Cactus Bloom in June
23 Jun 2011 1 Comment
in Cactus, Flowers, Garden Design, Photography, water wise garden Tags: Cactus Flower, nadia's san diego garden blog, san diego cactus blooms, tricocereus brevispinulosis, water wise garden design
Trichocereus brevispinulosis
♥
I found this blooming outside my kitchen window today.
What a real beauty!
It has a very faint sweet scent and the petals are like silk.
White Cactus Bloom
San Diego Padre Garden Gnome
19 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in dog chihuahua, Garden Design, organic gardening, pets, Photography, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: Chihuahuas, nadia's san diego garden blog, Padre Garden Gnome, San Diego Padre Gnome
I am not a big fan of Garden Gnomes, but when I saw this Padre Gnome advertised as a free give-away at a baseball game a few weeks ago, I knew I had to get to the ball game and snatch one up! I like the little baseball attached to his hand and the baseball diamond stand.
Padre Garden Gnome and Chula
Here he is in my garden and hopefully creating all kinds of good luck out there.
Submit photos of your gnome by emailing them to: sdgnome@mobilebullpen.com
to be viewed in-between innings on the big stadium screen.
www.nadiaknows.com
Read a previous blog about garden gnomes: Here
Encinitas Surfing Madonna- Day Trip
12 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Cactus, euphorbia, Flowers, Garden Design, organic gardening, Photography, Succulents, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: nadia's san diego garden blog, organic gardening, Our Lady of Encintas, San Diego Road Trip, Surfing Madonna, The Lofty Bean Coffee
The perfect day trip in Encinitas for art, organic coffee, water wise landscaping and a California burrito. I suggest you hurry though as the rogue art Surfing Madonna aka: Our Lady of Encinitas may be removed from this location soon.
♥ 
Start out your trip on foot by parking near the Lofty Bean Coffee Bar on Hwy 101 and Encinitas Blvd where organic coffee is their specialty. Pleasant employees and pastries (hey that rhymes) welcome you in this beach side retreat. Sit outside with your cup of joe and enjoy the ocean air and people watch as beach-goers head for the sand. Ask the barista for a bag of used coffee grounds (completely organic) to take home and blend into your garden soil. This is a great way to start composting and bring life to your azaleas and acid loving plants. Check out the positive reviews for The Lofty Bean on Yelp.
Park on Hwy 101 or on side streets
Recycle and Composting used coffee beans
♥ 
Walk only 1/2 a block South to the corner of Hwy 101 and Encinitas Blvd. and cross the street going East another short 1/2 block to check out the Surfing Madonna underneath the train overpass. This mosaic was placed by an un-kown artist in April with the purpose of bringing awareness to “Save the Ocean”. See related links for full story and controversies surrounding this art piece. Surfing Madonna.
Mosaic on Encinitas Blvd and Hwy 101
♥ 
After checking out “Our Lady of Encinitas” head directly West on foot to Moonlight Beach, one of Encinitas’ finest that offers a snack bar, volleyball courts, showers, children’s play area, bathrooms and benches under palm trees. Rent beach chairs, umbrellas and anything else you may need for the day available next to the snack stand. Directly North of the Volleyball courts is a flourishing water wise landscaping in a unique santa fe style home. This is a beautiful example of using cactus, aloes, euphorbia and succulents all blended together in various sizes and shapes. There are different flowers blooming all year-long here and I have enjoyed the beauty of this home for years!
Home has a view of volleyball courts at Moonlight Beach
Years of planting and grooming creates beautiful curb appeal
Blooming Aloe in sand
♥ Head back over to the Lofty Bean Coffee Bar to get your car and drive North of Hwy 101 to about a mile. Take a Left on Marchetta street at the Stop Sign. Try a California Burrito at Juanita’s Taco Shop. Don’t let the decor scare you, locals know this taco shop has a reputation for great tasting burritos after a day of sun and surf. Great tacos and breakfast burritos too.
On the Corner of Hwy 101 and Marchetta Street
Happy Travels! Enjoy.
www.nadiaknows.com
♥ organic gardening and healthy living ♥
Honor and Rememberance
30 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography, Succulents Tags: Honor and Remeberance, Memorial Day, nadia's san diego garden blog
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
~Maya Angelou
DAHLIAS- Garden Eye Candy!
16 May 2011 2 Comments
in Flowers, Garden Design, organic gardening, Photography Tags: Dahlia Flowers, Growing Flowers, nadia's san diego garden blog, San Diego Flower Garden
Adding more flowers to my garden this year next to my tomatoes and around my herb garden has been very rewarding. If you have not tried Dahlias I highly recommend them! There’s still time to plant them before the summer heat sets in and I promise you will love the sturdiness and beauty of this amazing flower.
The photos below are the Sky Angel Purple Dahlia
Simple Care Guide for Growing and Caring for Dahlias:
→ Plant Dahlias in April and May with morning sun exposure and at least 6 hours of sunshine per day.
→ Plant 4-6″ Deep and 18″ apart. Do not water right away. Less water is better until sprouts have appeared. Since these flowers are planted in April and May the natural rainfall should suffice.
→ Use stakes for tall growing Dahlias over 3 feet.
→ I grow these in my vegetable garden since they both require the same type of fertilizer such as 5-10-10.
→ Dahlia bulbs are tubers. The dahlia plant can mature for years without benefit of seed or spores. To sprout the next season, each tuber must have one eye. This makes a great cut flower.
♥ Thanks for visiting my garden today. There is something about flowers in the way that they open up and blossom into incredible beauty that keeps me believing in miracles. 
www.nadiaknows.com
It’s a beautiful day in the garden today
03 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Flowers, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: Edible Flowers, Nasturtium Flowers, organic gardening, Photography, san diego gardening
Nasturtium- Edible Flowers
Happy Easter
24 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Cactus, Flowers, Garden Design, Photography Tags: Happy Easter, nadia san diego garden blog
HAPPY EASTER
‘Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees
Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.
~Henry W. Longfellow
APRIL FLOWERS
10 Apr 2011 3 Comments
in Flowers, Garden Design, Garden Projects, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: Flower Garden San Diego, Flowers for Pets, nadia's san diego garden blog, organic gardening, Southern California Flower Planting
“The Earth Laughs in Flowers.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
♥ Growing a garden is completely rewarding, but when you start to add flowers to the garden then you have paradise! I’ve had the best luck with Renee’s Flower Seeds and Botanical Interests Seeds, here’s a listing of the seeds that seem (for me) the simplest to sow and grow. ♥
Agrostemma-Purple Queen and Pink Contessa
→ For an exotic flower that dries well try NIGELLA: ‘Love in a Mist’ or “White Bridal Veil”
→ For a container of great color and beauty try: DAHLIA: ‘watercolors’ -
→ For a surprising old-fashioned amazing scent : CARNATIONS
Flowers can be started indoors and transplanted into the garden
→ This is the ‘garden fun’ summer flower : SUNFLOWER
Sunflowers growing in the vegetable garden
→ For keeping the pests away and adding color: MARIGOLD
Marigold planted near lettuce - an organic way to keep pests away
→ For feeding pet lizards and landscaping a large area with color: NASTURTIUM
→ A few more great flowers to plant: Forget Me Not, African Daisy, Zinnia, Passion Vine, and Lavendar.
Lavender- A 'year-round' plant in the garden
HAPPY PLANTING!
A Lucky St. Patty’s Day to you…
17 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in dog chihuahua, Flowers, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: garden and shamrocks, nadia's san diego garden blog, St. Patrick's Day garden luck
*(a repost of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day blog and a little more)
♣ Happy St. Patrick’s Day ♣
Shamrocks are considered to be a good luck symbol; representing faith, hope and love. The age-old saying: “The Luck of the Irish” with its magical mysticism just might rub off in our gardens today.
Chula sporting a St. Patrick's Day necklace
The word Shamrock comes from an Irish word meaning little clover and is said to have gotten its symbolic meaning in Ireland in about the fifth century. St. Patrick used the abundantly growing green shamrock to teach Christianity by using a natural method to show the concept of the holy trinity. Each leaf representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Shamrock door decoration- hand made (thank you for the gift sis!)
The shamrock was a sacred plant in Ireland even before St. Patrick with the Irish Druids because the leaves in a cluster of three formed a triad. Currently the shamrock is still used as a good luck symbol and popular with Irish brides as the clovers are intertwined in bridal bouquets.
Weed or Shamrock? Growing in one of my patio containers.
Botanically speaking:
“The true Irish Shamrock, as identified by Nathaniel Colgan c. 1893 is a clover. It is not one of any or many clovers, it is one species, collected from a majority of counties at that time and with the exception of a very few plants, the majority wereTrifolium repens or a form of this plant – White clover also known as Dutch Clover”. …’From Ireland’ © Jane Lyons, Dublin, Ireland
Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com
Xeriscape Inspirations
28 Feb 2011 1 Comment
in Cactus, euphorbia, Garden Design, Photography, Succulents, water wise garden Tags: Cactus Garden, nadia's san diego garden blog, Succulents, Water wise landscaping, xeriscape landscape design
Here are several xeriscape designs that have inspired me. These photos say it all… simple, clean and water wise!
saguaro cactus in arizona
antique wagon wheel next to a protea just about to bloom
flagstone pavers, smooth round pebbles and ahhh... relaxing chairs
aloe and euphorbia with a rock river
Front yard xeriscape
multi-layered rock tones add depth to this garden
