Waiting For Pansies

10/30/11

Mums

     While the northeast part of the US had a freak October snowstorm this weekend (with power outages again!), I wish we had some of that cold weather here.  This week should be the last week we have 90 F (33 C) days.  Hooray!  I'm ready to put my fall flower garden in.  I have many bare spots in the flower garden where the heat of the summer killed off many plants.

Petunias

   



 I bought petunias a week ago, as well as mums.  I put the mums in my patio pots which were bare all summer.  I never plant anything in these pots in summer because it requires so much watering to keep plants in the pots alive in the heat we have here.





     I spread the petunias out on both sides of the flower garden and planted them this weekend.  Now I'm waiting for the pansies to arrive at Lowe's or Home Depot.  They arrive about now, when the temps get below 90 F.  But neither store has any of the larger 21/2 quart size in; just the small 6 flats came in.

Petunias planted

     My vegetable garden is not doing well.  When I planted seeds three weeks ago, we had ten days of over 100 F (38 C) temperatures.  I think the heat killed most of the radish, carrot, spinach and lettuce seeds.  Only a few of the lettuce and chard seeds sprouted.  The tomato plant has two tomatoes growing on it, but the zucchini were infected with whiteflies.  I sprayed soapy water on them, and one may make it.



Early Girl tomato plant



Rhubarb chard

     The weather here makes gardening very difficult.  Although our last 90 F (33 C) day is supposed to be Tuesday, the temps have dropped into the 50's at night already.  So there was a vast 40 degree difference between day and night temperatures this last week.  Then after our last 90 F day, the temperature will immediately drop to the low 70's and stay that way for a few weeks with night time temps in the 40's.  Temperatures do no drop gradually here.  Last year we had three below freezing nights in November.  It takes about three weeks to go from summer to winter here.  There is no fall color here in the desert.  About half the trees are deciduous here, and their leaves (most of which are smaller than your little finger) just turn brown and fall off.  I really miss the beautiful fall color of the east.

My Brother's Garden

10/5/11

squash plants

     I spent the past four days at a family reunion celebrating my Dad's 90th birthday.  We met at the house my Dad and brother share.While there I toured my brother's extensive gardens. Because my brother lives in Las Vegas, Nevada he plants spring and fall gardens.

     This fall he has planted squash, onions and green beans.

tomatoes under suncreen

     He shaded his spring-planted tomatoes with a sunscreen fabric this summer so they wouldn't die off, and is hoping they will produce again this fall before cold weather sets in.  He has blueberry bushes under this suncreen fabric also.



compost bin



orange cherry tomatoes












     On the patio, he has a couple of pots of orange cherry tomatoes, and his compost bin sits just off the side of the patio next to his kumquat bush.



    

pomegranate bush



pomegranates











     Along the back wall are two pomegranate bushes.  The pomegranates are just ripening now.  We picked one and sliced it open.  We ate the arils which are the seeds.  Each seed is encased in a juicy sac which has a sweet-tart taste.


     My brother has many of the same flowers and bushes that I have in my yard:  yellow bells, Texas sage, red bird of paradise, lantana.  But the most gorgeous flowers in his yard are the red roses.

red roses

                                           

Roses and Tomatoes

4/21/11    
I bought three roses last weekend.  One is a red Mr. Lincoln rose, an old favorite of mine.  Another is the beautiful coral-colored Tropicana, and the third is a white rose called Honor.  Although I am not a rosarian, roses are one of my favorite flowers.  They are quite beautiful to me, and I love their shape and their fragrance.  I have wanted to plant roses since moving to the desert, but there are very few places that carry them around here, and the places that do, carry a very limited supply.  I don't know why, because roses should do well here without any spraying (I don't spray roses or anything else in my gardens).  No black spot or mold or mildew to bother them here, I understand.  Maybe they don't do well in the extreme summer heat unless they are shaded from some of the afternoon sun.  I have no shade at all in my yard, so we will see how they do.



Burpee Big Boy tomato

I received my tomato and pepper plants from Burpee the first week of April.  Burpee's Big Boy tomato is my all-time favorite tomato.  I have grown them from seed many times, but there's no place in the house I am living in now to grow seedlings.  I kept them in the garage for a day or two because it was so windy the entire week they arrived.  On the third day I put them out in a protected place so they could get some sun.  But the wind was blowing so furiously from all directions it seemed, and they ended up getting windburned.  I kept them in for two more days.  They were not looking good, and their leaves were dying off. I figured I had to plant them if they were going to survive.  And it was going to be hot in a few days.  So into my garden they went.  They still did not look great after four days.  So I fertilized them with my favorite natural fertilizer.  Fish emulsion.  After two days they perked up, and now all are growing new green leaves.  They have some catching up to do, and hopefully will produce tomatoes before the real heat arrives.