Drought tolerance

These flowers were planted just two years ago. This one is my favorite, the Matilija poppy.

Lavender...

And this one's called lion's tail. I love it, but it only bloomed like this for about two weeks in June.

All of these plants are drought tolerant, and we didn't need to water them all winter.

What are some of your favorite drought tolerant plants?

Happy Mother's Day

These photos are from my favorite plant, the Matilija Poppy. It grows like a weed, and hardly needs any water, just a lot of sun. Perfect for southern California.

I would never have been able to grow this beautiful plant and all the plants in our gorgeous front yard, without the help, advice, and inspiration of my mom, who is a gardening goddess. Before I dove into the project of landscaping our front yard with native and drought-tolerant choices, I was known to kill plants. Well, not exactly kill them, since it wasn't intentional. More like neglect them, and let them die. But now it's been worth all the work and added a bright spot to our lives, especially every time I come home to our cute little house.

Thanks, mom. And Happy Mother's Day. I love you very much.

And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who read my blog.

My Parsley Problem, solved

What I used to refer to as "my parsley problem" was the fact that I wasted so much of it. It's a staple in our house, I use it for a few of our favorite meals, and so I'd buy it at the market almost every week. And every week, I'd toss out at least half of it, or the whole thing if we hadn't had clams linguini or salmon patties. It usually lasted a couple of weeks, but it was never used up. I know some people have this same problem with cilantro or other fresh herbs. You want to have it on hand, but at the same time you never use the entire bunch.

This was the easy solution. I bought a parsley plant for about a dollar, planted it with whatever potting soil I had, and made sure I watered it a couple of times a week. Now every time we have clams linguini, I just go outside and clip off what we need. No waste, ever.

It's a small thing, but you know my philosophy: baby steps. It's easy to change a habit by incremental degrees.

Maybe I should be posting this the next time we have zero food waste, but I felt like mixing things up a bit! Do you have any examples of a problem you'd accepted for years, that you were able to change with one small action? Something that saved energy or food or time or money? Tell us about it in the Comments section.

Buy Nothing New mid-year report

Yesterday I realized that I'm exactly halfway through my year of following The Compact. As I looked at a couple of my first posts, I couldn't believe how differently things have gone from what I expected when I embarked upon this journey. The woman who set off on a panicked shopping spree for the perfect pair of jeans hardly seems like the same person. But then again, I believe all of us embody contradictions and try on many different selves in one lifetime, and sometimes in one day. Time to cue up the song "I'm Every Woman."

It's true a girl's gotta have her jeans. But mainly I notice that I was sort of digging in for the deprivation, and looking forward to a challenge. I was definitely more focused on what I'd be giving up than on what I'd be gaining from my experience. And that's been my favorite discovery so far: that I've gained so much that I never even knew I wanted.

So here's a partial list of things I've done/what's changed in my first six months:

I've not been to a mall. Don't get me wrong: I was a big catalog shopper, so I probably only went to a mall 3 or 4 times a year, but I haven't been even once in the last six months. I DO NOT miss that.

I've started line-drying the laundry. This is much easier than I thought it would be, and it makes me feel good about our energy usage. As a bonus, my husband bought a new energy efficient washer and dryer so when we DO use the dryer, I don't have to feel terrible about how much energy we're wasting.

I've started making my own granola. It's easy, delicious, and smells heavenly while it's baking. I used to spend $7.50 every few weeks for my favorite brand. I now like my own brand better. Perhaps I should market it?

Also started making my own mayo. I never would have believed this would happen. Again, it's so easy, tastes better, and most importantly, is much healthier than whatever they put in the commercial stuff.

We've started receiving a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) delivery. I didn't even know what that was back in January, and I've never been good about getting to a Farmer's Market. It feels great to know we're eating healthier food and supporting the local farmers. The food tastes delicious and I'm becoming a better cook. And my husband is eating more fruit and vegetables.

We're receiving fewer catalogs. I had become a big catalog junkie, so not only were we getting a lot of catalogs, I spent a lot of time looking through them, wanting the items I saw, ordering from them, setting them aside to order from later, and returning half of what I'd ordered. I'm probably saving a couple of hours every week just from giving up the catalog habit.

I've been making handmade cards. I love to make them from color copies of old photos. My dad made a point of telling me how much he loved his Father's Day card and how much better it was than a store-bought card.

I've decluttered a few closets and rooms of the house. This one is definitely a work-in-progress, but the best part is that I'm on the lookout that nothing coming in turn into next year's clutter. I'm not buying anything new, but any gifts or anything that comes into the house must go through a screening process so that it doesn't get stuck in a box or a closet, to be gone through in another few years. My biggest decluttering success so far is when I sold my girlhood saddle for $200(!).

I've started an herb garden, and planted two tomato plants and a lemon tree. It's so much fun to have our own herbs (the garden was given to me as a gift), and to look forward to tomatoes and lemons in the future.

I've started paying attention to our food waste. We're throwing away much less food, which is good for the environment and saves money to boot.

I've had an article published in The Simple Living Network newsletter, and another one coming out this month. Writing is one of my passions so this has been a fabulous bonus.

I've found a network of like-minded people for inspiration and support from the Compact yahoo group and simple living blogs. This is probably my favorite unintended consequence of joining The Compact. I thought it would be fun to track my progress by writing a blog, but I never knew how fun it would be to share ideas with so many people. It's the perfect home for an information junkie/conversationalist/type A person like myself.

Those are just a few of the things that have changed, and I've been very lucky to have such a supportive husband. Over the next six months, I'm going to start composting, give up commercial cleansers, and hopefully do a lot more decluttering. But I'm looking forward to the things I'm NOT planning or expecting most of all.

Of course, I have had a few slip-ups (all confessed to on this blog!), and we're still using too many paper towels, and my showers are still way too long. But I'm sticking with my baby steps motto, because so far it's been working pretty well.

What about you? Are you on a simple living journey? Please share your wins, setbacks, questions and unexpected bonuses in the Comments section.

Lemon tree, very pretty

I hope the title of the post put the tune in your head... We planted a lemon tree last weekend! I am so excited!

We've been wanting to plant one ever since we bought this house 6 years ago, but there are always house projects (it was a fixer-upper) and this one was on the back burner. But I've been dipping my toe into some simple landscaping the past two years, and this spring I thought "Why not put in a lemon tree?"

I thought I'd have to do a tutorial about planting a tree, but the guy at the nursery told me everything I needed to know. It was easy, especially since I had help with the digging. And it has tiny green fruit and little flowers on it already. We'll have our own lemons soon.

Before we bought our house, we lived in an apartment with two old lemon trees. They gave so much fruit I always had plenty of lemons for cooking, and also made lemonade, lemon cookies and cakes, and gave lemons away. We were spoiled. When we moved here I couldn't bring myself to pay for lemons, so I never get more than one at a time just for cooking. We do have friends and neighbors with lemon trees, so we often get lemons from them.

But now we have our own! This one is a dwarf Eureka tree. I know most people seem to like Meyer, but I love Eureka. And since it's a dwarf tree, it will need less water and give fruit sooner. I can't wait for that lemonade!

This feels like a small victory for me. It's a far cry from raised vegetable beds, but with my herb garden and our lemon tree, I'm taking my baby steps approach toward growing some of our own stuff. What will be next?

Please tell me about your gardening triumphs and challenges in the Comments section.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! Enjoy your special day. These photos are from my favorite plant, the Matilija Poppy. It grows like a weed, and hardly needs any water, just a lot of sun. Perfect for southern California. Wishing everyone a sunny day.

My herb garden

I received this herb garden as a birthday gift from a friend. Isn't it beautiful? I am SO excited! Now I'll have fresh basil, thyme, and marjoram to use all summer. That's Walter the Owl in the background.

My friend laughed a little when I exclaimed "Did you make this?" I think she meant that it was so easy, anyone could do it. But not me! I'm the opposite of a green thumb- what would that be called? On the color wheel, if yellow and blue make green, I think red is opposite of green. So call me a red thumb.

Anyway, I'm not a gardener but I was thinking about trying to at least grow a few herbs this year. It's so expensive to buy them, and I have actually had some success with basil plants in the past.

So I'm going to take good care of my beautiful garden in that gorgeous blue bowl. Do you have any tips for me, regarding care and feeding? It's going to be getting almost full sun, and my friend said that would be okay. Also, is there any trick to "harvesting"? As far as how often, where on the plant, and should I pinch with fingers or cut with a scissors?

Also, I use thyme and basil all the time, but do you know any good recipes that use marjoram? Please share your tips and advice in the comments section.