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!

Pearls for Normal Folk

The blue Borage is flowering! Quick, someone freeze the flowers in icecubes for later!

I'd do it but apparently I am too busy relocating shrubs against the house.

I tore out the two small wooden raised boxes that were filled with lettuce (can you believe I did that? seriously, we are talking about food here!) and dropped in the shrubs like 3 pearls against the foundation while also taking away my shortcut to the sideyard storage area. (can you believe I did that?) This area has always been a major flood washout during any rain event. I haven't planted anything against the house before because in my mind nothing will grow in rocks that has had all of the topsoil washed away from it. But then, last year the canna seemed to survive the torrent, so hopefully the leaves of the shrubs will buffer the rainfall and we can have foundation plantings like normal folk!

I also relocated the Donna Darlin rose under the far window, a much better location then where it was before and I am hoping that it will like the partial shade.

Ultimately I am preparing to plant a climbing rose on the arbor. I have decided on a climbing white Iceberg rose. I also am going to plant a pale pink climbing rose against the house and let it fan out against the wall between the windows. I have decided on a climbing Pearly Gates rose. Can you imagine?

Thanks for visiting! To all of my gardening friends, Garden on!

Snapshots and Thoughts

Here is a long overdue update of the garden. This is what the garden looks like from my patio. These snapshots of the different vantage points will help to show what changes have been made since my last posts.

Here is the bevel bed planted with winter vegetables consisting mostly of lettuce, broccoli and purple cabbage. The eucalyptus had shaded this bed so it is in sun until the apricot tree leaves out again.

Two new kumquat trees have been added flanking either side of the walkway to the hot tub. The circular retainer brick seen in the foreground will be added around the base of the new kumquat tree repeating the pattern. I am searching for something to line the pathway (shown on the left) that will hold back the rock. I previously had lined the path with medium sized cobalt black rock but they would eventually topple into the pathway as someone stepped over them, or by dragging the hose around, so I either have to replace them with something else, or pour a small concrete curb and embed the black rock into the curbing and that seems soooo daunting that for right now I am just stepping over the whole thing waiting for an epiphany.

Here is my little somewhat secluded corner. I have been looking for some type of vine, preferably evergreen to plant against the trellis. Grapes are out, roses are out (maybe...), annuals are out, so the search continues.....

Here is the view of the garden from the back patio. I really like the black rock....it just doesn't stay put!

From this perspective you can see the garden without the eucalyptus! I am going to be searching for ways to cover the walls this summer!

Thanks for visiting! Garden on!

New Beds

More new vegetable beds for the garden! I am happy to be adding more vegetable beds to my backyard! I have wanted these vinyl raised beds for about a year, but I was concerned with how they would look with my wild, natural rock garden setting. I decided to keep all of the existing rockwork, and just drop the garden beds in where I could find room. I have to step over the rocks in order to access the beds for planting and cultivating but at least it still has it's original character.

Here is the other new bed. I am going to cut down the Eucalyptus tree. It is going to have to go because of the vegetables and their need of sunlight. Two fruit trees that are already planted will fill in the edges of this area, growing to just barely cover the ends of the bed in the picture above.

It will be a big change!

Thanks for stopping by! To all of my gardening friends, Garden on!

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!

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!