Between the Raindrops: Vernal Pools at Stanford University

Heading into rehearse Carmina Burana at the Bing Performing Arts Center for one of several dress rehearsals the other evening, I heard a chorus of what sounded like a thousand Pacific Chorus Frogs - odd because I couldn't think of any body of water nearby. Jasper the wonderful pooch-from-Taiwan and I returned the next day to scout out the frogs home. Just off Bing, we found glorious vernal pools. As you probably know, vernal pools are temporary. The form from rain runoff when the ground is saturated, as it is by our recent crazy California rain season. Jasper and I didn't find any frogs during the day, but he thoroughly enjoyed the tasty grasses.

Between the Raindrops

Fungus - Stanford Arboreteum

Drought - since 2010

But now the mushrooms arise

Welcome El Niño!

Web Resources
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29386958/el-nino-not-fizzling-more-storms-barreling-toward

How To Invite Fairies to Live in your Garden (Tutorial)

There are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden!

Fairy magic adds enchantment to my gardening life

Wegman's Nursey ( Redwood City)  helped me prepare for fairies

How To Invite Fairies to Live in your Garden

Ice plant and succulents enhance this tea party garden

1)Find a nice pot - I got mine in my Wegman's Fairy Garden Class /Workshop.
 You might get creative here and re-purpose a pot, large bowl, can, or any open vessel you already have. Fairies are not picky. Make sure you have a hole in the bottom, or some kind of drainage.
2) Fill the pot nearly full with potting soil

3) Decide on a story you want to tell in your garden - the sleeping green fairy below had a very warm bike ride to a cool lake. He parked his cycle, walked across the stepping stones over the lake, and is enjoying a  snooze next to some frog friends on a leaf that's big enough to serve all of them as a little island bench in the lake
4) Pick out a few little outdoor or indoor plants to enhance the story. Tiny ground cover  plants might work well. In my Wegman's class, I included Australian violets/Australian bluebell and some Irish moss. I had some spider plants at home that had shot out spider plant babies, so I added several of those as well. 

In other fairy habitats - such as the tea party themed one above - I've been using (flowering) ice plant, thyme and a lot of the succulents I've been repurposing from pots. With these I often use pea gravel to fill in as a natural stream or landscape. Non-miniature plants like geranium/pelargonium and iris stems can stand in for trees.

5) Find a fairy, and some items that she or he might enjoy. I used a

There are Fairies at  the Bottom of My Garden

fairy, a leaf bridge with frogs, and a fairy bicycle. You could also use little toys - like tiny dolls. You don't even have to include a fairy. Just creating the perfect environment , may well encourage a fairy to move in with you. Just because you don't see one, doesn't mean they aren't living there.
 6) Rocks, gravel, broken pottery shards, sand and other textures add greatly to the story. In the Fairy Garden class I went too we had access to crushed blue and green glass (you can buy bags of it) and broken shards from a turquoise pot. Those items made me think lake when I spotted them.

Waiting for fairies Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't living there.

Fairy garden is in-progress - keeping my eyes peeled for additions

If children live in or visit your house, make sure they have access to and maintenance rights over the fairy garden.

My fairy gardens live on my patio. I hand water them when it gets dry. Small garden like these are great during our drought, because they takes very little water. In fact, when we often re-purpose leftover water from other domestic events for watering our pots.

Books

Both these Disney Garden books inspire my theme gardening style, which is so vital for a fairy gardener. I like the tabbed-cookbook style of DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY when I want to quickly review the steps for creating a hanging basket or well illustrated how-tos for small topiaries. (There's lots of good info for larger topiaries and garden sculpting as well - I just haven't tried it out) In addition, there is good gardening (yard or pots) basic techniques as well as many recommendations for plants that work well for specific themes and temperatures. I highly recommend it, because I have used it a lot over a period of several years.

I also turn regularly to my Secrets of Disney's Glorious Gardens book. It has a lot of similar techniques and information as DISNEY'S GARDENING WITH MICKEY and it also has lovely, lovely photos that inspire me. So when I want to sit down and just get ideas for themes or gardening styles, I pour through the photos in this book.
                

Fairy magic is adding enchantment to my life, when it comes to gardening.

~ ~ ~

There are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden

Rain Dancin'

Sure, Drought ain't over.

Still rain dancing does pay off.

California!

Fairy House Building Follows Rain

Drought busting showers.

Sure they bring flowers. Also

A Fairy palace

The Pineapple Express: Aloha!

Comes from Hawaii-

Rain rivers crash on our coast.

Mahalo means thanks!

I created this illustration as a tribute to my buddy Kim on the big island of Hawaii, who sent (hopefully) drought-breaking rain my way. She grows the best white pineapples too!

~ ~ ~

Resources

What is this Pineapple Express and how does it relate to the drought in California? http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25088877/california-drought-desperately-needed-rain-courtesy-pineapple-express

Learning to say more than thank you in Hawaiiin

http://hawaiian-words.com/home/hawaiian-dictionary/

Hiking Edgewood: Clean Skies! (haiku)

Clean view of the bay.

Sure do appreciate it!

Little rain goes far.

~ ~ ~
If you're hiking Edgewood - http://www.friendsofedgewood.org

Drought: Deerweed for New Years (Hiking Edgewood)

Lotus scoparius is commonly known as deer weed
(click on the illustration for more fiery detail)

Hot, dry, New Years Day

Oh! Lotus scoparius 

Keeps Edgewood aflame