Garden: February 2014 Spring gardening season

Nothing is better than spring gardening season in the desert southwest. Mid-February is typically the last frost date and planting can begin. This year has been unseasonably warm with temps hitting the upper 80's already. Warm soil means prime germination for many spring veggies. In January I got busy building and prepping 5 new raised beds with visions of bountiful summer crops dancing in my head. The beds are on the west wall of the backyard close to the existing beds. They will get eastern exposure and relief from the harsh afternoon sun. They are filled with a mixture of native soil, my compost, Kellogg garden soil and Kellogg compost. I also sprinkled each bed with heaping handfuls of bonemeal and blood meal and mixed well.  I installed a drip system from leftover pvc pipes  and everything is on a timer so I can travel without fear. On Feb 8 I started planting. Every day I hover over my new starts and seedlings protecting them from bugs and those pesky birds. I planted tomatoes (20), peppers (jalapeños, Anaheim, yellow bell) from transplants. Tomatillo seeds, carrots, radishes, herbs, cucumbers, sunflowers, various annual flowers, nasturtium, marigold, bush beans, pole beans, peas, zuccini canteloupe, kohl rabi, potatoes ( in a separate container), spinach, head and leaf lettuces.  I love spring gardening. 

The old raised beds are still going strong with the Cascadia snap peas being the center of attention. They are prolific and fat and juicy. I snack on them straight from the garden. The broccoli is still producing and very tasty. I have one more cauliflower to harvest then I will plant something else there. The lettuces are hanging on but starting to bolt in the heat. The carrots and kale are growing and cilantro doing well. Also have lots of onions and garlic. 

New tomato bed. Early Girl, Lemon Boy and Cherry. I planted them using the trench method. I snipped off the lower leaves and laid them in a trench mixed with crushed aspirin, eggshells, tomato plant food and  Epsom salt. They are growing well so I think this experiment just might work. Along the wall I planted lots of Cascadia peas. 

Cucumber bed. Poinsette, Sumpter, Boston Pickling, Homemade Pickles varieties. Also mammoth sunflowers. I made a yarn trellis for them to climb. There are carrots and lettuce and spinach in there too. Also marigolds and nasturtiums in every bed. 

New raised beds. There is one more not in the picture. I can't wait to see it all fill in. I'll keep you posted. 

Chickens: New babies Feb 2014

It has been a year since I brought home my first 3 chicks. One passed away (white leghorn-Lucy) and the other 2 ( Barred Rock and Rhode Island Red) have been actively laying eggs for 8 months now. They are happy and healthy and there is plenty of room in the coop so yesterday I picked up 2 more sweet baby chicks to add to our flock. An Ameraucana (hatched 1-30-14) and a Buff Orpington( hatched about a week earlier) So cute. Can't wait to see if the Ameraucana  lays blue eggs. We will see in about 4-6 months! Will keep them separated from the older hens for a while.  For now  keeping them warm and healthy and watching them grow. 

Garden pics Jan 2014

Garden: January 2014

Garden: October 2013

Fall sunset over my house.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything. Let's just say that the severe heat of summer sucked the gardening life right out of me. I did have huge success with flowers so at least the yard and garden looked good. I had success (very very little) success with veggies but overall it was pretty discouraging. I had minimal luck with canteloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and even the zucchini didn't like this weird summer. Oh well. So I focused the last part of the summer on ammending the soil, composting and clearing out pests. I threw in bone and blood meal, fish emulsion, and even my homemade "chicken juice" hoping that the fall/winter season would be better. Well, it's now officially fall planting season and I my gardening spirit has been renewed once again. The drop in temperature and the soil nutrients has renewed my weary plants as well. Peppers of all kinds are setting fruit. So cool! Volunteer tomatoes are blooming and fruiting too. Armenian cucumbers are everywhere, zucchini, lettuce, herbs, radishes, tomatillos, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, kohl rabi, beans, onions and garlic are all thriving and I should have a home grown salad in no time. Even the potato project survived the summer, barely. I ate 5 small potatoes this summer and should have more soon. Whew! I was beginning to think I was a complete failure but there seems to be hope. More to come....

Pumpkin

Jalepenos



Tomatillos Oct 23, 2013



Wyatt 1 year.

 


Armenian Cucumber



Woohoo. First canteloupe!

First Potatoes!

Chickens: First Egg!!!!!!! June 6, 2013



Nuggets laid her first egg today.

The chickens are 18-19 weeks old now and from what I've read, that's about the time they start laying. 2 days ago, my daughter and her friend were playing with the chickens and saw something that looked like a brown egg in Nugget's bum. They also noticed she was acting a bit strange and after researching we all came to the conclusion that she was indeed ready to lay an egg at any time. So the watch began. Hannah and her freind watched the birds for hours but nothing. The next day-nothing. It's getting super hot here (112 today) so I thought that may delay the egg production so I went about my business and didn't think much else about it. Last night I put a frozen block of ice in a plastic baking dish so they could peck at it and cool themselves down a bit. This morning when Wyatt and I went out to check on them, I was shocked to see a little tan egg in the water where the ice had been. There was bedding in it and poop and it was just gross, but the little egg was so cute. Soooo exciting!!!! I assume Nuggets was standing on the block of ice when she laid the egg then it melted all around it.  There was evidence that she or one of them had been in the nesting box as the golf ball I had put in there was on the ground but no egg in there.



Chicken watch party.



First egg!!!!!

This is how I found it.

So now that they have started laying, I got busy cleaning out the coop, nesting boxes and hooking up their waterer to the automatic drip system in the garden. I'll test it out this afternoon when the sprinklers go off. They go off 3 times a day so the chicks should have fresh, cool water all the time. 

View from chicken coop looking into the side garden.

I drilled a small hole in the top and poked the sprinkler head head in so it fits tight. I also drilled some drainage holes near the top in case of overflow.


Can't wait to see if we have more eggs tomorrow.

Garden: June 6, 2013

 Scorching, burning, blazing...just a few words our weatherman uses to describe our weather right now. However you say it, it's HOT!!! Consistently over 106 degrees and climbing..it's just plain hot. The garden is struggling a bit to survive, but hanging on. It's so sad to see wilting leaves but they seem to perk up when the brutal sun goes down in the evening.
What's doing well right now?  Squash/zucchini--nothing slows squash down. Tomatillos and tomatoes are also doing well (with the help of a little burlap shade cloth). Cucumbers and canteloupe are growing well with lots of female and male flowers, but yet to see a maturing fruit. Seems they aren't getting pollinated. I've tried to pollinate some by hand, but still nothing. Where are the bees when you need them? Oh well, will wait and see what happens.
I've been harvesting zucchini and an acorn squash and have made some bread and baby food.

 




He likes it!

Wyatt eating homegrown baby food makes me smile, The other thing that makes me smile every time I look out my window are the sunflowers. They don't mind this heat one bit. If I could keep the birds from eating them, it would be even better, but they certainly are beautiful. They range in size from 12 inches tall to 10 feet tall and I love love love them.

Squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes

What's not doing so well are the green beans. They look good and after plucking 12 or so beans, I've seen nothing since. Not sure if those darn birds are eating them or if it's just too hot...not sure. Oh well.

At least the zinnias are standing tall and blooming throughout the garden and the flower pots. So pretty.

Remember my carrot projects? Mostly failures, but I was pleasantly surprised this week. I have mostly desert landscaping in the front yard, with one lonley pot full of pretty flowers. I must have dropped a carrot seed in at some point, because look what I pulled out of that flower pot.......Seriously???? I can't grow carrots to save my life and the biggest one I've ever seen was growing in the flowers. It was the tastiest carrot I've ever eaten too. Amazing. Oh well, wish I could say I meant to grow it, but that would be a lie.

Giant carrot of unknown origin hidden in my flower pot.