April Garden Happenings

Hi.

It's been a while. well more than a while, if I am being honest. But, I had it recently suggested to me by a friend that I should write a blog. I think I shall just continue in the same vein as I have been doing. I am not into being super popular, or worried about how many followers I have, so it should work out just fine. (insert laugh.)

April happenings in the garden this week are as follows:
• Mint growing like a weed.
• Tomato plantings are getting a bit bigger.
• Seeding for summer flowers such as zinnias and sunflowers.
• Various squash has been transplanted from the mini-greenhouse into the garden, and I have intentions to also plant some by seed, although that hasn't happened yet.
• Canna Lillies are beginning to bloom due to the excessive heat we have had. I just love these, and they look especially wonderful near the pool.

Truthfully, I have been a bit under the weather, and in the span of the last 24 hours have spent quite a lot of it at the doctor's office. I am suspicious that I may have a dog allergy, and today ended up at urgent care with an ear infection, secondary to ...drumroll please...allergies. I have never thought I had them, but perhaps I was wrong. I know, I know...the first time I have been wrong all year. lol. Anyway, hopefully with these antibiotics and prescription allergy med, I will soon be on my way to fabulous. When the lab work for a suspected dog allergy comes back it will be interesting to see the results. And Monday, visits to the orthopedic surgeon, as well.

I have been planning on going back to work as an RN, in L&D. Having just completed my BSN in December, I have filled out a few applications, and sent out some feelers to friends. Today, I got an email for a phone interview, and I am hopeful that another application will also yield results. Sometimes, it is who you know. I am looking forward to working again.

Well, that's about it today. Here are some pics of the adorable chickies right now.

Sunny Days

The long awaited strawberries are just beginning to bear fruit! These are the first berries of the season, & due to the fact that I don't add fertilizers to them, they always are much smaller than store bought berries, but they are soooooo much tastier! I need to get out and weed the strawberry bed, but just haven't managed to get to it yet.

It is superb weather and the roses are just loving it! Every other day or so, I am cutting roses to bring indoors to enjoy, but these are so beautiful. 

These little seedlings are enjoying life in the mini greenhouse awaiting space for them in the garden. I have some spring veggies that are almost at the end of their season, and so I decided to start the melons in the pots 'til I have some space in the garden to plant them out. 

These little beauties, Calendula - Pink Surprise, purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., were planted from seed way back in November. This is the first bloom! I love the way it looks, although I haven't seen any of the pink that is pictured on the packet. I wonder if that was a graphic add on? Below is the second bloom so far. It does look different from the first...not so multi petaled. I like to sneak flowers in on the edges of the garden beds. It looks so pretty to see a splash of color but these calendula's will be good for keeping aphids away, etc.

The last garden task for today, is to get these beans in the ground. As you can see, I have them soaking to aid in the germination. We have done the Thai White Seeded Long Bean for several years now, and they are quite tasty. Hopefully, I can get that done this evening. Happy Gardening!

Spring Garden Happenings

The days have been so incredibly full, that there simply hasn't been time enough to blog about how full the day is! 

I love this time of year...everything about it is my favorite! The citrus blossoms are just beginning to fade, but walking outside is amazing (as long as you don't have allergies, which I thankfully don't). The asparagus seems to grow 6 in. a day, and the bunch you see just above were picked in 2 days. Sometimes, I go out in the am and pick some, and then in the evening end up picking more. Asparagus never gets tiresome for anyone in my family. We always enjoy the weeks filled with asparagus for dinner. 

The other day, I was working in the herb bed and I looked over and went to pull a weed, but then thought, "That looks like asparagus!" And sure enough, it must have been a seedling, flown over on the wind from the asparagus bed. I called my boys over and asked them what they thought it looked like, and both of them said, "Asparagus." And those are my boys! They know their veggies! 

We have peas galore coming off the vines. I do really like them, steamed fresh with butter, but I am getting a tad tired of them, I have to admit. Derek tells me he likes them just fine, and then I catch him texting the neighbor that they are not his favorite and does the neighbor need any. Nice, Derek.

Can you see it! I just cannot believe what I found today on the banana tree. SLUGS! Not good! And I have to admit, I find them incredibly disgusting. I am going to have to get on this problem!

This is a pic of the snapdragons. I love them so much. They remind me of my grandma. Today I picked some to bring in the house, and my nephew disappeared. I went back out to find him and caught him picking all the flowers off the stalks and throwing them at the chickens. Lovely. And then, in his grubby little hands, he carried some of the blossoms around and sniffed them and sniffed them. Silly boy! He knows what he likes!

So, I am trying this new type of trellis to stake the tomatoes. Not sure it will work for them, but it's worth a shot! Number one son, Casey, put these together for me in a couple of minutes, and then they simply were pushed into the garden bed in between a couple rows of tomatoes. The tomatoes are just beginning to set blossoms on and I can hardly wait for those little babies to be ready.

This picture right here exhibits why you should never ever buy a single zucchini plant from the store. I planted this little guy from seed 2 1/2 weeks ago. They really are the size of a plant I would buy at the garden center. And so much cheaper. 

Happy Gardening!

It's Cold Outside!

So, finally the weather is turning a little cold. Yesterday morning, at around 5:30am I looked on my back porch, which is in the shade, and saw that the temperature was 38 degrees F. Pretty chilly for Arizona! Since that is getting down into almost freezing temperatures, and I do have some vegetables out in the garden that technically are not cold hardy, like peppers and cucumbers and zucchini and tomatoes, I put in hoops and cover the bed with a 4 mil plastic. This works well for me, as I have used it in the past with great success. It is just an effort to get it put out, and such. 

As you can see by the picture below, I do raise it during the day, as our temperatures are still in the high 60's and sometimes even the low 70's during the day. Such beautiful weather! Can't complain. Tomorrow we are due for a heavy winter storm, so tonite I need to batten down the hatches. 

Above are the small little pepper plants that are growing from seed. Hopefully they will make it through the winter, if I keep them covered!

A couple of days ago, I planted some sweet pea seeds that I had saved from 2 years ago, and after soaking them overnight, and planting them everywhere I could, I realized I just had too many! So, those became little gifts to a couple friends who haven't ever grown them before. I love sweet peas, as my grandma & mom planted them every year that I can remember. I used to take handfuls of the blooms wrapped in a wet paper towel and plastic wrap, to school and church to give to my teachers. I don't see anyone doing that anymore. Kind of sad. :(

The broccoli is almost ready to harvest! I can hardly wait as that is one of our favorite vegetables! Yesterday I was reading about how broccoli is one of those vegetables that we usually have to force ourselves to eat! I am not sure where the writer got their info from. What do you think?

I happened upon a blog when I was on pinterest that showed how the blogger made some edible Christmas garlands for her chickens. 

This is the post: http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/2012/12/edible-christmas-garlands.html.

I decided that they looked pretty cute and thought I would make one for my little henny pennies! The writer of fresh-eggs-daily blog showed how she actually drilled little holes into her brussel sprouts to make them easier to thread. FYI, this is definately not necessary. I just used a long doll needle and some kitchen string. It was very easy to string a garland up in a manner of minutes. They loved the grapes, ate the apples over a couple of days, and the brussel sprouts are still there. Exactly how I feel about those little things too!

My little nephew, loves the chickens and would happily stand in the chicken coop all day throwing seed and dirt down for them! I usually have to bribe him with a trowel to dig with to get him out of the coop! Silly boy, all boy!!

I discovered the dreaded little white powdery mildew spots on my roses a couple of mornings ago. If you look closely, you can just see them in the picture above. I bought an organic spray that is supposed to rid the roses from this disease, and have sprayed them. I have noticed a little difference, but it is not gone yet. I suspect I will need to keep spraying til it's gone, as it's spreading to the other roses as well. Not good. I have read that once you get it, it spreads rapidly. 

Last month's pinterest club we did these lovely little signs you see in the picture below. They were so easy to do, as the were stencils cut from plastic report covers with the silhouette cameo. That machine is so easy to use. I just love it. The signs are so cute and I hope to get the time to make a few more of the "Merry Little Christmas" ones to give to my neighbors!

Happy gardening and crafting!

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!

Spring Gardening

Over the past few weeks, I have been steadily working at cleaning up the garden area and getting it back to  being plantable. Last summer, I had the unfortunate experience of having my watering system fail, which caused me to lose my plum tree, my grape vines, and the cat's claw that was surrounding the garden to cool off the area, from the cinder block fence. Of course, I also lost everything in my garden, pretty much. It was all in all, a very disappointing summer/fall/winter. I haven't really been able to get out there and work on it until now.

Luckily, I have been able to devote some time to working in the garden, and the weather has been so amazing it has made it even enjoyable. I still have some dead grass that needs removal, as well as the dead grapevines that are not showing signs of life. 

I have had to keep my little chickens kind of cooped up for a bit, since there are some new starts in the garden that I would really like to keep, and not sacrifice to their stomachs. They really need a little run, so I do have some plans to fence in the little area to the right of the chicken coop for them to have some added space, but where they won't cause trouble with my plants. I think that will make them happy.

Although it isn't very visible in the above picture, I did manage to get my favorite flower planted. Yes, tulips can grow in Arizona. When I was a little girl, living in Yuma, our teacher asked us to draw our favorite flower. My mom had planted some tulips that year, and that is what I drew. Actually, I think that might have been the only year she planted them. Even so, I remember my teacher telling me that you can't grow tulips in Arizona. I argued with her that you could and I know that she did not believe me. It is possible though. If you want to start the bulbs yourself, you need to keep the bulbs in the crisper section of your refrigerator for 6 weeks to fool them into thinking that it's a cold winter, and then put them out. Or you can cheat, and buy them already semi sprouted from the garden center, like I did. Either way, they are truly beautiful, and still my favorite. If only the dogs didn't like to tromp through them, they would look so much better!