Hello fellow Californians....let's introduce ourselves! #2

We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/493018/

This thread is for California gardeners to introduce themselves. Whether you are new to DG, or just been lurking in the background, tell us a little about yourself and just say HI!

This message was edited Jun 22, 2008 9:44 AM

Hi ! I will be moving to California next week .. Friday our plane takes off from Oregon. DH relocated to San Jose a few months ago ... job change. The kids finished school - our house sold ON THE LAST DAY of school - whew! And now we will all be together again. For a while we will all be in a one bed/one bath apartment - all 5 of us waiting in line for the potty! lol, this will be quite motivating to find a house! Can't wait to start gardening again.

Tracy

Tracy, glad to hear your house sold on time! Good luck finding your new place.

Kathleen

Good luck with the big move! I'm surprised his company wouldn't help you out with a bigger apartment, I can't imagine a family of 5 in a 1 bedroom for very long! It's a good time to buy around here, prices have dropped in a lot of areas so you should be able to get yourself a pretty good deal (by California standards at least...compared to Oregon it's probably still expensive!).

Redtootsiepop? Read last week that Sacramento (I'm not sure where San Jose rated on the scale of 1-10) was one of the top 10 US cities to live in:) Welcome to CA!

Welcome (almost) to San Jose, Tracy!

Hi Im Lori, I live in Marysville, 30 mins from Sacramento
I cant wait to meet some other N. Ca gardeners and all other Ca gardeners.

I live in an apt, and hopefully soon be moving to a house with some room
I grow alot of Herbs, I use a couple of friends properties to grow on.
I have an online Herb and Tea Biz, and also an online Seed store Im looking to stock with trades
and purchases from Daves forums and other sources.
I also love to grow anything and everything and always look forward to swaps and trades, its like xmas year round when pkgs come in the mail.

Hi, Lavenderdragon...(mind if I call you LD in the future?)
I can identify with growing on neighbor's and friends properties, and in containers.....around here, anything that stands still more than 5 min. is converted to a planter:) Nice to meet you!

Hi Everyone. I'm Barbara.
I have been a lurker for the most part. I have asked questions on occasion and have enjoyed reading this forum and those of you who participate in it.
I'm one of those California natives, who started out in the Carmel/Monterey area, graduated to the San Gabriel Valley through no fault of my own and then ran away to Santa Barbara where I've sunk deep roots.

I love to garden and experiment with different plants, even those that supposedly will not grow in this zone. I neglected my back yard for months while I completely re-landscaped our front yard. Now that the front yard is once again presentable I've started working out back. Just transplanted some volunteer
tomatoes plants to a proper veggie bed and will be putting in new herb beds just to name a few things on the summer agenda. It is nice to meet all of you and wish you all happy gardening.

Hi Barbara. A zone-pusher, eh? Good for you! I know all about neglecting one part of the yard to work on another, we do it all the time. One of these days they will balance out, I hope! Welcome to DG and thanks for posting.

I didn't know there was anything that wouldn't grow in Santa Barbara! LOL I figured that was about as close to garden paradise as you could get!

Thanks for the welcome!

ecrane, yes they did pay for his corporate housing, after 90 days paid for our primary house payment ( in OR) they've been very generous. We could move, but it worked for the week we visited, ( we didn't spend much time there) I think we'll survive : ) -- yes, there is alot of good deals , and so many short sales & foreclosures I can't believe it .... honestly it's not as bad in Oregon, but I still feel lucky we sold, there are NOT alot of buyers here. And builders are offering outrageous deals that were hard to compete with. We've already set up to look at houses with a broker on Saturday and possibly Sunday. I can't wait!

Barbara, it sounds like you have great focus.

Colleen here, from Eureka CA. I just found this site while looking for info on making lightweight pots. Ive been trolling for hours reading and reading. almost all of my garden is in raised beds and containers. I have recently dug up my raised beds, taking out stuff that was just old (dahlia stumps) and other stuff that I just want to change. Have been looking into dwarf rhodies and succelents. It sounds like a strange combo but neither is terribly labor intensive once they get going. I have a terrible problem with a mourning glory that has become an invasive weed. It is now coming up between my pavers (grrr) so I have been spending a lot of time weeding my patio (which really pisses me off) and praying for the guy that put it in. I look forward to hearing about other gardens and gardeners.

Colleen
Eureka CA

Welcome, Colleen. Hope you are not suffering from smoke up there. I'm sure you will find lots of help at DG - happy gardening!

Thank you for the welcome. . .KaperC and ecrane3.
Depends on where you live in Santa Barbara. There are so many microclimates in this area and the difference of just a mile or less can make the difference between gardening success or abject failure. Sob!!!!!

I can't grow corn where I live and have a devil of a time with mildew on anything from the melon or squash families. A mile inland it is a different story.

I guess it all depends on what you're trying to grow! Everything I have in my garden would like Santa Barbara a lot better than Dublin! LOL

ha ha ha ha humhon .... doesn't sound fun picking mg from between the pavers. ... will you pass on the info for making lightweight pots?

My dh said when he left San Jose yesterday morning you couldn't see the hills because of all the smoke.... is it still bad? We fly down on Friday.

It depends on where you are--at my place in Dublin, I can see and smell the smoke first thing in the morning, but then it clears out during the day. Although today is a little hazy, but I can't smell smoke here at the moment. But where I work in Pleasanton (a whole huge 3 miles away!) it smells smoky and looks hazy all day long. Someone I work with lives down on the Peninsula somewhere and she said it's hazy there but she can't smell the smoke.

Yesterday it was indeed really smoky here, the sunlight was a weird orange color, and little bits of ash were falling all over, but today is better. When a little breeze picks up I can still smell smoke and it is definitely hazy, but not nearly as bad as it has been. It is also much cooler than it was…good timing on your move, as you missed those temps in the triple digits last week! Feel free to send me a dmail if there’s anything I can do to help you and your family adjust.

I know it's worse in the valleys. I've been at my brother's place (near Yosemite) when there was legal burning going on and it's horrible the way it hugs the ground. I've been following the news reports for his area and the smoke is very bad there. They need wind to blow it out, but then they're worried the fire will spread. :-(

Red, Id be happy to pass on the info about lightweight pots once I find it here. As for the smoke Im about 6 hours north of San Jose so I havent seen any. I am going inland to the river tomorrow for some sun and heat (I'm freezing) and I dont expect any smoke. All the fires that started up here last week are out thank goodness.

Colleen

good, sounds like it is getting better... my son has asthma so I worry for him. We'll just stay inside if so. Thank you SunnyG , you're very kind. I'm definitely anxious, but excited. Can't wait to find a house, so can start to feel normal.

I just heard on the news that the weather is cooperating and that should help both in fighting the fires and clearing the smoke. Fingers crossed.

Where I am at least we had a good strong wind last night so most of the smoke seems to have blown off.

Bad news Tracy--smoke is back! At least by me it is. Almost all day was nice and sunny and I thought the wind had blown it all off, but then later in the afternoon it got all hazy again. And now the smoke smell is back a little bit too. I just realized that I've had a sore throat for the last couple days and couldn't figure out why since I'm not sick, but now I think maybe it's from breathing in all the smoke over the last several days. Hopefully it'll be gone soon (the sore throat and the smoke!)

The smoke is pretty bad here in San Jose too. It is hazy simply looking across the street. Like Ecrane, my throat is sore and my eyes are really bloodshot and burning. There is an air quality advisory right now, and the news said it would be bad through the weekend, so I’m guessing you are probably going to need to keep your son inside. I hope your move goes well in spite of the smoke. This really is a great area, and I wish the best to you and your family.

Not to mention all the ash that will need cleaning off of EVERYTHING! Our place looked like death after the fire here, though it was a bit closer than I think you two are. Still, it travels a long way and gets in every little crack. Environmentally, it's a nightmare, too.

I'm nowhere near any fires--there have been a couple teeny ones around here, the sort where you smell the smoke while they're in the process of putting it out but it's gone in a couple hours, so they don't leave any lingering effects. The smoke by me is all from fires farther up north where the smoke (but not too much ash) blows down this way.

oooh, we'll keep him inside them - hope everyone feels better. We're at the airport now, we survived moving week ! whoo hooo. I'm excited to look at houses tomorrow.... but not the flight... I don't enjoy flying.

Cyra nice to meet you too. I also grow alot in containers and am always looking for new things to plant in lol. I have some very unusual planters thats for sure.

We have several fires burning and the smoke is really bad here, 213 on the bad air scale, has been for 2 weeks now and 3 more fires started this last week, looks like fire season is going to be very bad this year!

This message was edited Jun 28, 2008 7:50 AM

lavendar, Is it any better today?

We arrived yesterday and you could barely make out the hills (I can't seem to call them mountains ! ) but today it has cleared up quite a bit.

I hope things are better there this evening, Lavender! It really is scary how many fires are going already, and it’s only late June. Welcome to San Jose Redtootsiepop :-). I hope you are all settling in nicely. It really has cleared up a lot here today, whew!

Thank you SunnyG - we are settling in the apartment. The pool is kinda cold tho, does anyone heat their pools out here, or just wait for the sun to warm them up?

Hi all -
I have been a balcony gardener for several years now living in Boyle Heights (East L.A.), and am happily moving to Pasadena as soon as my escrow closes! I love tropicals, especially palms, so will be posting my progress as I convert a fairly blank canvas yard into a tropical garden.

I have one question to ask - what is this DH and such that I keep seeing in people's posts? Dear Husband? Defacto Husband? Different Half? I would simply like to be let in on the slang here - anything else I should know?

Thanks!
Jungleman aka Jeff

Usually means dear husband, but if someone's upset with him at the moment I suppose you could replace the dear with a "d" word of your choice! LOL

I thought so! Thanks, ecrane3. :)

Welcome to DG, Jungleman. It seems quite often that the males are outnumber here by a pretty good margin. I meet with a group up at the UC Botanical Gardens and they decided to let me be their Gal Pal. I guess that meant that I fit in. I hope your escrow goes through for the new DIGS, be sure to post some of your wants on DG and you may find some starter plants sent your way. Also check out the CoOps for some good deals.
I hope the pool has warmed up for RedTootsiePop, it sure has been warm enough to do it.

George

Yes George - it has heated up nicely :) We spent alot of time swimming this last week. Today we're going to spend the day in SanFrancisco fun, I haven't been there since I was pregnant with Olivia.... about 8 years.

Went to Gilroy Gardens yesterday, made me want to plant ...

Happy moving, Jungleman! I've seen photos of tropical gardens in Pasadena, so I'm sure you'll have fun creating your own. Remember to post your own photos here so we can see what you accomplish!

Thanks all for the kind wishes and welcome. I know I have a lot to offer in the way of plant and landscape design knowledge, and that I will learn a ton (as I have already) from all of you, too!