Run Out of Room

Here is the first Climbing Iceberg rose from the new rose bush that is intended to eventually cover the arbor! Yes, I would like about 50 more of those flowers please!

When you plant unknown iris, you wait for for over a year depending upon when you bring them home for that slight hint of color in the forming bud to their eventual full blown glory and this one was worth the wait! Looking it up on google images, I have found it to be Eleanor Rosevelt. I have about 5 stands of unknown iris and quite possibly I have spread this particular beauty throughout my yard.

Such a little thing can make a big difference! Here is a simple emitter stuck into my watering can and I use this everyday and it saves me from having to walk over to the hose spicket and turn on the hose, then to the end of the hose that is draped across the yard, oh, I need to take the sprayer off, (damn, the water is on!, back to..... ) then fill up the container, then back to the spicket to turn the hose off (or on depending...), then put the sprayer nozzle back on..... Believe it or not I found myself taking my shoes off at the door and walking into the house to fill this thing up at the sink because it seemed less daunting! So now it self fills, and I always have a half full watering can!

The wind has picked up so I have moved all of my babies into the house! I started planting the beds with tomatoes yesterday. I still have winter vegetables in two beds that aren't ready to pull yet. These are tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that were seeded the first week of February. The list includes Hawaiian Tropic, Brown Sugar, Roma, Sweet 100, Violet Jasper, Black Mauri, Warren's Yellow (Tomatoes), Casper, Japanese Long, Black Beauty (Eggplant), Tomatillo, And Red and Yellow Marconi (Pepper).

It's unfortunate but all of the beds are planted, and I believe that I have run out of room....

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

Red Poppy Prayer

Thank you dear God for flower seeds so that I may sow seeds for a wonderous future, and may I realize if I do ever happen to forget,

Oh, how I need to remember to sow seed............ like flowers.

Amen.

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!

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!

Cat Scratches

Once I posted about sowing mesclun lettuce in a clear plastic "To Go" box, and here is a photograph of the next step which is to transfer the seedlings from the box by gently lifting them out of the soil-less starter medium (butter knife is perfect) and transfering them into 6 packs that can then grow until they are ready to be placed into the soil.

And while doing just that this striking Blue Lobelia caught my eye a couple of times from across the garden and don't you just love granite?

In fall, the Purple Iceplant started as cuttings placed directly into the soil a few months ago takes on colors of magenta and pink with it's new green growth.

The days are chilly now and Symba is growing his winter coat. He has taken to sleeping on the Grape Hyacinth in the sun and there is nothing we can do but wait and hope for the best. Once when the wind was trecherous, a child's play surface foam square about 2 foot square resembling a puzzle piece flew into our backyard, and the neighbor denied it was theirs. Symba liked to sharpen his claws on it, and eventually I tossed it because it was always in the way and was puzzling. So I bought him a gardener's knee pad 2 ft.by 7 inches and he has been tearing into that with delight all summer, I catch the handle under the patio chair leg to secure it least it get in the way. Well, two days ago, I brought home a lovely new yoga pad and laid it out on the floor upstairs in the studio and went off carrying about, and later discovered that it too is perfect for a cat scratch pad, regretably. But then it is the color of his eyes and it still looks almost as good as new except where he scratched the hell out of it! So when you take up yoga again, (tickle, tickle) and purchase your new yoga mat (one week is enough time, don't you think?) please consider your pets and store it when not in use.

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