Pumpkin Weigh Off

Monday, October 11th, 2010

This morning was the HMB Pumpkin Weigh off, located (idyllically) down the street from me. The guys and I had a big day of sheet rocking and electrical work to do at the house, but they got ditched around 8:30am by me (what else is new), pretty much running down the street to see the weigh off.

Isn’t this just the type of thing you do on monday morning?

It was the perfect Fall, HMB day for a good old fashioned weigh off. The sun was starting to shine through the fog, the crows were in full force bombing people with walnuts (see last post) and old ladies were in their very best pumpkin sweaters with matching tacky socks. It was awesome. Here are some pic’s:



Insanely huge pumpkin






Farmer John with one of his beauties...






HMB paparazzi






Giant pumpkin, still on life support!






Going to be weighed...



It was pretty amazing to see them schlep the pumpkins from the trucks to the stage (yes, the pumpkins go on a stage for weighing. There are pumpkin fans and all! I personally am advocating for a spin off show entitled, “Pumpkins & Tiaras”.) with the forklift… all the while the farmer’s looking like their babies had been snatched!


Want giants of your own?

All very pumpkin-y, very Half Moon Bay.

Walnut tree

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

I would normally start this story by saying, “About this time, every year the…” – but to be honest, I’ve only lived here for about 4 months. I’ve lived in this town for about 4 lifetimes, but the house for just a bit. Enough, though, to notice that this time of year crows come out in abundance. They perch on my highest roof peak and drop freshly plucked walnuts to the ground or street, in hopes a car will run them over so they can peck out the flesh. I know this because down the street about 100 paces is a giant, handsome walnut tree (Juglans major) that serves as food for the crows and many other birds, I imagine. From my office I can watch the birds eying each other and waiting for the cars (or tractors. I live in a town, on a street, where tractors drive past your house everyday. Yes, the iconic John Deere ones. It’s fabulous) to pass, judging when to toss down the nuts. They don’t ever really fight for them, just strategize about how and when.

The street and small gutter in front of my house, and all along my street, are beautifully littered with walnut shells. There is even the outer green husk that is strewn about, eventually staining the street as car after car pass over them. It’s gorgeous to see and fun to hear the crows cooing once they have succeeded in opening the tough food.

It was foggy when I walked around the block at 7:15 this morning, trying to capture what I have been hearing and seeing for days. For some reason I was fascinated with the debris in the street, so I took a couple pic.’s of that, too. The apple core being my favorite.

I heart echeveria (Take #72)

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Yum. I love echeveria. So yummy.

The one above I’ve showed you all a few times, but just recently Dustin showed me the new babies he found on it, while pulling off the spent leaves. I was so thrilled to see it has finally started to reproduce, since I’ve had this plant for about 5 years! It was a gift from Robin (who owns Succulent Gardens… the best place to buy succulents ever! And if you shop somewhere else for succulents, chances are Robin grew them) back in the day, and I’ve cherished it ever since. It’s a rare type of echeveria that can get about 6′ by 6′ in diameter. Nuts, right?


It’s planted next to a fabulous sedum, penstemon and another plant I forget. You can see the little babes just starting to form. I love the coloring, too. The “bark” on the thick stem is a wonderful coral in the sun, and the leaves a gorgeous cooling blue that turn reddish once it starts getting to be scarf & glove weather. Echeveria’s generally propagate very easily but cuttings or plugs of any size. Little water or care is needed and they love ample sun. They don’t mind a little organic all-purpose fertilizer either, especially if in containers.

Is this sounding like too much like those other garden blogs that actually give you boring gardening info you already know?

Ok. Let’s try this:

OMG! How cute is this moth? How much cuter are my nails?

OPI’s “Under my trench coat” and “Only gold for me”. They gray base coat shows how dark and mysterious I am, and the gold flake top coat screams, “Bartender where’s my bourbon!!?”.

Ehh, it’s friday night this is the best I can do.

Garden Mash-up: Amelie

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

How much do you love this movie!?

If you haven’t seen Amelie yet – go, now and rent it, or netflix it, or watch it online! It’s an adorable, juicy and quirky foreign film about a eccentric young woman stumbling in love. The film was mildly attacked for it’s “idyllic vision of a post-card French society” thus being too unreal. But watch and judge for yourself. I’m sure you’ll want to jump into that post card as I do.

As for the garden, here’s what I see:

Her obsession with sinking her fingers into dry goods is a tangible quirk I think everyone has. How yummy does it feel to dive into a bag of cool lentils? The ‘Sugar Snap’ pea pays homage to that.

I love the scene of her soaking the love letter in tea water and hanging to dry… then the shot of her by the potted herb window sill in the evening. We should all be so lucky to have a Parisian potted garden… I’m guessing she’s growing basil, tarragon, rosemary and chives. Her little terra cotta pots perched perfectly in a row. I’m in love with the over use of red in the film. Maroon. Chinese red. Brick red. Fire red. I think annie’s annuals, Helenium autumnale ‘Red Shades’ is something she would grow… along with some corn flowers (poppies), borage for her blue pillow and a chocolate sunflower for the polka dots on her fabulously textured wallpaper.

Want a garden gnome of your own?

OMG! Lest I forget the porn shop her hot like fire man works in! For those scenes with dildos… :

Echium, the phallic shrub, native to my neck of the woods.


Best line in the movie (says Jenn) – Amélie Poulain: “At least you’ll never be a vegetable – even artichokes have hearts.”



Blurry and dejected.

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Is how I have been feeling lately. I thought this picture to be fitting and cathartic.

I perked up in the garden this weekend doing garden things. Well, first going to the Ferry Building farmer’s market to spend a large sum of money on the following:

an Epi baguette

a bunch of wildflowers

a red pear

10 rose geranium cookies

4 smores chocolate

two old fashioned glass caning jars to add to my collection

a bunch of spinach

and two glasses of Sangria (yep, at 10:30am) that I enjoyed while talking to some guy about books, life, relationships and his upcoming 33rd birthday where he will be in Zurich and did I want to come. (I regretfully declined)

Before I left the farmer’s market,  I walked by a young guy sitting by the street, in front of a crowd with an old typewriter. He was offering a poem about whatever you wanted, for what ever price you wanted to pay. It was a real attraction to the tourists in SF who love those pseudo-homeless hipsters and their crazy ways of making an income. I walked up to him in front of the crowd and shouted, “Frogs!”. He looked up a little stunned. I said, “Can you write me a poem about frogs?” Here’s what he wrote:

french citizens offended by their own stereotypes, amphibian notoriety, power animals eyelids spent ribbitting like almost reptiles of swampy prehistory, we thank your jennifer, inheritor, commissioner of poem, ode to every bodies favorite tadpole, lake the lily pad of a lady as a metaphor for

I gave him $20. since I saw the act of what he was doing more valuable than the poem itself.

Once home I gardened. The pathway (pictures will be coming soon) was never completed and stands out like a sore thumb next to my ‘Benjamin Britten’ roses, salvia, nepeta, euphorbia, borage and sunflowers in full bloom right now. I guess the flowers take no account in my mood as they are as happy and blooming as ever. Little gems reaching for the sun at every chance they get. I sat in the dirt and in my “not for gardening clothes” but didn’t really care. How dirty is dirt anyway? I sat and plopped out the 6-pack chamomile in that fun way you do when you get root bound 6-packs. Tipping them upside down and squeezing their little butts until they shoot out onto the ground. It’s kind of gratifying, like popping bubbles in plastic bubble wrap. I tossed them in my pathway, in between the terra cotta tiles I’m using for stepping stones. I planted them with bare hands, partially too lazy to get up to find my trowel and partially because I wanted to feel the dirt in between my finger.

Serpent Found

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

We worked at the farm yesterday, moving soil and other debris with the tractor, and all around having as fabulous of a time you can have when working in dirt. Dustin must have moved something and found this little guy:

I’m guessing from this website he’s a Pacific Ring-necked Snake. Mildly venomous and delightfully colorful, we all instantly stopped what we were doing to poke and coo over our new little mascot. Once we were done scaring each other with him we put him safely in a wood pile where he acted dead, coiled into himself in self defense. Once we went away I’m guessing he slowly eased up and slithered in between the rough branches of the pile, finding himself a cool and protected place to rest from the days events. Hopefully he isn’t scared away for good and will show himself from time to time..

Garden Mash-up: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve taken great delight in doing what I have recently dubbed “Garden Mash-ups”. I love mixing nail polish and your favorite perennials. Or farm work and that new Snoop Dogg beat.

Here’s the latest: Garden and Movie Mash-ups.

Tonight we feature, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I was thinking… what would this movie’s garden look like?

Here’s what I came up with.



Charley and his broke-ass family enjoy yet another evening of Cabbage Soup. I’d like to think it’s from this little guy, my favorite cabbage of all Savoy Cabbage ‘S. Michele or any cultivar from the savoy brood. They really do make yummy soups, and are easy to grow once germinated. Germination seems to take a bit longer than other types of Cruciferae, but we are gardeners and are very patient, right? And by patient I mean you can go find six packs of them at your local nursery, giving you at least 8 weeks of lead time on your growing season. But don’t tell, pretend you grew them from seed.

I love the scene where he’s (creepy!) softly singing to himself in the candy garden, while sipping from his freshly plucked Daffodil tea cup and saucer. Then, at the end of the (creepy!) song, after his decrescendo, he bites off a piece of the Daffodil tea cup, with a loud and gratifying crunch! For your own Daffodil… pick a double petaled one. Those are my favorite, and so fragrant.

The Chocolate Cosmo you all know and love… and hopefully Cerinthe, too.

“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it….”


Mite you stop eating my rudbeckia, please?

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Just one of my little rud’s are being attached by aphids and mites and two other little creatures. Luckily, those ladybugs I released earlier in the year had babies and they are coming to the rescue.


Hey, what do you think of the new site?


Please feel free to ask any garden Q’s by clicking the red box on the side…  And the resource page will be updated shortly, so make sure to check that one out as well. xoxoxoJenn

What? Don’t you rub your sunflowers occasionally?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

All jokes aside, I love when it’s this time of year and your gorgeous sunflowers go into seed mode. Very cool. The birds are going crazy and use this ‘Titan’ sunflower like a giant buffet!Even if the birds don’t get at these sunflowers, they look really cool left out in the garden to warp and twist in the sun.

Where can you find this giant beauty? Try here.

loving this

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

I know I’ve been skimping on the words in some of my posts… but sometimes there just doesn’t need to be. I’m loving the dandelions in my backyards right now… having fun playing with my new camera and ever present “weed” crop!