Around the Yard

The summer has moved along really quickly.  I'm sitting here wondering where July went...

Our garden is still green.  Our plants are beginning to flower again after the usual July slump.  The hornworms are creeping out of where ever they come from.  The new chickens have moved in with the flock (best move in yet).  One of them has even layed her first egg, which I find just as exciting now as I did a few years ago.

The side yard.

Happy Basil.

Started some new zucchini to try for a second round.

Pikachu (the oldest named her) strutting around after laying her first egg.

One planter is full of beans.

We didn't space out our carrot plantings as well as we did the beets this year.

Little Butternuts.

We tried Nevada Lettuce (found it at Lowes) this year and it does seem to tolerate the heat better then many lettuce.

Sunflowers make bees happy.

Make it Rain

A plea to the Gods of Weather....

If it's going to be this sticky in the "dry" Southwest, make it rain.

The plants in the yard are begging for it.

I'm begging for it.

The power bill is begging for it.

Seriously, if it's too humid to run the swamp cooler, then I'd better see some rain.

Thank you in advance.

Why Hello There

It's been too long.  And I know that not by the date of my last post, but by the fact that I had to do a password recovery.  Didn't have a clue what it was.

My bad.

We are still here.  We still have a garden.  It still has plants.

These are photos from last week.

Cucumbers sprouting

Peaches

We newspapered and strawed the pepper plants.

Roly Polies think they like radishes.

Tomato

Beet sprouts

I'll work on getting more recent photos this weekend.  The lettuce is holding out against the heat.  The cauliflower isn't holding out as well, one day we see the little bit of white, the next it's flowering.  We've been happy to see the fruit popping up on the trees.  Hopefully the strong winds haven't knocked them off.  I've been kinda scared to check.  We're also getting excited about the fair in a couple of weeks.  Can't wait to show off the veggies.

The Veggies are at the Nursery

Presidents' Day weekend is when the starts find their way to the local nursery.  Last year we didn't seem to have the same luck with the peppers as the year before when we planted quite a few in a family group.  So we're going back to keeping the peppers together.  We still have a line of last year's peppers that survived the winter, so we'll see how they do.  

We grabbed a few tomatoes, also.  We put some out front in the new addition.  The others in various spots in the back.

Some of the squash has popped out of the ground.

We've been cleaning up, clearing the winter things that got blasted by the warmer than normal temperatures.  It's hard not to get excited by the thought of warmer months to come.

Happy Valentine's Day

Global Warming, or Dumb Rodent

I'm not saying the groundhog lies, but I'm starting to suspect that he's only speaking for the Eastern half of the US when he "sees his shadow" and it's declared that there will be 6 more weeks of winter.

Seriously, we watched the weather report this morning and the highs are upper 60's/lower 70's.  We took the plastic off of everything, including the greenhouse.  We planted seeds in pots and in the ground.  Seeds I planted last week that were nowhere to be seen this morning burst though the soil by the late afternoon.

We saved some of last year's potatoes and they were so happy that they were
already sprouting for us.

We're a little late starting some of these for the weather here, but since there is already
plants in the ground were they will eventually be, better late than never.  And even better, they
are living outside since it is so warm.  

We expanded the front yard planters.  It's startling how much larger our yard looks now.

I love this lettuce.  It's called the Marvel of the Four Seasons, officially it's in French, but I'm not
looking up how to translate that.  It's yummy.  The kids like the flavor.  The leaf seems like they'd work for wraps.
I'm hopeful for how it will do in the summer and fall.

Look! No cover!

Broccoli has been bolting a little since it's been so warm.
It was still yummy in tonight's dinner.

 I've got a before and after for you.  We planted two tomato plants into a tire planter last spring.  After the heat of the summer, they took off.  We wrapped them up in December when the freeze came to destroy all of our green tomatoes.  They held on.  Today we harvested 7lbs. of tomatoes, some still green.  We trimmed it way back, keeping the areas that were starting to grow.  It's startling to look at, much like the grape vines we just trimmed.

Yummy tomatoes!

We tried to save last year's Basil, it didn't work.  So we tore it out, turned
the soil, planted the seeds from last year's Basil.  The parsley was a surprise.
It's been wrapped up all winter, and has had no water.  Green as can be.  Who knows...

We got some flowers for Riley.  She loves them.

It might be starting to bolt, but it sure is yummy.

Warm January

While the east has been smothered by the Polar Vortex (it seriously sounds like a bad Hollywood movie), we have had outrageously wonderful weather.  So warm that the broccoli has been bolting.  I opened the side of the greenhouse yesterday to keep it from getting too hot in there.

The chickens like the warmer days.  At least I think so, since their egg production has gone up.

They always seem so suspicious of the camera.

The front garden is getting slightly more sun as it is starting to creep up higher in the sky.  I took the plastic down since it's been so warm, but kept the frames in place because I still think we might drop back down in temps.

The peas in the little box are happy as ever. And I'm happy to say the bees have found the blooming peach tree.  We thought we might have to put out sugar water to get their attention, but they were happily buzzing around yesterday.

Our late producing tomato plant that we kept from freezing last month is repaying us in lovely red fruits.

In the greenhouse the plants are thriving. Happy radishes, Brussels Sprouts, leeks, carrots, beets, and fennel.  The broccoli and cauliflower are getting a little stringy from the warmth, but opening the sides during the day should help.

All in all, it's been a beautiful month with some lovely salads for dinners and lunches.