House Pics on Google Maps

Just saving these here for posterity. These were taken in 2012 by the google car and it shows the front yard as it then was (also Tom's landscaping project. It's kind of neat to compare that to now too.)

The Italian Garden before it Was

Winter Seed Sowing

Time for sowing some indoor seeds. This year I'm going big or bust. Doing the avocado seed thing (but in soil, not water with toothpicks) and Italian Cypress seeds. I keep seeing these cypresses all over Seattle, so I refuse to give up. I've killed four actual young trees so far, so maybe growing my own seedlings in pots forever is the way to go. If *gasp* I actually manage to grow several of them, I will give some away. I would love to see more of these trees planted around Marysville, to break up the monotony of Arbor Vitae and Rhodie.

Cypress:

Yesterday I soaked 10 seeds (of the 40 I purchased from www.TreeHelp.com) for the prerequisite 24 hours. This morning I "sowed" them in cool, damp peat moss in a Ziploc bag and stuck the bag in the fridge. The process of germination, called "cold stratification" is supposed to take about 30 days. Crossing fingers!

The 2 avocado seeds I started by drying out and peeling off the outer skin and then putting them 2/3 down into a small pot of rich potting soil. they are on the north window sill for indirect bright light. Supposedly you can grow them this way, like amaryllis bulbs.

I also started a sweet potato semi-immersed in water, but it just began to mold in the water. It was probably sprayed by the grower to keep the eyes from sprouting (I just bought the dang thing in the produce section at Walmart). I would love to hang a big bright green sweet potato vine on the front porch this summer, but it looks like I might have to just buy a rooted slip from a nursery when the season starts.

Moving to WordPress.com for 2016

I've decided to move next year's garden blog to WordPress, mainly because the design options are so much better. The new address will be thevillacappello2016blog.wordpress.com

Eventually I would like to move 2014 over too.

Ciao for now, to 2015.

End of November

Down in the teens at night.

FROST and in the TEENS at Night

My weather website (www.wunderground.com) has been lying to me. They keep saying we are having night in the mid-20's but each night this week the temp here at Villa Cappello has dropped into the range of 18-19 degrees. Crap.

Hopefully, no lasting damage has been done. I've been faithfully covering the Arbequina with 2 tarps and it has been frost free, so I hope that means something. Today I added 3 strings of yellow Christmas lights that we bought for our Christmas tree (they were supposed to be "gold" which sounded too good to be true, and alas, it was. I wove the lights in amongst the branches and then in circles around the bottom, to turn on at night to keep it warm-ish.

I also decided to wrap the Junipers in burlap even though they are winter hardy...I just remember the lady at Sunnyside Nursery telling me 'when it drops into the teens, wrap the evergreens'....at least the young ones.

Below are some photos I took this morning. The frost is pretty at least. And none of the plants or trees yet looks truly worse for the wear.

First Frost Fall 2015

Yesterday I mulched well, and just in time. We have our first frost this morning. Temps dropped to around 29 degrees last night and they're still hovering there. Here's a run-down of what I did to prepare.

• Mulched the Skyrocket Junipers more heavily
• Mulched all leafy green plants, most evergreens, vines
• Planted the little 1' tall Skyrocket Juniper by the deck
• "Caged" up the 3 junipers with jute
• Mulched the olive tree with black plastic bags (over the pea gravel), then put heavy large wood mulch over top of that. Covered the olive with a tarp overnight.
• Brought 3rd lemon tree into garage
• Set 2 deck lemons with bubble wrap and lights on 
• Mounded new garden soil about 6 inches up grape vines; mulched w/wood chips over that.

The only thing I forgot to do was spray the junipers with Wilt-Pruf after tying them. Will do that today.

Well, what happened overnight? 

Fatsias and Acanthu Mollis look affected

Wow, even Ottos looking shocked

Took this right after uncovering the olive - it's frost free

My best photo of the Italian Garden 2015

Italian Garden Summer 2015