Gardening, anyone?
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I noticed my poor blackberry bush is low to the ground this morning. Hopefully there's no damage and it's blooms are just to heavy for it to hold it's head up. I'll add some tomato cages for support. DH found my receipt for the Miracle Grow potting soil I'm using on my straw bales. He said "Holy crap! Dirt isn't dirt cheap anymore is it?!" He's such a cute dork! Love him to pieces!! I'm hoping I can get 15 bales planted today but as sore as I am from yesterday I'm not holding my breath. It's hurts to much when I hit the ground!
Hugs to All 🤗
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Scottie those fig trees look great to me. Mine are in pots and very small.
Wench, he will forgot about the price of the soil as he savours the fruits (or veggies) of your labor. :-)
We have a goose sitting/nesting in front of one of the buildings here at work. It is almost funny to see her mate as he guards her from the people trying to get into the building. It seems many are now using the door on the other side of the building.
Supposed to be 90 here today. I won't be home until 8 so no planting tonight. :-( I am still hoping to finish up by the beginning of next work week but have to keep an eye on the weather. I would hate to get my peppers and tomatoes in and then have strong winds or hail push them down.
I forgot where I read it on this site but it's nice to know some of the things I feel are quite normal with my sister survivors. One is that waterfall feeling when I drink something cold.
~Heidi
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New Mexico is getting a nice soaking rain today, which is unexpected. We have not had rain in awhile, so the moisture is good for all the things blooming. We have more chance of rain this weekend too!
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I watched a pair of Mockingbirds with a nest convince an entire medical school not to use the shortest path between the building and the parking lot. Boy, they are fierce!
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It's amazing how fast the birds can build their nests too. There used to be a nest above our front door that a House Finch used for a few years. Then one day it was totally destroyed. No baby Finches last year. Today there is a brand new nest up there. How do they do it?!
New Finch nest, you can see where the old nest used to be on the left. The new nest is so green, she used mowed grass and moss to build it.
Wild blackberry bloom
Giant Blackberry bloom
A critter was nice enough to plant this wild berry bush in my old rose pot. It's thriving so well I don't have the heart to pull it out. Besides, it's not hurting anything.
I got my bird netting up over my giant blackberry and giant blueberry bushes. Hopefully we will get to eat some this year.
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Love all your photos and stories ..
We ( Hubby , my sister and I ) are going on a Mystery Bus Tour today with our gardening group ..We have morning tea and lunch out with them ..I'm excited to see where they take us ..😊
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Lucy, that sounds like such fun! I want to go too
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Here's a few pictures I got while getting in my 5,000 steps today.
Baby peaches
Baby cherries
Baby geese. I couldn't believe how close they let me get to them. I'm about 10 feet away!
Baby possum. Mama came over for dinner last night and the little stinker crawled out of her pouch! So stinking cute! I wanted to hold it but figured I'd get bit so I didn't try it. It was taken through the screen door as Mama would waddle off when she'd see me.
Until next time 👋
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New to this site and completely LOVE the great info. With my recently being diagnosed I am in info overload and had just considered I needed to step away to give myself a break from cancer and viola' I found this thread.
Ladies, plants/mother nature just soothes the soul for me. So this is just plain great to see. Love the pics. I love just about anything to do with plants.
Had an MRI done yesterday and many errands but at the end of the day I had it in my mind I was GONNA set my tomato plants up in their permanent raised bed. It was late and I know hubby wasn't getting the urgency of it. It wasn't so much for the plants as it was something "I" needed. I needed his help as I had headache/fog from MRI and he was wanting to bail on me. I lost it. I've not had a burst of emotion throughout this whole process of learning about cancer, but last night by golley, I was GONNA put my tomato plants out. And I did, it just wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been (smile). BUT, now they are in their permanent home and I can train them up their arbor and enjoy their growth and more importantly enjoy the tomatoes. . . . and feed my soul too.
Anyone doing any raised bed gardening?
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WenchLori, great pictures! Now I am going to have to take some this weekend and share with ya'll too.
Lucy, what an awesome thing..a mystery trip. I would love for someone to whisk me away for a surprise treat.
Welcome, Gardennerd. New diagnosis is always hard to work through. Mine was just a year ago and I remember the confusion, the anger, the tears, and then the hope. Yes, gardening does feed the soul as well as the body. I have to admit that I had a little smile appear as I read about you losing it. Not that I have EVER done that. *cough cough* My peppers and the couple of tomato plants I have so need to get in their place but I only have time on the weekends and we are due for some more rain tomorrow. Yeah! on the rain but not good with the wet soil to try and plant. I do have a small raised bed section that I use for garlic and lettuce. I love raised beds and wish my entire garden was that way as bending over is no fun the older I get.
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Welcome Gardennerd, I'm using straw bales as my "raised beds" does that count? 😉
It's chilly here today. Poor little guy is trying to keep warm while waiting for the squirrel to get away from the feeder. The House Finch was so wrapped up in his feathers I was actually able to pet him once!
We didn't get the storms forecasted last night and that was good! I'd forgotten to get a picture of my irises so I was thrilled to see they were still there this morning!
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Heidibird, I can only grow garlic and lettuce during winter time. My winter garden is really my favorite. We use cinder block for raised beds mostly. I love the height in particular. Less weeds and more control with raised beds with the soil. We have lots of oak leaves and so we have compost to fill the deeper beds. What kind of lettuce do you grow.
WenchLori, straw bales certainly count. I love your bearded iris! Beautiful color. These are the flowers I associate with my mother. I was raised up north and most bulb type flowers do not do well where I live now. So I have to admire from afar. But I so love a bearded iris. This is my moniker photo.
Back to straw bales. Do you have problems with varmints getting into the straw? We generally use wood or cinder blocks. The wood looks better, but the cinder blocks provide a taller garden bed. I'm lazy when it comes to gardening and so the higher the better for me.
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Good morning friends- New Mexico is going to have another and hopefully final blast of winter. Cooling down and risk of frost the next couple night. Going to have to cover the pots, gardens will have to fend for themselves!
Will post some more pics soon!
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Gardennerd, I haven't seen any varmints yet. 🤞🤞 Although I did find raccoon tracks all along the top of my potting soil but no damage. My biggest concern would be moles so I'll spray the perimeter of my garden with mole repellent. I need all the worms I can get in my bales.
Jazz, it's going to be chilly here for the next few days but no freezing temperatures. I'll cover my herb I planted in my bales with frost blankets just in case.
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I checked on my garden this morning and noticed I have mushrooms growing and mold developing which are very good signs that my bales have been fertilized properly. I also have romane and radishes coming up already and I just planted them on Monday, very good signs so far! Keeping my fingers crossed 🤞
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Wenchie- watch for this cold front moving through the west and maybe headed your way. It dumped big snow in CO last night and brought us cold rain today. Rain is good for the desert! Sounds like things are coming along!
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We had major storms pass through our area tonight. We lost power to boot but only for a few minutes. I was worried all my potting mix and seeds would be washed off the top of my bales but everything seems to be where I left it. I've also got some carrots poking their little heads up since I checked the garden this morning. I'm glad I waited to transplant my pepper and tomatoes forafter the storm passed or they would have been lost to the torrential rain. So far so good 😊
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Glad your plants survived the storm. I always love the point when seeds become plants and poke out like your carrots. So cool.
Every year I try a few new plants. This year lemongrass, pickle cucumbers and an Asian cucumber. I generally grow a few gourds, this year trying the big bowl type.
My favorite tomatoes are the smaller guys . . . cherry/grape and Romaine.
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We just bought a Japanese maple to replace an apple tree we cut down in the planting strip. Took our 30% off coupon with us, asked for help and received an excellent employee who really knew the trees. It has green leaves in the summer and turns orange in the fall. We didn't want the red leafed kind because we have an ornamental plum with dark purple leaves very close to it. It's a nice looking tree about 4 ft tall and will grow to 15 ft in 10 years. We're still digging out the stump, so it will live in the pot until we get that done. We planted 2 pie cherry trees last year, both small. Probably won't get cherries for several years. It is really hard to find the sour pie cherries. We visit the growers when we go down to see DS.
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Wren, my Japanese maple is of the reddish variety.
The leaves on my Japanese maple are really taking off this week. It was only a couple of days ago that the leaves were just starting to bud. My lilac bush is flowering very nicely.
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I've been so busy getting my garden going I didn't even realize that our trees have full leaves now. Duh! Hopefully everything stays in place for the next 2 days of storms.
DH was on the computer all of yesterday morning. When I'd come around he'd ask "Can I help you?" That's my cue that he's shopping for me and to go away. I had planned to stay in my nightgown all day yesterday but DH said I couldn't go with him dressed as I was. I told him that he loves me so much that he doesn't care how I look with him in public. He said "You lie" we both cracked up laughing! Anyhow, we ended up at a John Deere place and he turned me loose to look at all the pretty green machines. He came out with a salesman and he went over the differences in the mowers etc. I kept going back to this sporty looking fella that I just had to have! DH asked the dreaded question of how much? When the salesman gave us the price I cringed. So I went on to look at others. After another 20 mins DH asked if I knew which one I wanted? I walked over to sporty and lovingly stroked his hood and said this one. Expecting to hear no instead I heard him tell the salesman to get the lady what she wants. The salesman said he was glad his wife wasn't there as she'd go home with us!
Here's my new ride Sporty! He even has a crash bar on the front for running down all the briers! He's so dang cute! I know,I'm easily amused 😜
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Good morning ladies- winter has paid a return (and hopefully final visit) to the Land of Enchantment. Rainy here yesterday, and through last night but woke up to snow flurries today! A friend who came over for dinner last night was texting me picture from the mountains here that got a BIG dump of snow. Not uncommon for this to happen. I covered a lot of the potted plants I could last night and a higher risk of freeze tonight and need to cover more. Gardens are on their own, no way to deal with that?
Wench- I LOVE that little John Deere rider. I don't have grass here (xeriscape with rocks for low water needs here in the desert). I bet you will enjoy your yard maintenance a lot more with that?
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Lori, "Sporty" looks like a snazzy model.
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Sporty is HOT 😘
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I saw these Espalier Lemon trees at the nursery yesterday and thought they look great ..So good for anyone who had limited land ..or just fun to do anyway ..
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Wren44 - your Japanese Maple sounds beautiful. We can grow them in our area also, but most have to be in shade. I planted a Fireglow (Burgundy Red) in our front yard. I was so disappointed to find that most of the heat tolerant species were Red. There is one called Coral Bark that I so-o-o wanted but it would not have tolerated the full sun.
WenchLori - you are my kind of gal . . . bragging on your new John Deere. No doubt you will love. Most of my life used Sears craftsman mower/tractor. When I got married my FIL had a John Deere. From day one riding that mower, I knew my next lawn tractor would be a John Deere. One Christmas my present from hubby was the little green trailer. I love my little trailer. It really makes my yard work and gardening so much easier. Hope you enjoy your new sporty as much as I have mine.
MagicBean - hope you enjoy your Master Gardner group. Feel certain you will. I'm still working but have friends that are retired and thoroughly enjoy their group. And no doubt an excellent way to learn from others. Its on my bucket list.
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I can't believe how quiet Sporty runs and I can steer with just one hand! Finally I can go around trees without doing 4 passes. I didn't get to do the first mow as my chest has been very sore from doing my gardening. I'm sure it's just leftovers from radiation and will pass soon. You can't even tell I've had radiation at this point. Everything is back to normal except the chest wall soreness. Boogers!
Gardennerd, they had riding mowers that came with a free trailer but I wasn't changing my mind to get one. I told the guy we're paying a lot more but getting less. What's up with that?! Yes, I've become a mower snob! 😂
I now have 12 bales with baby plants growing! I transplanted 16 of my pepper plants this morning and I got a few of my planters seeded with my Cockscomb flowers. I put bird netting over them to keep Bob The Cat from using them as a litter box. DH built me a strawberry planting platform from an old stand and a pallet. It looks pretty cool! I'll get my strawberry plants tomorrow. All I have left to do is transplant my tomato plants then sit back and pray to the Garden Gods and Goddess' that everything grows.
Blessings to All
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Busy helping Hubby today continue his path around what we call the forest area ..Both our daughter's replaced their outdoor pavers at their houses , so hubby grabbed them ..I thought he was crazy at the time ..But now more than happy with the result so far !
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Sporty is awesome. We don't have enough grass but if I did a sporty would be on my list.
Scottie
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OMGoodnes! I complained a silver maple was blocking all the sun from my garden. The poor tree is now laying on the ground! I'll add pictures tomorrow. But... my garden is now open to the sun! I felt bad but after a closer look at the tree I saw there was a lot of disease and the center of the tree was becoming hollow. It would have come down eventually and it could have hit the house, taken out a shed, the pool and my garden. We have 5 acres of maple trees but it still makes me sad to lose one. ☹️ On the bright side it ha all summer to dry out a bit and keep us warm this winter 😊
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