This MG course is addicting

I always seem to head straight to Lowe's after class to get more plants for the gardens. Today I spent over $103 on MORE young peppers (not the sweet bell kind, but hotter ones grown for salsa and chile!) and some bee balm, coneflowers, and four bags of soil.

Kevin agreed to help with the container construction, and we also agreed on getting 4x4 boxes that would make gardening easier rather than using long rows. I have a list of close to 20 vegetables I plan on trying out, from the usual beans, tomatoes, peppers and peas that are already growing in small boxes, to lettuce, spinach, cabbage, beets and squash for the latter months. The west end of the back yard will be utilized for the garden, still allowing the dogs their run area, but allowing the plants some shade from the tall hedge shrubs along the west fence. Our summers are too hot for the plants to survive without some afternoon shade.

Today we talked about garden pests. Mel, the woman I worked with last Earth Day, brought in a few pests for us to identify. Next week we talk fruit and nut trees.

My fruit trees aren't looking too good right now. The Santa Rose plum looks like it's dying from the top down. None of the trees remaining in the back yard have sprouted new branches this year except my apricot.

BUSY!!!

I seem to spend four to five solid hours in the gardens lately. The weeds are as pulled as they will be so far, but lately it's been my little vegetable garden that has been keeping me busy. I moved all the pots closer to the Italian Stone Pine, which offers shade for my transplants in the afternoon. The sun's already too hot for the plants to thrive in without shade every day.

Today at the Earth Day/Farmer's Market I picked up several packets of free seeds, including bee balm and chaste tree that I have been looking for, along with desert and firecracker penstemons, desert marigolds and a few others I've not heard of before. Free seeds are such a great deal!

My bell peppers that I planted from seed in early April are now coming up as seedlings. We have various types of tomatoes and won't need any more, but this year I am also trying various beans and peas to go with the toms and peps.

I really enjoy gardening and don't know how the garden will thrive once I go back to work.

A busy day in the garden...

I worked almost non-stop for six hours planting, weeding, uprooting, transplanting around the
garden. Most of the plants that Mom gave me yesteday now have a place in the yard. She brought me a Lisbon Lemon and Bearss Lime; now I have five citrus trees which should be enough. My big love are the small Keylimes for margaritas and spicy dishes.

I also found a stray Parry's Penstemon hiding in the junipers. How long had that thing beed there? I uprooted it and planted it in the front yard.

I also watered the palo verde to the point of saturating it, drowing out a scorpion and several cockroaches around the stem. (Scorps eat roaches).

I found some Greek oregano that had survived all these years with neglect, so together with some sweet basil and cilantro that has a new home.

I don't have much more work to do in the front yard. What is planted there now will have to survive.

It's the back yard that still seems to be a weedy mess no matter how much I till. Three ant hills don't make my job there any easier.

Master Gardener Class #6

Today we covered vegetables. It was no surprise that the majority of the 22 students also had a garden and tomatoes and peppers were the favorites. I am going to experiment this year on vertical gardening to yield more in a small space.

I will also experiment with spinach and lettuce and place them under mature tomato plants so that the cold-growing plants thrive under the shade of the tomatoes.

Two more citrus trees

I went crazy Friday and bought two citrus trees from HomeDepot: a Lime Bearas and a Rio REd Grapefruit tree, to replace the ones Kevin murdered while I was in Iraq.

The two sycamore saplings and two sumac saplings seem to have survived their transplants well.

MG Class

We talked mostly about drip irrigation systems which didn't interest me much.

But afterwards I did a shitload of work. On Thursday I murdered all my north-facing English Ivy along the wall, transplanted three young Texas Mountain Laurel trees I found in the south yard. Today I bought two more raspberry plants, a lime tree and a red grapefruit tree.

My fingers are sore from all the transplanting.

Ants!

This morning I was busy with removing the old (dead) citrus trees that have been in containers in the front yard for two years. As I removed my beloved lime tree, out from underneath the large container scurried large ants moving larvae around! They disappeared into the cracks of the house outside, but I quickly got some ant dust and dusted the two corners by the front door.

Things are coming alive

Some of the plants that I swore off as dead two weeks ago are showing new sprouts: my Yellow Bells, Potato Bush and all the yellow ventana are still alive!

The mesquite tree that decided to grow in our front yard three years ago is now shooting buds.

All the sages are growing tall and growing flowers. Both pecan trees are now in leaf form. Too bad neither has grown any at all, though.