Author: Liz Braithwaite

Hike

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We meant to go here a few weeks ago. But we made it Tuesday night. It was a great little afternoon/evening hike, and the fall color was gorgeous. Better, I think, than a few weeks ago. The colors are more vibrant: the reds are deeper reds, there was more yellow, and it all sticks out more. The oaks are turning brown. Not that pretty, but marking the further growth of fall. This fall has been long and warm: it looks like this week it’s time to bring in the tomatoes. But not having to do that until the end of October? Awesome.

Back to the hike. It seemed to be mostly a cattle ranch trail: we even met a group of cowboys herding down the cows for winter on our way up. That had us trying to get Peter to say “moo,” unsuccesfully. (But he does say “up” and its adorable.) The trailhead was a few miles up the right fork in Hobble Creek canyon, right next to a large corral. Besides the cowboys down the road, we didn’t meet a soul. I love Hobble Creek because of that. The hike was pleasent, minus the missing jackets. (I forgot it was fall, and fall means jackets. It’s just been so warm.) We took the right side of every fork, and our trail dead-ended at a spring about a mile and a half up.

I love hiking in the fall. Best hiking season ever. Minus the deer hunt, but that was easily avoided this year. The color of the leaves, the cool air. It’s wonderful. This time of year is also when I had baby Pete last year. I enjoyed that time, and took lots of walks out in the leaves with my tiny infant. I’m even looking forward to the snow this week. (If you include snow in fall and spring it greatly extends those seasons. Isn’t part of fall waking up to snow on the ground, only to have it melt away in hours?)

Disneyland

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I went to Disneyland on vacation. I ended up admiring plants. Plants aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Disneyland, but they are there and thriving. I’m impressed at the amount they have, even with millions of people going through every year. I didn’t see a single gardener either. (Does this mean they are out there with flashlights?)

The gardens are definitely formal gardens. There are tons of hedges, topiaries, annual plantings in the shape of Mickey Mouse, even a knot garden. Not always my style. But that trip, combined with this post has me thinking that maybe I should give hedge pruners more of a chance. (Sidenote: hedging is a good horticultural practice, but it can’t replace regular good old pruning and should be attempted after someone knows how to prune with a pair of loppers. I’ve seen a lot of butterball figures that are ugly and not healthy for plants.)

My favorite was the Storybook Canal. I went for the enjoyment of my one-year-old son. The rest in my group had very little desire to go on the “boring” ride. So, not expecting much, I found myself in the midst of wonderful miniature gardens. The ride ended up being one of my favorite just because of the cool plants. The guide mentioned that some of the trees (at least one bonsai) were actually planted by Walt Disney himself.

Utah Botanical Center

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I love the UBC. I caught on to their vision after working there one summer, and I love to go back and see all the progress they’ve made. I keep blogging about them too. (I just checked and I really haven’t: one post and mentions elsewhere is not constantly blogging about them. So this post is muchly needed.) I love it there. Not saying it’s perfect. There’s around 100 acres, and a lot of it is mowed weeds. Another good portion is under construction, and there are also experiments that didn’t quite work out as planned. (Including a naturalized planting that had me weed whacking for weeks. I’m not kidding. Weeks. Good old internships.)

But here is one thing I love about them, that has not yet received a lot of attention by me. I love there perennial gardens. Anne Spranger is the one behind them, and she does beautiful work. She can also be found in work boots bailing out irrigation leaks, and doing all the dirty jobs as well. Anne was my boss when I was an intern, and she was also my design teacher in school. Here is some of her work:

The UBC has influenced me to focus on regional-specific landscaping. Use the climate, soil, and surroundings to create unique gardens for the area. The UBC creates unique gardens that mirror the needs of the Utah area–lots of water-wise plantings, use of native plants, not a lot of lawn, tons of plant material etc. But it’s a good idea for anywhere: don’t fight your surroundings, embrace them.

Disneyland

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My dad had a conference in Anaheim, so Peter and I tagged along with some of my family and went to the beach and Disneyland. Peter would wake up in the morning and just rock in his stroller, excited to go to back to Disneyland. We were there three days of magical fun, and rode nearly all the rides. Peter did wonderfully the entire trip, and it was fun to have him along. The more cheesy rides made him excited: so they were better for us all. The only thing bad about the trip was Joe had to stay home and go to school and work. Thanks Mom, for letting me come!

Peter’s Birthday

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Peter is now a year old. Wow. We had a rip-roaring birthday party with a whole bunch of family last Sunday. Peter loved all the food and people, but didn’t really get opening presents. Thanks to everyone that came and for all the presents.

Every one year old should have a cake all to themselves. He just dug right in. Horrible manners, unlike his cute little cousins who would very carefully pinch off a piece while Peter was digging in. He’s quite messy, but is eating almost everything we eat. Makes meals a little more simple.

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He is walking a little, but not as a primary mode of transportation. Besides mama and dada he has one little word he uses all the time–up. He’s constantly saying up and pointing. It’s very cute.

Weekend without Peter

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Joe and I had a weekend free from Peter thanks to my Mom. First we went hiking up Dry Canyon in Alpine to Horsetail falls. It was raining soon after we started, and we weren’t wearing rain gear but perservered to the falls, about a mile and a half up. When we reached the outlook to see the falls, it stopped raining and the sun came out. Just perfect timing, and it made for a wonderful hike.

After that, we stopped to do some birthday shopping for Peter, and I started to get chills/feverish. So we went home and I got a nice nap and some ibuprofen and felt much better. Apparently hiking in the rain, although quite romantic and beautiful, was also quite hard on me. Marry Poppins just might know something. I think I had a very mild case of mastitis, but luckily the fever didn’t last. Sleeping while sick is not the best way to spend baby-free time, but we still had fun after I was feeling better. We rented a movie, slept through the night, and I didn’t have to sweep the floor after breakfast and dinner.

A break from Peter was much appreciated–no matter how much I love him, he’s still hard. Sweeping/cleaning/playing/changing diapers isn’t too bad, but it gets a little old. He did great at Grandma’s too.

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Irrigation

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So in college, I learned how to determine how much to irrigate. I learned how in so many places and so many ways I was beginning to get confused. So I wrote up this lovely little article on everything I knew about irrigation. I did leave out the more difficult calculations. (So much fun, but really why waste all that effort when a simple one would do?) Fast forward to now. I was running an irrigation clock and had my doubts on how to run it. In other words, I was doing it badly. Finally the nagging I was giving myself caused me to look at the wonderful article. (I just realized I said it was little. It’s not.) Within five minutes I was throughly refreshed all my knowledge, realized that, yes, I should irrigate more, but no, I wasn’t killing the plants.

I have to admit right now, I have no real information on irrigation systems. But when to irrigate…I learned about that in 4-5 classes: one of which involved the difficult calculations that I so much enjoyed, but forgot quickly due to no reason to actually use them. With all this rambling, I am now going to post my article that noone besides me has had access to before now. Feel free to use, leave feedback, and copy (but don’t plagiarize). I understand it perfectly but not sure everyone will, so if you have questions ASK. And enjoy.

IRRIGATION FOR THE HOME GARDENER (PDF)

IRRIGATION FOR THE HOME GARDENER (DOCX)

I did notice: this is Utah based. So its more useful if you live here, but still applies everywhere else.

Just a thought…

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I was at a church meeting, and I was listening about the creation and then Adam and Eve’s time in the garden of Eden. I had a thought that I was doing the work of God while creating gardens. Because He has certainly made many gardens. And He has encouraged us to so as well:

“And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” (Gen 2:15)

“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken” (Gen 3:23)

I felt glad of all the time, money and effort I spend out in the garden.

Eating Cucurbit Leaves

My parents vegetable garden did not look so hot this year. Cucumber beetles and squash bugs ate the cucurbit crops. A recurring pest of pocket gophers decided to eat the tomatoes close to the ground. The squash was attacked by powdery mildew. One zucchini and tomato ended up dying before the season was over. There were wilt diseases present.

I gave my parents some recommendations on how to overcome the pests. But nothing was sprayed or done to control the pests even at its worst. And you know what? The garden came through. There was still good harvests, including the largest cantaloupe I’ve ever seen. Maybe the harvest wasn’t as plentiful as it could of been. But it was good enough. Plants and nature can often take care of themselves, even against seemingly impossible enemies. I don’t think we need to worry about pests as much as we do.

The garden has been in the same small plot for 16 years. It is moving next year. That should help the vegetables continue to have good harvests.