How does your garden grow?

Found these to at Hobby Lobby! Love how something so small and simple can change an ugly wall!




Well, 10 days after planting our seeds we have some emerging!

Pumpkin

The pumpkin pushing through the soil

The radishes are out in force!

The Corn

One of my favorite of the Beans. The outer coat of the bean seed is still on

Uncurling from below the soil

This morning before church none of these were above the surface. This was at about 6 pm tonight! Nice and full and green! Plus, there are three different stages of immersion from the soil!

My biggest annoyance with the garden is the weeds! Look around the corn plant and you will see little dark green cotyledons, these are this very invasive creepy crawly weed that I have a lot of trouble keeping out of the garden. Any advise to get rid of it totally?

Looks like there is already a flower on the acorn squash? Not doing too well but the sun is still not at the right angle to give it direct sun.

The peppermint

Some of the pepper plants

The Tomato Plants

The Cilantro, has improved greatly!

Almost 3 years "off"

So I just realized that I have not been truly gardening for a long time. I think that it is for two main reasons.

1. I was pregnant two summers ago and last summer I had a baby.

2. I really despise desert soil!

Well, we have jumped back into the gardening side of things. We (Zane, Myself and my Husband) have gotten the soil loosened and spread our beautiful compost in with it. We have planted tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, peppermint, cucumbers, acorn squash, eggplant, cantaloupe and yellow squash from transplants. Then from seeds, corn, beans, pumpkin, white pumpkin, grey squash, and watermelon. David, my husband, is going to put lattice up on the cement block wall to help "cool" the wall from the intense sun to help with more success on the growth of the plants.

Our plan is to plant a vine of some kind come October to protect the plants from the sun and allow for better growth. But if we were to plant now the vines would die.

Here is to happy spring/early summer yummy vegetables and to a 17 month old staying out of the garden!

A Tour of The Garden

Pepper Plants

Tomato Plants

Cilantro, Peppermint, Cucumber
Acorn and Yellow Squash

Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Our new containers!
The one container which was filled. This is the tomato plant, with green and red pepper and strawberries!

New Plants and "Easy" Stepping Stones

My new plants

Giant Bird Of Paradise

Calla Lilies

A vine that I just fell in love with! Can't remember what it is called

I have been wanting to do stepping stones in our garden, or more the path and have been dragging my feet about it. But when my Great Grandmother and Granddad both died this week, I knew that I wanted to make stepping stones to remember them. I found a kit for $9.99 at Michael's which included the cement, mold, and stir stick. I bought letter stamps specifically for stone and them some glass rocks. In the future all I will need to buy will be the cement. Which is $5.99. Not bad for something to remember loved ones with. I am also thinking of doing prayer stones.

Little Ones Working in the Garden

It is very tough to get your little ones to do what really needs to be done in the garden properly. However, one of the things that our lovely Arizona soil needs is to be loosened up, broken up, turned and have nutrients added to it. This is where little ones are so very helpful. I have done some of the work with my lovely and always present garden claw (for lack of a better word). But after adding manure, compost, and soil additive (gypsum) it still needs to be worked in. Why not have the little ones dig, turn and build towers. Lets them start to garden and you can do other things.
Yes, this use to be the mud pit but no longer. I have planted Giant Bird of Paradise, Calla lilies, and another climbing vine! We have also added Passion Fruit Vines! My hubby built wonderful hanging trellises in which they can climb!

What We are finding in the Garden!

First, I know it has been a long time. But that is one of the biggest lessons I have learned with a garden is patience! We are getting ready to paint our home and needed to move our compost piles. So my lovely hubby did. As he was dividing the soil up and turning it he came across this

I think it is a grub. For size we put it next to a milk cap. The thing was not cooperating and kept moving. What was weird was it was upside down! We have also been finding a lot more earth worms in our soil. When we started we never found any. I am not exaggerating! Zane has loved finding all these cool insects.

My last post I told about my new container gardens. I am happy to announce that there is growth! The first is the potato and then next two are my carrots!



I also wrote about getting roses ready for spring, but forgot to post the pictures. So here is what my roses looked like after I pruned them in the middle of January.
And here is what they look like now! Full of blooms and thriving. These are the first blooms. Some of them have already died but I know that every few weeks I will have a new batch. The white roses are always blooming and the others come in waves. My red ones are starting to open with the bright pink finishing their first bloom and the yellow and pale pink will be blooming in a couple weeks. I love spring!
My memorial garden is also thriving. I added steer manure in Jan or Feb and the flowers have just exploded!
There will be changes coming to this garden. I am not going to be doing much in the way of vegetables because of the low yield and high work. Especially in such a small area. I will still do veggies in containers but the side yard is going to be a flower garden. My oasis!