Garden Update

Gardening has been a challenge. My friend had mercy on me and bought me some chicken wire, so now I've protected the sunflowers and the pole beans from the rabbits.

Some plants will always remind me of my mother, and such is the case with portulaca aka moss rose. In the past I've always bought the seedlings at the nursery but since money is tight this year after our big move, I went with seeds instead. I'm happy to report they have sprouted in the container I put them in. The beets in the same container haven't made an appearance yet, but I'm thrilled to see the teeny tiny moss rose plants coming up. The package said 'easy to grow' but I had my doubts.

I have about six gourd plants now. The baby bottle gourds still haven't germinated. It is hard to keep everything wet enough in this sandy soil. We have well water, so I'm not worried about the water bill, but whenever the water runs so does the electric pump, so I'm worried about the impact on my electric bill if I water too much. We've barely had any rain this year. And I think the rainy season is already over.

My big treat this week was getting a red yucca plant after I saw them growing outside of a fast food restaurant.  They have long stems with red orange tubular flowers right now and the hummingbirds were feeding from them. So I thought it would be a good addition to my Zen garden. The best part is the tag says it is a native, so once I get it established I won't have to baby it.

Pole Bean Seedling

Gourd Seedling

Portulaca or Beet Seedlings?

Seeds and More

My boyfriend got the gardening bug (for now anyway) and bought us some more seeds and 2 Anaheim pepper plants. So I planted the two plants in the pot in the front where the ranunculus bulbs failed to sprout. I was sure tired of watering them, and when I dug around in there I couldn't even find any bulbs. So they either disintegrated or something ate them. In the other pot I planted beet seeds and moss rose seeds, which are teeny tiny.

I've given up on raised beds this year. We just don't have the money and everything needs to be planted NOW. The seasons don't wait for procrastinators. That also means if it freezes again in May, we'll lose it all. But I waited as long as I dared to get a full growing season. I see I need a greenhouse, even if I just jerry rig one together. All my succulents died over the winter. Even the ones I brought up from Anaheim. And I love succulents, so something must be done. The swap meet in Huntington Beach has a great inexpensive collection of succulents, so next time we are down there I'll stock up.

Portulaca

I got up early this morning to plant the moss rose before it got hot. Funny plant, it's neither a moss nor a rose. It's a succulent called Portulaca. I planted it around the Anaheim peppers to help keep them moist in their pot.

I'm also fixing the hummingbird feeder. The packaged mix didn't attract any birds, so I'm just dissolving sugar in water. We'll see how that goes instead. All the red had faded from the feeder lid, so I tied a fake red rose to the pole instead, since I don't want to use any food coloring or additives in the mixture itself. I love hummingbirds. I'm sad that I don't have any hummingbird nests this year.

Here are some directions on how to grow it. http://www.ehow.com/how_6766_grow-moss-rose.html