Artists/Gardeners/Glass Mosaic...a Full House!

First meeting of the season at De Anza Country Club: Scrumptious lunch...Chicken enchiladas, mixed greens salad and delectable chocolate dessert. Lots and lots of raffle prizes with a garden theme. The power point presentation was delivered with flair by mosaic glass artist Coco Leraas. Everyone loved her lighthearted presentation. She is a new member of the Borrego Springs Art Guild. Borrego welcomes her! She also donated some of her works to the raffle.

OH, BORREGO !

I don't know exactly when it happened...it must have come gradually, but I have, in fact, started to personify this little town, this village where we live.

Our small settlement in this beautiful but harsh environment seems to have a life of her own. The first early inhabitants of this area left signs that tell us this place was not always desert. Their bones and fossils offer new clues every now and then. The early people left their mark, too. Their ollas and metates, their trails, pictographs and intaglios remind us. History passed through this place...DeAnza, the Butterfield Stage, the Mormon Battalion and others. Finally, the Park wrapped it's warm supportive arms around this little town in the desert.

Borrego, inside this protective Park circle, continues to persevere. She has undergone change...some of it extraordinary - some of it heartbreaking. She has seen exuberant times. She has seen desperate times. She will continue to change as the years pass. She counts herself extremely lucky. Throughout her life, she has always attracted generous benefactors, a cadre of dedicated volunteers and residents who love her !

All of us make Borrego what she is today and what she will become tomorrow. Thank you, dear old friend!

Planning a Borrego Vegetable Garden

Four weeks ago, Saturday afternoon was spent planning the cool season garden.

I looked at photos of last year's raised vegetable beds, just to be sure to avoid planting the same vegetable in the particular bed where it had grown last year. ( That is my rendition of crop rotation. ) I took out my pad, ruler and pencil and drew a rough sketch of my new vegetable garden...the object being to include old favorites, some new varieties plus use a variety of planting methods. I tagged various parts of each bed with the type seed I intend to plant there. Some spots were reserved for directly sown seeds...others for transplants. Some areas used row planting, some, French intensive methods and others, square foot planting concepts. This year, I am planting taller vegetables in a row along the northmost side of the raised beds. This should allow all vegetables to obtain their fair share of sunshine!

Next step was to go through seeds I had on hand and prepare the order list for those I needed to buy. The most time consuming part was checking likes and dislikes ( companion planting ) of each vegetable I intended to include in the garden. Then another final look at the planting chart I had created to make sure each plant was going to be happy!

The elevated beds were still covered with plastic, but to get an earlier start, I filled two seed flats with Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix. I will plant seeds of various varieties of lettuce,broccoli, chard,boc choi, spinach, tomatoes, plus a few others and will wait until it is a bit cooler to uncover the beds for direct seeding ( beets, carrots, peas )

After the beds are uncovered and seeded, I have had more luck with hand sprinkling them until they show growth has been established. Seeds are just like little babies that need a lot of watching! Only then will the drip irrigation be turned back on.

UPDATE: Mice dug up each and every seed in my seed flats.( Sometimes gardeners get irked! ) Raised beds now uncovered and seeded. One six pac broccoli planted. Peas sprouted under shade cloth in six days. Radishes, same. Lettuce, chives, carrots showing. Beets, chard and spinach planted but not yet sprouting.
Basil, sage, dill and three tomatoes planted.

TIP: When planting seeds, be sure to label them! ( You just think you can remember! )

A Devastating Loss

Yesterday, we returned home from a short get away at the coast where we attended a family birthday party. The answer phone was blinking and the message informed me of a terrible event but did not elaborate further. This morning an early phone call from a friend in Glendora told us of the news which she had read in the morning's Los Angeles Times. Judy Meier had been killed.

Life is fleeting , as we all know, but when someone so vital to the community is suddenly taken away, we are all at a loss for words. The Editor of the Desert Sun will be sorely missed.

On an August 19, 2011 post I joked about the SUN and told Judy about the post, which she read. Her reply is below:

Hello:
J. P., is this you?
Thanks for putting the Sun in your blog. It was fun (and a little strange)
to read about ourselves; we¹re accustomed to doing the writing!
Judy Meier
General Manager/Editor
Borrego Sun
7760-767-5338
judymeier@borregosun.com

Mexican Pavers

Many homes in Borrego include Mexican pavers in their home and landscape design. We have super Saltillo pavers inside the home as well as outside on porches. They have worn well for over twenty years and we like them just as well as when they were first installed. Pavers are usually handmade in Mexico, of clay. After being formed they are put outside in the sun to dry. Each paver varies to a certain degree. Some of ours have impressions of coyote footprints. One of our pavers displays someone's rubber tennis shoe heel print! There are, however, some things you should know about them before including them in your home design:
All pavers need a certain amount of maintenance to keep them looking good. After installation, a sealer is applied. This sealer prevents stains from entering the porous surface of the tile. This sealer may be solvent based or water based. Unfortunately for us, ours were first sealed with a solvent based sealer which caused them to darken. After several years I decided to restore the pavers to their original lighter, vibrant varied colors. The only thing I could find to remove the sealer was acetone. When I look back upon that project, I still cringe! It was probably the hardest work I have ever done and it took me bags of rags, wore out my knees and took weeks to finish...hand work - one tile at a time. This is the most important part of the message...I found D'mundo Tile Co. in Palm Desert. They educated me from that point on. They have all the supplies and will tell you everything you will ever need to know about maintaining your pavers!
Once a year for many years I gave the pavers an additional top coating...a very easy job! BUT...three or four years ago, decided to let someone else do the work...and guess what I just found out yesterday from the contractor doing the resealing? Another worker had used a solvent based sealer on our pavers a few years ago and that is why they were turning too dark for our tastes. And...strenuous work and volatile chemicals are needed to remove the solvent based sealers. The contractor stripped the kitchen and other areas of heavy use but will probably have to return to finish the rest of the flooring within a few years!

I hope this post will help some of you!

Borrego Capers of a Different Sort

It's funny how something just jumps out at you from a page and demands attention!

I read the book SALT: A World History by Mark Kurlansky as part of my resolution to try different types of reading during the summer. The process was refreshing, The Salt book was my choice in the History/ Science realm.
Near to the conclusion of the book the author informs that..." French consider their best capers, which come from Provence, to be the smallest, and they pickle them in vinegar." He goes on to say that nasturtium buds were often used as a substitute and provides the following recipe:

Nasturtium Indicum. Gather the buds before they open to flower: lay them in the shade three or four hours, and putting them into an earthen glazed vessel, pour good vinegar on them , and cover it with a board. Thus letting it stand for eight of ten days then being taken out, and gently press'd cast them into fresh vinegar, and let them so remain as long as before. Repeat this third time, and barrel them up with vinegar and a little salt. - John Evelyn, Aetaria: A Discourse of Sallets, 1699

Each year, I plant nasturtiums amongst vegetables in the garden and use the flowers in salads. A Google search told me that the type I plant, Tropaeloum majus is the same identical plant! We are daffy over capers and I even tried to buy seed once. Now can hardly wait to try making them myself!