Homecoming harvest

We just returned from vacation
I harvested all of this today
The beans are purple and cook up green, they were so easy to see on the bush.
The few green beans are a vine bean called 'blue lake'

The garden fared well the four days we were away.
We did have 9are having a heat wave here.

Humming bird moth

We had a visitor tonight in the flowers out front.
The men folk out speaking to the end of the day.
I was called to capture a fast photo op.
Favor upon us!

Click on the image to enlarge.
this is a South American creature.
We are it's far northern range.
I have found two of the massive cocoons in my soil.
Sadly both were lost to the blade as it dug into the earth.
They are so amazing.
Now I tender the blade when I turn new earth to amend.

My morning gardening.

Hello!
Welcome to my bliss.

In the morning I will sing a new song.
Sing all earth and sky.
I will declare that Jesus is my Lord that he be glorified!


Kitchen tasks leave the scrap for compost...
Often the egg shells are baked and ground in the food processor for my chickens.
Nothing is wasted

The coop was mucked and the bucket hold the "green dung"
The compost is supper to the soil.
3 part mix

dung
pine shavings
food scrap (no meats)
Coffee and all of the good stuff that goes into the garbage disposal all over the globe.

Remembering to water the compost is hard, for me.
It is a living mixture and I must think of it as such.
I would not let the other living things I tend die of thirst I must not let it either.

Welcome
butter lettuces can get wet on the lief as can the berries.

Life abundant in my garden must be planted for all around me here in this city life is spoiled by pesticides used for ease.
Bend a knee folks and pull that weed!

Worm and mantis is added this day to bring more life to my earth.
This earth really is not mine . I only have guardianship over it.

gardener ship :)

Worms are the red wigglers.

Happy to touch the earth.

tin cans to guard the eye
they also tip when the birds land on them
I attract birds on purpose
Just the otherday I witnessed a gold finch eat a green caterpillar off of the tomato plan.
I watched her through the window, wondering if her eye was on the fruit.
She is a welcomed guest in my garden.
I know what she eats will be safe for her too.

The Black Russian Heirloom is coming back after the transplant shock.
I gave him a deep shoulder to set stronger root.
When you transplant tomato set them deep and build the soil up a bit. They will root more off of the extra submerged stem.
Heads up
cage/trellis or support your toms when transplanted this was a big error first time around for me. Dogs eat them by the way, at least mine do. Plants, fruit and all!

Strawberry pot is having a challenge with a nematode, I dislodged it and plucked the damaged fruit as to not attract him back. The musk melon is doing well.

flowering nicly, I do not know if it has been pollinated. I may do some self pollinating when I get back from holiday.

Moon and stars melons are happy looking things.
All my plants heirloom when I am able.
I want to save seed.
If you use hybrid seed you by mules (they will be sterile seed).

Well the other hill is planted in a different melon for the seeds somehow found way to other spots in the garden. I planted these last week or so.
Hill up your mellon. Then trench water. NO water on the plant.
The mounds are hugged by a black plastic trash bag for warmth. Melons love warm roots.
There is mulch from the compost on all exposed earth.
Walking path has the straw cover.

Another lesson Cabbage needs nitrogen mine bolted due to a lack of it.
I will save the seed and feed the chickens.
No loss if I learn, it will be the mistakes that I will remember.

When I water I pull the hose full into the plot and then pull it out as I water and the end will be at the gate as I exit dry footed.

This is my sweet baby.
Black seed Simpson lettuce.
I have had it three seasons now.
It is going to seed, that I will save. It was a wonderful happy plant.

When salad is desired I simply remove a few leaves, I was ready that you can simply cut off the heads at ground level and they will return again. I have yet to do this though.

Simpson flower is so beautiful!
edible too.

Powdery meldew solution of
baking soda
dish soap
water.

Life.

I asked in prayer for the wheeled can.
Found it at the curb with a wheel barrow free!
The potting soil to be housed in it and it will be portable to use around the estate.

trench water
that is a soaker bulb, It is a good 20 years old so if you can not locate one keep an eye at yard sales and thrift stores.

Morning harvest

The tomato will ripen on a counter top.
Better that then the dogs getting to have them.
Three variety
cherry
roma
early girl

I planted some more raddish.
It is a piggy back way to plant.
I wish I would of planted the radish earlier, the second crop will be a bit delayed.
Lettuce will be harvested for a salad for lunch tomorrow.
I like to wait untill It is time to eat it.
Butter lettuce is so tender it wilts fast after harvest.

I hope you gleaned a bit of bliss
Bee happy!

Saving seeds.

My family walked at a nearby nature park.
It is densely planted with native zero scape (low water users) species.
Living in zone 7 these things considered will place you working in union with nature and not fighting against it for your wild flowers.

I gathered seed heads that had matured.
The flower spent, that has been pollinated. Once it dries you have seed.

My husband noted the joy he had at watching me gather the seeds.

This plant is scattered around the Indian paint brush, it looked to grow best as a nursed plant.
Nursery planting in the desert is to give a tender plant a hardy bush to shade it and to keep the harsh sun from burning it up. With a nursery set up many tender wild flowers will thrive.
Look to nature it will show you what it prefers.
I loved this one. My husband reminded me to take a picture of the plants so that I would have record.
This is bottle brush, I threw seed at the corder of the front.

The bottle Brush bush loved full on sun. It is so vivid!

The Bees have done a wonderful job for me.
Many seed heads on the poppy plants.
I am gathering them and then they will be set aside to dry.

Sun to your back when you work, a nice soothing warmth, and it is not in your eyes.

a Poppy seed head. Just pluck like a bean pod.
Hold the stem with endex and thumb and pop off the bean with your remaining fingers.

I will give new life to the plant.
Now it can focus its energy on flower again and so on...and so on..
The spinning wheel turns.

The vine out front is so wonderful. The heat is giving it a run for the money. I gathered the seed and then drew the vines up to the house for more shade.

A mornings gathering.
Note that by buying heirloom seeds if this is your practice...well you will have more than enough to spread the beauty and share it with others.
I have had a dream seeing my self as a sower of wild flower seeds. I see myself in dreams walking long country roads tossing the seed as I go.
It is like a legacy I long to leave the earth.

Speaking of saving seed.
By putting the feeders in the box before filling them with the wild bird seed,
I have little mess to sweep if any.
I also am able to just empty the box back into the bin.

I want to be a wild flower Johnny Apple seed.

call birds closer

Did You Know?

...that you can call birds closer? For a closer look at some feathered friends, try this trick:

1. Go to a place where you see or hear birds nearby, such as a row of shrubs, a big tree, or a patch of woods.
   
   
2. Make this sound: PSSSH, PSSSH, PSSSH. This is called "pishing." To birds, it sounds like an alarm call, so they get curious about what is going on. Some birds may swoop down to investigate.
   
   
3. If you call a bird close to you, congratulations! Can you identify it? (Check a field guide for help.) And, for extra credit, can you match the bird with a song you’ve been hearing?

Funny thing is I was serious, I did not even think about how funny this was. This is an artical in a outdoors kid friendly blog.

Bloom Where your planted

Hello!
Welcome.
for those of you who have left comment, oops somethings needing to be fixed for I was not notified of your comment.

Easter is hopping near this week
With all that is Holy Remembered with a reverent joy.
This bush was self planted by the wind, it is and Indian Paint brush.
The Iris are tired they had a great show this year.

The Iris were a gift many years ago when we had just moved here.
I had a friend once who had a small farm down south of us. She has long ago disappeared and the farm sold to housing development.
I was helping her one day as our kids played.
She was needing a home for the Iris.
I adopted them.
They are just this year well established
The front of the estate as many wild gifts that have blown in.
I was too tired of body and soul to plant when the kids were small and we had first moved in here.
My 11 year old yas a young developmentally delayed child who needed all of me for many years.
She became congruent, and then she became a big sister at 3 yrs of age.
The Master knew I needed divine intervention.

Over the years these sweet little desert wild flowers have spread out and thrive on there own.

During those tired years there have been many gifts to the yard.
The most memorable was a mass of sunflowers large and small that came up out on the East side.
They were a birthday gift one year to remind me that all things pass and one day life will go on and become normal again.
The purple orchid tree there on my side was a child of the one the neighbor planted.
When I see these things, I take great care to not just destroy the life.
Many would just pull it out without regard and miss out on the opportunity.
When a plant plants itself (with the exception of the foundation of the house) it remains until I can identify it.

The wild birds enjoy the cover that has grown from the scrap seed that falls.
This grows freely and then seeds in the late summer when it is so hot that going out and filling the feeder is not a joy :) (for me anyway)
So I am covered the self sowing feeds the wild birds in the heat of the season.
Birds are an important part of the manor.

all you see here is self planted.

With just this exception. These are heirloom sweet peas.

Having cover like this keeps wild birds of all types around.
They need a place to hide.
Many Inca dove coo and rest in the grasses here.

This seed stalk is hear now.
It is a gift. To me as well as to the wild birds.
How could I disregard that?

This week I found another Indian paint brush bush.
It is just a baby bush.

This is a bush that is native to my area. If I were to purchase this it would easily cost $40. at a nursery. It came to live here of it's own accord.
This has also self planted at my sidewalk just this week.
In the perfect place.

All of this self planted.
I watch and see it grow.

scattered of seed at my hand

Of the seeds I scattered ...

Click it to enlarge
See the bee

Bees are very important to the vegetable gardens in the back yard.


California poppies.
The seeds will be gathered at the end of season dried and then scattered in the fall.

Some things are worth waiting for.

The love of all life compels me to garden.
Although I have kept a Victorian (Edwardian) type garden with a hose this is a new venture in gardening.
Our former home (a 40 year old dwelling), of 16 years ,was built from the soil. It was that soil I loved and nurtured while I was without a child for many a long year.
I spent so much of my soul in that earth that when we moved It took a piece of me that was regained recently.
It has been of just this last year that the call of the earth spoke louder than all the distractions of the wonderful children I have been raising now for 10 years or so.
Now they are sound and my passion for gardening will have a large part of my heart and time to tend to it.

Gifts of life.
A rose given to me by a sweet friend bloomed this week.
It is a tee cup rose, very tiny.

In the desert life = water
We slow watered our beautiful tree...
It is the greenest one on the block.
Life needs love and care.
Those things we grow, cause growth in us.
For me the responsibility of all things living under my charge...well it makes me 'feel' alive.
I thrive in it.

In the way that I breath, I ask for my desires of the MASTER GARDNER.
Without Him I can grow nothing.
The life is in Him and from Him.

Last year I tried a hummingbird bush here.
It did not make it. I was not tending the earth with a whole heart yet.
I have awakened to the earth for a good 9 months now.
My heart desired a plant here.
Just this last week I notice this was not a weed.
It is a native desert plant that will have wonderful Yellow flowers that smell of hay.
Those yellow flowers are significant to me.
My husband is color blind. He can see yellow.
HE CAN SEE YELLOW!
This is a gift that had both of our hearts in mind.
It blew in off the wind free, to grow where it was planted by the Master.

Bloom where your planted.
It is where your meant to be.
:)