Flowers, Jesus Table, and Tons of Soap

The plants keep on keepin' on and I might have learned quite a lesson from this year's crop. Patience. This is the first time I have grown the majority of plants from seed and being around in the first stages of growing have been interesting. Most years I have picked up plants at local stores ready to plant. I quickly learned that a transition period is necessary or survival in this radiant area after I burned 3 plants by just setting them out. Hence, the Jesus (Hay-seuss) Table, and it is at its carrying capacity as of today. This area in the breezeway allows for sun rays to hit the plants more than they do in the bathroom, but not as strong as their final resting spots in the yard.

My hopes are to  have at least six more tomatoes out in buckets in the coming days, and little by little all the plants in the bathroom will have made their way either to the front porch (tomato land) or to Jesus area. Some of the tomatoes on the porch are even flowering. Who wants early cherry or tomatillos?

Peacevine Cherry Tom.

Tomatillo in full force

Geranium beginning to bloom

Another thing to happen on the compound in recent days is the cutting and storing of the soap. Not too bad either, it should last a while. Close to 50 bars were made, and since the price at the Farmer's Market is about $7/bar, buying the ingredients and waiting patiently will be well worth it in the coming months.

Stacks of goodness

And one last picture thrown in or fun-sies. Little Miss Frieda Paprika missed the hell out of me the last few days while I was away for work. She hasn't been out of my sight all day, always close on my heels. Good thing the porch is so inviting for the both of us.

Her favorite spot in the sun

The Plants, The Plants, The Plants are on Fire

Things have heated up 'round here. Last weekend was cold and chased me indoors, this weekend I am status checking plants so as not to fry them. What a world we live in. It was a close call with the east facing row of lettuce and a few little lettuce leaves were lost. I must have blocked this out of my memory of last year. But when it reaches 90 degrees in late April, the weather means business. Not to worry though, a sheer panel went straight to work, coupled with a bamboo stalk, and tad-da! a shade tent!

And let there be shade...

The lettuce a little thinner.

Holding up that luck.

Not only did a few lettuce leaves bite the dust, err dirt, but three baby herb plants did too. The sun is just too darn hot. Now there is a transition area for the plantlings before they go to their final resting spot. I call it Jesus (think with the pronunciation of Spanish, not religion).

Jesus is my friend.

 I came to the realization that I need a friend with a truck. Now being an individual who used to own a truck I know the importance of having such a mechanism to haul things. This would make my pocket book one happy item. Instead of having an appropriate vehicle available for use and purchasing soil by the ton I went out and bought 3 more bags of soil. My pocket book is not a happy camper on this, and I am up to 9 bags of soil so far this year (and its only April). YIKES!!! The packaging involved in such an activity is just atrocious...but it is the only way to garden until I own a truck.

And a garden needs soil...

Here are a few shots from what is going on in the garden so far...So many plants need to make it outside...Thank you sweet Jesus (Chuy) for being the transition to the outside.

Carrots.

Last year's chard is flowering

close up.

 This is an amazing chard and it has been consumed for over a year now. I am letting a couple go to seed for the saving for those future generations.

Oregano and parsley came back and are rocking

Peacevine cherry tomato with itty bitty flowers

Poppies from last year

The bird of paradise has numerous buds ready to bloom!

The soap has hardened and needs a tad longer to ensure the caustic burning materials are no longer hurtful to the skin. I believe this has been worth the price and the small burning sensation I received. The smells are yummy and will invigorate the senses. It won't be too much longer before it makes its way into the bathroom.

Soap out of their molds and getting un-caustic

Numerous plants are still needing work to be done before they are planted. Shade structures and climbing apparatuses built, bird proof areas created, etc. And then there are the tomatoes. Those darn things, there will be close to 30 plants by the time it is said and done. Six more will be added to buckets today and a tomatillo and an unidentified tomato were added to the garlic box in a corner where nothing came up. Anyone want to work on their salsa making, canning, or drying skills? I might need day laborers this summer.

The weather in Arizona has turned cold, what do you think about that second week of April? Mother Nature's friendly reminder to southern Arizona that others have a much harder time during the so-called cold months. The plants that have made their way outdoors have now found themselves hiding in my living room.

Its a jungle in here...

The cold wouldn't be that bad if the wind wasn't blowing ninety to nothing. I too have been chased in the house, but my time not wasted. I have been needing to find the time to make a soap mold so I can try my hand at soap making and make up my mind on the fragrance. I have settled on Lemongrass, Frank and Myrrh, wish me luck.

Wood scraps made into a gangster looking mold

Either there weren't too many cold days or I have already pushed them from my memory, but today's cold snap allows for cold weather food. Just so happens someone's blog I follow, The Snarky Chickpea, posted a recipe I was dying to try, Creamy, Cheesy Potato Soup. Couple that with a bread recipe I found on the ever addicting Pinterest, and dinner was done.  I did not have coriander for the soup so it is sans that ingredient, I added miso in place of salt, and I added a couple of roasted peppers from the market. It turned out awesome. Although the bread tasted super yummy and fresh, cost about $.40 or less to make, I learned a few lessons that will make this a go-to recipe. The hard part will now be allowing the bread to cool to a proper temp in future bakings.

Making myself busy without working with the plants outside was easy to do this weekend, but I don't foresee having such an ease of time if I can't get in the garden next weekend. Plants are busting from their holders in the bathroom and are begging to go outside to continue growth. I was told my first year in this area that it always went below freezing in late April. I didn't listen (or possibly remember) last year and I lost a couple of plants in a late freeze. Not this year, the plants outside are easily brought in when the temps lower...here's to spring?

A Summary at Hand

Boy has time flown during this uber busy season. I see it has been over a month since my last post, but not for a lack of trying. I have a couple of unfinished posts ready to be completed, but those will have to wait.

Its garden time.

Things were going so well. I transplanted 10 of the tomato plants out in buckets to the porch. Then, BOOM! a cold snap with freezing temps had me shuffling the tomato and every other plant into the two upstairs houses. It was like a jungle in my living room as they refuged from the cold. Now I am skeptical about putting anything outside that can't be carted back in the house if need be. For some odd reason the frost free day is really late in April for this area. Arizona, go figure.

The beginning of the tomato army.

This beautiful thing survived the frost too.

Plants happy outside.

I did bite the bullet and put the mystery plants outside. I am still in wonder about what they might turn out to be, a squash, a watermelon, S thinks okra. I guess this is what happens when a person composts. Whatever they are, they want to GROW! They have beat everyone in the cycle and are rocking and rolling.

Anyone have a guess as to what it is?

And check out what I found growing, the bundling sage. I tried so hard last year to get this silly plant to grow to little such luck. This is the second plant I have found randomly. I guess it needed a couple of seasons to start.

Growing in a crack.

The potatoes finally started to emerge from their blanket of comfort. I was gifted a bale of 'straw', come to find out it is hay, so I pick out little hay sprouts daily from the potato bin. Not too worry though, I am on it. The hay will not impede the growing of the potatoes.

Super stoked about these guys' arrival into the world

I did the adult chore of a thing to do and bought a new set of tires for the land turtle (car) before my big trip next month. The guy at the place thought I was going to pay him $10 to take my tires away. Yeah right, silly goose. So far it is home to a few dianthus, another flower I can't remember what it is, and a cherry tomato. I have heard mixed reviews about eating plants grown in tires, and haven't really made up my mind on it, so the tomato will stay til I make up my mind. The other two tires will house hollyhocks and marigolds when they are ready to transplant. It lies in the path of the back entrance, so a bit of color to go along with all the edible plants that will soon be out there.

Since this has become a summary of sorts I will continue with what else has been done to fancy up the outside space for this year's garden. The few coldish months that I took as a break allowed the yard to really start to look icky, so getting it back to show time has been in my mind. S is great at building things and had me help in building a structure that will attempt to keep frieda paprika in the compound walls. She is smart and will probably not take her too long to find an escape route, but a nicer fence was needed and it was a good thing for me to learn.

The fence, lettuce and spinach tray, sage, onion and carrot and garlic boxes

You think you can keep me in...

 And totally ungarden related, but really cool, the hummingbirds are back. I have seen about 3 different species, and the Broad-billed is such a beaut with its bright red beak.

So, I guess it is time for summer to roll in. If not yet, then I would call this porch season, for today I can't seem to do anything other than sit on the porch and let the cool breeze blow against my face. Well, that and a little guitar pickin' (on the porch, of course).

And since we have hit on a couple of non-gardening things, here is a small list of what has been going on outside the gardening world.

Ranger Michael has come up with an awesome idea, Ranger Recipes, and my 'Yummy to the Tummy Vegan Nachos' is recipe #7. You should check it out, there are great recipes on this site.  I veganized the 'Mrs. Liang's Ginger Crackle Cookies', and they were awesome and replaced the already stellar ginger cookie recipe I had on hand. I am sure for you egg eating folks they are just as good with eggs.


I again joined artistic forces with S. Lee for an 8-hour drawing event at Heather Green Studios. It was a jewel of a time working among others while they create, and everyone's piece was amazing to view. There are alot of talented folks in this community. There is a time-lapse video at Heather's blog, where you can check out the progression of the pieces as the day unfolds. This was my first real go on wheat pasting (the man hunched over) and I can't wait to put up a couple of more pieces around town.

What 8 hours can do.

With the amount of plants still housed in the bathroom the next few weeks will keep me pretty busy as I ready the beds for them to move outside. The end of the bathroom is going to look really lonely when all of the plants vacate.