plants

~July 16, 1769 ~Mission San Diego de Alcala is officially founded on Presidio Hill, which, in turn became the City of San Diego. Odd place to start the city since water is not easily accessible at the top of this hill. The mission is later moved about 6 miles east and is located next to the San Diego River. One of our field trips will be to the first mission founded by Father Junípero Serra. The original mission was turned into a Presidio which held a garrison of men. It was not until the late 1820’s – 1830’s that Old Town San Diego was settled. This town was at the western foot of Presidio Hill. I still think it odd that San Diego did not start on the bay or ocean! It was a few miles inland. While the Eastern seaboard was in it’s struggle with the English, we were developing under Spanish rule. In 1969, the two-hundreth anniversary of it’s founding, Old Town became a California State Park.

There are only a few structures left from the original Old Town. This isn’t going to be a walking tour of the historic buildings. I’m a flower person and my eyes were drawn to the plants. The Hubs and I started our tour in one of my favorite places, the old Bazaar Del Mundo sold and renamed to Plaza del Pasado. Sorry, old-timer here it will always be the Bazaar in my mind. We arrived early before the shops opened, so it was nice an quiet except for the gardeners. The Bazaar was built around a very large courtyard and has quite a wonderful garden. I’m not going to put the pictures in collages as I usually do so that you can get ideas for your garden. All pictures were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX130IS since The Hubs had a class and got to use “the good camera”.

These fellows greet you upon entering the bazaar

There are so many wagons with plants. Wish I had the rooster in my garden!

This fellow kept following me! He bought lunch for me so I guess that was ok!

And so, from the bazaar, I say, “Adios”.

Who me? Yes, you! This is Hans – who shows his appreciation for my garden in a very unique way. He eats my plants!!! We’ve never had a large dog before, I didn’t have a clue as to how different they are from the small ones we’ve had. Hans is still a pup – he was born in September. He’s a wonderful Golden Doodle – very sweet temperament. Definitely NOT a guard dog. My husband fell in love with this breed when we saw one working as a therapy dog a few years ago. I was just too dumb to tell him no. lol! When I told Alan that I was going to write about our “bad” dog, Alan said I’d better not make the dog sound evil. 😎

So this is the damage. He ate: All of the pea plants, an orchid plant, a butterfly plant, the marigolds, the chives, all the various herbs, the Job’s Tears seedlings, salad lettuce mixture, just to name a few. He also dug up the cabbage as well as huge holes around the yard. See some of the damage.

I have to admit I was really getting upset. Solution so that I can keep my sanity? I moved a large part of the potted plants to one side of the yard and put up that orange barrier tape so Pup can’t get to them. Look how attractive. This is the new dog’s-eye-view.

It’s been a few days and the dog hasn’t beat the barrier yet!! Hurrah! So, today I planted tomatoes, banana peppers, basil, chives and onions. The tape cuts off half the yard which includes my seedling area. He ate all of the coconut seedling pots. May not be an attractive addition to the yard, but at least I feel calmer knowing my plants will be ok! Old friends visited me in the garden today: a Monarch butterfly, a Gulf Fritillary (our home’s totem butterfly), and a Cabbage Butterfly. Take that Hans! 😎

Just got this text from Barb aka Curls:

“Me bird watching.”

Of course I’m a bird watcher too and was glad she called to share the birds she’s seen so far: Northern Oriole, Western Kingbird, House Finch, and another flycatcher that wouldn’t land. See how she still is resting that swollen ankle and bruised knees from Sunday’s biking incident.

Since both of us write in the blog, it can be confusing for readers to know who writes what. Maybe you noticed that we tried “Q” and “Curls”- didn’t look really great. While surfing blogs, I saw that another shared blog used tags so readers could tell the author. So our new tags:

= This means that Barbara aka Curls wrote the post. She has her nickname because she has wonderful curly hair.

= This means that Susan aka Susie Q aka Q wrote the post. In the 4th grade there were seven Susans and seven Stevens. We had to come up with nicknames. Since my family called me Susie Q I went with that. Barb has always called me “Q” or “Q-bers”.