Sunday, August 28, 2011

Garden Bling

Today I purchased a chandelier at a garage sale for $5.00 and I knew that it was going to go into the garden.


So for right now it is hanging from the greenhouse door jamb. It reminds of ice and sunlight and a beehive. I just love garden bling!

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, hang in there, the heat wave is almost over!



Sunday, May 8, 2011

To Begin Again

How about I begin at the new path edging and start again from there. I decided to line the paths with local rock and selected chunks of basalt from Black Mountain just up the road.

This area has changed alot since the last post. The garden bed to the right of the Peach tree has Green Bell Peppers in it, and the Canna bed from last year has been completely re-worked and now contains Zucchini, Bread Seed and Ornamental Poppies and Black Berries. The Apple Tree is new, and the in-ground bed that is located in the corner actually went in today! Ijust planted it with Melons, 1st quarter, Moon in Cancer. The melon is an unknown to me variety that is yellow with green stripes and is salmon colored on the inside. I harvested the seeds last year from a melon a friend gave me, so we will see if the seeds are viable. It is a gamble for sure.






So there we have it, Scarlet Runner Beans on the greenhouse frame, with Armenian Cucumbers to follow up the netting, flanked by Zuchinni in the whiskey barrels, Green Tiger Cherry Tomatoes are inside of the greenhouse against the wall with Fortex Beans growing on the white vintage metal vine supports. There is alot going on, and the Poppies are sprinkled in the rocks everywhere just to top it off!


The large Basalt Rock flower accents are there to stay. I can't imagine it without them now. I hope you like the rockwork!


Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Carry on, and hurry back!

Friday, January 28, 2011

It's All About Food

My vision is skewed and now it is all about food in the garden. I look to the left where I added vegetables to the In-Ground garden in the fall, and I asked myself what is the difference between the left and the right of this particular garden area. The left represents the capacity to grow food in the desert in the Winter using Tomato Lady Soil, drip irrigation, and cool season plant seeds, and on the right it is pretty much the way most gardens look in Las Vegas right now with dormant shrubs and flowers. And now to me, it is a new place to grow more food.

So I dug up the Lantana, the two varieties of Canna, and removed the Chaste Tree. The mulch was removed and placed behind the Sunning Patio. The soil was moist and you could where tell there was microbial activity under the mulch. The canna did a great job breaking up the soil with their roots. ( I hesitate to grow them again because of all of the bio-mass.) The Chaste tree was spreading roots under everything and had gotten everywhere so it would have reduced the vitality of everything growing in this bed, which was worth a mention. I have Iris and Double Lilies, and Hummingbird bush in the area where I am working. I need to relocate them somewhere else. I like the rockwork, I wrestle with raised wooden beds in this area. I think about Corn, and Melons and an In-Ground bed would be perfect for them, also it would be less confining without the lumber, which then you have to accomodate walking paths, and access to both sides of the beds, and with the walls there and the rock layout, in order to accomodate all of those aspects it would reduce the size of the final planting area overall.
So I think that I can make two large rectangular planting areas, essentually divide the area in half, place small flagstones down the center then off to the left nuancing the flow of the rock in the wall in the forground, which will provide a simple access but still allow for most planting area. So I will get more soil, level the pads, sow Poppies, and be ready for early summer for my Corn and whatever else, until it is Melon time!

Here is what is growing on the other side of the patio right now. Eventually there will be food growing on both sides of the sunning patio.

Here is Cilantro growing in the pot almost in the shade from the south most wall. It is in it's peak right now. I have it growing with Red Onions from seed planted in the fall.
I have Turnips, Lettuce and Spinach growing in the Greenhouse. I need to take some more photos to capture the garden this time of year.
Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Garden on!