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!
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.
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!
Every once in awhile I take a photo that is my absolute favorite. This one is perfect for the Chaos Series.
The Armenian Cucumbers are amazing! I have picked about 15 and there are currently 7 forming on the vine. It is wonderful to have something grow that is extremely prolific. I want to shout from the rooftops, but nobody would get me..... 
Don't you want to pat the left cheek of this sunflower with reassuring words so that it will fatten up? I love sunflowers. Some are starting to hang downwards as big black flower heads. 
I am curious about the Pickling Cucumber vine to see how large it will become. There are 6 plants huddled together and I have picked 2 Cucumbers already. I am saving them to make more pickles in the next few days. 
The Green Machine Melon is all over the place. It is growing up the wall lattice, up the sunflowers and Plum tree, and rambling down the path. I will miss this dense green look in the winter. Chaos will fade away and everything will become tidy and the path will be seen again. Or not....... I haven't deadheaded some of the flowers, because it is like a bookmark of where they were not long ago and they still catch the moonlight.
Alot of time has passed and it seems like time is going way too fast or there is essentially no time whatsoever. But it is time to back up a bit and post the recent going's on so that at least I can take it from here. So let's start with the Iris Bed which has been re-worked. All of the Hottentot has been removed and I found it to be really healthy, and stealing the health from everything in it's way. So because it wasn't behaving "neighborly", I booted it right out of the garden! In it's stead I planted this Cape Plumbago and about 40 Daffodils that came from the Community Gardens up in Boulder City. They had to be relocated as they were incidently excavated when trying to get rid of the Sun Chokes that had completely overtook a section of the community gardens. I have had the opportunity to experience about three different plants that should be banned from community gardens, Sun Chokes (Jeruselum Artichokes), Mexican Primrose, and Mint.) The bed that I am working on up at the Boulder City Community Gardens has all three planted in it and I feel fortunate in a wierd twisted way to have been able to reconquer that bed from the clutches of havok. But get this! In my enthusiasm, I neglected to take a before photo! Oh well... you will just have to use your imagination.
But back to Black Mountain Garden, the Main Bed is a flourish of many plantings hidden by the vigor of the items in the mid-ground. There are Lemon Cucumbers inside there along with a Zucchini which I don't think is very happy, but the Sunflowers are happy, or at least they make me happy......
The Shaded Bed is not in the shadows mid-day only in the morning and evening which is unusual, but it is planted with Corn and a few Tomatoes and Ornamental Squash planted to drape over the front, then the walkway will have to be abandoned or at least carefully manuveured. 
The Catnip is flowering and there are Pickling Cucumbers planted to the left, with Coriander that needs to be harvested and I actually planted Green Giant Melon seeds in the pot too, to take over and cascade out of the pot and rest on the carpet of Catnip because that is just way to much Catnip, so I will cover it with something, then balance will be restored.
Here is the Green Room which is the Green House that is designed to be completely covered with vines. It is planted with Green Beans and Lime Basil with Armenian Cucumbers that are starting to climb up the mesh. There is another piece of mesh as part of the design which I will put up shortly. The Corn is in flower and it is beautiful. I haven't grown Corn before so it is a real treat to learn about it's nuances. 
The Armenian Cucumber flowers are abundant. They are vivacious. So with that, may you all find vivaciousness in your gardens! 
I was making curtains for the french doors and totally spaced out the time, then it dawned on me that the green house was overheating so I dashed to open the door to vent it. The temperature was a balmy 105°. Whoops! So I propped the door open for a few days so as not to repeat the episode, then yesterday the plastic came down. The Snow Peas survived the heat and are covered with flowers. The Broccoli in the tubs are finished so they will become compost and be dug into the new bed along the backwall and something new will be planted in their place.
Here are the pure white Turnips that were planted in the fall that are today's harvest. One has been left to go to seed and as this was gifted from Leslie's workshop, and originally came from CSN, they might be heirloom and it is definately worth saving the seed to see if they will grow true again.
The pots were freshened up with Tomato Lady Soil, and Armenian Cucumbers were planted in the front of the pots to grow up the frame and become a mass of green overhead. In the center are Nasturiums that grow 6' long, a trailing variety that will also cover the green house frame. Towards the walkway in the raised pots are a bush variety Green Bean.
The plants in the Bevel Bed are leafing out and enjoying the warmth. It has been in the high 60°'s during the day. Some of the plants have flower clusters forming in the centers. The winter weather stunted their growth, but they are still growing in accordance to their individual DTM's. These plants were started indoors the day after Christmas so they have been growing for almost 60 days. This was a good lesson, that cold stunts, and DTM is DTM whether the plant is tiny or full size. 
There was a worm on top of the greenhouse this morning. I went out to push the water off of the roof from that light rain that we had last evening, and there he was swimming on the ceiling. I can't imagine how he got up there, your quess is as good as mine. Thoughts that run through one's mind in response to something like this are wild, Neighbors are slinging worms through the air!
The peas have started blooming which is great because I was thinking that the plastic reduced the light and that might be a problem, but it was early still. Yeah for pea blossoms! I have left the tomato (roma) in the greenhouse now for about 3 nights. The heater vent is closed that would blow down on the grow shelves, but still the tomato did not like the inside temps or the air that escaped the vent (you could see the movement), or being spritz with mist, or all three combined. It is looking a bit rough so I might as well try 40° temps at night and throw that into the mix. If anyone asks about the tomato I will say "Your guess is as good as mine, did you hear about the worm on the greenhouse?"
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!
Here is the inside of the greenhouse. The lettuce and peas against the wall like the increased heat. I'll bring the tomato back into the house at night if there is sign that it will freeze. I haven't been in the greenhouse at night yet with a flashlight to check the thermometer, but my guess is that it may only be a few degrees difference from outside. No room inside here for black 55 gal. water barrels as a source of heat storage.
The starter pots sit on the raised tubs, and they contain the Asian Greens. Seems like all I do is talk about Asian Greens.
The temperature can get to a balmy 88 degrees with 60 percent humidity. I rather like it and the plants do too.
Outside their are signs of how windy it can get up here on Black Mountain. The wind blew over the wheelbarrow, and blew the marbles off of the bamboo poles and so I gathered them up into a little pile until I re-glue them. Just seeing them clustered together is a nice surprise in the garden walk about. 
This is what hungry birds think is delightful to happen upon. These are Lantana berries.
A California Poppy seedling has appeared after the rain, and I wonder if this is early or if they just stagger their sprouting, sprouting here and there for a big show in February-March. I have more seed to scatter, and I thought I would wait until early January so that the rains would water them in, and they could get settled, so I find this curious that a few have started already. 
Finding this Garlic Chive sprayed out and showing it's color of orange and yellow is a curious site, too.
I chopped down the Eucalyptus and this will be the home of a new fruit tree. I can't decide if it will be an apple, apricot or the next changing whim, but I have a few weeks until I have to decide. This will also be the location of a new vegetable bed, too. It will be triangular shaped, so I am excited to see how this will evolve. I am tossing around triangular shaped wooden bed frames in addition to circular fruit. 
The greenhouse changes the dynamics of the sunning bed. Before it was quiet, and now it is screaming for attention. Toss that up as well. The air is full around here. 
Tomato Blossoms are delightful, but I am going to stop with all of the diversions. It is time to open the box of plastic for the greenhouse and get it ready for installation.
I ordered 18 linear feet from ACF Greenhouses but the company shipped 14 ft. instead. Oh great, that's totally blows. I'll let Wrangler call them and square it up tomorrow. 
I had ordered extra footage so that I would have a safety net, maybe use the extra to make cold frames, whatever. The idea of fitting the plastic onto the frame has been somewhat daunting, and I have been preparating myself, contemplating the folds and the way the pieces would be cut and with the least cuts possible. 
But something about today was different. It crossed my mind a little after 10:00 that hey, it was a perfect idea. I felt confident that whatever happened with the design and the way the folds would fall, it would all work out and that today was the day to delve in.
And it came together nicely. The batten is a nice product and I would highly recommend it. The quality of the 6 mil greenhouse plastic is nice and strong. I had made a few buffer strips from the batten to soften a few of the sharp edges in the wood at the angles. Once I got the door plastic secured, I had to go inside and check it out. Something about a greenhouse is so nurishing. It is like an overflowing pantry. It is a sweet, whispered promise of abundance, waiting to be filled with possibilities. 
I am happy the way this has come together, and altogether the experience has been alot of fun. I will prop open the door when it's sunny during the day as I am still working on the venting system, but I have moved the Asian Greens seedlings into the greenhouse so that they can get to growing.
Already the humidity is noticable inside. I also purchased a thermometer with a humidity guage so it will be fun to see what the temperature and humidity are in the morning. 
The green room is framed in and the shape reminds me of a gemstone. I can see why people sit under pyramids. This structure has the same affect on me. I want to hang a crystal from one of the beams, but I have to consider that it might have the same affect as the sun that bounces off the upstairs window that has burnt the chard leaves like a magnifying glass. I don't really know what happened to the chard, it's just that at a certain time of day the sun glare off of the window will force you to relocate, coffee and all. So when a few of the neighboring chard leaves became unexplainably white, I just figured it was the sun glare that flash fried the chard and that seemed reasonable at the time. I suppose I could hang a crystal or two and see if the plant leaves go unscathed? Bands of prism colors are so tempting!
Here is a mesclun lettuce update. I tell you I love this stuff. There is one variety of lettuce in the forefront pot located at about 3:17 that is entirely magenta! It is the only one, and it is the favorite. Another lettuce that I am unfamiliar with has leaves that resemble a hand print. They are delicious! Does anyone know what they are called?
This is the first harvested turnip.
An mid-morning snack before heading back out to the garden or better yet, take them on the walkabout and save the greens for another day.
Here's the front wall. The top and the slanted side are on the to do list for tomorrow. I'm looking into a louvered vent that I understand self closes which sounds pretty cool. More on that as it developes.
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