Daphne 101

Hi everyone! I'm new to this and never thought I would be a blogger but life continues to be full of surprises. It is important to prepare the soil before sowing the seeds and harvesting the bounty so I'll follow that example in this blog by sharing a bit of my background, goals and upcomming topics. Hopefully we can all use this platform to learn, share ideas and reach success together.

I was raised in a rural area on the outskirts of Sacramento County. We had acreage, a fort with a seasonal pond full of all types of interesting creatures and wildlife. The pond and fort were at the very back of the property so my older sister and younger brother and I could live out our wild imaginations and make crazy recipes such as alfalfa pellet cakes and proceed with our harebrained ideas without much interference from our parents. I remember spending countless hours digging up soft grasses that grew naturally on one side of the field and carefully transplanting the tufts along the banks of the pond. We were trying to create a picnic area on the waters edge - needless to say, it didn't take. Green pastures surrounded my life and they were brimming with interesting native plants such as ground cherries and Western chamomile. Pigs, cows, horses, chickens, ducks, goats and dogs with their own unique personalities and egos meandered around the fields and yard.

Long after my sister and brother had tired of the fields I would continue to sit in them, and observe. I would literally stare at the ground and leaves and pull seed pods apart to inspect them. I would look at the way the plants were constructed and sway in the same way that they did as the breeze moved through their stems and leaves. I tasted everything. I clearly remember running into the house and telling my mom how terrible a particular weed tasted and then ask if it was poisonous. My poor mom would always say, "These are questions you should ask BEFORE you eat something strange!" I ate things straight out of the garden too. I gobbled down at least two handfuls of corriander seeds in one sitting. No wonder I now have a stomach made of steal.

My mom loved her garden and working out in the yard. This must have been passed down to me in my DNA. She would spend hours either tending the garden or planting something new. She is the queen of transplanting. One day a shrub would be on this side of the yard and the next it was on the other. I always had an interest in what she was doing out there and I probably annoyed her to no end with my endless questions about plants and soil and worms and bugs. What's good, what's bad, what's happy, what's dying, who's moving where, what are you getting next, what's the name of that, how can you tell, and why on earth are you doing that? These were just some of the questions, I'm sure.

I continued to have these questions and as a young adult I decided that I wanted to become a landscape architect. I studied plant identification and I still have binders and binders with thousands of actual clippings from plants that I carefully and painstakingly pressed and preserved along with notes on their behavior, needs, dislikes and pests. I took soil chemistry classes and irrigation classes, propagation classes and nurserymen classes. Then I hated it. I was just "planted" out and I couldn't bear the thought of doing this for the rest of my life. I would think, "What happened to my passion?!" These plants are just not special anymore or at least they weren't treated that way in class or by me anymore. It was all about keeping things alive and finding things that didn't need much attention. Everything that I found enchanting about these living things was stripped and I was commingling with people that just didn't get it. I had to get into something else school-wise so I did and that's a whole other story that has nothing to do with this blog so I'll just leave it out.

My days of not caring about plants were numbered and I've cared very much for a few years now. I missed the act of growing and nurturing plants and this just had to be the year that I made room for them in my life once again. Luckily I have and I'm thrilled to share my passion, triumphs and moments of despair with you. I'd love to hear yours as well!!

However, I've also thrown in a few curve balls- well, maybe two. Besides my garden I'm also making time to dive head first into something that I've always found fascinating, beekeeping. I currently have one colony - I've had them for about two weeks. I'll share more information about this another time. OK so here is the kicker, I live in a metropolitan area in an awesome studio apartment - but yes, it's a studio and I'm on the fifth floor. I'm sure that you can see my challenges so if I can make this work, I know you can! I'm going to share my seedling stories in my next post but I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in seedlings soon. As I type this I have 61 heirloom tomato seedlings, 18 various squash seedlings and one eggplant seedling.

My goals for this blog are to:
1) document my experience as a learning tool for my future use and yours;
2) provide a safe environment for sharing ideas and tips for the home gardener and beekeeper; and
3) I'm a foodie so I'll love to share recipes that I either come across or create with my homegrown vegetables.

Upcoming topics/posts:
My plans for the garden: what I've done and where it's going
Beekeeping - why, what, when, where and how!
Organic gardening: tips, tricks and worries

I hope this introduction expresses my passions and lets you know where I'm coming from. I know enough to get me into trouble but by no means am I an expert and I certainly hope that I never come across that way. If I'm doing something stupid, please let me know (gently if possible).

P.S. The name, "Calling Demeter" is to pay homage to my love of the ancient Greek culture and of course, I'll need all the help from Demeter (the goddess of the bountiful harvest) that I can get. : )

Happy planting!

Daphne