New Bed 7

I removed all of the rock that had been accumulating for 3 years from the back corner and filled in the next new bed with Tomato Lady Soil. This will be called Bed Seven.

The Burgandy Plum is flowering and to the right is the location for the Medicinal Herbs bed. So far it contains Echinacea and Lemon Grass.

Here is the vantage from the same location and you can see the new bed with plantings of Catnip and Echinacea and Mexican Primrose on the lower right. There is also Catnip and Corriander in the barrel. Far in the distance you can make out the new compost tumbler that I purchased from Lowes. It was $88 on sale and is really a nice design.

The wall of Peas are just touching the 6 foot mark.

There are Lettuces at their feet.

Penstemmon are flowering all over the garden.

I've been busy planting seeds and transplanting seedlings.

This is the photo for the archives of the Seasonal Changes of the Main Bed in Spring 2010.

And here is the update of the Poppies that were broadcast in the half abandoned walkway.

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

Nice Weeds

Here is the main bed with 4 new melons in it. This weed is some type of fodder that I would taunt an animal with if there was a grazer nearby. We could meet at the fence.

Here is a desert bloomer that I have seen in the wild and I like the form.

Here is a closeup. Does anyone know the name?

The cannas have all but stopped flowering. I added a sprinkler and used homemade compost at the base and will watch them for changes.

Same compost here and all I have left is for the tea Leslie and I are going to make. I saw the amount of bugs happily thriving in my batch compost. To make compost is to raise roaches. I am done with raising roaches.

Did you see the movie the other night on PBS about chickens? I couldn't sleep and that's how I saw it. You have to see it. I happened upon John and Lynettes blog and they have listed parts 1 through 6 from youtube and it's available on their blog. (Copying the link is best, so you dont have blog music and video sound competing). Their blog looks like fun too. http://johnandlynette.blogspot.com/2008/07/pbs-chicken-documentary.html.

Dreaming Blue Iris

Here is a lovely blue iris spotted in my travels in Las Vegas. It is a phenomenal color and I would love to have one for Black Mountain Garden. I have logged the location in my garden diary, and have made a note to return to acquire the seed before the landscapers clean up the dried flower heads.

Here is a close up for it's name sake.

I visited a fellow blogger and they shared about composting in their gardening post. Last November we started composting everything from the kitchen. We compost everything possible and here's what I have to share so far,

I use the produce bags from the vegetables as they are used up. The bags sit on the counter from 1 to 3 days or until it is full. The landscaping pots from mid-sided trees make great starter compost containers for the garden, expecially if you have space constraints. At my last place, I used the landscapers large wooden tree boxes that somewhat taper to the ground, and they worked great in the space and looked neat as well all lined up in sentry.

I could go big and import leaves, and nursery waste, it is just a matter of time. I am at the tipping point. For now I just have this much baking. I leave the pots under the apple tree for the tea to leach out when the pots are watered. Another note, we throw the coffee filters in too and they work their way out because they don't seem to break down, and grabbing them when they are dry is less messy.

The daisy is loving the temperature, and it reached 90 degrees today. There are now flowers on the starts taken from this wonderful daisy back in January.

I pulled starts from the underside of the plant and planted them directly into the soil, and watered them until they took. Signs that they were still alive were that they were still plyable, then one by one they started to lift themselves off of the ground and I knew they had taken, and the slightest new green appeared at the center. All together 2 1/2 months till flower.

Here is Hula Hands that opened completely today. Symba was faster than shutter spead as he crossed the garden.