Pedrick's Progress

Here are a few photos of the nursery as it progressed through the year. This first one is from April 2008. The flowers are an ivy geranium. A family member had purchased one and her response to my statement that I didn't like them, was to stuff a piece of it into the soil of my blueberry. It grew. I chopped it back and planted the cuttings on a whim instead of tossing them down the hillside. Now they are helping to raise funds to purchase the rooting trays for the true direction of the nursery. Internet sales of rooted cuttings.

This one is from May 2008. The nursery is a bit bigger. You can see my Cosmos in bloom. They were supposed to keep the gophers away and I was going to sow the seed from these all over the hillside. The gophers can't get into my plants because they are all in pots. But the soil is moist where my plants are and easier for them to dig in. So they do! And tip over plants in the pots. My friend who owns the land planted them in the ground. The gophers promptly ate them.

Here we are in July! Can't see any fuchsia's? Ha, ha! All of this is to raise money to purchase supplies while the fuchsia stock grows big enough to be able to cut and propigate on a regular basis without desimating the plant. To purchase potting soil, 15 gallon pots for the stock plants, fertilizer, and eventually, those rooting trays I mentioned. Each tray has 98 cones and are made of hard plastic. The cuttings will form nice little cone shaped root systems, perfect for shipping without pots.

The hope is to not have to grow and sell anything in pots. Pots full of dirt and plants are heavy!! It ain't easy lugging one gallon plants 6 at a time, up a hill to take to the market. And them putting back the ones that don't sell..... This is supposed to be a small business I can still manage to do when I am older, ha, ha!

To date, I have 45 varieties of fuchsia's. I hope to increase that.

Soon I will have photos of the plant that I really want to collect, grow, and propigate. Even if you search the internet for them, you will not see very many varieties because few people know about them and so few collect them. Yet!!

Want to know what it is???

Small Victory

What? Two posts in one day!?

I almost forgot to download a photo I just took yesterday of an orchid I have been working on getting to bloom for four months. It belongs to a client and had not been taken care of properly.

We had been waiting anxiously for the buds to open and then, when I got to work yesterday, there it was!!!

Isn't God amazing!? What a stunning flower He put on this little orchid!

And He gave my client a most wonderful Christmas gift.

Merry Christmas! Winter in Pedrick's Corner

January 2008

For perspective, look for the 2nd black pipe running down the slope.
November 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is a short one, with a recent of photo of the nursery. Not much, I know, but it is a beginning. The first one is from before I started to move everything to it's new location. Would you believe most of my fuchsia's are still in bloom? Yes, they are, despite the freezing weather

And speaking of freezing weather, everyone who enjoyed my bumper crop of cherries last year can look forward to another one because cherries actually must have some time freezing in the winter in order to produce well.

Now I have to get back to making homemade tamales to give as Christmas presents!

Long Term Goals

Some globe trotting friends of mine have reminded me of one of my long term goals. And that is to have the time to paint again! That is one reason why I am trying to start my own little business. I am not out to make allot of money. I just want to have flexible hours to work, a little piece of land for my nursery to call my own, and the time to paint.

Preferably paintings of other cultures around the world. So I am depending on my world traveling friends out there to provide me with material! And you all know who you are. Pick out some cool ones for me!

This painting is from a magazine, so I can't ever sell it. It is from back before terrorists when the Afghanistans were fighting the Russian tanks with WWI rifles on horseback. This man was a tribal leader and to me this photo was the epitome of calm under pressure. Looking at him, you'd never know what he and his family and friends were going through.

The photo is pre-digital, so I apologize for quality of it. I had to scan the photo.

Adventures After 50

Some of you know what a varied resume I have, ha, ha! I have had some adventures for sure! Once I even chopped wire for a fake Christmas Tree factory in Denver, Colorado. That is all I did for hour after hour, cut wire!

My current adventure is working in a large warehouse. I took the job because they promised to teach me how to use their cool robotlike forklift!! Here is a photo of me at the top of one of the huge ladders I have to go up and down, over and over and over again all day long.

Who needs a "StairMaster" or a membership in a spa when one can work in a warehouse getting down boxes bigger than yourself?

This ladder is heavy, trust me! And I have to drag it around, up and down the aisles. The bottom doesn't stay up when it is being moved, so you have to hold the lever down with one foot and then skate with the other.

I always did want to learn how to skateboard! Ha, ha!

And it is FREEZING in there this time of year, so I am bundled up so well I look twice my size.

I had a talk with the guy who gets to drive the cool forklift the other day, and he has promised to get me started on that. We will see.....

I keep telling myself that this is all just material for my future book.

Even in December

I can't believe it! But I currently have three orders, maybe four. One I get to ship tomorrow morning. Fortunately, a large portion of these United States can and does, continue gardening even in December.

Here is a sample photo of what I will be shipping tomorrow. They are a type of bromeliad. Did you know pineapples are bromeliads? Yes they are. And if you know how, you can use that knob at the top to grow one of your own.

After bromeliads bloom, they put out side shoots. The shoots from my Queen's Tears are selling pretty good right now. Which is good, because I have allot of them :)

They are supper easy to grow indoors or outdoors.

Stoked!

Tomorrow I will be shipping one of my biggest orders yet from my little budding nursery out in Corralitos! I grow a beautiful plant which is a little hard to find called a Brazilian Plume Flower. Or Justicia carnea 'Huntington.' In our area, it blooms almost all year round.

Here is a photo of my original stock plant in January of 2007. Yes, January!

I found this when it was just a little scale covered twig in a six in pot on a table in the back of an old nursery up in Santa Rosa that was going out of business. The leaves were burnt and it was barely recognizable, but I knew what it was and I had been looking for one of them for many years.

Now 15 rooted cuttings are off to Arizona!

Learning Curve

Yes, it has been a while since I've worked on this! I just learned to add a new gadget that will let me list my favorite websites.
Listing the first two involves alterior motives! Daves Garden is where I list the products currently available from "Pedrick's Corner." The Cross Stitchers Club is one I just joined so I could get free patterns to use on the measuring charts I am making for friends and family.
To get the free patterns, I have to earn points. Like the pattern I just downloaded for 10 points. And I earned the 10 points just by adding them to my favorites on my web browser. Now that I have added them to my blog, I will get another 30-50 points, I forget how much.
And I will get even more points if anyone I know joins....... But only if you love to cross stitch as much as I do!! Or you see a pattern you think I should embroider for you!

My First Camera

I won a camera when I was eight, by telling a riddle on the Mayor Art Show. It was on channel 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area, before cable! My dad and my brother were so excited that I had been invited to be on the show, that they primed me for weeks ahead of time with riddles to tell Mayor Art. If he didn't know the answer, then you got the prize of the day.

I was so stunned when he picked me out of the audience, that all I could think of was, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" A riddle I knew he knew and everyone knew!! So I was even more shocked when he pretended not to know the answer and I won the camera!

That was 1965 and I have been taking photos ever since. This is one of my favorites. My family had come to visit me where I was a live in nanny for three smalll children in Fremont, CA. At the same time, I was a full time college student with a Biochemistry major.

Honesty Is Best

Just a disclaimer here, ha, ha. Those of you who know me probably suspect that the photo I have posted of myself must be from long ago..... Well, not THAT long ago, just 22 years.... I don't look quite the same anymore. My hair is a bit greyer, and I'd love to be that thin again. I am working on it.
When I get a recent photo I consider not to be that bad, I will post it, I promise.
Meanwhile, I think I will add one of my most favorite family portraits.

Nothing Much

I have been wanting to start a blog ever since I first heard of them. I don't have much time today to say much. Hopefully I will soon and all of friends and family can check up on me anytime they like.