Saturday, January 30, 2010

Moon in Leo

The new raised bed is finished and you can see how it fits next to the patio.

Here is the vantage from another angle.

Husband and I moved the whiskey barrels by sliding them on rails made by tree stake poles.

Here is a pretty cool vantage point. Next will be filling the bed in with black dirt. Right now there are a half-dozen Mexican Primrose in the center of the bed. They need to be relocated but not today when the Moon is in Leo, considered barren and dry and there is to be no planting. But it is a time to harvest, cultivate, control pests and weeds, and build raised beds!
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Chi Happy and Free

Today was the day to start the new raised bed for the winter greens that are ready to plant out from the greenhouse. I consider the principles of Feng Shui when incorporating new elements into the garden. There are angles created by the shape of the box that were a consideration in it's design and placement. There would be no chards (cutting Chi) pointing to the door of the house or to the center of the pathways that approach the bed from various directions.

Even the length of the side board was considered so that it wouldn't feel as though it blocked Chi when walking along the curving path. The wood will eventually grey in color and visually become an extention of the patio. Originally I had considered redwood but the color would overwhelm this area of the garden.
The front board requires miter cuts before it can be installed and then the whole frame will be brought forward and settled in.
In the garden there are penstemmons with their rosey leaf tips preparing for spring.
And here is a Firecracker Penstemmon already in bloom.
Here is a Perky Sue and the leaves of California Poppy hinting at what is to come!
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Mind Paper

Buckets of rain, buckets of tears, I got all them buckets coming out of my ears, buckets of moonbeams in my hand, you got all the love, honey baby I can stand. Ahhh, a little Bob in the morning! Can you see all of the rain that pooled atop the greenhouse!

The peas have taking over. Pea flowers would be nice.

Here you can see that I have now started gardening in the walkways. This is a plum planted in the corner of the property which is an indication that I have run out of room for fruit trees. I have already reduced the width of the walkway if not abandoned part of the walkway completely on mind paper.
This will be the next area with a raised bed and it will be constructed with 2 rows of 6 inch redwood. Something to ponder is that there are whiskey barrels in the design area, so they need to be relocated.

You can see the Rose of Sharon Hybiscus that is planted in this abandoned walkway. I am interested in seeing what will happen to this area. I have placed bird netting on the ground held by bbq sticks to control the antics of Cat. I have scattered poppies here and I wish that I had some leaves to toss on the ground to help with moisture retention. Ahhh, to want the simple things like pea flowers and leaves!
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Garden Friends

I really appreciate all of my new garden friends.
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Put Up and Grow

I put up grow shelves and a shop light in the dining room. I have been pricing the shelves for about 5 months, and I just couldn't bring myself to spring for full price, so when they went down to $60.00, it was time to act. The shop light is a 2 light unit for $13.00, and the bulbs are 5000 lumins, full spectrum, $7.00 set of two. (You can compare the plant and aquarium lights, identify the lumins (5000), and locate the same lumins for less money than the plant lights are marketed for.)

The self sown tomato growing in the compost from September is brought in from the greenhouse each night and is placed in it's prominent position on the shelves. I jostle the flowers, and mist it so that it can help it polinate. Greenhouse tomatoes don't have the wind to help them so you have to act like the wind, so they say to blow on them.

The seedlings, as they get bigger are transferred from the cookie box greenhouse into a six pack. These are spinach and blue bells in the back.

Here is the poppy to the left, and the spinach in the cookie box greenhouse. I have already re-filled the indentation from the removal of the spinach with fresh seed starter mix, and planted it with turnips for turnip greens. Odd craving at 7:30 pm, but when it hits you, you have to act on it, so I was planting a row in the kitchen last evening.

So 4 of the six packs are filled with blue bells, and the seeds were a gift from a neighbor. I have not seen blue bells here in Las Vegas, and I had the seed in an envelope with no picture or information to google. The leaves have black dots on them. If they are familiar to you, please comment and let me know what you think. I will post about the leaves and get a close up when they are larger. The second row is filled with "Second Chance" Salvia. It is seed that I gathered from a plant back in the fall that I thought was absolutely stunning. I tried to root a sprig, but it didn't survive, so I am thrilled that I have a second chance to propagate this variety. I have googled it for hours and have not identified it yet, and when I stumbled upon it originally I didn't have my camera with me. Also here with the newly seeded broccoli, that took the bluebells place, is two rows of parsley. The six packs of spinach are headed out to the greenhouse so there will be less plants, because as you can see, I already need another shop light!
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

For The Birds

I threw together this bird feeder post and stuck it in the corner of the garden. This is where I have been working improving the bed, removing and discarding the old Cannas, (which are in the garage until mid February,) contemplating what to do with the monstrous Lantana, although the birds like the seeds, and the butterflies and hummingbirds enjoy the flowers, and us to when they are new in the spring and don't devour everything in site because of their size later in the season. But I see Grapes here, and Morning Glories this spring, and Hollyhocks, and orange California Poppies, and Oriental Poppies, and at that point all the rest becomes a blur.

So I went in to get the camera, and the bird feeder had already attracted birds! Yeah!

And I adore the red breasted one, and I am pleased that he showed up for the photo.

I call him the Desert Cardinal and my husband calls him the Desert Robin until we find out his true identity.

Is there room for four?

The hummingbird over winters and perches on the tree behind the wall in the same location. I hope they will all get along.

The apples last about a week and the birds really enjoy them. Symba has taken to sleeping all day in the house. Good thing he is missing all of the action.
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, carry on and hurry back!