An Exercise in Endurance

The sun is just over the wall and it is going to be a hot one. Here is a picture of the sunning bed which is located in one of the hotest corners of the garden. (They all seem pretty hot right now!) Here's one of the cucumbers in front of the zinnas and it seems to be doing ok.

Can you see the little preying mantis peeking from the edge?

Here's a picture of the onion bed. Actually those are chives, soft fluffy, ah.......

There will be challenges now because of the temperatures. The wind is like a furnace and there is a tipsy balance between not enough water and over watering. When you do increase the water you can get chlorosis, which can be corrected with Ironite, keeping in mind that we are not supposed to fertilize now until Fall. I look around and I can see the signs of a heat haggard-ness creeping in. This is not something that can be corrected with a hose wand, I've tried.

It reminds me of what Kim said in the opening line of her gardening blog "Delusions of Gardening." She writes, " My dreams of home-grown fruits and vegetables in the desert usually shrivel up and die around mid-July. This year will be different. It will! I know it will!"

Right On, Kim!

This is where we are now. It's an exercise in endurance. I am counting the days until this relentless heat is over.

Thanks for visiting! To all my gardening friends, Carry On!

Looking Skyward

I hope you had a great Fourth of July! We went to Boulder City, where the Hoover Dam is located, and they have the best fireworks ever! Those pyrotechs were merciless. There were so many patterns in the sky, were lucky we didn't all have seizures.

Here's a painting update. Not a cloud in the sky today just some blue. I trying to learn how to paint leaves. Thank God I get to practice on this canvas. There's so much going on, maybe it won't be so noticable.

It rained a couple of days ago, buckets and buckets of rain and it was awesome. We sat on the back porch and contemplated horizontal lighting, and I ran in and grabbed the trash can to catch the rainwater, not really thinking it through because now the trash sits like a strange formed heap on the floor, and that rain water is going be in there for at least a week or so. (I have my thimble ready to disperse as necessary.) I am going to get a couple of trash bins just for rainwater. They will sit empty most all of the time, but at least for those 3 days a year, I'll be ready (unless they have lids on them and I am away.) Ok, I will need some advanced notice.

My new friend at the nursery is very sweet. She said I could take these home and play with them. I think they are called Desert Tomatoes. Doesn't this look like fun?

Michael and I ate at this restaurant a few years ago and had the worst dinner. The chicken was dry and tasteless, but after you realized that it might have been Desert Chicken, it really didn't taste that bad.

Here is another little present. I call this Desert Oregano. I am going to bury the stalks so that they will grow little runner roots. Is this an annual in the desert?

Thanks for visiting! To all my gardening friends, Carry On!

The Green Rollercoaster

The painting is coming along. I have been working on the corner as you can see. It is like riding a rollercoaster. Like I am standing there in the line saying over and over, What am I doing?" Then you play with the brush, it all gets out of control, you kind of like it, then you get back in line. I'll be riding the green rollercoaster later today and I might even sit in a different colored car.

Here are the pink zinnas. The cucumbers are to the left. A couple of the cucumbers aren't going to make it from being divided. Blame it on the Plant Wrangler. I am getting a late start on the cucumbers, but it is ok because this is a work in progress.

Thanks for visiting!

Critical Mass

I found this photo from March of last year and it is amazing to see how much the garden has changed in a year's time.

Earlier this year I recall glancing out across the garden and realizing that I had just tipped the point of critical mass and that things are suddenly starting to all add up. It feels like there's momentum, that somethings happening, and now it's time to get complicated!

I have decided to work more diligently on improving the soil and getting ahold of some garden worms so that they can do their thing. I have only seen one worm ever and it probably rode in with the apple tree. Can you imagine not having any garden worms? Scary thought. Perhaps critical mass is the point where garden worms thrive. Which brings me to this,

I killed the rhubarb. First of all I planted it in a really dark packaged mix and probably didn't mix in enough local dirt which helps to retain moisture. Then I think I overwatered it because of the proximity to the new baby chard seedlings that I was nuturing with the hose. Maybe that's why they grow them behind the garage, because they don't like to be coddled.

Sometimes I feel standoff'ish about my attitude towards the little plantings (this is the desert after all), ah they'll do fine, either they make it or they don't, (bone dry wagonwheels, that desert motif, signify this type of attitude), and other times I feel like I am gardening on Mars and the survival of the colony is depending on me.

So here's some baby basil for the colony. Standard and Purple, Yum!
Thanks for visiting! On behalf of Gardening, Carry On!

Iris Rapture

This weekend is the Las Vegas Iris Society rhizome sale at Plantworld Nursery on Charleston Blvd. As you can see from the photos, the choices were phenomenal. There were so many to choose from that I stood there stunned by all of the selections.

Jennifer was there, a member of the Iris Society we met at the show back in April. She is an avid iris gardener and has over 75 iris in her collection. In speaking with another member, she shared that she had over 200, and as she spoke I stood there speechless. All of could think of was Spring, and nightfall, right at dusk, with all of the glowing blossoms. Iris are truely Otherworldly.

So we came home with "Artic Fox", all white, ruffly with orange beard, "Rustic Royalty", Pale orange yellow on top with maroon falls, and "Baltic Sea", a ruffly all blue with blue beard.

We also picked out a couple for our neighbor. She now has Rustic Royalty and Farside, a purple and white one. I am really excited for her because once you get iris, there is no going back. You are forever changed.

Thanks for visiting! In support of Gardening, Carry On!

Your Lilies All Look Flat My Dear

I have been away painting lilies. It is very challenging and quite addictive. I had to pull myself away to make sure I hadn't been lured by the green paint down the path of no return. Michael said my lilies all look flat, I told him that are space savers. He said the sky looks funny. I am not going to paint cinderblocks in the background as the inspiration photo suggests but instead paint a blue sky. Margaret Kessler, 'Painting Better Landscapes', shared priming the canvas so that you don't have to paint over the white snow peaking through your subject matter. Thank you Margaret.

It's 103 degrees today and the sun is quite intense. I will get some zinna photos tomorrow, and they are all pink, as part of my pink aversion therapy apparently, and also photos of the cucumber plant that I bought Michael. He brought home cucumbers from the market that were old and bitter and that is hopefully the end of that. I don't think he'll buy any if we have one growing in the back. We will see how cucumbers do up here on Black Mountain.

We are going to go out to sing karaoke tonight. Lately I've been doing "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers, and "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac. Michael and I joke that when we get really old we are going to be karaoke hosts.

Thanks for visiting! On behalf of Gardening, Carry On!

Lily Zen

These lilies look so beautiful. Give me a face full of lilies. I want to lay down in a field of lilies and look up at a blue sky framed with lilies at the edges. Lilies just set me right. They inspire paintings and lockets and beautiful satiny kimonos. Ah. Lily Zen.

The first Zinna has opened and it is a fairy delight. This is from a pack of seeds that is a mix of yellow, orange and pink. I see alot of pink in the forming buds. I am somewhat pink resistant. I like pink as a surprise not an expression. You can't help but like pink zinnas.

Thanks for visiting. In support of Gardening, Carry On!