Deb's Park

I live close to LA's second largest park, Deb's Park. The largest is Griffith Park which is hard to compete with. Most people have never heard of Deb's but it is definitely worth a visit, especially right now. Everything is green and growing.

Alex and I went about a month ago and saw this plant growing all over the place.

At the time it was pretty low to the ground and I had no idea what it was. It had thorns and very distinct white and green markings.

When we went back last weekend the plants were still there but they looked totally different. They are now 3 and 4 feet tall and made rather imposing prickley walls along the paths.

They are also starting to develop blooms that look like thistles.

some of the leaves are almost two feet long. Alex said that he thought that they are milk thistle and after doing some research when I got home he was proven right. It's also known as St. Mary's Thistle and is supposed to be good for the liver. When I mentioned it to my sister she knew all about it and it's therapeutic properties.

I would love to have some of this growing on my hill but it's considered invasive. I'm a little torn on the whole invasive issue. I would prefer to grow natives and drought tolerant plants but my hill is already covered with an invasive non-native grass. One thing that I like about the thistle is that it seems to crowd out the grass. Anywhere it is growing in Deb's Park there's no grass. Maybe it will turn into a thorny dry monster that I would have to cut down every year. I'll keep an eye on it in the park and see how it develops.


There was also this warty thistle that looked interesting but I couldn't identify it.



and another thistle that was neither warty nor milky but still very nice:


There were also large patches of this viney flower.

Neither of us knew what this one was.


Deb's Park is actually covered in non-natives. Here you can see a big clump of red castor bean against wild mustard.


Down below is the Audubon Center.


And above the Christian Science Senior Home is the array of solar panels they recently installed. Supposedly it cost a million dollars and will supply 90% of their electricity. It looks pretty cool.

More Than Just a Pretty Picture

I do think this is a pretty picture. I spent most of the day on the hill cutting the grass and pruning trees and bushes to get ready for fire season. It doesn't feel like fire season is right around the corner. We have rain in the forecast and it was a little brisk today, and of course we have a bunch of perfect clouds that look like I painted them there.

The fire department will start sending inspectors out at the beginning of may to check that we've cleared the brush. So even though everything is still green I'm trying to get a head start and not have to do everything the last weekend of April. So that explains what I was doing up on the hill but not why I took this picture. I take a lot of pictures of my valley because I can't get over how pretty it is. I could bore you with whole slide shows of puffy clouds against turquoise skies, wildflowers, Redtailed Hawks, orange purple sunsets and lost birthday balloons.

But that's not why I took the picture. Take a look below. Follow the red arrow. (click on image for higher resolution, it's worth it)

See that white speck? That's a goat. It's totally a goat, and you can't see the second one that was with it. They both were ambling along exploring the hill. No fence, no tether. They acted like they belonged there, and although I'm happy to agree with them it seemed a little strange that a couple goats were wandering around on the hill.

The reason that I'm so interested is because I'm totally goat crazy. I've been obsessing about getting a couple of milk goats. I've already drawn a little goat shed that will have an even better view than the chicken coop. I would need to fence off the top twenty feet of my property but then the chickens could run around too. It sounds like paradise.

So I got excited when I saw goats in the neighborhood. It would be nice if other people were already doing it so it wouldn't seem so strange when I get a couple of little dwarf Nigerians. Look how F-ing cute they are:


I sat and watched the goats for a while and eventually someone came out looking for them and chased them back down the hill. I'm thinking that maybe they escaped from a pen further down the hill. Maybe I'll go for a walk tomorrow and see if I can spot them.

Update 04/10/11:

Yep, goats. Alex and I walked over to spy on the goats. There were two does wandering on the hill and one billy tethered not far away. The billy was bleating and causing a bit of a ruckus but the does didn't seem to be bothered by us at all.

New Plants

I was driving down the street last week and found this aloe lying in the road. It was right next to someone's green bin on trash day so I figured that they were treating it like trash. I've seen enough Law and Order to know that once the trash is on the curb it's up for grabs so this went directly in my trunk.


It looks like it was a piece that broke off of a larger clump and laid on the ground for a few weeks before someone threw it out. The crown is flat and whitened and damaged from being upside down but the older leaves are thick and juicy and full of life.


I stripped of the bottom leaves to give me enough room to get the base to root.


I put it in a pot with another rescued plant that my friend Bill gave me for my birthday (thanks Bill). I love that kind of gift.

Aside from the older plant being red from the sun, it looks like these two could have grown up together. I love them. I think I'll move them to a shadier part of the yard for a while until the new plant gets used to the sun. I don't want that white top to get scalded.

I think that these are Aloe arborescens but I'll know more if they bloom next year.

Fox Tail Agave Update (4)

Here's the previous update that I didn't publish until recently.

Bloom stalks are now totally dry and brown. I've been putting up with them because I was hoping that bulbils would form that I could propagate.

A few did form at the tip and on the arch of the spike but not nearly as many as I was expecting. I've watched a couple other bloom spikes in the neighborhood over the past couple years and they had hundreds of bulbils crowding the whole length of the stalk. I don't know what I would have done with hundreds of agave attenuatas but I'm sure I would have figured something out.


The mother plants did get a fare number of new offsets growing from the trunk and I thought that these would just grow bigger and bigger until there was a large clump of mature rosettes at the end of the trunk, but when I started to pull off the dried leaves to give the new plants room to grow they started to fall off.


It turns out they aren't firmly attached and there were a few clumps that had already fallen to the ground.


This one had sent roots down and clearly wanted to stay where it was so I left it.


These are the rest that I collected. Each clump has ten to 30 little plants so I guess I got my hundred new fox tails after all.


Here they are potted up. They look a little small compared to the fast growing Agave desmenttiana but I'm sure they'll be bursting out soon. Then I'll need to figure out where to put them.

Potato Towers

The potatoes have been growing like crazy. Before I knew it they were ready for another tier.


I have plenty of tires but not much dirt. Luckily my compost bin is overflowing


Rather than try to dig it out from the bottom I just took the bin off. It looked like moussaka with layers of leaves eggshells, wood shavings and compost at the bottom




I probably should have mixed the compost with some other stuff to make it drain better but the plants seem to be doing ok. Making good potting soil can be tricky and has it's own controversial issues. Perlite and vermiculite, which are used to provide good drainage and make the mix lighter, have to be mined in far away places. Even peat moss which gives potting soil it's light texture and ability to retain moisture is not considered sustainable. Then there's the whole issue of whether it's organic or not.

I like to think that I have all the resources on my property to make good soil but it just takes good management and planning. The litter I've been removing from the chicken coop should be a treasure trove of good nitrogen but can also contain a lot salt, so it needs to be cut with other organic material. Well aged leaf litter can provide the same service as peat moss but can take two years to mature. Every year I'm required to cut the wild grass on the hill at the beginning of fire season in May. I try to just chop it fine and let it lay where it falls as mulch, but I could also gather some of it to compost. I would just need to make sure that the pile reaches a high enough temperature to kill the grass seeds so they don't start growing in the new-made potting soil.

I've already put another tire on and the towers could probably use a couple more. I'm going to need to figure this dirt thing out pretty soon. I'm also hoping to put in other raised bed which will need lots more.

So far the chickens haven't been eating the potato plants. Supposedly chickens don't like the taste of potato leaves which I guess is a good thing since they're poisonous.

Update 4/5/11:
Another Tire

Urban Homestead

There's been a lot of attention being given lately to the topic of urban homesteads on the internet. There is debate about who created the term, who does it and who owns it as an idea. I can't claim to be learned enough to even join that discussion. All I can comment on is my own experience.

The book the Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen has had a big impact on how I live my life. Although my grandfather used to tell stories about what it was like to grow up on a farm, for me they were almost fables. Having grown up in the suburbs the idea of living on a farm seemed like a fantasy, so when I ended up moving into a house with a big yard and lots of potential I was totally unprepared.

I had raised chickens as a kid and one of the things that attracted me to my neighborhood was the roosters crowing throughout the valley. But growing food was something totally new to me. Erik and Kelly's book helped me to get started and opened my eyes to all of the possibilities. They also cautioned my about all the the work I would be creating for myself. They were right on both counts. Luckily I like a project, and the weekends that I spend in the yard always feel well spent, even when I end up scratched and bruised and slightly sunburned.


I've enjoyed discovering what grows well here and how to work with all of the plants and bugs and lizards that are already making the most of my little patch of hill. I also realize that many people have come before me. Whoever lived here before had a picture of what this hill could be. I've written about all of the fruit trees that someone planted here. I'm not a good judge but some of them could be 20 or 30 years old.

My neighbors are also doing a lot with their yards and usually with more success than me. Front yards are filled with vegetable beds and backyards with chicken coops. In the Summer there are rickety pergolas covered with squash vines and right now many yards look like salad bars made up of a variety of winter greens.


For me gardening is a new skill that I'm trying to master, but for many of my neighbors it is the way that they've always lived their lives. To try to argue that urban homsteading is a new idea discounts a whole community of people that have quietly been doing it for generations.


I feel lucky that I ended up here, not just because of the way the sun slants through the house at sunset or the way the breeze cools the house when I throw all of the windows open. I'm lucky because my neighbor Joe is happy to trade a carton of eggs for a bag of loquats, and Fidelia is always trying to get me to take oranges and peaches from her trees. I'm lucky that my rooster's crowing blends into the background chorus. I'm lucky that there is a whole group of people within easy reach that are eager to share what they know and contribute to my success.

This might qualify as urban homesteading but it's not a new idea, or an idea that any one person or family can claim as their own.

More Pruning

Since I had the pruning shears out I thought it might be a good time to tackle the hedge in the front yard. It's evergreen but it seems that winter is still its slowest time. In the spring it puts out a lot of growth then blooms in the summer and develops seeds in the fall.

Although I haven't identified this plant yet I love it for holding up the hill. It is growing vigorously and the trunks seem rock solid. Right after these plants the hill drops off at almost 90 degrees. I guess it's more of a cliff than a hill.

I didn't want to tax the plants but they have grown so much in the past couple years that they are tall and leggy. They are shading everything beneath them and don't screen my yard from the street as well as they used to. I'm hoping that with some aggressive pruning they will growing in fuller and a little lower.

My photos are horrible so it's hard to tell what's what. That's part of the problem for me. The hedge is consuming the magnolia sapling and hiding all of the the other plants growing here.

After the pruning you can see that there's actually a palm tree growing on the cliff as well. I think this is a volunteer from the large tree on the empty lot next door. I haven't seen much of it until now.

You can also see some of the aeoniums that I planted a couple years ago. Since they've been in the dirt that have probably quadrupled in size. They are surging over the little curb and trying to occupy as much space as possible. I'll probably have to do something about them next year, but for now I like how lush they look. In the Summer one of them turns much redder and the whole bed gets a lot more texture. There are also some aloes in there but I may have to move them. They don't seem as competitive as some of the other plants.

It looks a little sparse right now but hopefully it will leaf out soon. I think I might have to coax it along over the Summer with more pruning. Last year it grew long spindly branches with only a few leaves. I would like to encourage it to become more dense and not grow so tall.





I also decided to cut the bloom stalk off of one of the foxtail agaves. I was waiting for it to grow some bulbils, little plantlets that I could propogate, but it never happened. I got sick of looking at the ratty brown thing.

The stump already has some little sprouts coming out, so hopefully it will soon be covered in new little plants. And now I don't have to duck under it to move around the yard.