For my birthday last fall, Dakota gave me this nice olive tree. We finally planted it in the backyard last month. Originally, I was thinking I'd put it in the front yard in front of our bedroom window, but Dakota pointed out that the fruit might attract (loudly chirping) birds. Instead, it's on the slope just below the cactus planters and above the Pink Lady Apple and the peach tree.

I pruned it back pretty well when we planted it and tried to water it deeply. We're having a pretty dry rainy season, so I think I'll need to do some more deep watering soon to help it get established. Or, La Nina could get it together and send us some rain!

The tree is an olive variety called Arbequina, which is supposed to be good for both oil and eating. It's also self-fertile and fairly hardy, which makes it a good tree for a home orchard. Originally from Spain, the Arbequina apparently does well in Southern California.

From what I gather online, it might take a few years to get an olive harvest, although the tree had fruit on it when Dakota gave it to me. How fun would it be to press our own olive oil? I wonder how one does that. I guess I'll have to do a little research. Either way, I really love the look olive trees with their silvery-green leaves. So, if we get fruit I'll consider that a bonus.

Last Spring, a friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook of her daughter picking and eating blueberries in her backyard. I immediately got really excited. It had never occurred to me that I could grow blueberries in Los Angeles, but my friend lives in Glendale, so, obviously, I can.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband, son and I headed off to the San Gabriel Nursery. San Gabriel Nursery is sprawling and has a huge selection of plants, including lots of fruit trees and bushes. I'd done a little research beforehand, and found that you need two blueberry bushes to get fruit. Happily, they had three different southern highbush varieties, which are the blueberries best suited to our area. I picked out one Misty Blueberry and one Jubilee Blueberry.

Here they are potted up in some "half-barrel" planters in the back yard. I planted them in soil specially made for potting azaleas, because blueberries like their soil highly acidic. You can get azalea potting soil at most nurseries. I've had them out for a few weeks now, and they seem pretty happy. One bush has even put out some new leaves.

After we found the blueberry bushes, I couldn't resist doing a little browsing. It's hard when there are so many plants to look at. I noticed some good-looking and inexpensive strawberry plants. I always like growing fresh strawberries, so I grabbed a couple of those.

And then, I noticed something kind of cool sitting next to the strawberries and artichokes in what must have been the perennial fruit and vegetable section: rhubarb. Dakota's parents grow rhubarb in their garden in Iowa, but it never occurred to me to grow it here in Los Angeles. I'm a pretty big fan of perennials you can eat, especially now that my gardening time is pretty limited. So, I decided to go for it.

After getting home and doing a little research online, I have found a mix of opinions about whether it's really possible to grow tasty rhubarb in Southern California. The plants like to get cold, although the variety I got--Cherry Red--is supposed to be the best for this part of the world. So, we'll see.

I planted the rhubarb next to the artichokes on the edge of the upper garden bed. That should keep it away from the hot midday sun once summer rolls around. Hopefully it will be happy there.

Once I planted everything, I realized that I have inadvertently created a pie garden. If all goes well, I could bake an awesome strawberry-blueberry-rhubarb pie from my own backyard. (To be honest, Dakota would bake that pie. He's the pie guy in our house.) Plus, I already have a peach tree and two apple trees. Imagine the pie possibilities! Because I am a huge gardening nerd, the idea of a pie garden is really exciting. I hope it works out.

Dakota got me this very cool book for Christmas called Home Made. It's got gorgeous pictures, and, most importantly, simple easy-to-follow recipes for making jams, biscuits, cheese and other basic but delicious fresh foods. In fact, the instructions for cheese-making seemed so simple that I decided to try making some for our New Year's Day party.

I made a soft, cow's milk cheese good for spreading called Labneh. The recipe is crazy easy, but I won't write it out here because I don't want to steal from the author of Home Made. I'm guessing you can find directions online pretty easily, although the book is worth purchasing. Basically, it involves yogurt, salt and garlic.

You put all that stuff in a clean dishcloth. And here's a tip: Use a dish cloth, not cheese cloth. Cheese cloth is too porous for this particular method. Then, you hang your bundle-o-yogurt over a big pot or bucket and walk away. I left mine hanging--which strains out the water--for about 24 hours.

Finally, you open up the dishcloth and put your cheese on a platter. Add fresh herbs and you're done.

I thought the cheese was very tasty, and I got many compliments from my party guests. In fact, they ate it all, so I know it must have been good. Home Made has a few other cheese recipes that I'm hoping to try, including a sweet breakfast cheese with vanilla bean. Yum.

So, it turns out soft cheese making is one of those awesome things that seems really fancy and time-consuming, but are actually easy-peasy. I love those things.

Dakota has been working on the bathroom floor for the last several weeks, and it's almost done. Pouring a cement floor is not an easy process, and there were some ups and downs, but I think it's going to end up looking great.

Here's the radiant floor heating that was laid down on top of the subfloor and covered with the first layer of cement. It has a thermostat with a timer attached, so, once it's all hooked up, we'll be able to set the timer for just before bath time or when we wake up in the morning, and then walk into an already-toasty room. This will be a nice change from our old, drafty, freezing one.

Dakota made the first cement layer fairly thick and added some pea gravel to make each bag of cement go a little farther (cement is expensive). Because he was mixing using a drill and a special mixing attachment, it was a bit difficult to get the consistency just right.

For a moment there, he thought he'd added too much water and that the first layer would never dry--especially since it was also cold and rainy outside. If cement doesn't set properly, the only solution is to break it up and start again. This was a scary thought considering we had a fairly expensive heating element hiding underneath that cement. Happily, it eventually dried.

Notice the toilet in the bathtub in the photo above. That was a little tricky since we only have one bathroom. Happily, we have some friends who live close by and, well, I don't mind peeing in the bushes in a pinch.

Next came two more thin layers. For the last layer, Dakota rented a better, stronger drill to mix the cement. This helped the consistency immensely, and I know if he did it again he'd have gotten the right mixing tools from the start.

Here's the last layer going down.

Now, the floor is dry and cured, and Dakota will do a little patching and add a seal and then it's done. There are already a few cracks and water spots on the floor, but we like it that way. It adds a nice patina to the surface. Perfect is boring.

This weekend, Dakota will hang the rest of the drywall and then start work on the cabinets. The floor was the most difficult part of the remodel--well, besides tile, which we're hiring professionals to do--so hopefully the rest of the work will go fairly quickly. I can't wait for the cabinets. Right now, all our bath products and cleaners are in boxes in the bedroom. It's a bit cramped.

Well, things are moving along slowly in the winter garden this year. But I do seem to have one bed that could provide a decent harvest. This is the uppermost bed, which I planted first--but still late--in October. So far, the turnips and collards look the most promising. The chard is a little small, but it could rally. I always seem to do well with chard.

The beets, unfortunately, are taking their time.
These guys are barely out of the seedling stage, and it's almost January. I added some compost to try to encourage them. We'll see what happens. I remember having beet issues last year, as well, Perhaps they don't like my soil. Hmmmm...

The lower bed is looking pretty pitiful, although I might get some peas out of it when all is said and done. Next winter, I pledge to plant early and tend carefully. Hopefully I'll have the time to make that happen.

The other day, I was talking with my mom and sister about adventure playgrounds. Specifically, the playgrounds full of scaffolding, piles of wood, old tires and rusty tools that were popular in England in the 1960s through 80s. (If you've ever seen the awesome documentary series 7 Up, they use the kids playing at an adventure playground as a framing device.) My mom, sister and I were laughing about how those playgrounds were weirdly dangerous but also extremely fun. I never really played at one, but apparently my sister really loved to use the saw at the adventure playground she went to when we briefly lived in London as children.

These days, most playgrounds are super-safe and rusty-tool-free, which is good, I guess. But I also think kids need to be able to scramble around and fall down and have "adventures" when they can. Happily, I think our backyard is turning out to be a private adventure playground for my son--and possibly his more rough-and-tumble friends.

As my son gets older, he's starting to really love backyard playtime. In fact, today he ran right to the back door as soon as I suggested it. And why wouldn't he love it? There are rocks and pebbles to collect, stairs to climb, sticks to swing, buckets of dirt to dig in, plants to smell and hills to scramble up (and occasionally fall down). And, of course, chickens!

Yesterday, my son made his way around the yard while I tried to clear our some weeds so I can plant the awesome wildflower seeds my sister gave me for Christmas. It was really fun to watch him explore, and when he's just a little bit older we'll be able to spend even more time out there digging, playing and learning. I can't wait.

Back in October, we had to have another one of our big pine trees cut down. It was leaning down the hill in a pretty dangerous manner, and we decided we'd better remove it before it tumbled down the hill and caused a major traffic accident. (Thank goodness we did before that crazy windstorm at the end of November!) Here's the view before we took out the precariously leaning tree on the right.

And here's the view after. It's kind of nice to see more of the hillside across the way, but the yard feels pretty exposed now. We spend so much time back there, and I'd prefer a little more privacy--and shade.

To fill the hole, we decided to get a native California tree. This provided a perfect opportunity to visit the Theodore Payne Foundation. Do you know that I have never been there? I know, it's crazy. Theodore Payne is basically my dream nursery, and it's only 20 minutes or so away from my house. I have been meaning to visit for ages, but just never got around to it. So, I was pretty excited to go last month.

The nursery had a lot of great-looking native trees: oaks, pines, maples and sycamores. We went for a California Sycamore, because Dakota wanted a deciduous tree and we love the pretty white trunks and big, broad leaves. Our friends have a huge one in the back yard of their new house, and I am hopeful that this little guy will look that great someday.

While we were there, I couldn't resist purchasing a few native plants to plant in the backyard. I went for a variety of flowering bushes that are supposed to attract lots of butterflies and birds. I planted three along the side of the stairs. On the left side I put an Otay Mountain Lotus and a Red Fairy Duster.

And on the right, a Royal Penstemon. It likes well-drained, rocky soil and will produce showy purple flowers.

I planted this Rocky Point Pitcher Sage near the California Sycamore. It's supposed to produce large white flowers with a "lavender blush."

My hope is that the bushes and Sycamore will get established during the winter rainy season and really take off once Spring arrives. I can't wait to see all their flowers.