What do you see from your kitchen window?
Raised beds filled with zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, sunflowers. We have six raised beds 12-feet long and six-feet wide, and the ones closest to the house are filled with flowers. The marigolds are five-feet tall, the zinnias are five- or six-feet tall, the sunflowers are about 10-feet tall. It's a wall of bright colors, gorgeous. I planted 20 packets of seed this year, and all of the flowers are in large clumps. One thing I didn't do in time was stake them in the middle of the beds.
What do you do with the flowers?
I love to have cut flowers in the house, but we have so many I didn't know what to do with them all. My husband suggested taking vases of flowers to the nearby retirement home, so that's what we do.
How did you become a gardener?
My father loves gardening, and now that I'm retired, we are in friendly competition to see who can have the earliest tomatoes, the biggest tomatoes and the best. I had the earliest tomatoes this year.
What varieties do you grow?
I love Beefsteak and Early Girl since they do produce earliest in the season. We also have onions, cucumber, peppers, green beans, cherries, apples, peaches.
How much time do you spend in the garden?
A few hours each day. It's wonderful.
Is it hard to maintain a half-acre garden?
We have hose bibs at all of the beds and soaker hoses. But for new plants, I hand water them until they are growing well, then the soaker hoses take over.
– Pat Rubin
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.