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.