You Are My Sunshine

I love the little sunflowers that volunteered to grow by my porch. As my mother used to says,"You have the same clothes to get glad in."

Summer Garden

Now that the sunflowers are blooming in the backyard, I'm not at home to see them. Luckily someone took a photo of them so I can at least see that.  I won't be home for another 2 weeks.

The big successes of the awful garden this year were the yellow tomatoes which just got ripe (also while I was gone) and the portulaca (moss rose) that is blooming like crazy, and the snake gourds that are now setting fruit. The volunteer sunflower bloomed like crazy and grew to about 6' tall.

Sadly the 2 gourd plants in the Zen garden totally got chomped by something.  We don't know what because they were surrounded by chicken wire. Their growth was so stunted I doubt they would have grown fruit anyway. Next year we'll  do better I hope.

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

Labor Day and I'm Weeding

Since my last update, all my tomatoes have died. It even killed the two or three plants that were two years old. So I'm thinking where did the virus come from? I didn't have it two years ago or last year. Did I bring it in with some of the plants from the nursery in their potting soil?

Today I gave my neighbors some lemon cupcakes and they gave me 3 beautiful tomatoes. I told them my dilemma and they said spray the plants and soil with a mixture of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water.  Please note I haven't tried this yet. I have no plants left alive to try it on.

Even my sunflowers were wimpy compared to the glorious ones I've grown in the past.They are already going to seed and are about half as big in diameter as the previous ones.

Maybe my soil has lost all its umph.  Anyway, I did an hour of weeding today.  I'm glad I stopped after an hour because I'm sore already and my hands are almost too tired to type.

Sunflower Seeds

I'm really excited because many of my sunflower and marigold seeds have sprouted. I'm so glad I bought new sunflower seeds. Looks like I got a good batch this time. Now if I can just fend the snails and birds off until the seedlings get strong enough to survive.

I have a bunch of almost ripe tomatoes to pick too. I dug up the deader plant after harvesting it's last 2 fruits. I'm going to let the ground rest a bit before putting another plant in that spot. We also swept up a lot of debris today so it's more fun to be out there. The hummingbird is busy and eating out of my feeder again. She got a bit agitated when my cat was sitting in the window.