Garden Planting

So. The chickens now have a little yard. I bought this fencing at our local Home Depot. I am not sure I like it. It doesn't close easily. It is difficult to align with the connectors on each side. Also, Rylan cannot get it closed and so I can't really send him out there to feed the chickens. That's not going to work, for sure. Quite obviously, I am going to have to do something different. Bummer. On the bright side, the chickens love it! They love it so much, that they have started flying over it to get out. So, I did go purchase some netting to put over it, not realizing that doves are flying down to get the bird seed that isn't eaten. The birds are now getting caught in the netting several times a day, which is then driving the dogs insane. All of them. Which is driving me insane!!! And having to go out and get the birds out of the netting all day, is completely too much. So, something will have to be done! (I have an idea of what, but I don't want to have to do it.)



I have been saving this topiary form in the garden shed for almost 9 years. I had 2 of them in our previous home, covered in creeping fig in our front yard by the front door. One day, after we had moved, the new owner, who were friends of ours, had them pulled out and was throwing them away. These things are hard to find, and since she is not a gardener of any sort, she just plain didn't want them. So, I snagged them from her. YAY for me. I really don't know where the other one went... This one looks nice right her in front of the little chicken coop. Love it! Can't wait for the creeping fig to grow in.

My great grandma lived in a little trailer near my grandma's house. Along the side of her trailer she had a lot of mint planted, and every time we would go and visit her, I would pick some and chew on it. Funny the things you remember. So, this spot is perfect for some mint filling in the space. If I can keep the dogs off of it. Hence, the little fence.

We also planted in a couple of new plum trees, into the same hole. Everything I have read about plum trees says that the Santa Rosa Plum is self fruiting, but that it bears more fruit if there is another variety nearby. So, since I have seen this to be the case with the previous plum tree & I had until LAST summer... We now have 2 new little trees, emphasis on the little.

Saturday was a full day. My son and I planted 6 new vines in the garden to cut on the reflective heat that the block fencing adds to the already stifling temperatures in the summer. We put in 4 cat's claw vines to cover the back wall and 2 trumpet creeper vines, the Madam Galen variety, which is supposed to have beautiful flowers all summer, and is quite a vigorous vine. I was discussing this with the gardener up at Harper's Nursery. All of the online information I have read about this vine indicates that it's roots are a giant nuisance, sending out shoots everywhere and that it's almost impossible to remove. The gardener at the nursery was saying that that may be true in moist climates, but here in Arizona, with our very dry conditions, and clay soil, the root systems just do not act in that way. They then showed me a mature plant of it that they have at the back of their nursery, which climbs up a telephone pole every year. He told me that every other year or so, the city comes out and has them cut the vine down to the ground, and it climbs back up with no problem whatsoever. This is the kind of vine I need on the fence surrounding the garden. I had cat's claw until last summer, when the watering system broke and I lost everything. Even the cat's claw died, which is rumored to never die, no matter what. I know it doesn't look like much here in the picture, but it is dormant in the winter, meaning it loses all it's leaves, and looks dead, even though it's not.

The asparagus are a little behind this year. This picture is a little blurry, but this is the first little shoot. YAY! It looks like I need to add some soil to cover the crowns a little better.

The lettuces are doing ok. Hopefully it won't get too warm. I may need to move these over by the fountain area, where is a little cooler. We shall see.

My daughter begged for this little garden gnome a couple of years ago. At the time, I thought he was kind of ugly, but as his paint has faded, his attraction for me has grown! :) I do think he is quite cute here, don't you?

The peach and apple trees are blooming. I just love the deep pink on this peach tree. It really is beautiful.

Well, that's it from my little organic Arizona garden!! Happy planting!

My Brother's Project

I am super lucky to have 2 of my brothers and their families, living nearby. One of my brothers, lives about a mile from my house. The other day he and his wife were over & I was working in the backyard trying to remove a pygmy palm. Can I just say, WOW! That is a project and a half!! Not sure I will undertake that again. Anyway, as I was moving the rock back and trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to hack away at the stubborn roots of this palm, my brother decides to come out and stand there and proceed to give me tips on how to use a shovel, etc. Slightly annoying. Aargh. Anyway, I finally turned around and told him that if he was going to critique me, he could help. Long story short, it ended up with him removing the palm and me standing there, jumping on it to try to loosen the roots. It's a good thing we don't have a video of it. Embarrasing. Well, the palm is gone. But, he was going out of town the next day and had a small project he hadn't finished, so I told Bekah, my SIL, that I'd come over and finish it for him, since he was helping me & didn't get to it.

When I got to their house, this is what I found. Hideous. He had tried to refinish their little backyard table in this nasty orange color. My SIL and I sanded and sanded on that table. Finally, on Friday, last week, we progressed to using paint stripper. What a mess!

However, this is what it looks like now, freshly stained in my favorite Minwax stain, Provincial. I love that color and use it for everything. I can't think of an occasion that it doesn't look good. And after 6 long hours on Friday, it is finished!! YAY! It looks lovely. Great job, Bekah! And to my brother, I don't think you should do any more projects like that any time soon. Because if you do, you are on your own!!

A Hot Air Balloon Right Over My Head!

Last Tuesday, I was working in the garden, trying to clear the pathways of the grass roots that invaded last summer. What a task!! I had really had one of those days that you never want to repeat. As I was about to collapse from fatigue, I looked up and directly overhead was a beautiful hot air balloon. It was so close, I felt like I might be able to reach out and tell the people in the basket "hi"! I definitely could hear them putting more hot air in...so lovely! It gave me such a smile! So, thank you, hot air balloon, for cheering me up!!

Planting Season

As usual per this time of year, I have been outside planting and doing general cleanup activities. Unfortunately, I am not completely finished. Mostly, because I can't decide if my broccoli is finished producing this season and whether to pull it out or not and I still have plenty of carrots left and am not ready to pull them up yet as I still have a bunch in the fridge. My husband is rooting for the snow peas to go, as he is very tired of them in everything we have been cooking.

We have had so many rainy days along with a little colder weather than we are used to, that the asparagus have been slow to come up this year and are just now coming into their full season. I am planning to try a new recipe for an asparagus frittata that I found in the newest issue of "Hobby Farm Home". The strawberries are tasting rather delicious. I haven't ever planted them and had them do well, so I have been so pleasantly surprised to see that happening. I am really loving this SFG thing! Out here we have such clay soil that with the SFG you don't have to worry about that and it is amazing what you can grow.

Speaking of that, a few posts ago I mentioned that I was trying an experiment in growing celery. Well, unbelievably, the celery is almost ready. So funny that it actually worked. It is still rather small compared to full grown celery, but I am impressed. It looks like if you plant it from seed in October, it will actually grow all winter and do well.

I have plans to spend the afternoon out finishing up some cleanup projects outside and putting up a frame for a support for the Bayberry and Blackberry plants that I finally got planted on the north side of my house.

Happy planting!

Winter Storm Cleanup in the Garden

For the last couple of weeks we have had some pretty constant days of rain and blowing wind. The garden looks terrible. Leaves are everywhere, and weeds are starting to show their ugly faces. So, with Saturday afternoon came some nicer weather and I decided to try to tackle some long overdue garden chores. I mainly worked on the grape vines which needed to be pruned back and the leaves raked and put into the compost bin. That took a little bit of time. I debated on saving the vines and wrapping them into a wreath, but in the end, they ended up in the garden waste pile.

I have been thinking vaguely about purchasing a wood chipper, but I am not sure I will have enough use for it to justify buying one. And, my husband, wasn't too keen on the idea when I mentioned it in passing one day.

The peas, which are "Mammoth Melting" variety, are huge. I haven't really had them get so big that they are tumbling over the supports. I put up some small supports because I usually don't have them grow over about 4 feet. These vines are probably pushing 6 feet right now. I am just starting to get some snow peas off them, and they are very fresh and lovely.



As you can barely see in the bottom of the picture, the broccoli is ready for picking. We have oodles of broccoli right now, which my family does really like, so that is good. Out of the garden, for some reason, I have decided it tastes so much more tender. Yum!

My bell pepper plants really suffered this past month, because for a couple of days we actually had freezing temps. I know! Can you believe it? Anyway, I forgot to cover them and they just look pathetic. I am trying to decide whether to pull them out or not. If you look closely, you can just make out some new leaves that are popping out.

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Bell Pepper - frozen back"][/caption]

Be that as it may, I am starting some others from seed inside under a grow light. YAY! I got myself a grow light! I wanted one for my birthday, but my husband said that if I did, the government would track it and come to check that I wasn't growing marijuana! Right! So, I purchased one for myself a couple of weeks ago.

[caption id="attachment_212" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New seedlings under grow light on kitchen counter"][/caption]

It is actually working wonderfully. I just put a couple of hooks under the cabinet and suspended it from them with some wire. I leave it on for about 14 hours a day, and after 1 week they were already getting their second leaves. So exciting. I am trying to grow enough extras for my mom and father-in-law also. One day at a time. The only downside to having this light right in my kitchen is that my husband says he needs to wear sunglasses to watch TV because it is too bright on his poor little eyes. :)



Above you can see on the right, one of my brussel sprout plants that I started from seed back in Oct. On the left, the little seedlings are celery. I am trying that as an experiment. I am not too sure they are going to have enough time to grow before it gets too warm. We will see. They are definately slow growers!

My father-in-law is just putting up an awesome chicken coop. Here is a picture of it. It isn't quite finished yet, but when it is, it will be really great. He has about 38 chickens which include 8 babies. On Saturday, we found 2 more hens roosting. I love to see those babies following after the mothers scratching for bugs.

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New chicken coop"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Baby chicks"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_216" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="This one is a rooster."][/caption]

I am hopefully getting a couple of new hens today from a friend of mine. We had one of ours die a couple of weeks ago and now we have 4 hens. I am not quite sure what happened. It is possible she was egg bound because she had not yet started laying and was due any time to begin. I went out there and she was just dead. So sad. I really hate that, but it is part of having animals. My son always has a hard time.

Other random things happening in the garden right now:

- strawberry plants are starting to set fruit

-lots of carrots (By the way, I had planted some carrots of the variety "Tonda di Parigi" which are small round carrots similar looking to a radish. They are a little sweeter and very good raw. Interesting to taste the difference when compared to a regular baby carrot - "Little Finger" variety.)

-some tomatoes are starting to ripen and for some reason the starter plants that I purchased from the local garden center were labeled wrong and I have 3 cherry tomato plants. (Although, there is no where near the amount that I get in the spring/summer, even with a greenhouse type effect of growing them.)

-the eggplant are still producing the dreaded eggplant. I am definately pulling them out in a couple of weeks. I have just left them really because the little sparrows sit inside the plants and I feel sorry for them.

Happy Gardening!

Preserving & Etc.

So, do you ever wonder what to do with all those jalepenos, or other peppers that your plant just keeps on producing and you can't eat quick enough? My mother-in-law makes jalepeno jello, which you can do. I just really only have one recipe that I use that for, & I'm pretty sure I haven't made that in oh, about 5 years. So, last week, I was looking through my trusty Ball Blue Book and came across this recipe:

Hot Peppers

1 1/2 pounds banana peppers

1 pound jalepeno peppers

1/4 pound serrano peppers

6 cups vinegar

2 cups water

3 cloves garlic

Leave peppers whole or cut into 1 inch pieces. Mix peppers together. Combine vinegar, water, & garlic in a large saucepot. Bring mixtu to a boil; reduce heat & simmer 5 minutes. Discard garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Ladle hot pickling liquid over peppers, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust two piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 5 pints.

Note: When cutting or seeding hot peppers, wear rubber glovs to prevent hands from being burned.

I definately do not have that many peppers, so what I did was fill one jar crammed full of whole peppers (mostly because I didn't feel like cutting them up). I then put 2 cups white wine vinegar (not distilled) with 1 cup of water & 2 cloves garlic, minced into a pot and continued to do the recipe that way. I didn't even process the jar after I was done, and the heat sealed it on it's own. Also, as I make flavored vinegas all the time, I figured the vinegar would preserve it without having to actually can it. Guess what? Today I opened that jar of jalepenos and it looked & smelled just like the jar's you buy at the store. YAY! The jalepenos even changed color to look like the ones you buy in the jar. So, I was happy!

Also, for those of you who have trouple with your bell peppers looking as big as the ones at the grocery store, I have been doing some research on this topic. This year, my peppers have had a few problems. Mostly, I think, because I have a fungus in the soil that they are growing in, so the leaves look wilted. I have buried banana peels under each plant, because apparently this is good for them as it provides magnesium as the peel breaks down (which it does rather quickly, despite the fact that it is very thick). I have also read to do this for rose bushes. I have also given them a good dose of epsom salts for nitrogen, which has helped them a little bit. Anyway, to make a long story short, the other day, I was picking up my vegetable basket from boutiful baskets and I had done the organic one (yes, even though I have a garden, I do get other veggies, mostly for the fruit right now). There were lots of bell peppers. They were smaller ones, just like the ones in my garden. So, apparently, it doesn't matter. So, don't fret about your peppers. I was pretty happy when I saw that!

I let the dove out of the chicken coop this am. The dog simply couldn't stand that there was a dove in there and was trying to dig into the coop. Ridiculous! I had my husband go out there and look at the coop and he couldn't figure out how these birds are getting in either! It's a mystery!

Lots of long beans came off today! I really love those. If anyone would like some seeds for these, I have been saving and drying a few in my window. You really only need a few beans for a meal. And they are really tasty sauteed with a little jalepeno. Even my husband likes them, which is saying something!

[caption id="attachment_197" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Bay leaves, long beans, peppers, & radishes"][/caption]

Pictured above are the leaves from the laurel bay that I am drying. Apparently, when you cook with them, you are supposed to tear the leaf a little to release the flavor. Who knew? All these years, I have been putting them into my spaghetti sauce recipe and didn't realize I was supposed to be doing that.

Yesterday, I went to lunch with my delightful friend, Roma, who is so incredibly talented, if I do say so. And, afterward, I dropped by the fun boutique, Rustic Hutch, which is located on Gilbert & Baseline, in Gilbert. I found some really awesome candles there. I have been burning one this morning & love the smell.

[caption id="attachment_199" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="McCall's Country Canning Candles"][/caption]

I bought 2 of them. The one above is for Christmas, & is really lovely. The one I have been burning this morning, is "Raspberry Lemon Tea" & I do believe I love it!

Here we are...

[caption id="attachment_190" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Sparkler radish planted October 5-6th."][/caption]

Ok. I finally took some pictures, but then had to load the new PS Elements 8.0 before I could bring them to you. Lame, I know. And that took a few more days because then my mouse was out of commission. So, finally we are back in business. Thankfully. It has been so beautiful outside that I am just loving it. Unfortunately, so are the birds. And despite the fact that they have plenty of bird seed, they are thinking that my lettuce and newly sprouted lettuces are wonderful and eating them down to the ground. At first, I thought I had some kind of worm, but then discovered the birds. Some baling wire to make some little hoops to fit over the lettuce and seedlings & a trip to the local hardware store to buy some bird netting to fit over those hoops has solved the eating problem, but not the bird issue. They are seriously everywhere. My dog is going crazy chasing them. And somehow, every morning I go out there, they are getting into the chicken coop. I just came in from there, and there were seriously 10 sparrows and a dove. The dove is still in there. It wouldn't come out. So, I say, whatever, to it!

I planted some celery this year, and don't know if it will make it, but it has sprouted and they are seriously the smallest little leaves I think I have ever seen. The brussel sprouts have sprouted and the peas are starting to climb. YAY! I have a couple more new little basil plants that if anyone wants, they are  free to come pick up, since I have 3 already and really don't need anymore. Although, I did discover that my chickens love basil. I have been giving them the extras. And I started with 9 strawberry plants and am already up to 12.

[caption id="attachment_191" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Overall view of garden"][/caption]



[caption id="attachment_193" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Celery seedlings"][/caption]

I am excited to see the scarlet runner bean growing just like a bean! And by that I mean, it is a fast growing plant, so much that I can probably measure it's growth every day! I am excited to see it in a few weeks. I do have a laurel bay that I really need to get into a pot, as it is sitting in it's plastic nursery pot in the garden. I am pruning it into a topiary and it is pretty so far. The leaves look awesome as wreaths so that will be kind of nice to have as well as the culinary uses.

Ok. Gotta go. I have tickets to "New Moon".

TTYL

August in the Garden

I saw an idea somewhere where they had put dried sunflower heads on a topiary for a fall arrangement and thought it looked pretty awesome. Since I still have some small size sunflowers hanging on, I decided this would be awesome to try for fall, as I can hardly wait for it to cool off and I am pretty sure the garden feels the same, as it's supposed to be 112 degrees today.



This little melon is called "Sakata's Sweet" from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at www.rareseeds.com and is listed as an asian melon & actually is known as Japanese. It's leaves are somewhat smaller than a traditional american melon, so far anyway, and as I have never grown this, but thought is looked interesting based on the description in the Baker Creek catalogue, I hope it bears fruit, because I would definately like to taste it. According to the catalogue, the author of Melons for the Passionate Grower, Dr. Amy Goldman, recommends this particular variety. I haven't read her book, but would like to browse through it the next time I am at the bookstore.

Other Gardens

So, recently we went on a family trip to Sandy, Utah. Of course, this is their main growing season there. We drove by some awesome gardens and so here are a few pictures. The picture below was so beautiful in person. The older couple who owned the home, had mixed in some really beautiful flowers along the border of the garden and it was truly lovely.

[caption id="attachment_174" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Garden in Utah"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_175" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Front View of House"][/caption]

This other garden was strictly as open area that they had tilled. I was not surprised to see the number of gardens there that we saw, just driving around town, from small to large ones, depending on the yard size. I really do think that gardening & being "eco-friendly" has become very popular. Awesome.

[caption id="attachment_176" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Tilled Type of Garden"][/caption]

Starting to get ready...(this post should have been posted on July 18)

[caption id="attachment_166" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Tomato Hornworm"][/caption]

So, I remember myself saying that,thank heavens I haven't had any tomato hornworms, and lo and behold, what do I see staring right back into my face? You guessed it! The dreaded hornworm! I really could only find one, but it had made a great meal of the tomato plants so out the tomato plants have come. Unfortunatly, most of the heat had done them in.

So, out with the old, in with the new! It's time to get ready for fall. YAY! My little tomato starts had to be restarted so they are about 10 days old right now, and looking good. All but 2 have sprouted. Which is a pretty great percentage, all in all. I hope to have some nice plants for next month. We shall see. I keep rotating them in the south facing window and in the mornings I put them out on the back patio. So they seem to be doing fine,with that.

Last year, in the winter, I decided to start some plants early, because I really had the spring planting bug, and all the plants sprouted, did fine, and looked wonderful. For about a month. Then, they all started wilting and dying. I discovered that they actually need some air blowing over them, like they would if they were outside, because otherwise they get wilt. Interesting.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Melon growing up a trellis."][/caption]

The melons (canteloupe and watermelon) are really going to town right now! Love it! I discovered last year if I could just hold them through the squash bugs and the heat, that in late July early August, they would really take off. And that has held true this year again. So, my advice, when they look like they can't hack it anymore, baby them along, and they will reward your efforts with more melons! Awesome little plants. I have a variety of melons out there right now. And the melon in the picture above just got picked yesterday. Tasted wonderful, too.

[caption id="attachment_168" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Zucchini"][/caption]

These new little zucchini plants are doing fine. And just when I was congratulating myself on gettng all those dreaded squash bugs, what do I find infesting one of my little plants? More of them. I am telling you, these things are everywhere. I just keep picking them off and putting them in my little jar and this does seem to be a good way of killing them, but not preventing them. How about a magic wand?

I used my first compost the other day in the old tomato bed. I pulled out some new compost from the bottom and integrated it into the bed. I think that bed needs some calcium. A few of the tomatoes had blossom end rot, which I think means the soil needs some calcium. That compost had some egg shells in it, so hopefully that will help.

 According to Mary Irish, in her book, "Gardeing in the Desert Southwest, you can plant fast maturing corn right now. So, that is what went into the old tomato bed. I haven't really had much luck with corn fertilizing very well, eve though they are planted 4 across, 12 long. That should be sufficient according to all the literature I have read. I will let you know how it turns out. They are all just sprouting right now. I love to see those little plants poking themself up out of the dirt. I love to go out and count how many have come up since yesterday.

Last week I FINALLY got my automatic watering system put in. It works fabulous, except I need to adjust the length of time, I think. It's only watering about 1 inch depth, instead of 2-3. But it does save me about an hour a day. Which is great, if you ask me.

With the kids back in school, and the weather not quite as hot, I am finding myelf thinking about what I will plant in October. Time to plan...

Seed Starting Time

Believe it or not, fall is just around the corner (I say that sort of tongue-in-cheek as we are definately in the throes of the summer heatwave). At least, I am dreaming it is. And with the fall, I will be starting some new tomato plants. Some people just cut theirs back and keep them, as they really aren't annuals, although we treat them as if they were. But I always seem to do better with new plants, so that is what I am doing. I definately still have lots of new green fruit on the ones I have, so I won't be pulling them out any time soon. However, I am thinking I would like these new plants to be plenty big by September, so I am starting seeds now. I am starting seeds instead of buying plants at the nursery, because I have decided that I really do prefer the flavor of heirloom tomatoes. It is so hard to describe the difference, but take my word for it, they are so much better. And because it is hard to find heirloom tomato plants, although it can be done, I am starting mine from seed. I have purchased some of my seed from local stores and some I have ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at this link: http://rareseeds.com/ And I recently came across this wonderful pdf file at http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/farmgirl-connection/. If you haven't seen Mary Jane's Farm magazine, it is definately one to check out. Love it! And they have an awesome forum. You do have to become a "farmgirl" but since I consider myself one that is living in the city, that was easy! The pdf file link is: http://www.feldoncentral.com/garden/CaseysHeirloomTomatoesofAirdrie.pdf. It is full of really great pics of heirloom tomatoes. Love it too!

Listing of tomato plants started today in peat pots inside:

German Red Strawberry

Rutgers

Brandywine

Green Zebra

Sweetie

Big Beef

Sioux

Looking forward to watching them sprout!

It's HOT!

[caption id="attachment_145" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Just picked today."][/caption]

It is so HOT outside these days that in order to check out the garden, I seriously have to get up at 6am to beat the heat. We are hitting 108 degrees today, which feels more like 118 degrees to me. I simply can hardly hack it! And of course, most of the garden needs to be shaded from the brutal afternoon sun.

[caption id="attachment_148" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Armeninan cucumbers growing up two 4 ft. tall topiary forms."][/caption]

The cucumbers seem to be doing ok, though. You can just see the tip of the topiary forms.  They are producing more armenian cucumbers than we can possibly eat, and I keep giving them away to relatives and neighbors. We usually just slice them up to munch on, although my daughter likes to dip hers in the ever present ranch dressing.

[caption id="attachment_150" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A small caterpillar on the pickling cucumbers."][/caption]

I found a little friend on my pickling cucumbers today, and it has found itself a new home in heaven. I did see a preying mantis that was quite large on the tomatoes today also, and that one I happily left alone. I cannot get rid of my infestation of squash bugs. They have moved onto my watermelon plants and as I now have some new starts of zucchini out there, I really want them GONE! I have tried insecticidal soap and picking them off as I see them and smashing them. I also have tried to look under all the leaves to get the little brown eggs and smash those. None of this has been working well at all. I have plans for the morning, to take a jar out there and pick off all that I can find and put them in the jar and then throw it away. I can hardly stand to touch the things. I think I will wear gardening gloves for this particular chore.

[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Asparagus ferns."][/caption]

The asparagus has gone really crazy lately, making new shoots, going to seed and ferning. They seem to be doing just fine, also, without any extra shading.

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Overall view of entrance to garden area."][/caption]

I love the way those new pavers look at the entrance to the garden. Landcraft did such an amazing job on them. It has made the area feel like a little secret garden. To the left of the chicken coop, although you cannot see it, is a small garden shed. We put it in a few months ago, and it has been so handy to put all the supplies in there and not have them spilling about the garden like last year. One handy thing that I read about somewhere, is to hang an inexpensive shoe organizer on the back of the door. I keep all my garden tools in it as well as drip irrigation pieces and twine, zip ties, etc. It has worked out well.

Not much is coming out of the garden right now. It is just simply too hot. I am still getting some tomatoes and that is pretty nice. It should pick up again at the end of August.

[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Zucchini starts under the shade fabric."][/caption]

The above picture shows the pvc hoops that the shade cloth is zip tied to. I went to my local hardware store and bought some 12 inch pieces of rebar and poked them into the ground on either side of the bed and then put the pvc pipes into them onto either side to create the hoops. Cheap and easy. In the winter, I use them also, but instead of the shade cloth, I put 4 mil plastic over them and make a kind of green house. I got the idea from Dave the Garden Guy, and it really works well.

[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="New planter box on back patio."][/caption]

Well, I believe that's all for now. Keep cool!

So today...

I went out into the garden and was watering and looking around. I was actually pretty much just putzing around out there with the excuse of watering, and I found a watermelon (sun, moon & stars variety)  and 2 canteloupes (hearts of gold variety)! So exciting. They are, of course, still very small, and have a long way to go, but they are there. I can't wait to watch them grow! The plants have been vining all over the place and last year by this time, I had a large watermelon. It has been kind of a strange year. I am assuming that because last year was so much warmer, the plants grew a little faster than this year. I also am trying a new variety this year..."NC Giant". (I found the seed packet at the local feed store while I was picking up some hay for my daughter's horse.) It is reputed to be known for it's record weights, with a sweet taste. It has just begun vining so it will also be a while before I see anything on it.

I am expecting a delivery of planters tomorrow for my front and back porch. I have some by my front door and about a month ago, we had a very strange kind of liquid seeping from it. We couldn't quite figure out what it was and then my landscaper who owns "Landcraft" (and they are AWESOME) and has been working on my pool/barbeque area, tasted it for me. We determined that it was honey and that night, my husband discovered a hive on the second story of our home that had begun dripping honey down through the wall and onto the front porch, coming out under the pot.



You can just see it there under the eaves. We had an exterminator come out, who said that they were "africanized", as they had attacked them while they were up there, and that they had been there a while. In which case, we would probably have honey dripping off our house for a month or so. Well, they were right. However, the honey did something to the pots at my door, and now they smell like something has rotted in them. So, needless to say, I have to get something else, and that something else, is coming tomorrow. I purchased some square concrete ones and am going to just change everything out into them. I will post pictures when they are completed. The only down side to the whole thing, is that I have noticed a dramatic difference in the amount of bees out in my garden doing their little work. It's always something, isn't it?

[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Blanket Flower"][/caption]

So, I found this little perrenial, Blanket Flower, at the local hardware store's nursery and remembered seeing it in my aunt and uncle's yard down in Tucson. Love it! It is such a pretty color! I have it growing right now by my fountain in my front yard, and it is doing ok, surprisingly enough, in a little pot.

I have some tentative plans to clear a little space by the paver walkway that is leading into the entrance to my garden for my zinnia seeds in the early am. Early because it is so stinking hot, otherwise! And of course, it isn't summer without the zinnas. And they grow like weeds. My mom has some that are doing great and only a couple inches high so far in her front flower beds and one has even started to bloom!

So, until tomorrow...the garden awaits.

Let's talk tomatoes!

[caption id="attachment_132" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Oodles of Tomatoes!"][/caption]

It has been such a long time since my last post, but I have been so busy in the garden and canning, with everything else, that there hasn't been a lot of time left for blogging! I have canned a total of 28 quarts of tomatoes so far. My family swears they hate tomatoes, and I have to constantly remind them that they LOVE salsa and spaghetti sauce and homemade soup, all of which require tomatoes. They sure have been wonderful to eat as a salad on their own and on a sandwich. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water...

June in the garden in Arizona is HOT, but today was a wonderfully overcast day and only in the 90's. YAY! So, I did a little cleaning up and found a HUGE armenian cucumber! It was so huge I had to cut it in half to get it out from under the topiary I had them growing on. Of course, since it was about 6 inches in diameter, it was just big and pretty much hollow. So, I gave it to the chickens and they have been pecking at it all day!

Apricots are coming off like crazy right now. My in-laws have one tree that is covered. I received a bag of apricots from my sister-in-law and turned them into jam. That will be pretty tasty mixed with some honey and soy sauce and put over some pork to slow cook. Maybe I will cook that on Sunday for dinner.

Clean up in the garden today:

-pulled out the spent zucchini plants

-cleaned all the leaves out from under the eggplant

-fertilized the bell pepper plants (they needed it terribly)

-replanted cucumber (for pickles), melon & pumpkin

-harvested bush bean seeds for next year

-picked all the tomatoes off that were ripe

-harvested all the onions & few carrots that were left

-gave everything a good soak

-turned the compost pile

I can hardly wait for my new planters to arrive next week so I can put some zinnia seeds in them. It doesn't feel like summer to me without zinnias.

I am on the hunt for some comfrey seeds because my daughter wants to grow some for her horse.  I've never grown it before, but if she is interested in it, we will try it...The things we do for our kids.

Until next time, happy growing.

It's been a while...

So it's been a while since I last posted. So much has been happening in the garden. Everything is growing and getting larger and starting to set fruit. It's so funny, because every day I check the eggplant for new fruit, and have seen a few but yesterday, oh my gosh, found these ginormous eggplants that I didn't even realize were there. That's what I love about the garden. There is always something new happening. So, guess what we are having for dinner tonite? That's right. Eggplant.



[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Notice the double eggplant on the left. It probably had a double bloom that was fertilized."][/caption]

Anyway, there are tons of tomatoes which is good, because soon it will be getting hot. I have been so happy with these tomatoes this year. I have several varieties, and it will be interesting to see which does the best. I just recently read an article about tomatoes and it did say that if you water them too much, they become tasteless. So, I guess there is a happy medium to watering...not too much, not too little, but just right.



The snap peas are just setting blossoms, which is just in time. The bunching onions are some that a friend of mine gave me out of her garden last year. They have done so amazing, I can't even believe it. I just chop some off the top and use them in salsa, kind of like chives, and let them keep growing. However, some of them are starting to flower and need to be used up, even though we have been eating salsa about twice a week and are starting to small like garlic. You know you've had too much, when several of your kids reek like garlic when they come to kiss you goodnight, or good bye to go to school. Not good, but delicious!



[caption id="attachment_118" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The peas are growing like crazy!"][/caption]

And just for fun, I love this little guy. I have him set at from front door, but I think now that Easter is over, I am going to move him into the garden for a while!

[caption id="attachment_119" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The mantra of every gardener!"][/caption]

The baby chickens are now 6 weeks old, and it is starting to stay warmer at night, so I thought I would introduce them to the other hens. Unfortunately, it has become very apparent that 2 of them are roosters, so only one will be staying, but I feel so bad for her and don't want that little hen to be alone with the bigger hens, that I have decided to leave the roosters with her until they get a little bigger. Or, at least until they start crowing, in which case, they will be out of here. But they seem to be doing ok.

[caption id="attachment_120" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The new babies with the hens."][/caption]

On a side note, the chicken in the middle, went to chicken heaven yesterday. She had been eating all my eggs and was starting to pull feathers off one of the other chickens. It was a sad day yesterday. Very sad.

I have noticed some little birdies at the bird feeder that are very pretty. I don't know what they are, but they have red all over their head and chest. Check them out!

[caption id="attachment_125" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The birdies have found the bird house!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_126" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The potatoes are doing amazing."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Zucchini are starting to flower."][/caption]

Just a side note. It looks like finally the black eyed susan vine might be finally starting to germinate and sprout. I think it has been about 2 weeks since I planted those seeds. I'm not entirely sure that that is what it is, so we shall see. According to the literature I have read, they only last for 3 years, and they you have to replant.

I so love this time of year.