Nasturtiums

Thank God for spell checker on the name of these flowers. I have three different colors of them in my wine barrel at this point, a crinkly looking red one, some orange ones, and one neat looking yellow one.

The last picture is the obligatory shot of the lilac vine, which is in full bloom from late January until early to mid-March.

Poor Neglected Hoes

It's been months now since I've tended to my Hoes. Had I taken the time, I'm sure there were some interesting things going on in the yard worth posting, but at least I'm back at it now.

Our weather has been mild most of this winter, with little bits of rain here and there. Matter of fact, it's supposed to rain later today. We'll see. We had nearly two inches back in December, which provided me a month's worth of rain water, so that was nice.

So let's get on with it.

My basil, which is supposed to be an annual, is entering it's third year, and still doing well. I love the smell of this plant.



I have six or seven pepper plants I've started in pots. Here is one of them. Once I'm finished with my shelter expansion on the north side of the house, these plants will take up residence in the shade during the hotter part of the year.



We have more collards and mustard greens than we know what to do with. The lettuce in the middle is starting to fill in, as well.



The nasturtum, after covering them through the few light freezes we had in December, are growing like crazy. I've never had any grow this tall. If you look carefully, you can see one blooming from the inside of all of these leaves.



The quinoa is doing well, despite being in the shade too much during the day. All of these will be dead by June once the heat builds, but hopefully we'll have some nice blooms and seed at the end of the season.



The Valentine Emu bush is starting to bloom right on queue.



Two of my five roses have been blooming, here is one of them.



And speaking of roses, a few of my rose hips that I, ahem, borrowed from the Arboretum in Superior, are actually coming up after weeks of watering. I'll post updated pictures of these, if they continue to survive.

A Warm Day At The Arboretum

The hoes never get the attention they deserve, so I'm posting our latest trip to the arboretum here instead of on our main family page. So, there.

We saw many an assorted thing of interest this go around, despite the borderline disgusting heat. Because I'm short on time, I'm going to milk this subject for all it's worth and post some additional pictures at a later time.

For now, I present to you:

- A butterly on a sunflower, one of many flowers giving Mother Nature the finger

- A blue dragonfly perched over a man-made watering hole

- An orange dragonfly perched over the same watering hole

- The wife and small child amongst the trees

Stay tuned, more to come as time permits later this week.

Two Shots Is All I've Got

The weather has been brutal most of August, two light rains and a lot of heat. The birds have been boring holes in everything they can find that they think might have water in them, including my watermelons and pomegranates.

We did manage to get an okra off this plant, shown blooming here. Emily had an ingenious idea to back the okra into some cornbread, which ended up tasting fanastic. Depsite the heat, as long as I water the dog out of these plants, they seem to be doing well.




Here is a picture of the one surviving watermelon that I picked after I discovered a small hole in it. Hopefully as the weather cools off these vines will start producing more fruit than the birds can destroy.

No Rain, But A Rainbow

This monsoon season has been underwhelming, at best. Granted, it's rained five times now since the beginning of July (whoopee), but they've all been paltry little showers that didn't amount to much but work for me emptying the puddles from my rain barrels before the mosquitoes can breed (run-on sentence of the day, thank you much).

A few afternoons ago, after Emily's parents called to tell us it was raining across the street from our house, I took this picture of the rainbow it left behind.

Summer Yard Update

Back from a two hour watering session in the yard, I bring you a few new pictures.

For some reason my iceberg rose has decided to bloom in the dead of summer. I was pretty happy having made it this far along without having killed any of these roses, but this is a bit of icing on the cake.

I'm attempting to grow okra and watermelon in the back corner of the yard. Daily watering is barely keeping them alive, but they're coming right along. I have until late November before any cool weather will slow them down.

My peppers seem to be pretty happy growing in my bathtub. That was fun saying that.

Although the leaves on the creeping trumpet vine look horrible this time of year, when the monsoon comes along it starts blooming again.

Here is my feeble attempt at growing squash and zucchini under a shade canopy.

I've taken the cover off of these roses since I took this picture, as they're already receiving decent shade from our eucalyptus.

Even my potted roses are surviving.

Ironic that the tastier jujubes are still green, and don't seem to be ripening, but by golly the butt jujubes are about ready for picking. Yum!

(Not That Kind Of) Herb Update

Ye old basil is coming on strong, I've had to lift the heat lamp up a few notches in the just the last few days. The thyme and dill are also coming along. Not sure where to transplant these to when they outgrow their home, as it's way to hot to move anything outside. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Time to water the yard at sunup tomorrow morning, I'll try to remember to take some pictures to upload.