Crossed Poppies and Garden Changes

 The final blooms of the frilly poppies are underway now. There are crosses of frilly pink poppies with breadseed poppies, and they are huge! Even the poppy seed heads are huge as against my wrist in the above photo. That is the breadseed influence.

I am saving the seeds of the crosses to see what they do next year, since they will be crossed yet again.

 I finally got rid of the gravel in the garden. It used to be against the sidewalk and ran like an island through the middle of the yard. Walking on gravel is like walking on marbles in my book.  I hated it, and I so happy that it is gone.  It is one of those little things that I am glad that I can cross off of the list!

After the rock was removed, the area really opened up, so I decided to increase the larger circle bed by another foot in diameter.  It added more space to plant more vegetables! Dance of joy!

 The columbine seed that I picked from a flower from a trip to Taos, New Mexico in 2010 came up last year, but it was only recently when it flowered that I realized that it was the yellow columbine from Taos, and not the red and yellow mix seed that I had planted there since. 

 The iris are almost finished.  This is the last of the iris show.  It was magnificent!

Now as you can see in the photo in the white bed against the wall, the tomatoes are starting to come on strong, and they will be the focus of the garden for the next few months. I have 33 tomato plants this year!  

 Here is another shot of tomatoes in the bed next to the patio.

I have been looking for patio chaise lounge chairs for over a year.  I wanted something that did not have the planned obsolescence built into them, like so many of the chairs do now with the grasscloth type fabric used as the chair seats and backs.  That wouldn't last more than one season in my yard! So I found these chaise lounge chairs at Lowes, and I can still use the red cushions that I made a few years ago!

 Here is the current look of the new bed I that I am working on to beautify the area next to the back entrance gate (the personal development area of the Feng Shui bagua).  It is planted with honeysuckle, different cannas and a climbing Don Juan rose.  I have marked the wall for the installation of the wooden lattice, and that will be installed before long.

 This is they way the new bed ties together with the rest of the garden.

The lambs ears are flowering and they are so inviting with their softness.

Enjoy your day!

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

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!

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!

New Asparagus Bed

When someone gifts you 8 crowns of 3 year old Asparagus, you start to see areas of your yard a little differently then before.

Asparagus is willowy and bramble at the same time and is typically located in the back of the garden area. I don't have a "behind the garage" type area in my garden so this spot is as close as it gets. It's behind the Greenhouse but in plain view.

With the dirt poured to establish the desired depth, I start placing boulders to create a second tier to the Sunning Bed. Here you can see the size of the boulders and the finished project. I removed the large boulder in the top of the photo and planted the Asparagus, all 8 of them in this bed. It was moon in Taurus, which is a strong root sign, in the Second Quarter which is good for above ground plants (just shooting from the hip). I did some research to find out how deep to plant them and planted them about 4 inches deep. Even though they are about 3 years old, I read where you are not to harvest them for over a year because they have been transplanted and that they still need the time to establish no matter how old the crowns are. That might be a challenge. I'd like to tell you in April if I agree. I definately cannot wait until the Asparagus start to grow!

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

Circle Bed

It was time for another garden bed to be added to the garden. In this photo you can see the design when it was just beginning to take form. This one is called the Circle Bed. I have wanted a garden bed right in this particular spot for some time. I have been contemplating all of the different building materials that could be used for the wall support, wood, rock, a large ceramic pot, but none of those materials inspired me to action. I have just enought wood element, and just enough rock element in the garden already, and I didn't want to disturb the balance.

Then I saw this flagstone brick product and it adds just a touch of refinement to my wild, nature inspired garden.
Using the pickaxe I removed about 3 to 4 inches of dirt and rock out of the base of the design so that I have a depth of at least 6 inches of Tomato Lady Soil when I am done.

This bed will be irrigated using the same valve as all of the vegetables. I decided to tie it into the Bevel Bed line which was tricky because it had been planted with root vegetables already and I had to find the irrigation line and tie into it. I was able to remove 3 of the plants, set them aside, tie into the irrigation, then replant them and it worked out perfectly.

This bed is now planted with 25 cloves of Ichelium Red Garlic from my garden that I grew last year.

And here is the new Circle Bed from the patio!

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

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!