Spring Fever.

See How My Garden Grows – Winter Harvest Continued.

A couple of days ago I went to check out my winter garden. I found more leaf lettuce along with onion and carrots. I made them into a delicious salad.

Here is some spinach that will soon be mature enough to eat.

I left a few onions to see if maybe they would mature into full-fledged red onions. We shall see.

Of course, Lucie my big, red dog always has to get into the picture.

I was pleased to see flowers blooming in my pots. Spring is in the air and flowers always fill my soul.

Lucie and I try to walk daily. Sometimes that does not happen, but we give it our best effort. I found these precious wildflowers on one such outing.

Of course, Lucie loves to smell the flowers as much as I do.

Love that big, red dog.

See How My Garden Grows – Winter Harvest

Last Fall when I haphazardly threw seeds into my garden, I never thought I might produce any edible veggies. I was wrong. Every seed I planted did not germinate, but  a few took hold and I was pleased to see life throughout our so called winter.

During the last few weeks I cut the tops of my green onions and used the chives in a variety of dishes. The aromatic smell fills the house and adds a wonderful flavor to beans, eggs, and salads. I did not go crazy with the amount of seeds because as I found out one year with cucumbers, you can only eat so much.

Here is a couple of green onions I harvested the other day. I used them in lentil burritos along with three cheeses. I do no have a recipe because I just do not roll that way.

This lettuce, called Black Seeded Simpson, is a leaf lettuce. When I tried to grow it during the hot summer months it tasted bitter. Today it is perfect. I am making tacos later and will enjoy this delicate leaf along with avocados and tomatoes.

I was nosing around my overgrown, unkempt backyard and as I was clearing some weeds ran across a cactus I planted awhile back. This cactus, named Old Man of Mexico has white hairs covering the spines and can grow over 20 feet tall. Mine is barely a foot at this point. I think it was only a few inches when I brought it home. I am thinking of transplanting back to a pot because you never know where you will end up.

See How My Garden Grows – Dang How Long Has It Been?

The summer before last I attempted to grow a plethora of veggies and flowers.  I succeeded with some and failed with others. Considering I live in the Desert Southwest where the temps reach over 100 degrees on most days during the summer, I think I did my best.

Last September I decided to throw out a few seeds to see what what would happen. My conclusions are, not to try so hard. Give it your best shot and God willing, you just might get something without working so hard.

I was pleasantly surprised to find life in the garden. Not much life, but still. Life

Here are my onions that are providing me with some tasty chives. I added them to ham and beans, egg salad, and breakfast burritos. I am hoping the onions will mature, but I am not counting on that happening. Oh, and a couple of carrots came up too.

This is a small patch of lettuce. We shall see how they turn out.

While I was out picking up Miss Lucie my big, red dog’s poo. I found a couple of plants growing in the yard. I am quite sure this is a succulent. I love the red color. I promptly picked up a shovel and transplanted it into a pot.

This pretty little plant now resides next to a succulent that I picked up at our local home improvement store last summer. The bright green accented with red pleases my eye every time I gaze upon it.

My very best friend, Lady Red gave me some aloe and a plant that for the life of me I can not remember the name. I thought the plant was gone. While picking up poo, I was pleased to see that the plant was still there, small yes, but still alive. I once again grabbed the shovel and transplanted to a pot. Also, notice the one small marigold in the pot. This lonely, little flower was growing next to this plant. Anyway, I figured they should live together in the pot as they did in the yard.

Of course, Lucie my big, red dog likes to have a hand in planting and gardening.

I guess she was once a farmer in another life.

Spring is in the Air.

Actually it is more like summer since the tempurature is supposed to reach near 90° today. The Desert Southwest is not much for seasons. It is basically hot for six months and semi-cold for six months.

I am feeling the itch to start gardening. I won’t be putting in a formal garden this year. I am going to try gardening in pots. I do not have the room were I live and my back yard is dirt so I am not going to fight my dogs from getting muddy and tracking it all through the house. No way, Jose.

I need to do some research on just what I can grow in pots. I know tomatoes can get big and I am not sure what size pots I will need. I am also going to give the herbs another crack this year.

One good thing, I will be able to move the pots out of the sun so my veggies do not get burned up like they did last year. I am fighting the urge to go the big home improvement store. Sigh, just a little bit longer.

See How My Garden Grows – Thank God It Finally Cooled Off

Finally, temperatures under 90 degrees. I shut off my AC and opened some windows. Last week, Corvette decided to harvest. I guess that is ok, except he picked a perfectly good bell pepper that I was hoping would get bigger. He sheepishly walked up to me with said bell pepper and MORE cucumbers. I am looking into pickling them. And pickling Corvette for picking my pepper before it was full grown. Grrrrr.

Anyway, here is the harvest this week.

Peppers before picking.

Like the red.

More peppers to add to Corvette’s collection. Yippee.

This may someday be an artichoke. I am hopeful, but not convinced.

Holy Cow! I think this is a zucchini growing on my bean fence. Where are the beans? Oh yea, evil sun.

Corn is looking good.

Hah, evil sun!

A red dragonfly on the corn

Pretty wildflower.

And Miss Lucie Lu, my big red dog. She chose to lay on my thongs. Lazy girl enjoying the cooler weather.

See How My Garden Grows – Pepper Series

Well, the only thing surviving in my garden right now is peppers. Trust me, they are not peppers that I like so much. I have no desire to burn my mouth off. But, they are pretty to look at.

Nice colors!

I can not eat them, but I can enjoy the colors.

Just look at that Bell Pepper. Back at you evil Sun!

Look, corn!

Love that corn baby!

I saw a grasshopper sitting on the wall of my house. I ran to get my camera to try and snap a photo of it, but my big, red dog Lucie had other ideas. Like eating it. Damn Dog.

After that, she took some time to pull a sticker out of her foot.

Then she sheepishly looked at me for ruining my grasshopper shot. Lay down Luce.

See How My Garden Grows – Time For Some Harvesting.

As we get to fall, I wonder how long this garden will last. The aparagus plants continues to mystify me. It is now basically drying up, so I do not know what to think. One the other hand, my peppers are really starting to take off as are the cucumbers. I harvested three this week. I am going to try making pickles. I went to the store today to get supplies for pickle making but I could not find a mix for sweet pickles. I can not stand dill pickles so I will have to try a different store.

Anyway, here are my photos from this week or rather last week because I took so long to edit them.

Here is the perfect cucumber. Soon to become a pickle.

Here is another one. I decided to harvest this one too since these cucumbers are one steroids and if I leave them one more day I will not be able to get out of my back door.

And another next to one that was killed by the evil sun. Why? Because it can.

Nice Bell Pepper. Looking good.

But….The evil sun has struck again. Had to harvest in order to save the pepper. What good parts are left will go on my veggie sandwich tomorrow.

Here is my pretty, red pepper and still clutching the leave.

My corn is getting tall and so far the nice evil sun has been kind. Hoping to see the first corn sprouts soon. Ok, I know that is probably so wrong. Grandma M, help me out here. I mean really, you choose to raise me in the concrete jungle and not the farm!

Here is a little yellow pepper guy, hanging smack dad in the middle. Cute little guy.

OMG! The zucchini has escaped out the back of my garden. Maybe it will bear out there. It certainly has done nothing but attach to every other thing growing in the garden without a single zucchini in sight! I want me some fried zucchini. Now!

Here we have a single carrot growing in my corn crate. Funny, I planted a whole row there. One flippin carrot comes up. Story of my life.

Here is my harvest for the week. For some reason the carrots in my garden are just not getting any better or bigger. I think that would be due to Corvette insisting on planting too many seeds to close together. So let’s just call them baby carrots. Yea, that works.

I found some other interesting things in my garden. Seems my yard is bursting with spiders. Great. Check out this one on my corn.

And this one on the swing set in my yard. After I took these photos these webs met my broom. Funny, looks like my neighbor’s tree is in the middle of that web.

Of course, my big, red dog Lucie always acompanies me on my garden adventures. Because hey, you never know if you might find a butterfly to chase or a cricket to eat.

Ever wonder why I never feature Buddy, my Chihuahua? Well, all he ever wants to do is scratch on the back door to get back in the house. Loser.

See How My Garden Grows – Moving Into A Fall Series

Since it is still quite warm here, my garden continues to bear. My bell peppers are really just starting to produce. Hopefully in a few weeks, I will be able to harvest them. I can already smell the tacos, burritos and veggie sandwiches.

Unless Lucie finds them first.

I am assuming that this is asparagus  seed pods. Funny, they look like snap beans.

I managed to capture a bee on my corn.

After a little nosing around, I found this zucchini. Another couple of days and this little guy will show up for dinner.

I can not pass up on including a photo of my sunflowers.

While taking photos, I ran across this spider web in Lolly’s tree.

Another view.

I also noticed many tiny butterflies hovering around my marigolds. I tried to capture them but failed to get a good shot. I also noticed two adult butterflies dancing around Lolly’s tree. You must look closely at this photo. The butterfly is in the upper left-hand corner. All the more reason to hopefully upgrade to a Nikon D70. Christmas is coming. (hint, hint)

I caught a little video of one of the butterflies. It is brief and the best I could do with the point and click.

And of course, Lucie was intrigued over the butterfly adventure too.

In fact, she pretty much demolished a bush trying to catch the babies. So the saying, Dog and Butterfly?

See How My Garden Grows – A Summer Series

I did not get many great shots this week. So I will just share what I did get. I might add that I can feel the slight change in seasons. For what it is worth, there is not much of a change here in the Desert Southwest. Still, the wind is different and I know that the scorching weather is behind us. Hopefully, my garden will yield more than a cucumber or two.

I have plenty of zucchini flowers. Only found  a couple though.

This is my artichoke that was smothered by the cucumber plants. I just found out that like my asparagus, the artichoke will not bear for a couple of years. Great.

The second attempt at corn is going well.

Sunflowers continue to bloom.

Ohh, I have Bell Peppers!

In case you are wondering about Lucie my big, red dog, she spent her time trying to find a tarantula living under this ice plant.

Hey, I think she has some pointer in her.