Raccoons: Or Why We Need a New Cat Door

Progress on the KD2000 (KatDör2000) is going well and I look forward to the day when raccoons won't be able to pry their way into the house and knock over 30 pounds of cat food, which is what happened just before I filmed this.

Of course, more power to the raccoons, but don't come in the house please.

Gooseberry (ribes indecorum)

Gooseberry, originally uploaded by andrethegiant.

Spring is here officially. The flowers are blooming and it is spring break.

The photo is of a california native gooseberry (ribes indecorum). We've got it growing underneath our chinese elm. With such a horrible invasive tree, it's good to have some native shade-loving plants like this gooseberry and the heuchera.

Spring is here

Spring is here, thank goodness, and things are beginning to warm up.  The ceanothus are taking off, so is the artemesia.  Unfortunately, so is the oxalis.  That stuff is a pain.  We've been seeing more birds and insects too:

Rain!

Thank goodness!  We've gotten about 3 inches of rain the last 3 days, bringing us close to 9 inches for the year.  Our natives are starting to go crazy.  The cleveland sage and wooly blue curls are growing fast.  A chamise we just planted took all of 5 days to start growing.  Of course, the mandarin orange tree is so full of blossoms that when the rain stops the air will be full of perfume.

Wow.  Winter is good around here. 

Cataloging plants

We've suddenly realized we have quite a few natives. Here's a list of what natives are currently growing.

Brewer's Salt Bush (we think)
Cleveland Sage (x2)
Manzanita (1 ground-hugging, 1 Howard McMinn)
Wooly Blue Curls
Deer Grass
Ceanothus (several types)
Artemisia (California Sage)
Island Bush Poppy (Catalina Poppy)
Primrose
Sugarbush
Desert Lavender
Chamise
Galvezia Speciosa
Heuchera
Fuschia
Willow mint/coyote mint
Buckwheat (2 kinds)
California poppies
Tufted Hairgrass (I think)

Backyard is coming along

Well. It's been a long summer, but the patio is taking shape now that the wall is done. We might actually have some time to blog it now!

I'll be taking some pictures of the setup tonight. Until then, here's VP (Veeps, Veepster, etc.) among the capstones.

Pictures...

Hi, Everybody.  Thanks to all our friends who've been helping us out, we're nearing completion of the wall.  That means we actually have time to post!

Picture 1 (Has nothing to do with the wall): Leslie, Jeff and I ran the SF marathon.  It was as hard as...building a big wall. Picture 2 is just the wall, and Picture 3 is Anne and Jeff laying down geomat.