed of shredded lettuce.
- Staying Home May 31, 2020Staying home has new meaning since the tragic and crazy world of COVID-19. While most are keeping a low profile at home, Perfection Landscape knows that we are essential for helping our clients care for their home environments. We continue to do maintenance for our regular and new clients keeping with social distancing guidelines for […]
- Weeds are Back! March 10, 2018Is your yard Exploding with weeds ? You may think a few weeds here or there aren’t much to worry about, but did you know most weeds are capable of producing over a thousand seeds each? Rain and the warmer weather that will follow will make conditions just right for hose little land mines […]