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!

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!

Potpourri #9 - Saffron Mix

This special mix took courage to muster, awaiting the combination to arrive like an epiphany, I worked around the Saffron Crocus petals, cleaning the other areas of the table until I could avoid it no longer.

This mix is mint based. It needed something to lighten the base so I went with a pale gray eucalyptus. It contains both Apple mint and Spear mint, Eucalyptus leaves, Saffron petals, Statis Flowers, and a few Hummingbird Bush flowers as dots of orange for a wild note. The last two mixes have been my absolute favorites because of the rich colors that are so pure and stellar!

Thank you Leslie for the Saffron!

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

All Put Up

The holidays are filled with lots of food. It was time to make some room in the refrigerator and get this Harvest thing rolling. I finally got around to slicing all of the Bell Peppers that Leslie gave me, and put them in a large freezer bag and stuffed them into the freezer.

So then it was time to do something with the bags on the table. Diamond, (don't you love her name?) gave out tomatillos at the last Boulder City Community Garden meeting, and I ended up with a bag full. So I went online to find a good tomatillo recipe. I had to get on the scales holding the bag of tomatillos in order to follow the recipe for Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce, so I ended up with apparently about 8 lbs. from the looks of it......Actually 3 lbs. tomatillos, and about 5 lbs. of what we will consider for now "Layers of Extra Clothing in order to stay warm"........ Time to get a food scale. Anyway the sauce was simple. Tomatillos, onions, garlic, salt. I added extra hot New Mexico roasted green chile to spike up the heat. Yum! I am thinking about making Turkey Enchiladas wth the Thanksgiving left overs!

So then there was the Kale that I harvested from Boulder City Community Gardens that was taking up a refrigerator shelf and I again went online and found lots of recipes, but opted for the no vinegar recipe of Kale Chips. Wash, tear, coat with olive oil, spread out on pan, 300° for 10 min (+-) then lightly sprinkle with Sea Salt.

Here they are ready to eat. Dark green and crisp. When they are brown they are burnt. I walked them down to my neighbor Julie who gave me two different varieties of Sea Salt. I really liked the Redman's the best, too btw. Thanks Julie!

I love the Harvest! Don't you love to put it all away!

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