Addicted To Hoes

All things outdoors

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

More Proof It Snows Here

Below are a few pictures from last March when we finally broke our six month stretch of no rain, and got three inches in one day. About thirty minutes to the east of us, where it's a little higher in elevation, Superior and other locals got a healthy dose of snow. I took these driving over there on a Sunday.

The first shot is of the mountain by the Boyce Thompson Arboretum, a favorite spot for Emily and I (and now Brenna), we have an annual pass there. This recent snow we had barely dusted this mountain, for comparison (sorry, we went over there quickly yesterday while our daughter was napping, didn't stop to take pictures).

Kids, don't try this at home, this was taken through the windshield of the car while I was driving.



Next shot is of the Picketpost Mountains, a beautiful backdrop for the sleepy town of Superior. They have a nice cafe there that we stop at from time to time, a Dairy Queen (at least 50 years old), and a little Mexican diner, that's about it. Again, the snow from this past weekend covered this mountain, but not all the way to it's base, and there was no snow on the ground anywhere in this valley.



Here are the Superstitions from our house, again from last March, and again, much more snow than this past weekend. The three inches of rain is evident though from the water backup in the retention basin at the park.

Fast forwarding to a few days ago, the next picture is of the incoming storm that brought a freak hail/snowburst to Mesa, about ten minutes from us. Pictures of that are on the main blog.

Here is Four Peaks the morning after the storm. I like the cloudy picture I took the day prior better, even with the storm passing through, it was still very hazy and this didn't come out too well.


This next one is an attempt to capture both mountain ranges in one shot. The snow had melted off the Superstitions by noon the day after the storm. Four Peaks is probably still covered, although I haven't been outside the house today and with it 60 degrees here in the valley today, it may be bare now.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Vegetables!

Who knew you could not only get a wide variety of vegetables here in town this time of year, but also for cheap! There is a local market on Main about five miles from our house that we go to from time to time, and after going there this afternoon, I'm determined never to buy vegetables from our grocier again.

Take a gander at the following picture, and take a stab at how much the following cost:

2 red bell peppers
2 yellow bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
1 orange bell pepper
head of romaine lettuce
4 bananas
5 nectarines
4 golden delicious apples
3 pink lady apples
2 cucumbers
1 large white onion
4 roma tomatoes
3 large tomatoes
2 ears of white corn
1 bag of baby carrots
1 bag of regular carrots
2 danjou pears
2 red bartlett pears
6 red potatoes




Have you guessed?

My total today came to 19.02! Amazing!

Isn't produce exciting!

Yard Tour - Part 1

This March will mark our five year anniversary of living in this house, and around that time I hope to post some before and after pictures of the yard and how it's grown during that span.

In the meantime, I'm going to be posting pictures of each section of the yard, and with today being overcast, ironically it was the perfect time to take these (without the glare of the sun).

This first part of the tour is focusing on the south side of the house, which gets hammered by the summer sun, except near the end of that season where the house actually shades the plants in the late afternoon (due to the sun setting so far to the north).

Below is my humble attempt at an herb garden. Hopefully when it gets warmer, the mesquite tree here will shade these plants sufficiently.




To the right of the herb garden is a raised planter that has changed from year to year. The bottom tier is pretty well finished, with a Pepper Tree, golden emu bush, and indian mallow bush from left to right. I think I finally have some plants in the top tier that can survive the summer, a hopseed bush, jujube tree, and some globe mallows.




Heading back to the corner of the south side of the yard, I've planted lots of bulbs to the right amongst the yellow bell bushes, and to the left are my orange jubilee bushes that have been there since we first moved in five years ago. I recently hacked the top two to three feet off each of those bushes, hoping to reinvigorate the growth near the bottom of the plants, come springtime.

At the end of this arch is my lady fountain that I found at Kmart (yep, Kmart, they're not good for much, but I got lucky here) about three years ago. I only run this fountain in the late fall/early spring when we have the dining room window open, where we can hear it running.
Here is a wider shot of the fountain area, complete with two lounge chairs that were supposed to be weather resistant, and after a year are already splitting from the sun. Thanks Home Depot, you rock.


Finally, a look back down the path we just came by.




Thursday, January 11, 2007

Fall's Last Gasp

There are still plants in the yard changing color, even in January. Below is our Fantasy grapevine, planted just a few months ago on the north side of the house. This one is supposed to produce black seedless grapes later in the season than our Flame grape vine that's growing over our back porch.

The last picture below is a random weed that's sprouted on the same side of the yard, which stays shaded and damp this time of year any time we get any sort of rain. There have been times in years past where a large portion of this side of the yard is covered in various weeds by the end of the spring.

The only other plant I can think of that might change before spring is our bush river willow, if we're lucky it will turn dull shades of purple before it's leaves fall off.

As one set of plants are going dormant, others are springing to life, no pun intended. Our hardenbergia (lilac) vine is covered in buds, ready for it's mid-January blooming period, which lasts about a month. From a distance, this vine almost looks like a grape vine, from the many clusters of purple flowers it produces. The leaf cutter bees have a field day when this vine is in bloom, both feeding, and cutting perfect circles in the leaves. I'll post some pictures when this yearly event occurs.







Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Lemons!
Picked from our scrawny lemon tree, about 20 of them! Not a bad little crop, squeezing these was a bear by the end.


Monday, January 01, 2007

New Projects

Emily's dad and brother-in-law came by a few days ago to take Orson's dog house over to his new place of residence, leaving me with (gasp) more room to plant stuff! Oh, happy day! I made quick work of the area left open, creating another Tom's hobo special, an "arch" constructed of old tree and plant stakes I had laying around. The idea is for this passion vine to grow completely across this arch, shading the area below for the roses I plan to plant under it. This is on the north side of the house, so even in the summer, I'm hoping I can limp some roses along better than I did last year when I had shanty town shade cloth hanging all over the yard.


I'm also in the process of taking stakes off some of the younger trees in the yard, so they can toughen up and give it go during the windier time of the year (spring and summer).



Another project completed, with my mom's help, is installing this hose stake, giving me a little more length to reach plants around the side of the house, and giving me a decent place to roll the hose up. I planted some aloe behind the stake when finished, for background.





Finally, spring has sprung here in December, below is a narcissus bulb that started blooming about a week ago, two months after I planted it. I have dozens of other bulbs coming up and will post the blooms as they appear.