Addicted To Hoes

2012-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

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.

2011-09-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-08-30T15:58:00.001-07:00

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.

2011-08-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-07-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-22T21:11:00.000-07:00

(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.

2011-07-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

Indoor Herb Growing (Not That Kind Of Herb)

My parents got me this nifty indoor herb grower for my birthday, and they're all coming up nicely (basil, dill and thyme).

I've also added a gourd to my collection, this one never got any larger than it was back in May, but the vine was dying, so I cut it loose before it fell apart, also. Comparing it to the other three, I guess it's not that bad a size.

I've received two letters now from the Nazis regarding untrimmed dead plants in my front yard. Today I took care of the only thing left out there that could possibly be offending their sensibilities. Before the summer is up I may have to trim said plant into the shape of a middle finger to show my appreciation for them looking out for me. Thanks HOA, I heart you.

2011-07-13T18:18:00.000-07:00

Monsoon Season

The monsoon is upon us. It's rained three times in the last week, and has been extremely muggy. Today the weather shifted east of us, so it was much nicer out. While I was out surveying the territory this morning I took this picture. You can't beat having this out your back yard. Here's hoping they never develop the empty lot across the street from us.

Not much else to share, I'm about to head outside to move some vegetables around to see if they'll grow better in a different, shadier part of the yard. I haven't taken many pictures of the yard lately, been too busy just keeping things alive.

2011-06-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

Poor Neglected Hoes

I've been such a bad gardening pimp, six months without an update on what's going on in the yard.

Here's a quick review since last October. It was colder than normal throughout the Winter here, with a hard freeze in late November, late December, and another one in February. The yard took a beating, and leafed back out pretty late this Spring. We've been blessed until this week with an abnormaly mild Summer, eclipsing 110 degrees maybe three times with the monsoon right around the corner. The bad news is that we've barely managed two inches of rain since the turn of the year, which is piss poor even for us desert dwellers.

Here's a really quick tour around the yard, hitting a few things I took pictures of earlier in June.

The jujubees have done well this year, again thanks to a late Summer. Pictured here is the Lang variety, which grows elongated fruits which honestly taste like ass. The primary reason for planting this guy was to increase the productivity of my Li jujubee. Just today I picked about a dozen good sized fruits off of it. They're under ripe, and will probably taste more woody than like apples, but I expect that both trees will be ready to bloom again with the coming monsoon, in preparation of the fall harvest, and I don't see the fruit developing any further in this heat.

Here's one of the roses in my planter box that's located near the jujubees. This is an apricot nectar floribunda, very nice scent. The roses are all struggling through this heat, but with the increase in humidity that's around the corner, they'll be perking up soon (I hope).

For the first time since they were planted, the bugs have left the pomegranates alone (no bored holes). I have maybe ten fruit on my two bushes, and hopefully come September they'll still be intact and ready for eating!

My exercise in futility, gourds, are surviving the heat as well, hidding behind a screen, and sheltered from the afternoon sun by a concrete wall. These, too, will hopefully do very well with the coming monsoon. Growing in the foreground is some lettuce that's bolted.

I've planted numerous pepper plants around the yard, below is a bell that we ate some weeks ago. Despite the heat, these plants produce very well.

I took a stab at planting quinoa, but it got hot before the buds could flower and produce the edible seeds. I'll give these guys another go at it this fall, for a spring harvest.

The grapes got off to a good start this spring, but we had a brief hot spell in May that I think did them in. Production was pretty weak compared to last year. My Thompson's (green) vine has still not produced anything. Pictured below is either the Flame or Fantasy (one is round and purple, and the other is long purple).

My basil survived the winter, and is blooming again this summer, despite the heat.

That's it for now, stay tuned, hopefully we can tend to the Hoes again before another six months are up.

2010-10-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

Moth!??!

I guess this is a moth, found this guy hanging out in the yard the other day. I'll be the first to admit this is a weak garden update, but at least I've posted something here. I recently planted some new roses, so perhaps I can upload some pictures of those in the near future. Perhaps!

2010-08-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

Stormy August

Below is sampling of some storm pictures from this past month. We've received almost two inches of rain so far, which is pretty good for us.

2010-08-18T14:33:00.001-07:00

It Rained

We finally had a humdinger of a storm last night, about an inch of rain dumped on us over an hour. The knock-out rose on the deck seems to have appreciated the temporary change in humidity.

2010-08-12T14:59:00.000-07:00

Return To The Arboretum

In case you didn't get enough pictures out of the last post, here are a few more from our recent visit to the Arboretum.

Including:

- A huge mass of sunflowers, so tall they're leaning over the trail

An heirloom rose blooming in the rose garden.

- Another rose in full bloom, despite the heat (albeit, cooler in Superior).

- A new fountain they're working on building, opposite the greenhouses and rose garden.

- Blooms on an African orchid, same that I bought at a local nursery, lately.

- Butterfly landing on what I think was a zinnia.

- View across the wash from the susension bridge.

2010-08-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Back To The Arboretum, Pt 1

For those of you that took heed of my advise to come back here, congrats, as you'll be treated to some bonus Brenna and family pictures here for your trouble.

I'm going to milk these shots for all they're worth, and post a few installments, so come back soon for more.

The first shot here is of some prickly pear cactus, ripe for the picking (I guess).

You could tell it's rained a lot here this monsoon, everything was extra-greeny, and we thoroughly enjoyed the shade, as it was still warm, despite the clouds.

I stumbled across what looked like a peach tree along the main trail, hidden behind some pomegranate shrubs. I didn't realize they even had any fruit trees there. It smelled heavenly.

Here we all are (except me, someone had to take the picture), resting in the shade.

One of my favorite trees there, by the new Australian exhibit. Of course, they don't have the thing tagged, so I don't know it's name, but I love it's shape and the fact that the limbs weep.

2010-08-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

Mega-Sized Yard Update

With the temperatures dropping, the humidity rising, and rain on the increase, the yard has greened up nicely. Here's hoping it stays this way until the cooler months of October and November arrive.

Below is a quick run through of what's going on outside these days.

I bought this oddity at the local nursery about a week ago, and still need to pot it. I can't remember the common name, but it's scientific one is Eulophia Petersii. I know this because I wrote it down on a card while I was still at the nursery, in hopes of finding some care instructions online. Native to Eastern and South Africa, this little guy puts out five foot tall stalks of orchid like blooms, given the right conditions (which we have here, hot and drive, with short supplies of water).

The knock out roses are coming back to life, after losing nearly all of their leaves during May and June. Beautiful color, and I see some buds on here.

I just recently transplanted my plumeria, and it's already outgrowing the pot it's in now. I can't wait to see if it's large enough now to bloom next Spring.

My yard, for the most part, has no rhyme or reason to it. I sometimes will randomly stick things where a hole has been left by a dead plant, whether it makes much since or not. I got this twenty dollar pittisporum at Lowes on clearance for four, and stuck it next to my Turk's Cap (at right). Why not? Four O Clock's are in the foreground.

Here's another twenty dollar plant for four, a Photinia, nicely nestled between a wall and my Chinese Pistache tree, almost permashade, which is what it needs to survive in our harsh climate.

One of my favorites, a Japonica something or other. It puts out bright red, star-shaped, blooms in the Spring. And I like the shapes of the leaves, also. It's doing well where it is.

Something has bored holes into most of my pomegranates, which are pretty good size this year. Bummer.

I'm almost done with the grape cover on the north side of the house, just have to lay the bamboo roof on the extension (at the end of this run). The grapes are already benefiting from having the extra shade.

An arrangement of moss roses and dusty miller.

A Winter Cassia, greening up nicely in the humidity. This plant can supposedly grow into a small 10-15 foot tree, and blooms yellow most of the cooler months. Some scrawny looking roses in pots are in the background.

A wide view of the back yard from the porch, looking northwest.

A view of the south side of the yard.

2010-07-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

It's Something

In my continued efforts to revive both of my blog sites, here is a shot of a recent planter box donated to the yard by Emily's mom (by way of a friend that works for a blind company). At any rate, I'm ready for fall vegetable gardening... in about three months. More like two and and part of another, but this box will hold a good number of things, and is plenty deep.

I will post more updated pictures of the yard as time permits, too bloody hot to be outside any longer than it takes to hose everything off periodically.

2010-04-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

Glutton For Punishment

My lack of common sense has driven me to the nursery again for a fresh batch of roses to kill. While I've managed to nurse my two hybrid teas back from the dead, I suspect they will both succumb to the heat of May/June like all the others I've owned previously. Whether I plant them on the north side of the house, under a tree, in a pot, it doesn't seem to matter. Almost overnight they go from lively to lethargic when the temps hit triple digits.

Rationalization is telling me it's because they're hybrid teas, the pussies of the rose world. Unless you're a master gardener, have endless time to pamper them, or a combination of the two, they just hate the low deserts of Arizona, particularly my back yard. Save for the two I have at the moment (at the moment), I have made my peace with hybrids and moved onto two other varieties with which to torture.

Floribundas supposedly have a good reputation in these parts as being hard(er) to kill. I've bought a few of those, including this Hot Cocoa variety, which smells like cinnamon (to me), when blooming. Rated to Zone 11, you're lead to believe that this plant and Keith Richards will be the only two things still standing, come the Apocalypse. So far, so good, but then it's only 90 degrees out.

Here's a Grandiflora, called a Sunsprite. Similar to a hybrid tea, but heartier (what isn't). It's blooms were looking nice until we hit 90, and they immediately fell off shortly thereafter. Perhaps not a good sign, but the foliage is still looking good. Very nice smelling rose.

Another Floribunda, named an Angel Face. It's face is currently being eaten off by swarms of aphids. I have treated the plant repeatedly with spray that's supposed to get rid of these things, but so far the results have been mixed. This was the only nice bloom before they got a hold of it. Again, foliage still looks good, but that's about it.

I also bought a Queen Elizabeth (Grandiflora), and have two Knock Out roses and a China Tea rose that I bought back in the fall. They are all still doing well. I'm told that like the Hot Cocoa, the Knock Out roses can withstand the blast furnace come summer, but time will tell. Emily will hate me for leaving the responsibility of taking care of these plants while I'm gone on business in June, and I cringe to think of what will come of everything if we all go to St. Louis for a road trip in July. Life would be pretty boring if we didn't have something to worry about, no?

2009-11-21T15:50:00.001-08:00

Finally, A Yard Update

Well, not much of one, but here are some shots from around the yard since last month.

A winter cassia, blooms, um, in the winter.

The vegetable garden, still surviving, despite the cooler temps.

Some lemon boy tomatoes.

The only thing close to fall color in the yard, thus far, the li jujube.

Snail vine blooming on the back porch.

Mr. Lincoln rose bloom.

2009-10-29T13:59:00.001-07:00

Back For Another Yard Update?

Here are a few new pictures from the past few weeks. Earlier in the month, this roadrunner decided to lay out in the front yard and sun (?). Either that or it was suffering from seizures, a very bizarre spectacle.

Here it is sitting casually in the rocks.

And here it is cocking its head to the sky. The pictures don't do justice what this bird was doing, whilst allowing me to walk right up to it.

This is probably the same bugger that's bored holes in two of my oranges, if I had to guess.

Onto the vegetable garden.

Here's a shot of the gourd vines I'm growing. These are ones that you can make into scoopers, but I doubt they'll survive our December chill. Huge leaves, as you can see.

Here's a close up of an eggplant, that also will probably die before I pick anything off it.

And finally, a wide view of everything. Along the wall are straight-8 cucumbers, now blooming, the gourds, which are now a foot taller than pictured here. In the foreground are two tomatoes, both blooming, and the eggplant, also blooming.

2009-10-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

Mega-Sized Yard Post

Ok, so it's been a while. It's been hot for seven months and hardly rained, so the yard has been on life support. Now, with it finally cooling off, some of the plants are blooming again.

Here's what I've got for this installment:

- Wolfberry Bush - Odd combination of puple blooms and red berries, very cool, and very SHARP branches!

- Winter vegtable garden! Cucumbers, gourds, cardinal vines, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, in no particular order.

- Calomondon gearing up for it's huge December harvest (I hope), blooming like crazy

- New compost bin! Or a bomb shelter for trolls, take your pick.

- Wedelia, Yellow Dot, Etc - Finally blooming after struggling through our summer, too much direct sun. Spreading everywhere now.

- Chaste Tree, Monks Pepper Tree, Etc, still blooming, the leaves look horrible, but otherwise in good shape.

- Yellow Orchid Vine - Not growing as well in the back yard as the front, but there's more sun and less consistant watering. Love the shape of the blooms.

- Back corner of the yard

- Yellow Bells are blooming like crazy

2009-09-14T15:21:00.001-07:00

The Yard

Here is a quick picture of our wolfberry bush, putting out a few tiny purple flowers, and some small red berries. Very odd plant.

A couple of roses, a Double Delight, and Mr. Lincoln. Hopefully planting them this time of year, they'll survive through next spring, and perhaps beyond.

2009-09-08T21:16:00.001-07:00

Isolated Storm

This is the true definition of an isolated thunderstorm. Emily took this picture whilst coming home tonight. The storm was sitting over south Phoenix, about 30 miles to the west. In the first shot you can just make out the rain coming out of the storm. There wasn't another cloud anywhere around it for miles.

This is a shot of the same storm from our back yard, minutes later. The top of the storm was already starting to get sheared I'm guessing my the upper level winds. Minutes after this the storm was scattered completely across the western sky.

Here's a quick picture of my clearance rose, I've managed to get a bloom out of it, albeit a small one.

2009-09-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

Plant Bonanza

Here recently I've acquired a number of new plants, none of which are pictured here, EXCEPT this guy. I'm rotating it in and out of the house, whenever it's shady on the porch. Perhaps next year I'll transplant it into a larger pot and keep it outside, but it's a little sensitive to the dry heat. Thanks to the six tenths of an inch of rain that we had last night, however, the humidity is sky high, and the plant seems to like that. It's a Japonica something or other, I didn't see a common name for it in my book, so I'll no doubt never remember the scientific name. I love the color of the blooms on it, and the shape of the leaves.

I also traded in my dead nectarine tree for a chuparosa, which will have red blooms next spring. There were two in the pot, so one went in my raised planter, the other into a pot on the back porch. I also got another bird of paradise, which will probably end up in the front yard, filling the void of my potato bush, which bought the farm back in the earlier part of August.

I also managed to get two 5 gallon roses for the price of a 2 gallon, because they were mislabeled at the store. I have a vague idea of where they're going, and since my five dollar rose vine is still alive, there is hope that I'm figuring out how to care for them here. We'll see, famous last words.

2009-08-22T23:12:00.000-07:00

Is It November Yet?

A few more pictures for you, the first three are of two love lies bleeding, the second one is much taller, has a different leaf structure, and odd blooms.

Here is the one I'm used to seeing:

And here is the odd one growing on the opposite side of the yard in our tangerine tree well.

The moss roses are blooming, thanks to Brenna's great watering.

The chaste tree is starting to bloom again.

And here's a picture of yet another monsoon that went around our house.

2009-08-15T23:23:00.001-07:00

Quick Yard Update

We're in survival-mode out in the yard. It's been a very dry monsoon, and hot, so I've been focusing on keeping things alive rather than taking a lot of pictures. Not much of anything blooms when it's this hot, except for the yellow bells, orange jubilee, and bird of paradise, and I've posted pictures of those a million times already.

Here are a few things of interest.

Some vincas I planted as seeds back in February have decided to come up and they're blooming. The bush river willow tree is in the background.

My five dollar rose that I got on clearance at Lowe's a few weeks ago has started putting out lots of new growth. Planting it between the house and the eucalyptus has probably helps. It's a climber, and hopefully since it was a 5-gallon plant, the root system will help it through until it cools off in November.

The apple tree has dropped all of it's dying leaves from June/July, and has started pushing out a new flush of growth. Either I've finally figured out how to water it, or it's enjoying the increased humidity, different angle of the sun, something. Who knows, I'm just happy I haven't killed it yet.

2009-07-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

Weather/Yard Update

We've had about two-thirds of an inch of rain so far since the monsoon began, we've missed the big storms so far, but the yard has greened up with the humidity and increased dew point (nearly 70 today).

Here's another thunderstorm in a long line of ones that have gone around us. Our time is coming, I'm sure.

Had a some jujbees to pick the other day. This one was over ripe, and tasted like dirt with skin on it.

These are probably under ripe, but I don't expect much from ripening fruit in this heat. This is the first time I've had any of these to pick during the summer, usually I only have a crop in November.

2009-07-20T20:40:00.001-07:00

Another Yard Update

Here's a shot of a random yello bird that showed up on our windowsill the other day. There were two of these, and their mother, who was pretty sizable, and almost completely yellow as well. I've never seen them around, but as our yard has matured, we've started seeing other varieties of birds than the doves, crows, and boring finches, including woodpeckers and mockingbirds. Still haven't seen any cardinals, although I'm told they exist around here.

While I was taking a picture of this bird, I took a picture of our fountain from inside the house, since I don't already have a hundred pictures of said fountain already.

And finally, a few shots of the storm clouds forming at sunset tonight. It's rained like mad just south of us, lots of thunder and lightning, but only a few drops of rain for us, so far. It's also raining in Phoenix at the moment, and it's moving east, which is odd for this time of year, but it doesn't look like it's going to hold together long enough to make it across town. Oh well, maybe next time.

2009-07-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Green

Not much blooming out the yard, given our 110+ temps lately, but here are a few closeups of some plants with interesting shapes to their leaves.

First, a four o'clock that's sprouted, over an inch high now and seems to be doing fine on the porch. Looks like I have a few more starting to come up, also.

One of two love-lies-bleeding that have sprouted from seed from a mother plant that finally gave in to the heat.

Yellow dot that's spreading in my raised planter, no blooms, but with ample water it seems to be withstanding the heat okay.

After losing most of it's leaves, the three-leaf sumac is greening up again, probably because of the increase in humidity.

The chinese pistache is still looking good, I think after three years I've finally figured out how to water this tree without it's leaves wilting and browning in the summer.

And finally, yet another look at the turks cap, thriving in the shade of a mesquite tree.

2009-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

July Yard Update

A noble experiment, this is a sucker off my Li Jujube tree, I'm trying to get it to root in this cup of water for possible transplant into the yard later in the year. We'll see how that works out (probably not well).

I'm hoping this one will root better than the jujube, this is a coral creeper vine. I borrowed the tip off of this plant from in front of a local nursery, out in their parking lot. If they had had any in stock, I would have gladly paid for one. Honest.

Other items of note, the Li Jujube has two fruit maturing even in this horrible heat (114 today), here's a picture of one.

For the first time since I planted it, the Lang Jujube is fruiting, and has about five fruit on it.

The pomegranates are maturing, here are a few shots of them.

And finally, a snail vine given as a birthday gift by Emily's parents, blooming off the back porch.

2009-06-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

Waiting For Rain

Another summer of waiting our turn for the rain has begun. Two nights ago the rain missed us just to the east.

And here is some rain that missed us just to the west last night.

2009-06-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Missed It By That Much

For those of you that care, the storm got close enough tonight that you could feel the spray blowing in off the wall of rain just off to our east. At one point we looked in the back yard and one part of our deck was wet, there were splatter drops in Brenna's sandbox, and standing water in a lid on the other side of the house. The rest of the yard was bone dry. If you're familiar with where we live, the heavy rain was right on our door step, before it pulled away to the east.

2009-06-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

The Monsoons Have Begun (Early)

We had a storm come in from the north tonight, of all places. Lots of rain around Saguaro and Canyon Lake, and it got as close as about five streets north of us, before it retreated. You could smell the rain in the air. But alas, all we got was a little wind, and a nice sunset.

2009-06-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Random June Yard Shots

Well, we're still in the 90s, although those days are numbered. They're forecasting 106 by this weekend, which is actually close to our average high for this time of the year.

Here are a few shots from around the yard. Not much blooming right now, the yard is shifting into survival mode, until the monsoon arrives.

I managed to salvage a handful of grapes off this vine, the birds got to a good number of them. They were rather small, and extremely tart, but very tasty. I have two more on the opposite side, and hope to have a grape coral on the north side of the house in a few years.

The calomondin is covered in blooms again, should have another nice harvest by August. There are a few that are ripening at the moment, and Brenna is quick to point these out, as she enjoys yanking them off the tree and walking around the house with them in her hands (Sunday she put one in her shoe and forgot it was there, and proceeded to squish is when we were getting ready to go shopping).

I've never seen the jujubee hold it's fruit this far into the summer, I guess again thanks to our mild weather. The Li only had two that are still maturing, but the Li, my newer tree, still has about five or six that are getting to be decent size. They are, however, starting to sunburn, and with our temparatures on the rise, it will be interesting to see if they'll make it to the monsoon.

2009-06-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

Catching Up

Lots going on the yard, especially since our temps are still pretty mild for this time of year.

Here's a shot of the best looking pomegranate out of the bunch. A lot of them are undersized and/or are splitting, but this one looks like it's ripening nicely. These bushes are barely four feet tall, however, so I'm sure as the years go by, they'll be better producers.

This group of grapes on the north side of the yard turned into raisins while I was out of town. Funny how quickly they ripen. Given how young this vine is, they could have just aborted, who knows.

My larger vine, however, is still holding four or five small clusters like this one. I could have sworn this was a Thompson's Seedless, but they're starting to turn purple, so it must be a Flame or Fantasy variety.

The lemon is growing maybe ten lemons this year, best I can tell. I might get another smaller crop to bloom when the monsoon hits, but it definitely looks like a resting year, after last years crop of 50+ lemons.

The tangerine is holding onto these four guys, and have put out another two or three additional ones since. The tree is so young that I'm having a hard time figuring our how frequently to water it, so I wouldn't be surprised if this fruit gets dropped out of stress.

After threatening to cut my dwarf orange down, it's decided to produce again this year. I have about 7 or 8 that are about this size now, so they should mature in December.

I decided to hack my feather leaf cassia bushes nearly to the ground this afternoon, to give the citrus some additional sunlight. Here are the lemon and blood orange.

And here is the tangerine, cloaked by the lantana in the background.

The lang jujube is still maturing. Here are two. They are elongated, compared to the li variety, which is more rounded. Time will tell if either tree holds its fruit through the month of June. Usually they drop them during the worst of the heat, and then produce a mature crop in November, when the weather is more favorable.

And finally, my canna are coming up pretty well in the shade of the mesquite.

2009-05-24T22:28:00.000-07:00

Nearly June

For the first time in five days the sun was out. We barely got a third of an inch of rain this week, but the yard enjoyed the spike in humidity and the lower temperatures.

The first plant pictured here is a chocolate flower, which bloomed just this morning. I started this one from seed back in February. It does indeed smell strongly of chocolate when in bloom, I could smell it from the back porch when I stepped outside this morning. I'm very pleased with this plant, I've read that germinating these from seed is extremely difficult, and out of six or seven that I planted, this is the only one that survived past the sprouting stage.

Another one that's just bloomed from seed are these vincas, which I haphazardly threw into a planter box with some pepper seeds. The entire planter is now crammed full with both. The peppers seems to be outracing the vincas, but this one managed to come up through the peppers and bloom. There are maybe three or four others underneath the canopy of pepper leaves.

The yellow orchid vine that's growing on the front of the house, has transitioned from blooming to putting out these interesting seed pods. In years past, I've been lucky to get a handful of these, but this year there are dozens of them. The plant is on a drip system, so I don't know why this year is any different than last, but I hope to harvest some of these seeds when they dry up, and try starting some new vines.

2009-05-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

Calomondins' Gone Wild

Despite our heat, now that we've picked most of the ripe fruit off the tree, it's blooming like crazy yet again.

2009-05-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

A Different Kind Of Garden Post

Here are a few more shots taken recently from around the yard. Today was about the 200th straight day over 100. Well, at least it seems like it. Actually, in all honesty, you really get used to it after about the first week. If you get up early enough in the morning, you an catch a slight chill in the air off the back porch (it was 70 at 5:30am today, for example).

The orange jubilee are continuing their conquest of the south side of the yard. Eventually they'll grow together, and I'll have to take a machete through them to make a path. At least that's my eventual goal. The larger ones on the left are shedding something fierce, I don't know if it's because I'm watering them too much or not enough, but they've thinned out almost to the point that I'm starting to worry about them a bit.

Here's a shot from off the back porch, still facing the south side of the house.

A shot through the trees, of the back porch and pergola.

The Chilean mesquite in the setting sun. Come June I'll have to buy one of those saws on a pole to thin this thing out before the monsoon hits. Waaay too top heavy to withstand any serious wind storms, which are commonplace come July.

On the complete opposite side of the house, the Mulga continues to thrive on very little water. It hasn't formed much of a canopy, seems to be growing straight up and narrow, but hopefully it will fill out as it gets older.

And finally, another shot of a different cardinal vine blooming. This one is barely two inches tall, and yet it's started blooming, go figure.

2009-05-13T16:13:00.001-07:00

More Blooms

Here are some more pictures from around the yard.

For starters, a blooming cardinal vine that's out in the deck planter. I have three that have come up there, one along the house, and three more under a mesquite tree. If they can survive our June heat, they'll take off during the monsoon, running to about 15 feet.

One of my dahlias has finally bloomed. I have one other one that's struggling to survive, and one other unfortunate bastard that's decided now is a good time to finally sprout. Before I leave for South Carolina in early June, I'm seriously pondering cutting these back to the ground (assuming the leaves will be dead by then from the heat), and transplanting them into a pot that can be moved to the shade. These plants don't take to our afternoon sun that well, and the mequite they're planted under isn't offering much solace.

The creeping trumpet vine on the north side of the house is covered in blooms now, here is another sampling. The blooms that receive less light are more vivid/less faded.

Here is what's called a teddy bear sunflower, from a packet of Veggie Tale seeds that we bribed Brenna with to keep going through Home Depot a few months ago. Most of these that I planted have turned black in the heat before they were able to bloom, but this one made it. Not sure why they're called teddy bear sunflowers.

And finally, our nectarine tree, which refused to leaf out when it was in the ground and in the sun all day during our mild temps, has decided to leaf out like crazy, now that it's in a pot on the porch, where it's getting shade half the day. Not condusive to any blooming or fruiting, but I'll maybe try putting it back in the ground next year once it's formed some roots (it was planted as a bareroot). Our asian pear tree isn't faring so well, using this same practice of pot planting.

2009-05-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Another Yard Update

A few more pictures here for you. This was our 6th day in a row over 100, and the next seven are going to be much the same. Unless something freak happens, our streak of days over 100 will probably last another 60 days until the monsoon gets here.

At any rate, I've been watering the yard relentlessly, and everything is still hanging in there. It won't be until June that things will start laying over from the heat. I cringe thinking about the water bill that's out there lurking in the shadows.

I've managed to nurse four or five cardinal vines through sprouting, and with some help of shade cloth and afternoon shade under the mesquite, they're starting to take off. The one pictured here is in my deck planter, and it's tendrils are reaching out to grab whatever they can.

Our chaste tree is blooming, and is very fragrant. After moving this poor plant all over the yard trying to find a place for it, it's found it's home in an old whiskey barrel.

Both the Li and the Lang jujubes are forming fruit, although I seriously doubt that they'll mature in our 110+ heat come June. You never know, though, I'd love to get two crops from these trees, we always have one in November, but never in the summer.

Our chinese pistache tree is also continuing to grow, which is unusual for it this far into the hotter weather. Perhaps I've finally figured out how to properly water it. I love the color of the leaves when they're first pushing out.

2009-05-08T15:02:00.001-07:00

Pacing Myself

It's fascinating to see that some of our plants are still blooming merrily along, despite the 103 degree weather we're having. We'll see what happens when the furnace cranks up another 10 degress in June.

Here's some time lapse shots of the creeping trumpet vine blooming.

The blanket flowers continue to bloom, as long as they're watered regularly.

And finally, a shot of my ten cent pepper seeds that are now about four or five inches tall. They're doing well in the full sun, again, as long as they're soaked about every other day.

2009-05-05T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hot Yard

As we near ongoing 100 degree weather, here are some shots of things around the yard.

Our Thompson Seedless grape has started putting out some fruit. This grape has never made it to maturity, I hung some pie pans nearby in hopes of scaring the birds away, we'll see if that helps.

Here is a new flame (puple) seedless on the same (north) side of the yard, nice cluster, if it will survive the birds. Might buy some netting.

The creeping trumpet vine is anything but creeping, taking over the north side of the house, and getting close to blooming in numerous places.

Here's a wider shot of this monster.

Underneath it, I've hidden some delicate plants that may or may not survive our summer. Come June there may not be much shade against the house, so I'm hoping this vine will offer some.

Here's an updated shot of my larger columbine, still blooming, but losing leaves in a hurry. I've harvested hundreds of seeds, so I'm ready to start over if this plant doesn't survive.

My smaller columbine, which has yet to bloom (and may not with the heat in the rise), still looks pretty good.

And finally, the ultimate expiriment in futility. This is a sprout from a pink lady apple that I ate the other day. The seed was already sprouting inside the apple when I found it, so I thought if it's hardy enough to grow inside the apple, maybe it will stand a chance if I keep it in the shade.

2009-05-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Calomondin Harvest

As mentioned on the Brenna blog, Brenna and I picked a good number of calomondins off our tree this morning. A number of them were still various shades of green, but I've discovered that their flavor is just a good, and waiting for them to ripen to their deep orange, in my opinion, only takes from the tree being able to produce more fruit. At any rate, here is our processing pictures, from picking, to slicing, to juicing. We have juice for two pieces and a cake at this point, with maybe another 40 fruit left on the tree.

2009-04-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

The More Things Change

Here's the arch I spoke of yesterday, painted black and moved closer to the deck (from around the side of the house).

2009-04-24T22:16:00.001-07:00

Quick Yard Update

Here are a few new shots of the yard. I recently spray painted our arch on the south side of the house, and moved it to right off the side of the deck. If I had been smart, I would have taken a picture of it, but I did not. Perhaps another time.

For now, here are a few blanket flowers that I bought about a month ago. I orignally thought of planting these in my bathtub, but thought better of it since the tub still has no drain holes, and tends to bake plants after April, since it retains heat so well. Emily's mom also has some of these, and hers looked so good, I decided to get a few for myself.

I also bought a few gazanias to mix in with the blanket flowers. Had a been smart, I would have bought some white ones to offset the color in the blanket flowers. Instead I bought some with a similar color.

While a number of my other potted plants nearly baked to death in our 100+ temps earlier in the week, my shrimp plant continued to thrive. No blooms yet, but the color of the leaves are so lush that I thought they might photograph well.

2009-04-20T21:49:00.001-07:00

Yellow Orchid Vine

One of my favorite vines is ramping up it's blooming, despite our 100 degree heat. I planted another one of these off the back porch, but it hasn't taken off, maybe because it's getting afternoon sun, whereas the one pictured here gets morning sun.

I love the shape of the blooms.

2009-04-13T16:51:00.001-07:00

What, Another Yard Update?

Here are some new pictures for your viewing pleasure. We picked up about a half inch of rain on Saturday, and our humidity is just now starting to come down. Clouds are coming back in tonight, but no forecast for rain, just wind (again).

This is the best I've seen the chinese pistache look, it's put out more new growth this year than previous ones. The trick is finding the right balance of water during the hottest months, so the leaves don't curl and brown.

The evening primrose are still blooming, and probably will until May. They're still in partial shade, which helps.

The jujubees have also put out a lot of new growth this spring, and are blooming. Any fruit that develops from these will unfortunately fall off once we get over 100, but it will bloom again during the monsoon in late August, and hold it's fruit until picking time in November. It would be nice to have two harvests a year, but alas, it's too bloody hot for that here.

About four years ago I pulled up all of my myoporum groundcover (in favor of flagstone sidewalks), and one came back from the ground, and is now blooming.

The blue emu bush is also blooming, although they look purple to me.

After three springs in the ground, our pomegranates appear to be holding their fruit. There are maybe six or seven maturing fruit per bush at the moment, but they're both still blooming like crazy, so there may be more.

The calomondin is nearing time for picking.

And finally, a look at the north side of the house. The creeping trumpet vine is anything but that, spreading all over the place. Our Thompson's Seedless grape has about seven clusters of developing fruit, and I've curled it's vines back into the yard, to help hide the water barrels behind.

2009-04-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Another Yard Update

Here are a few new shots of the yard.

An oddity for starters, a pomegranate double bloom, one bloom inside the first one.

The grape vine on the north side of the yard reaching for sunshine.

I've moved the old tub planter from behind the emu bushes and replaced it with a makeshift trellis, made out of some old porch parts. Notice the scrawny grapevine planted at its base.

The dwarf orange, which I was threatening to dig up this year (since it didn't produce anything last year), has responding in kind, notice all of the little starters, and this is just one small section of the tree.

Speaking of bumper crops, here is a close up of one small section of the calomonden, I counted at least 30 in this picture, nearing ripeness and pie making, mmm.

A wider shot of the yard, where I've moved the tub out from behind the bushes. It may be too late to plant anything in it this year, but I have a dollars worth of wildflower seeds I'm going to try in it for kicks. Pomegranates blooming in the foreground.

A close up of the easter egg emu bush, which usually blooms around the holiday (hence the name). Only the pink blooms on this bush actually open, the other colors strangely never do.

2009-03-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

More Color

More things blooming the yard, including:

The scorpion weed that's been popping up in random places in the yard. I scattered some seeds of this last year, and it seems to have come back decently this year, considering the lack of rain. This is the only blue color I have in the yard these days, since I dug up our water thirsty plumbago a few years ago.

Our surviving cat's claw vine is blooming on top of our pergola. The blooms and subsequent seed pods are huge compared to the size of the leaves. This remaining vine continues to spread everywhere.

And finally, a perennial I bought back in December for our Christmas party, nearly killed back in the cold because I was too stupid to bring it inside. If memory serves, this one was labelled as a Blue Ribbon plant, no clue what the scientific name is, and I doubt this delicate thing will survive our summer.

2009-03-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Sunning?

Usually during this time of year I can't get butterflies to sit still for a second to take their picture. This guy, however, must have been sunning himself, as he didn't move no matter how close I got to him. Either that, or he was stoned (j/k).

2009-03-25T21:11:00.001-07:00

Concrete, You Don't Free My Soul

I'll keep posting more pictures of the yard as long as the mild weather holds out. Still in the 70s, lows in the 40s, absolutely beautiful, but no rain for a month, and we probaly won't see any again until July. I may have to start resorting to drastic measures to conserve water for the yard come April when we start heading into the 90s.

In the meantime,

Our pomegranates are blooming nicely, although like every March/April in the past, it's gotten pretty windy, and some of the to-be fruit is blowing off them before they can mature. Hopefully this year we'll get a few that make it to maturation.

I've probably posted a dozen variations of this lantana in full bloom, but it's one of my favorites. This plant was given to us by a friend some years ago as a tiny little plant, and it's now at least four feet tall and about eight feet across.

I still don't get why this one is called a monkey face plant, I don't see it. The blooms are a beautiful color, however. Time will tell if this guy will survive outside come summertime.

Another springtime favorite, the evening primrose, which is spreading all over the south side of the house, where it's still partially shady. Once May arrives, this one will go back underground until next year.

Our fountain is filthy, but it looked nice with the sun setting against it tonight. Hard to bring myself to hose it out when the plants need the water worse.

Planted as bulbs back in February, two of our three dahlias are coming up under the shade of our mesquite tree. No telling how large these will get, or what color they'll bloom. Again, hopefully they'll survive the summer.

2009-03-23T15:27:00.001-07:00

Columbine Madness

FINALLY, after two years of nursing this plant through hot summers and no humidity, my columbine from Georgia has bloomed from seed. I have another pot of these guys that I'm hoping will also bloom before oour heat returns, we'll wait and see.

2009-03-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

One More Yard Pic For The Road

As long as our temperatures stay in the 70s, the yard will keep on blooming (there's an ingenious statement). Every year I post pictures of my red globe mallow bush, it's the only nice red color I have in the yard each spring, and this plant just explodes this time of year with blooms.

That is all.

2009-02-28T20:39:00.000-08:00

More Yard Pictures

Most of the year I'm spending the bulk of my time sweating outside watering the yard in the dead of the night, trying to keep everything alive. So it's nice this time of year to just take pictures and enjoy the sights and smells. Those days will be coming to an end soon, so I'm soaking them up.

My columbine have multiplied into two pots, and I have some others coming up in my big planter beneath some other groundcover. We'll see how these fare when the temps go up.

In the foreground, the monkey face plant continues to bloom away, with some jonquils in the background.

A closer look at the jonquils.

A view across the big planter at the indian and globe mallows, which continue to bloom.

The asian pear tree, planted as a bareroot back in December, has started to leaf out. It fruits in late spring/early summer, so in future years there is hope that we'll have some pears before the summer heat takes its toll on everything. I'm not so confident in my nectarine, which leafs out late and is supposed to put out fruit in August.

Some of the purple lantana that's thriving next to the house.

The golden fleece survived last summer and it never got cold enough to kill it back this winter, so it's already blooming all over the yard. I haven't bought these plants in at least five years, but they continue to reseed themselves all over the place, even in our harsh conditions.

2009-02-25T18:17:00.000-08:00

Quick Tour Of The Yard

- Lilac Vine, Lantana, and Feather Leaf Cassia

- Assorted bulbs and other plants in the big planter

- Volunteer Love Lies Bleeding (or something similar)

- Iris, Narcissus and Wedelia

- Recently moved Bottlebrush Tree

- Pomegranate with bud, hopefully soon to be tasty fruit

- Calomonden loaded with hundreds of ripening fruit

- Arizona Dwarf Orange tree preparing to bloom

- Golden Fleece starting to bloom

- Up close Feather Leaf Cassia blooming

- Pomegranate next to the house starting to leaf out

- Valentine Emu bush continues to bloom (about four weeks in now)

- Silver Dollar Euc continues to grow upwards, thankfully not towards the powerlines (yet)

- Mulga taking off on the north side of the house

2009-02-18T16:41:00.001-08:00

Feb Yard Update

With some recent rain and warm temps, the yard is coming alive.

Here is a two-bit tour:

- A view of the northwest side of the yard, blooming aloes, valentine emu bush, hardenbergia vine in the far background

- Another view of the same area of the yard

- One of the pomegranates leafing out, pretty maroon shade and very glossy, this plant is interesting year round. They apparently begin fruiting their third spring in the ground (after being transplanted), so hopefully this will be the year!

- Feather-leaf cassia (yellow) in the foreground, hardenbergia (purple) in the background. The cassia bushes smell like perfume when in bloom

- More blooming aloes with a bougenvillia (sp?) in the background

- Asian pear planted back in December, starting to leaf out. A bought one at the store the other day, and wasn't impressed with the flavor, had a nutty undertone like our jujubees, very juicy, but bland. Hopefully I just picked a bad one.

- Jonquil (sp?), I believe, blooming in the big planter box off the back porch

2009-02-04T12:32:00.001-08:00

Early Spring

With temps in the 80s this week, the yard is blooming early.

Here is the hardenbergia, or lilac vine, typically the first thing to bloom in January, now in full bloom.

The Valentine Emu bush is a little early, but also in full bloom.

A couple of blooms are opening on the Indian Mallow.

And finally, the Globe Mallow, which will be covered in these blooms as March approaches.

2009-01-28T21:06:00.000-08:00

Brrr

Despite it being 35 this morning, and it not getting over 60 the last two days, the yard seems to think that winter is over.

The calomonden is loaded with fruit. Pictured here is maybe the top eight inches of the tree, I counted close to twenty in that small area, and the rest of the tree is like this. And it's still blooming.

The hardenbergia are starting to bloom, although this is not unusual, it's typically the first plant of the new year to come back to life with lots of color.

The Valentine Emu bush is nearly in full bloom, a little early for it (given it's name, you can imagine when it's typically at peak). I just love this plant, the shapes of it's tiny leaves, and the color of the blooms. A very hard bush to get a decent picture of.

My lemon tree, which I harvested back in December, is covered new growth. The leaves start out this pretty purple color.

Not pictured here, my pomegranates are also starting to leaf out again, although they only just dropped all of their leaves maybe a month ago. Seems early for it as well.

2009-01-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Coral Gum Blooming

After a year of looking at these pods and wondering if they were ever going to open, they have. Here are a few shots of this odd looking bloom. There are two clusters opening at the moment, with a few more on the other side of the tree.

2009-01-22T08:54:00.001-08:00

More January Yard

Here are a few pictures around the yard, winter being over, a little more color is coming around.

A shot of one of my annuals putting out a second color (white) at the bottom of the shoot.

My evening primrose has resurfaced, and will probably cover this entire area by April.

Still one of my favorites, the old Turks Cap continues to bloom, no matter the weather.

A reseeded lupine from last years wildflowers, I have two of them so far, that I know of.

2009-01-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Quick Yard Update

Not much going on in the yard at the moment, but here's a quick shot of some annuals coming up in the middle of the yard. I bought a six back of "mixed annuals", and five of them look like this guy (1 of them pink instead of purple), with the sixth being the one pictured in my last Hoes blog.

Here's an odd volunteer that's come up in the big wooden planter. The leaves look similar to my three leaf sumac, but it's dormant, so surely this couldn't have come from it. Seems odd that something like this would come up in the dead of December, and be thriving through our mild to cool weather. I'll keep posted pictures as we see what this thing turns into.

Unfortunately my cardinal vines, which were thriving back in November, are succumbing to the cool 40 degree nights we've been having these past three weeks or so. They've all turned yellow and have started to shrivel up. In better news, I have volunteer wildflowers coming up already all over the yard from last spring's plantings, including numerous poppies, purple scorpion weed (it's prettier than it sounds), and now two confirmed lupines, one of which is now a few inches tall.

2009-01-05T09:06:00.001-08:00

January In The Yard

Here are a few new yard pictures for you. With a Home Depot gift card from my parents, I've crammed a few more things outside, including:

Some winter annuals. The dusty miller were already there, but I moved some lobelia from another planter in here and added a six pack of some other random annuals that didn't even come with a name (just labelled "mixed annuals"). I like the contrast in the silver and purple colors.

Here is the lobelia it's starting to spread quite nicely in this cool, wet weather we've been having since Thanksgiving (now up to 3 1/2 inches of rain in the last six weeks).

Here is the mystery annual, it came in this color, and lighter shade of pink.

With the remainder of my gift card I bought a bareroot asian pear tree (the twig off to the left), and a nectarine (twig not pictured here, the one in the barrel is dormant chaste tree). Emily got me a weather center for Christmas, and I've mounted the wind gauge to the barrel pictured here. It should have been mounted higher, but for it to point north, it had to be mounted pointing in that direction, and I didn't have anything higher, since the house wouldn't work.

2008-12-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

Lemons A'Plenty

I had no idea that our lemon tree had produced so many fruit this year until I went out to pick them today. With a freeze in the forecast for tonight, I decided to harvest them before they were completely ripe.

Here is a picture of last years crop, about 35 lemons, and 6 (very bland) oranges.

Here is this years crop, 56 lemons total, 0 oranges. The lemons appear to be larger this year, also. After squeezing all of these, we came up with almost 70 ounces of juice, and this is keeping five out for Becky and four for Emily to use for cooking. The largest lemon that I spotted weighed in at 7.7 ounces, pre-juiced ( 5th from the left, next to bottom row).

2008-12-16T13:17:00.001-08:00

More December Pictures

I always forget from one season to the next how many colors the grape vine on the north side of the house changes to. It seems to be more purple and dark hues this year, whereas last year was more orange-ish.

Well, here's the evidence, this year:

And here is last year.

My columbine is enjoying the cold, wet weather we're having (well, if you believe 50 degrees is cold). Here is a shot of the largest plant.

And another picture of some of the smaller ones that I dug out from around it.

2008-12-13T14:22:00.001-08:00

Pomegranates

While they have yet to produce any fruit, their leaves are sure interesting, from being glossy maroon when they first come out in the spring, to turning golden yellow in the fall, this is one of my favorites. I thought I'd take these pictures today, as there is a chance of rain the next five days, and if we actually get a decent amount, these bushes will be bare when it's all over.

2008-12-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

December Yard

Here are a few quick pictures, the first a bloom on my wedelia, or yellow dot plant, in the big planter box, and the second a lantana that's by the house.

Still pretty mild, over 70 today again, but we have five days of rain in the forecast, starting on Sunday, keeping my fingers crossed!

2008-12-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

Is This A Yarrow Sprout?

This little guy recently came up in my big planter out back, and am wondering if this is a yarrow?

2008-12-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

Mighty Big Yard Update

With our perfect weather (70s in the day, 50s at night, and sunny days on end), the yard is back in thrive mode. We had nearly an inch of rain a week ago, and I've just today started watering some of the potted plants with rain water.

Here are a few shots of the goings on around the old yard.

The yellow elder pictured here, was killed to the ground two years ago by our freak freeze. It's now about three or four feet tall and has started to bloom for the first time.

Our four pomegranate bushes are finally changing to golden yellow, here's one of them.

One of the many orange jubilee bushes blooming right now, it's also putting out it's fall seed pods.

Our lemons are about three weeks away from being ready for picking. I've counted roughly 40 of them, but it's hard to see them all until they turn completely yellow.

The ever bearing calomonden is covered in tiny fruit, more so than I've ever seen before. Will be interesting to see if these see maturity before it gets colder later this month.

The valentine emu bush, which typically blooms in February (hence the name), has decided to bloom early.

The lilac vine has taken over it's arch in the back corner of the yard. I'll be taking a weed eater to this thing pretty soon. It'll go into full bloom in late January.

And finally, the miscellaneous planter. The jonquils will probably be blooming in another few weeks, and my cardinal vines are still spreading. Again, we'll see what's left alive in this box come late December. That's if it ever turns cold.

2008-12-02T15:14:00.001-08:00

Brenna Goodies

This is vaguely related to the yard, so here goes.

With Grandma and Grandpa H's assistance, pictured here are Brenna's Christmas gifts, now hiding on the north side of the house. I've also cleaned out most of the junk that was over there, and we plan on either laying sod or artifical turf in the spring.

2008-11-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

Not A Moment Too Soon

A couple of quick yard pictures. Our cardinal vines are still growing, although their days may be numbered with cooler temps on the horizon. The largest one is now sending out feelers, trying to attach itself to whatever it can find nearby. I love the shapes of these leaves.

Here's my freebie plant that came up on it's own, covered in blooms.

In anticipation of the four to five days worth of rain they're forecasting later this week, I've rearranged my rain barrels. I've installed two 55-gallon barrels that my parents picked up for me while they were here, and have decided to use a 30 gallon barrel previously used for storing bird seed for overflow.

My four 33 gallon barrels are now lined up under the eaves by Brenna's bedroom window, to catch whatever comes off the side of the house there. A total of approximately 260 gallons worth of storage.

2008-11-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

Fall(?)

Our house plant that bloomed for the first time that I can remember back in the spring has done it again. Dracanea something or other is what this thing is called, and the perfume/odor that's emanating from it is almost overpowering. I got lucky tonight and got a decent picture of it.

Although it was 84 today, the yard is changing color, including the creeping trumpet, and jujubees. The pomegranates, not pictured, are still changing golden yellow, I'll upload some shots of them once they've reached their peak.

2008-11-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

Something New... For You

A few new yard pictures.

The first is a monkey face plant, forget the scientific name, but does it really matter? Pretty cool plant, it won't survive a minute over 100 degrees in the yard, so it'll become a houseplant come May.

I had to cut this shamrock to the ground, but it's coming back now that it's back in a sunny window.

The perennial favorite that I can't spell, the bougainvillea (thank you spell checker).

2008-11-09T15:06:00.000-08:00

Missed Us By That Much

We had our best chance for rain in over 45 days today, and it missed us just to the east. We had enough rain to get the ground wet, but the thunderstorm cell below in the red just missed us.

Here's a picture of some hail they got out in the west valley. Lots of rain out east, and they're forecasting anywhere from 3-6 inches of snow in the higher terain.

2008-10-26T20:39:00.001-07:00

Nearly November

Finally a new update for the Hoes blog, hurray! It's still warm here, highs around 90, but the lows are in the low 60s and high 50s. It hasn't rained a drop since the first week in the month, and there isn't anything on the horizon.

Here is a look at the planter I built a while ago and moved off the back porch to this spot in the yard. The bush river willow tree that I've transplanted numerous times, and bounced back from my last attempt to kill it, and is flourishing in partial shade. Also in this planter you'll find some rain lilies, widelia (yellow dot/groundcover), and I already have some narcissus bulbs that are coming up. Odd time of the year for them, but it happens every year when it cools off slightly. I also have some cardinal vines that I just started from seed, and a few chocolate plants. The white pot in the foreground has yarrow seeds, but none of those have come up yet.

The columbine that I started from seed via my mom last October has survived a year. These have gone from filing the pot with new growth through last spring, to losing all but a few of them during the summer, and now they're making another come back. A few inches tall are as tall as they've gotten before the elements have beaten them back, but hopefully they'll take off through the winter, and I'll get a few blooms in the spring.

Our chinese pistache tree has lost a good number of its leaves for some reason, but is replacing them with new growth, pictured here. Very pretty leaf color, and it's a beautiful burnt orange in the fall, but I've never seen the tree do this before. Again, because of the elements, this is a very difficult tree (for me, anyway) to keep happy, especially in the summer.

One of my favorites in the yard is blooming, the Indian Mallow. Like the Turk's Cap, it's blooms never fully open. It's a pretty color, in contrast with the soft fuzzy leaves.

Here is Brenna helping me survey the land.

And here she is pushing me in the hammock.

And finally, enjoying the rain lily that recently bloomed.

2008-10-21T11:26:00.001-07:00

Rain Lily

Thanks to our meager thunderstorm from two weeks ago, my rain lilies have started to surface from their summer dormancy. I noticed that something was digging the bulbs up out of the ground, so I moved them into my elevated planter, and divided them out into five or six smaller clumps. I'm hoping to one day have pretty good coverage.

Here is the first bloom of the season for them, I don't recall if they hang around through the winter or if they go dormant again, but this is by far one of my favorite plants when it's in bloom.

Here is a good link for more information on this guy:

http://www.southernbulbs.com/white-rain-lily/

2008-10-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Two Minutes Each

I've converted another seven or so videos that run about two minutes each, of Brenna doing various things in this past week or so.

This first one is her "reading" some of her Bible stories. She has the David and Goliath one down pat, and can just about recite the entire thing. Our favorite part is her Charlton Heston impersonation when she says "God", with much authority, it's very funny. I don't recall if she does that much in this video here or not. Depending on her mood, you may get a rousing rendition of this story, or get kicked in the stomach and growled at.

It's birthday time for Brenna! Here she is opening one of her presents on commenting on it.

Another video of present opening. More videos to come soon!

2008-10-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Harvest Time

Here are the jujubees, fresh from the tree. I should have left them on a smidge longer, but the ones I've eaten so far have been pretty good, tasting like a cross between an apple and a macadamia nut. I also collected some more calomondons, there are dozens more ripening.

2008-10-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Jackpot!

We've been getting sprinkled on most of the day, but nothing terribly impressive. Tonight while we were laying with Brenna while she fell asleep (and Emily fell asleep, for that matter), I kept hearing rumbles of thunder, gradually getting louder. By the time I made it out of her bedroom and across to the other side of the house, it was pouring down rain, and did so for about twenty minutes. In the end we got over a third of an inch, enough to fill up one of my 30 gallon rain barrels, and part of another one.

We were apparently the lucky ones, this storm popped up just to the southwest of us, and only hit the Apache Junction area. I'll take it.

2008-10-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

Yard Quickie

Not much going on in the yard right now, although with the cooler temps that are coming this weekend (80s and a chance of rain), things will start blooming again.

The turk's cap is blooming again, now that I'm watering it more heavily, and I've posted here yet another picture of my jujubes, which are still probably a month away from maturity.

2008-09-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

Finally, A Yard Update

After long last, a yard update. I started this post last night but Brenna was ready for bed, so I'm picking this up again now.

We're now averaging out around 100 degrees for highs, with no humidity, which is May weather, very nice. The monsoon seems to be finished with us, after dumping six inches on Phoenix and about two and a half here (which is backwards what usually happens).

Anyway.

The creeping trumpet vine is blooming in earnest now that it's in the shade all day. Here is one cluster of many blooms.

Here are some weeds that are taking over that side of the yard. They're covered in little yellow flowers, but the blooms are replaced by nasty thorns/goat heads that stick in the bottom of your shoes and snag the carpets.

Despite losing a lot of it's leaves in our windstorms, our lemon is loaded with fruit again this year, maybe 30 total, they're hard to see. How many do you see on this one limb?

Here's my freebie plant, deposited in the yard by a nice bird. This guy is covered in these pretty yellow blooms.

Our lantana in the corner of the yard is reaching for the top of the wall now, and spreading in every direction. I'm almost positive we have some birds nesting in this thing.

The golden fleece recovered to bloom yet again after our August rains. I hope these come back again next spring, these are some of my favorites, I haven't planted any of these in years, they just keep reseeding, depending on how wet the previous winter was.

Hello calomonden. I ate you. You were tasty. I look forward to making a pie out of your friends.

A wider shot of the north side of the yard. Our acacia (tree) is leaning from some of our recent winds, I'm going to have to tie this tree up at some point, I don't think it's going to straighten on its own. Notice my engineering feat of proping our bird feed can beneath it's trunk.

Jujubees, I will be eating you soon, if I can only figure out when you're truly ripe.

You're supposed to pick these guys right when they're turning brown, but last year I ate one good one and numerous others that were mealy. Last winter a planted a Lang Jujube next to this Li, reading that having a Lang nearby would greatly increase production on the Li, and that book wasn't kidding. Last November I picked maybe 5 or 6 fruit, this year I have twice as many. The Lang only produces if it cross polinates with the Li, which apparently didn't happen, as it bloomed but never set any fruit.

2008-09-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

And Yet More Rain

We had some light rain last night and another downpour tonight. That's now six out of the last seven days it's rained, completely unheard of. Phoenix is already at their yearly average with four months left in the year, we're at ten inches out here, which is about two inches shy of the yearly average with four months left to go. We're thankful that all of the wind damage that points west of us suffered passed us by.

Rainfall totals over the last seven days for us:

0.40
0.64
0.36
0.24
0.10
0.20

2008-08-29T21:12:00.001-07:00

Rounds 4 And 5

Yet more rain tonight, this time two storms in the same evening. The first blew through like a hurricane, wind strong enough to bow the windows in the house, and sideways rain. The second we caught a glancing blow with a lot less wind (the first one nearly uprooted the 2nd biggest tree in the yard), and a little more rain, about a third of an inch in total. We're nearing two inches of rain since the beginning of this week and they're forcecasting rain for tomorrow and Sunday still.

Here is a good article on the monster monsoon storm that rolled through Phoenix last night (giving us another third of an inch, it built up - thankfully - after it passed through here). This one dumped two inches of rain, up to 100mph winds and closed the airport for an hour, causing millions of dollars in damage to planes, hangers, and parking garages there. Also 4000 lightning strikes recorded from cloud to ground, the most in a monsoon since 1996. Phoenix is getting close to doubling it's annual rainfall at this point, pretty amazing.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/29/20080829stormfollo0830.html

2008-08-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Round Three Of The Rain

More rain tonight, about a third of an inch so far, most amazing lightning I've ever seen, constant flashing. I'll update these totals below later if I have a chance, the storm is moving slowing towards downtown. We're now just shy of two inches for the month and they're forecasting more rain through Sunday.

2008-08-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

More Rain

This morning the non stop thunder woke me up around 4. A huge thunderstorm loomed off to the north until dawn broke, and it finally sagged south over us around 6. We ended up getting over a half an inch of rain in about twenty minutes, and my rain barrels are now almost completely full between this storm and the one a few days ago. The high today was only 91 thanks to the early morning rain.

2008-08-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, Decent Rain

The valley got some widespread, soaking rain last night, and finally we were included. We managed about four tenths of an inch, which is better than what we have been getting. At about 1 this morning while it was raining our tempature got down below 70 probably for the first time since May.

At any rate, here are the totals, for those that are interested. This rainfall should put downtown Phoenix at about two inches above average, which is saying a lot considering they only average about seven a year.

2008-08-16T21:49:00.001-07:00

Euc And Juju

Here are a quick couple of pictures taken late this afternoon of the eucalyptus and jujube trees. The old of the jujubes has about 15 maturing fruit on it. One of the pictures below showcases some of the larger ones, and another limb with three in various stages of development.

2008-08-12T19:54:00.001-07:00

The Randomness Of It All

For starters, here is a picture of an orchid tree I planted off the back porch this past week. I love the shape of the leaves on it, and am hoping it survives until next spring when it may or may not have some pink blooms on it (too young to bloom?).

This morning I saw this out the front porch when I got the paper.

And finally, while out garage sale shopping this past weekend, Emily took this picture for me as I was at one point joking that I'd turn a toilet into a planter in our backyard, to match our bathtub that's out there already. On second thought, maybe I won't do that.

2008-08-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

Missed Again

An article on the airport closing due to tonight's rain.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/08/07/20080807abrk-weather0707.html

Rainfall totals, we're in the gray county in the lower right.

2008-08-06T12:41:00.001-07:00

Another Miss

Here's a shot of the planter, finally rebuilt out in the new deck extension. It's not exactly a perfect rectangle like it used to be, but I did what I could with the wood I had left from the original.

My older jujube tree is showing promise, with humidity and deep watering, it's setting fruit on many of the branches. We'll see whether it holds them to maturity, when the monsoon is gone next month and the temps start to go up again.

Last night we missed out on the rain... again. Here you can see it coming in from three directions, forming a horseshoe around the heat island that is the Phoenix metro area.

By about 10 pm last night, it closed in completely around us. Lightning in four directions, but overhead I could see stars and scattered clouds. We had lots of wind, but no rain to speak of. Downtown had close to half an inch, and up at Saguaro Lake they had over two inches. We weren't the only ones to miss out, however, the west valley also didn't see anything.

2008-07-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

Zinnias

I'm having to water them sometimes twice a day so they survive the heat, but four of them are blooming with more to come. Three pink and one scrawny orange one. The largest one looks like it's sprouting an arm, which I didn't think they did. I'm also wondering if I dead head the blooms once they're spent, whether I can get more blooms out of it, or whether each one is a one trick pony? The bloom on the first one that opened has been there about four days now and shows no signs of fading.

2008-07-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yard Happenings And Whatnot

The zinnias right off the back porch are starting to bloom. Here's the first one.

I had about a dozen come up in the same area, but three of them didn't make it through the June heat. I have two others on the other side of my eucalyptus that have survived thanks to the shade from that tree, and have two more that have just sprouted at the base of the tree (from dirt I moved around when starting to build the extension on our deck).

Speaking of said deck, here's the latest on it. I've ran out of lumber from the old arbor I tore down off the back of the house. I'm thinking about resurrecting my planter that I had built on the arbor about a year ago to fill in part of the void, leaving a narrow strip left to cover. Doing this would cut the lumber I need in half to finish the job, and leave me a nice place to plant a few more things. We'll see if this idea is approved by the building inspector (Emily).

The calomonden is taking off in this humidity, and in the next two pictures you'll see that it's covered in hundreds (thousands?) of new blooms. I don't remember it ever blooming this heavily during the summer, but watered and fertilized it heavily today so the tree can support as many of these new fruit as possible. You can smell this tree as soon as you walk out the back door, it's blooming so heavily right now. I love ever bearing citrus trees, I wish our orange and lemon trees did this (with them you get one chance a year to make the growing conditions optimal, or else you lose your fruit and get nothing off the tree until the following season).

2008-07-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

Microburst

The pictures I posted from my cell phone yesterday are of a now confirmed microburst that squashed East Mesa last night.

The article on the damage from the nasty bugger can be found here:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2008/07/22/20080722weather0722.html

There's also a nice picture of the storm from a distance, taken by a professional using something other than a cell phone with 1 megapixel.

We lost a few trees at the church, and the brunt of the storm missed there. As I was driving west on Crismon, the storm was to the north of the road, and you could see walls of rain blowing south across it, pretty incredible. Reminded me vaguely of the movie Twister, except I didn't see any flying cows or barns roll across the road in front of me.

Lots of clouds to our east this afternoon, they've been looming out there since noon, getting darker and darker. Will it actually move west, hard to tell, at least the sun is going away at the moment, and not too soon, it's 105 outside with 40% humidity, absolutely gross.

2008-07-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

Another Near Miss

While at Wal Mart tonight, I walked across the parking lot to my car and looked west to see this column of rain. Like any Arizonan, I decided to drive towards it, rather than the opposite direction towards home.

And what a gully washer it was. It got close to our house, almost following me there, but it never rained. In east Mesa they got about two inches from this downpour.

I took these pictures on my cell phone camera, it literally looks like a hole opened in the cloud to dump the rain below. And through it all the sun was setting behind it, an eery orange orb.

2008-07-21T14:13:00.001-07:00

Quickie

Not much to report on the yard, too bloody hot for anything of interest to be blooming, other than a stray sunflower, yellow bell, or orange jubilee, which I've posted here a zillion times before.

My zinnias that I planted back in the spring are coming on strong, now, however, and should be blooming pretty soon. The humidity and recent rains have helped them quite a bit. They're also nestled between my 20 foot tall eucalyptus and the house, so they're in the shade for much of the day.

My latest project in the back yard involves recycling the wood from our arbor that we replaced with the pergola, and extending our back deck. I've started framing it, but digging post holes in 100 heat with the humidity is a slow process. This past Saturday I swear I had broken a sweat by the time I had gotten my shoes on.

I'm using Brenna's water table to protect a bag of concrete mix from any rain that might come up (yeah, optimistic I continue to be). This morning I had a running conversation with my daughter while pushing her in her swing about why her water table was on the other side of the yard. I don't think she was terribly pleased by the tone of her voice. Notice the wood block placed strategically on the top where the umbrella for the stand usually goes, to block any rain from sneaking through the table. That's what a college degree will get you, ladies and gentlemen, brilliant ingenuity.

2008-07-15T14:44:00.001-07:00

Sunset

Here are a few sunset pictures from our back yard. One nice benefit of the monsoon is that you get a lot of these.

2008-07-13T20:43:00.000-07:00

More Crazy Weather

It hasn't rained much more since Thursday night, at least not at our house. Phoenix has gotten socked two nights this weekend with over two inches of rain, the airport has had almost five inches, nearly 75% of their annual rainfall, crazy.

Here is a shot of a thuderhead south of us a few nights ago.

And for those interested, here are tonight's rainfall totals, we've missed it to the west.

2008-07-11T05:45:00.000-07:00

Not Your Typical Monsoon

Below is the latest 24 hour rainfall totals around our area. We're at 1.20 inches so far here, and it's still raining this morning. Matter of fact, I don't know if I can remember the last time that the sky was this black from one horizon to the next. Typically in the monsoon season the storms will build up overnight, it might or might not rain, and the clouds break apart at sunrise. Not the case with this disturbance that's pushed up from the south. It's supposed to rain all day today, and we have a good chance of continued rain through Tuesday.

At this point all four of my rain barrels are completely full (approx. 120 gallons) and the last one is overflowing since I never took the time to drill an overflow valve. Goes to show the potential amount of rainwater I could actually collect if I had more gutters and barrels on the north side of the house.

2008-07-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Rain Update

The rain has picked up again here at the house, we're nestled between two nasty storms, lots of thunder, but a gentle rain with no wind. Perfect.

Here's an updated screen shot of rainfall totals, an amazing amount considering it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow (supposedly).

My second rain barrel is almost full, the overflow from the first one is working well, although I think I'll drill a secondary hole, if it were raining harder my first barrel would be spilling out the top faster than the overflow valve can empty into the second one. It's hard to tell if the second barrel is leaking out of the spigot or not since it's so wet out, but I'll cross my fingers that it'll hold like the first one.

The spotted frogs are out hopping around the yard, they surface with the first good monsoon of the season. I just saw one cross the back deck that was about the size of a racquetball.

At about four tenths of an inch, I have probably fifty gallons or rainwater collected at this point with two more barrels to go.

2008-07-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

Rain!

As promised on the regular blog, here are the rainfall totals so far from today. Mesa and North Phoenix are the winners so far, but I'll take anything we get out here. I have been holding off on watering all week, knowing this was coming, and the quarter of an inch that we got here this afternoon should help until more comes along tomorrow.

I went to Home Depot this afternoon and got brackets for my downspout, just in the nick of time. The top barrel pictured here filled up with just the rain we had earlier (about 30 gallons). And it's not leaking out of the spigot, best I can tell. So far, so good. We'll see with more rain tomorrow how the overflow works with the lower barrel.

While I was pushing Brenna in her swing, I took this picture of the clouds just starting to move in.

And here's a random picture of my shamrock that I bought back in March. It's starting to bloom again. It didn't pick up terribly well, but I like how the leaves lean towards the window during the day and close up at night. The undersides of the leaves are also neat, almost completely purple.

2008-07-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Poor Mouthing

As is typically the case on the 4th of July, we had some storms roll through the valley today. This thunderhead you see pictured here got to within 20 miles of the house and broke into a million pieces. I know better than to get my hopes up when I see these things forming on the horizon, because nine times out of ten they don't come over our house. It's just the nature of the monsoon.

Last night we had a line of storms heading right for us from the north that veered off and missed us to the west. South Phoenix had about an inch of rain, so good for them. Nature of the monsoon.

Here's a shot of the monsoon rolling in from the north at sunset. I was in the right place at the right time.

A thunderhead off to the southwest. We were surrounded, but no rain.

2008-06-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Still June

The old yard is still surviving, anxiously awaiting some monsoon rains. The quarter of an inch that we were blessed with a few days ago helped matters. Here are a few things in the yard still blooming, despite the heat.

The creeping trumpet vine is in full bloom at the moment, enjoying the partial shade on the north side of the house.

Despite not watering them, I still have a few sunflowers clinging onto life.

I still have four roses clinging onto life. I moved the two worse looking ones into pots, and almost left them to bake in the sun this afternoon. One was blooming, the other barely has any signs of life.

That leaves two that are still in the ground, one against the house that gets shade in the morning and filtered shade in the afternoon.

And this one, my lone survivor from last year.

Of the four, three of them have bloomed this summer, although the blooms have been pretty small (heat related, I'm sure).