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The Beginnings of Spring

Posted on Feb. 16, 2007 at 7:13 AM

~ Rachelle

In My Garden - January

Posted on Jan. 18, 2007 at 7:53 AM

I spent some time out back yesterday and got a good look at my yard and garden. Oh! What a sad site. We have been having very cold nights with freezing temperatures. My sweet husband heard the temperatures we had the other night were the coldest here in the valley since the 1970s. I knew we had damage just from looking out my front window but did not realize how much damage had been done out back. 

Soo … I surveyed my yard and garden … we have lost all three pepper plants and most of the vincas (only a few little bits of green have survived under all the damaged foliage). The scented geraniums are severely frost bitten but I am hopeful the base part of the plants are still alive. For the first time that I can remember my citrus trees have frost damage. My poor once beautiful lemon tree has a lot of damage but thankfully the lemons are fine! I am now so ready to get to work in the garden. Pull out all the dead plants, prune all the damaged ones and plant new things.

I think the damage was so bad because it followed very nice weather. Just about everything had fresh new growth. Our two big ash trees in our front yard had lovely bunches of leaves four to six inches long growing out of the tip of every branch. Those leaves are now black, crispy and dangling! My ficus tree which was once green is now brown as are all of the ficus trees in neighborhood.

I made a list of things to do … soon … in the garden:

- Remove: peppers, vincas, other dead plants

- Remove solar lights (it is too shady where they are so they do not work most of the time)

- Prune: roses, scented geraniums, poinsettias, daisies (?), lantana

- De-grass one section of the garden

- Add soil, compost, kelp, alfalfa, fertilizer mix to the entire garden

- Divide and replant irises

- Harvest lemons, oranges and tangerines

- Buy and hang a new hummingbird feeder

- Check into cost and supplies to build two new raised garden beds

- Take pictures of pumpkins from last October for my records and to post on my blog. :) - Entry About Pumpkins

I did find a few surprises when I looked over my garden … my lavender bush is untouched by frost and looks beautiful. I found three onions and several small strawberry plants in good shape as well. The rose bushes are not damaged either but badly need to be pruned since we skipped that chore last Fall.

Oooooh! I just remembered a much needed chore to be done out front. Leaves, leaves, leaves! We need to rake up all the leaves out front and save them for our compost bin. We have a double rolling compost bin and I am determined we will learn how to make our own compost this year! I even have one of those cute stainless steel indoor compost canisters for my kitchen scraps. We must make this a habit in 2007.

My February to do list is already started, it is mostly a plant and seed wish list …

Summer Sunflowers - 2006

Posted on Oct. 10, 2006 at 7:49 AM

I was looking over my blog and realized I  forgot to post pictures of our sunflowers this summer! They were beautiful and such bright additions to garden. Here is a sampler:

Fall in the Desert

Posted on Oct. 5, 2006 at 6:53 AM

Fall in the Arizona desert may not resemble Fall in many other places but it really is a lovely time of year. My favorite time of year! Cool mornings and evenings are a welcome relief from the 24 hours of hot we experience in the Summer. The outside world is recovering, new green growth has appeared on trees, bushes and plants of all sorts. My roses are in bloom, the pepper plants are full of fruit and fresh green grass has sprouted all over the lawn. It is already time to plant my Fall/Winter garden!

Gardening in the desert breaks many of the rules that much of the USA has to follow for success. We are blessed with two growing season. Here is my garden wish list: 

Lettuce
Onions
Carrots
Radishes
Strawberries
Cucumbers
Alyssum
Pansies
Cilantro
Chives
Basil
Oregano
Sage
Thyme

My Peach Tree

Posted on Aug. 14, 2006 at 9:34 AM

My peach tree died! What a terribly sad sight. It seemed to have happened almost over night but I suspect it is has been happening for about a year. The last couple of years it had lost three large branches due to our letting too many peaches stay on the tree. This year it is has been a rather ugly tree and I kept hoping it would start to perk up. The peaches this year were smaller than usual and not as pretty. This last harvest seemed to take what little bit of life the tree had left. It started turning yellow a couple of weeks ago and now all the leaves are a orange color and the whole tree moves in the ground when you push on the trunk. Sooo sad.

In My Garden

Posted on Jun. 20, 2006 at 7:38 AM

In My Garden  

Sunflowers - This year we planted a variety of sunflowers. Some of them finally made their way above the fence. They are going to be beautiful when they bloom. 

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Artichoke in Bloom and Two Babies - Our big artichoke plant was starting to get heat wary I think. The artichokes were small and not plump. I read in an Arizona gardening book that this the time to let it bloom. The blooms are beautiful purple color. When the blooms die we will chop off about 90% of the plant. We do have a neat little surprise at the base of the big plant … two little baby plants. They are lovely and green and not showing signs of heat struggles. Maybe we will have early Fall artichokes?!

- My daughter Bethany took both of the artichoke flower pictures. -

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My Poor Apple Tree - I did not realize, until this year, that you are supposed to thin baby apples. I thought that maybe you should but since I had not read that you should, I kind of let the idea slip my mind. Our apples tree has been producing for 4 or 5 years now and I have never thinned the baby apples. I think those heavy loads are taking their toll on my poor tree. It looks sad and thin. I think we just might need an arborist or a good book on do-it-yourself apple tree pruning. It is full of apples as you can see … applesauce, applebutter, dried apples, apple pie, apple …

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A Happy Blooming Vinca - I really like vincas and usually have some in the garden. Most get frost bit in the winter and we end up pulling them out and starting over because they look so bad. Not this one, it survived the winter and is happily doing well in heat. I can see this vinca whenever I look out the French doors that lead to our backyard, I think it makes me smile (at least inside!) whenever I see it. :) The white flowers are really beautiful at night … they almost glow. 

A Blooming Onion

Posted on May. 22, 2006 at 10:23 AM

One of our blooming onions mentioned in the entry below. Isn’t it pretty?

Photo taken by one of my daughters. :)

Citrus Blossoms ...

Posted on Apr. 3, 2006 at 12:31 PM

I love the smell of citrus blossoms. Right now I have three citrus trees in bloom in my backyard - Lemon, Orange and Tangerine. Julie (JulieD'sBlog) asked me to post some pictures so here they are! I couldn't help but add one of the "Mutt" (haha) and some other lovely things growing in our yard.

Peppers ...

Posted on Oct. 27, 2005 at 10:40 AM

Oooooo! Yum! Don't these look so pretty and colorful?! My daughter harvested these out of our garden today ...