Look! Look! Look!

The third time is the charm for us with regard to growing our own ocotillo in the front yard, right where I can see it out my office window.  It's my favorite desert plant and on our third try we have a thriving plant.

 

Bill and I thought it was dead because no leaves grew despite regular watering after it was transplanted.  We were thinking about calling the nursery where we got it and pulling it out to return and get our money back.  However, one day we noticed flowers at the tips of two branches (arms?) and the humming birds had discovered the flowers as well.  We knew we had a live plant after all!

Such smart plants, these ocotillos; they grow leaves when it rains, then drop them after a fairly short dry period.  Since plants lose most water through their leaves, this is an adaptation for the desert. They can grow and drop leaves up to eight times a year! 

The name of that Mother's Day gift plant

I don't think I ever told you the name of the desert plant I received for Mother's Day.  You can see it close to the camera on the right side.  It's an ocatillo.  This is actually the second one because the first one didn't grow.  I don't have high hopes for this one either, unfortunately.  I'll probably pull it out of the ground this winter, take it back to the nursery, and just get my money back.

Here is some information about ocatillos (my favorite desert plant): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fouquieria_splendens
The article above does not hold out much hope for my plant.  However, I see them in people's yards all over the place, so I know they can be transplanted.

Our little garden is producing!

Not much of a garden, not much produce, but I'll take it! AND it saved me from a trip to the grocery store when I needed spinach for a recipe.

"Mommy! Come look outside in front!"

That was Sophia and she wanted me to see the tree in the corner of our front patio. It's in bloom! I think a week from now will be even more spectacular, but to a seven year old, the first sight of it was the best, so here it is from a seven year old's point of view:

My garden is growing!

Nine days ago I planted the cool weather part of my garden using the seed tapes I made a few weeks ago. Today I noticed the first seedlings are up!

These are beets:

And this is spinach:

Obviously.

Homemade seed tapes

A week or two ago I made seed tapes with seeds of spinach, kale, and beets. Here is how I did it:

I pulled off toilet paper and folded it up, then cut it lenghthwise in thirds. On each long piece I put drops of white glue as far apart as the seed package said for planting, then put a seed or two on each dot. The tape with two seeds per dot used older seeds and I was trying to ensure something would sprout from each set. I'll thin the seedlings if necessary.

I kept lifting each tape periodically so it didn't stick to the counter as it dried. Once dry, I rolled each tape loosely and put it in a bag until planting time.

This post is linked up at:

My new favorite way to prepare a grapefruit

I've heard about this way to prepare citrus fruit for easy eating, but for some reason never tried it. My mistake! I think I'd still peel and section an orange the regular way unless I were making a salad and wanted only the tender centers of the orange, but for grapefruit, where you don't want the bitter rind or even the skin of the individual sections, this is perfect. Perfect! Even dh has been eating sections of grapefruit which he normally doesn't. At.all.

Optimism of a 9 year old

The acorn was planted yesterday.

Afternoon snack

My backyard. Lucky, aren't I?

My meager harvest

Butternut squash was my big producer this year, and except for great basil, just about the ONLY thing I got. I haven't figured out how to grow in Arizona yet.

The odd thing is that when I micro-cook my butternuts I always notice a waxy coating that seems to melt once the squash gets hot. I assumed it was a protective wax coating put on by the processing place. NOT! The squash straight from the garden have it too! Aren't butternut squash smart to coat themselves with that?

Thses are 3 of the 5 I got from a few seeds I planted from a squash we ate around planting time.

I thought I'd have lots of fresh fruit to cut up for a party we're having this afternoon (last pool party for the year as the pool is already starting to cool off) as today is Bountiful Baskets pick up day. As I was pulling on my clothes at 4:50 this morning to go help with the distribution, I realized I didn't receive a confirmation email after putting in my order. Then I remembered that when I clicked on the "order now" button, I got a funny message, but still thought it was processing. They have emphasized over and over to click the "order now" button only once, or I will be charged for and will own more than one basket of produce. I did all that as I was heading out the door and didn't remember to check back when I got home.

I checked my account and sure enough, no order for today. Boo hoo. Now I'll have to go to the store and pay three times the price.

My little garden will soon be ready to plant

I'm hoping to grow everything from seeds this year and avoid the cost of ready-to-plant veggies and fruits.

I planted using old pots, foam cups, and veggie six-packs and used one of two open bags of potting mix. No out of pocket except for most of the seeds.

So far I have:

cucumbers
pumpkins
cantaloupe
watermelon
cherry tomatoes

and

butternut squash

I wrote the butternut squash last because I'm so pleased about it. I cut open a squash for dinner and looked at all those delectable seeds just waiting to be planted. I took them right out and planted two cups. They came up quickly. I do wonder about hybridization, etc, but we'll just see what they produce.

Here are two shots of the same plants almost ready for planting:

Despite living in hot Arizona, the way my yard is situated, I don't have a lot of space to plant. This is my first year in this house and I think next year I'll tear out a bit of lawn for planting. But that's NEXT year.

Except for the tomatoes (they're small because I had to replant them), the seedlings go into the ground this week.

This post is linked to $5 Dinners.

I bought poop

I could have put a more graphic title there, but that wouldn't have been ladylike now, would it?

The past few years I've had a garden I've done something every year to improve the soil. I have a new garden area this year because we moved last summer. It's a deep flower bed on the south side of the house with clay soil that has had some sand (I think) added over the years. IOW, not the worst soil, but nothing crawling or moving in it either. Saturday we went to Home Depot and bought 3 cubic feet of "deodorized" composted steer manure. Yeah, I bought poop.

I poured both bags over the dug up dirt, then dug and raked it all together. In some of it I also put some partially-composted kitchen scraps. I put that pretty deep to give it time to finish decomposing. Overall the planting bed looks good and certainly much lighter than it did before I started.

Here is what we are starting in pots. It's certainly nothing made beautiful, but we also didn't have to buy any new pots or planting mix. We already had old pots and some opened bags of potting mix and used those. There are tomatoes, basil, cantaloupe, and watermelon seeds in these pots.I was waiting to amend the soil before planting spinach. I planted 4 rows, each about two feet long. I've never grown spinach, but my family likes it both fresh in salads and lightly steamed so let's see what comes up and if there is enough to eat. To be honest, my gardening attempts of the past couple of years have been relatively unfulfilling due to difficult gardening conditions where we lived in New Mexico. They are a bit difficult here too because it is really hot in the summer, although the growing season is long. I look forward to figuring it all out.