Time to Garden

Spring has sprung at my home in the Mojave Desert. We got one raised bed planted last week, so now the onions are coming up. The tiny tomato plants are growing so fast they've caught up with the one bigger one I planted.  So either they are growing really fast or it is growing really slow.

The thyme I thought I'd fried is coming back now that I'm watering daily.

I was going to plant the last rosebush, which looked great. The very next day I got up to plant it and all the leaves were gone. I'm not sure if it was the chickens or the rabbits! Darn it all. But I got it  planted today. The last one is called Paradise. I used to have one before I had a yard that had to live at my Mother-in-law's house. So now I have my very own.

My boyfriend got another raised box built and now we are taking shifts hauling in sand from the berm to fill up half of it and mix it with potting soil.  I keep saying it is 'sand' and he insists it is 'dirt' so maybe I'll just call  it soil from now on.

We dug 4 big rocks out of the place where the box goes. Ugh, that was tough.

The rock he is sitting on came out of that section as well as the 3 in front of him.

A pinwheel to scare the birds away.

I got six new chicks this week. When we cleaned out the chicken coop we put all that manure and straw in the garden bed. I think I was suppose to let it decompose more but oh well. Still haven't gotten the compost pile to work yet.

Americauna chick.

Barred rock chick.

Sunset, Moon Rise and Daffodils

Sunset in Lucerne Valley, CA

My Internet connection isn't that great out here in the desert so I don't get to blog as much as I used to.  But it works well at 4 A.M. so here I am blogging for you. I want to share the beauty of the desert with my winter weary friends. The Joshua tree photos are taken from my front yard in Lucerne Valley, CA.

I named this Joshua tree outside my front window Zerlina after the villain in Men In Black

I never get tired of taking sunset photos.

I live on a hill. This is the view from my yarn of Lucerne Dry Lake.

Daffodils at sunset.

 I managed to grow daffodils from bulbs I got at Winco. When they first sprouted the chickens kept trying to eat them. That is why they are up on a fence rail.

I hope to do a painting based on this photo when I have time.

 I have another pot of flowers waiting to bloom as well. I just don't remember what they are. Freesias maybe?

Last night's moon rising.

Daffodils make me happy.

June Gardening Update

June has been a rough gardening month. A week of temps in the 100's and I just can't water 3 times a day. The only sunflower that has done really well was a volunteer wild sunflower with multiple buds on it right now.

The gourds are finally making progress. My garden would be fine if I had big bucks to throw into it, but I don't. I could do a lot with about 20 extra large bags of potting mix and about a mile of new hoses including soak hoses and enough wood to make raised beds like I wanted to do in the first place. I about cried when the local farmer's market guy suggested putting all my plants in containers. I was finally glad to have a huge yard and get out of the city so I could grow things in the ground! I had enough container gardening in Anaheim.  And I'm sure I sounded exasperated when I told him I was trying to get away from container gardening.

On the good side, my portulaca just bloomed. The first flower was yellow, and came and went before I got a photo of it. But there are more buds. The pepper has one fruit on it. The best growing tomato bush has new yellow flowers. I think it's the small yellow pear tomatoes on that one. But I moved them so many times to protect them from the rabbits that I've lost track.

So, I made some ant posters. At least the insects, which come in great varieties, have been entertaining.

Teamwork

Guy putting up an awning before we melt.

Better Boy Tomatoes Planted

Today I took the big tub we repurposed from the old washing machine and used it to plant Better Boy tomatoes in. I filled it with about 6” of gravel for drainage, and then mixed 2 bags of potting soil and sand together leaving plenty of space at the top to hold water for the tomatoes. I made sure I placed it where I wanted it first because it is going to be way too heavy to move. Previous tenants had horses, so the whole yard is pretty much full of decomposed manure which should help the garden immensely.

I can hear the baby birds that have hatched over the light fixture on my porch. 

The lizards have also come out to play. These are bigger lizards than the ones I’ve seen here so far. But they are so fast I’ve yet to get a photo.

In front of the porch, I pulled out a bedding plant that was killed by the frost and replaced it with a yellow pear tomato. I visualize sitting on the porch in late summer munching on tiny yellow tomatoes.

I refilled the hummingbird feeder. And I ordered the hummingbird feeding tubes from Ebay yesterday so I can make my own feeders from soda bottles. I got some red silk flowers at the Dollar Tree to put on the end of the glass tubes to make them prettier and to attract hummingbirds. I need to finish the hummingbird feeder so it is ready for the tubes when they get here.

When I was watering the pepper plants, one looked funny. Its been in the ground one day and something ate the top half of it off. Meh. 

Gardening requires a lot of faith. Sometimes I succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Other times it is a fail, but almost always I come out way ahead overall. 

First successful seedlings at my new home.

Sunflower Seedlings

Planting Time In Lucerne Valley

Its time to plant and the only thing keeping me from going overboard is a lack of money. It's not that I can't afford plants, because plants and seeds are relatively cheap. What's holding me back is I'd need a truckload of potting mix and garden amendments to counteract the sandy soil. And I need lots and lots of wood to make raised beds. So I'm putting a lid on my frustrations and appeasing my spirit by doing what I can on a shoestring budget.

Meaning today I planted 3 different kinds of gourds, and I used a bag of potting mix I got at the dollar store to top dress them so they can at least hold enough moisture to sprout.  I also got  four tomato plants, but I'll need more potting mix to make those happy.

And so I don't forget what I put where, I'm making notes.

I put snake gourds in the zen garden behind the sunflowers and to the right of the sunflowers on the fence. The dark potting soil helps me to keep track of where they are. I put bottle gourds in the back corner of the Zen garden.

Then in the front yard I put baby bottle gourds to the left of the mailbox fence, and snake gourds on the fence by the front yard gate.

The sunflowers I planted last week in 2 patches have all sprouted. I was closely studying the patch in the front yard when I realized the dead branch next to the last seedling was a juvenile gopher snake. He was maybe two feet long.

I'm dying to get some roses after my neighbor showed me hers. She said they are hardy and don't need frost protection in the winter, so put me down for that. I totally miss my Anaheim roses.

So the sunflowers are my first official sprouted seeds that I planted at my new home. 

I also got some morning glory seeds, but the package said to nick the seeds and soak them for 24 hours, so they didn't get planted today.

My front yard came with a joshua tree I dubbed Zerlina.

A visit by Reggie the Roadrunner

The view from my front yard

A Visit to Silverado

I got to enjoy 3 days at my friends ranch in Silverado. The nature there is so soothing. I can sit there for hours watching the birds, squirrels, lizards, and other living creatures.

Plant Sale Coming Up at the Huntington Library

A great chance to get some unusual plants. I'd be all over this if the need to move to another state wasn't looming over me.
http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=3904

Planning My Spring Garden

I'm planning for my spring garden.  This time I'm either going to have a square foot garden or no garden at all. It's a much superior method and the way I've had the most success in the past. And it cuts down on maybe 90% of weeding. I'm building the boxes to be 2' wide x 4' long and I'll put as many on the space as I can while leaving a path to walk between them.

This year I hope to grow a gourmet lettuce mix, purple carrots, orange carrots, pear tomatoes, if I can find a fusarium wilt resistant variety, beets, nasturtiums and radishes. One box (8 squares) will be dedicated to growing herbs.

I also want to plant a pomegranate tree to replace the tree my idiot landlord removed last fall. I'm keeping it in a pot so I can take it with me when I move.

Pink Ice Plant

I've been dying to show you the pink ice plant. I planted it last summer so it was pretty small, but it's fabulous this year. Up till now, the landlord kept turning down the sprinklers and everything I planted in that hot spot died. Then I remembered ice plant from my hot summers in Riverside County and knew it would be the perfect plant. Plus it's a perennial so I don't have to keep buying it again each year.

Of the snapdragons I planted last year, only one made it to this year. And it's white. I'm not sure if it came up from seed or overwintered. But the way the gardeners go nuts with their weed whips, it's amazing any seedling survives long enough to bloom. The landlord wants me to let those vipers into the backyard, but there's no way if I can help it. I don't want everything trimmed to within an inch of it's life. I can't do much about the front yard because it's a common area, but the backyard has a locking gate and I hope he continues to respect that.

Finally Got the Garden Going

I finally corraled my boyfriend into taking me to a nursery where I got 4 varieties of tomatoes, an Anaheim pepper, and soybean and flower seeds. Weeds were already growing in the spot I cleared for the tomato plants so it took me another hour to clear it, clean up debris and get 4 of the tomatoes planted. Two of the tomatoes are supposed to be pink so this should be interesting. I still have about half the garden to clear.

I'm pretty worried that my boyfriend is going to lose his job, and then we'll have to move and I'll lose the garden, but I'm going to go ahead and plant it as an act of faith, because we can only live in the present, not the future.

Epiphyllum Love

Thanks for following Mike.
Now that the epipyhllum is in bloom, it's a much lighter red than I was expecting. Just beautiful. I'll need to get out there today and take photos. If I recall right the blooms last a while.

I definitely want to spend some time outside today. It's going to be a perfect CA day. I never take our weather for granted. I know much of the country is still covered in snow.

The ice plant I put in the front yard in the 'bald spot' has grown like crazy in the spring rains and is about to burst into specatacular ice pink blooms. I'll finally be able to compete with the African daisies my neighbor planted in the yard across from mine. Everything else I had planted in that spot had died when the previous owner turned off the sprinklers. The new owner is really into landscaping and our new front yard looks posh.

Gardening in a Tiny Yard

I just spent an hour in my garden enjoying it and making it look better. First off, I take one of those trash grabber tools. I picked up about 20 things that had fallen into my yard from my upstairs neighbors balcony, including a dirty diaper, chip bags, a charcoal bag, random bits of plastic and wrappers, a t-shirt, some broken toy parts, and a tiny tennis ball which I assume belongs to their chihuahua. I used to try to give them their stuff back but they never seem to learn so now I just toss it. Except for the dog ball. I threw that back up on their balcony and made it in one shot.

Then I used the weed whacker to get the sprawling lantana and jasmine off of the sidewalk. Then I had to hand prune a bunch of the jasmine vines which are determined to be king of the garden. I watered my potted plants, and finally transplanted the spider plant that was completely root bound in his little container. Someone just gave me a hyacinth plant as well, so I watered that again. The pot is so small it needs water daily, so I really need to figure out where I want it and get it planted.

Then I swept everything I cut down into a pile. I'll let it dry a few days so it takes up less room in the dumpster and then I'll toss it out.

My roses are in glorious bloom.