Winter is Back!

But before she returned and frosted all my apple blossoms, I took a few photos to save an April Spring Day forever!
So of course, I know Spring is fickle, but I do so enjoy it when she shows her lovely face.

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For Spring flowers with gumption,however, one need only look to the lovely weeds - they laugh when Spring hides her head and Winter's chilly 25*F nights return.

Blustery Spring Day & Early April Photos

Nectarine blossom, April 6th, 2008...

The nectarine tree officially burst into bloom on April 6th! First of the orchard trees to bloom this year. The two more mature apple trees were only 13 days behind the nectarine, though - opening their first buds today. (Unfortunately, there were 40 MPH winds, so I was not able to photograph them, although I spend a goodly amount of time standing in the sand-blasting wind just gazing at them.) The two younger trees do not look like they have flower buds on them - only leaf buds. Ditto for the sweet cherry. All the trees in the orchard look happy, though, with bright green leaves and/or leaf buds.

More nectarine bud photos from April 6th...

In spite of 40 MPH winds and sand-blasting, I hung out in the garden for several hours during the late morning. Had a peaceful, therapeutic time. Even got some garden "chores" done.

Lemon Balm in Bed No. 1

Raised Bed No. 1

• Watered
  
• Transplanted some oregano from the original patch to another location in the same bed - pulled it away from some bearded irises that it was trying to invade - and couldn't just "throw it away!"
  
• Speaking of bearded irises, they survived the winter just fine and most have leaves more than 6 inches high now.
  
• A dozen sugar snap peas have broken ground
  
• Earlier in the week I discovered 2 more lemon balm clumps hiding in the tomato debris from last year - bringing the total to 3 clumps! They don't really have a pleasant lemon smell or flavor - kind of have turpentine undertones - but anything that will survive the desert and our winters is totally welcomed!
  
• Earlier in the week also discovered a small patch of sweet marjoram. Looks and smells very similar to the oregano, but the leaves are not fuzzy and the smell is not nearly so pungent. Another survivor from last year - that's 3 herbs I've found that will over winter here (Sweet Marjoram, Lemon Balm, Oregano)
  
• Desert Mallow has 3 very tiny leaves at the base of last year's dead wood - so I shall say it is officially awake
  

Closeup of new strawberry growth, 4 April 2008...

Raised Bed No. 2

• Watered
  
• Strawberries look healthy and undaunted by whirling winds
  
• A few stray garlic are up - not as robust as the main crops - these were small cloves planted more for decoration and because I cannot stand to throw any plant away that might possibly grow
  
• Crocus leaves are still up and healthy looking, although the few crocus that bloomed in this bed are long gone
  
• more than 25 sugar snap peas are up and have their first true leave - planted some more to fill in the gaps where nothing seems to have germinated
  

Happy Garlic, 6 April 2008...

Raised Bed No. 3 & In Ground Garlic Bed

• Watered both
  
• Both are devoted just to garlic - mostly hard necks
  
• The garlic in the south west corner of the in-ground garlic has "split" and has two stems - I don't think it will form a good bulb - I heard that water stress or cold stress can cause this. The others appear to be fine.
  

Obviously, I should probably be posting more regularly as a lot is going on right now - like the weeds are very happy and such...sunflower seeds planted a little over a week ago have germinated... I planted more sunflower seeds this afternoon... and, well, I'd rather BE in the garden than write about it...

Ok, a few more weed photos and that's it for tonight...

The flowers for this one are particularly difficult for me to get in focus... not sure why, but this is the best one so far...(4/6/08)

It comes in yellow, too...(4/6/08)

Ok, that's it for tonight. Good night.

Spring is Sprung

Nectarine bud ready to unfurl. This is it's first Spring in our tiny orchard and I did not expect it to actually bloom. Of course, it is only the beginning of April, so I suspect we will have several light frosts and at least one more hard frost before the cold has left us for good - meaning that any fruits formed of these flowers will probably be frost blasted and killed sometime between now and the middle of May. Since the tree is not yet really established, even if it did set fruit that survived, I suppose that I should take them off, any way, so that the tree can spend its energy getting better situated.

The weeds are starting to bloom, also. This one has delicate lavender flowers. The color shows up a little washed out in this photo.

More weed flowers.

Something new that is now germinating.

And finally, some action in the garden area. This is a close up of a sugar snap "edible pod" pea seedling. I've planted about 200 of these babies, so far, but only about 20 have germinated as of today. Hopefully more will soon follow their lead.

Other action in the garden are includes: Bearded Irises have broken dormancy and are about 6 inches tall, Garlic is growing like a weed, Cherry tree leaf buds fattening up, Apple trees have little leaves, daffodils are blooming, crocus flowers are all gone.

More Weeds... and Apple Leaves

The High Desert is alive and turning green! There are four different types of "weeds" here - the very, very tiny ones are tumble weed seedlings. Unfortunately, in the garden area, these will be ruthlessly destroyed.

This is what I am currently calling "the ferny weed." I let two grow last year - they both reached two feet tall and had masses of tiny yellow flowers. Something laid some eggs on it as I had some happy, healthy caterpillars on them - until, of course, something ate them!

Another weed. Waiting to see what this one turns into!

This is not a weed! These are among the first leaves on the first tree in the orchard to unfurl. I hope it isn't too early. The first tree to wake up is always the oldest one - the "rescue" apple tree that my dear husband brought over the mountains for me - it was scheduled to be bull dozed. The next oldest one also has some small leaves, and the ones after it have nice fat fuzzy buds. The nectarine flower buds are swelling and showing hints of pink. Maybe I'll have photos of flowers some time this week!

Weeds - er, native plants?

It's Spring and the weeds sure know it! I'm not really sure what these are, but there are an abundance of them growing in the garden area. It always astounds me that there are things that will grow in pretty darn near pure sand (look at the photos - I don't really see much organic matter in that there growing medium!). I know I will probably regret it, but I am actually watering and taking care of a patch of weeds to see what they turn into. I did this a few years ago and now have a perenial Desert Mallow growing in the garden - lovely orange flowers with geranium-looking leaves. Hopefully I won't be spreading weed seeds that will haunt me for years and years to come. If I get my act together, I'll try to post more pictures of these weeds throughout the seasons.

First Day of Spring

The First Day of Spring was appropriately mild, breezy and full of surprises - I planted these crocus in the fall of 2006. Most of them didn't come up last spring (2007) and those that did were promptly consumed by ravenous rabbits. I figured they were just a bit of expensive rodent dinner and wrote them off as "another thing to not grow in the desert." But behold, a bloom bursting from the sand on The First Day of Spring. I credit their success this year to it being a very wet winter with snow and rain spread out through the season. And I think the rabbits didn't dine on them because I fertiliezed lightly with bone meal - ironically enough, just a few days before they broke ground and I didn't even knew anything was still alive under the sand - just generally getting the ground ready for Things To Come.

Daffodils planted in another area during the fall of 2005 (and bloomed profusely in 2006) that did also not show up in 2007 are now several inches tall. I had written them off as "dead and gone, but maybe worth growing as one shot wonders." I am greatly anticipating if they will bloom or not.

Another surprise survivor is a tiny lemon balm plant, found burried among tomato vine debris. It is bright green and healthy looking with a delightfully pungent lemon aroma. And, while I knew the oregano might come back, I had no idea that by the end of March, it would have expanded its patch by 6 inches. Truly, it might become a ground cover, yet.

I uncovered the winter mulch from the strawberries earlier this week and they have all greened up wonderously. There's about a 4 ft x 4 ft patch of them. Not really enough to pig out on when berry season arrives, but lovely all the same.

Garlic, of course, has been out of the ground for more than a month now. In fact, a few hardy souls have been steadily growing one tiny bit at a time right through the winter snows. Most are 5 - 7 inches tall now. Maybe in a few months we will be harvesting arestingly pungent and spicy garlic! I have two beds of garlic with about 50 cloves in each. One bed is straight in the (amended) sand and the other bed is a raised bed. The bed in the ground sprouted sooner, but after a few weeks of mild sunshine, the ones in the raised beds have caught up.

The first set of peas are in the ground two weeks now, and the second set has been in less than a week. None have broken ground yet. But the weeds - of course, they are off and running.

Still, it appears that Spring has sprung right on schedule, and the garden is slowly waking up. Inside, a profusion of tiny tomato plants and an assortment of basils impatiently sit under grow lights, awaiting their moments in the sun. I love this time of year.

A Page from the Past

Late Winter Seduction

The daytime temps have been getting into the 50's and even mid 60's (*F) and one night it was even over freezing (barely, but over freezing none the less). The sun has been bright, the sky clear, the winds calm. Little by little, a minute or so a day, the sun is rising earlier and setting later. And so, even though I am probably a few weeks too early, I was seduced into starting seeds this past week. 20 little basil plants are up and under lights - waiting on 20 more basils to germinate. 24 tiny tomato seeds also sown - sweet baby girl, yellow pear, red pear - cherry tomatoes who will hopefully set fruit even when the days are near tripple digits. Alaskan Fancy to see if we can get a headstart on the tomato season when it's still cool outside. Roma just because. And for the "experimental tomato for the season", I've sown some "Tomato Vera" - a hollow pepper shaped tomato - for stuffing. I'm hoping it is as prolific as they say.

Still, it is early to be planting, so I will hold off for another week and start more tomatoes and basils and also the other herbs, such as lemon balm, monarda and sweet marjoram.

It's been a pretty wet winter and, to make it even nicer, the snow has spread itself out across the season, so the trees are well watered and hardy weeds are already sprouting. Still, while that is excellent for the trees, it doesn't do much for the summer vegetable garden. So a few summers back, my husband drug water out to the garden area. Here you see some of the PVC pipe that is burried under the sand. It extends about 200 ft to my little garden area. Without it, there would be no garden.

Spring-Like Today

It was a lovely Spring-like day today - in the mid 50's (*F), sunny with just a few wisps of clouds, and barely a gentle breeze. The kind of day that makes you believe that Winter will eventually be over. But - I must remind myself, that it is only the beginning of February, and last year Jack Frost and Lady Snow hung around until May!

Took advantage of the lovely weather to spend some time outside with my few, precious trees. The pines and the fruit trees all got a deep water (15 gallons each or more) early enough in the day that they were well drained of surface water before night fall and the return of freezing temperatures. I will take care of the trees in the back yard tomorrow morning, since the weather looks like it will be similar.

Don't know what type of fly/wasp this is a picture of, but they absolutely love sunflowers. Their bright green eyes and body glisten in the sunshine. They must come from at least 600 feet away to visit my sunflowers. I wonder if the sunflower scent carries on the breeze a mile or two to the lake, beconning these sparkly beauties? If I have 50 blooms or 100 blooms next year, will they be covered in shimmery green? But these are not the only pollinators to visit the sunflowers. Giant Hawk Moths, also known as Humming Bird Moths, also visit. But they visit at dusk and during the night, and so far, I have not caught any with my camera. But I will stalk them more diligently this Spring, and perhaps have a trophy photo to post to this site.

Morning Glories : Desparately Waiting for Spring

Is it time to plant seeds yet!? The hills are all dappled with patches of white melting snow and baren, tan sand and little islands of dry sage. The wild winds overturned semi-truck trailers this week, plastered all fashion of trash and tumble weed skelletons against the chain-link fences, and announced in no uncertain terms that Winter Was Here To Stay For a While.

Haven't actually gotten any morning glories to grow to the point of flowering, yet. First, the seeds have a hard time germinating in our dry desert environment. Then those that do germinate have a difficult time shedding their seed coats with out help - again, due to the dryness. Finally, those that make it to their first true set of leaves get mowed down by hungry ground squirls. This year I am going to try starting them indoors in large, biodegradable pots (12 " or more in diameter). Since they don't like their roots disturbed, I'll plant them out, pot and all, when the night time temps are reliably over 40*F. Maybe I'll get lucky. I love morning glories - I've about a dozen types of morning glory seeds just ready to cover some chain link fencing!