Am I still alive?

It seems like forever and a day since I have posted on the blog regarding the garden. Things are still happening, plants are growing, but my 'real' job has taken me away from many duties while traveling (thank goodness for S for her watering abilities). I will say though that things are producing, and once I return from a much needed vacation, I might be able to eat peppers, beets, and carrots. YUMMY!!!!! But, the beach beckons, as does my need for speaking Spanish, so I will be on hiatus for  a short amount of time. BUT, I do promise copious amounts of pictures, my vacation does include a couple of days in and around the garden. Hopefully you will be amazed at the growings, I sure have been!

Til I return, possibly a tanner (or redder in my case) individual!

it's a chicks world

I believe I have mentioned in earlier posts that I am not alone in this gardening business. As there are three occupants on the compound, each has either their own thing going on, or in the example of the upper level occupants, shared duties. So when one person must leave for an amount of time, the other members of the tribe step up and helps with the duties that would have lacked. So, as of Tuesday, I am a chicken farmer. For one week that is.

An earlier photo of the girls

 
A total of 6 chickens, and various plants, have been added to my daily fun in the garden. It is not tough work, but something that I have not done before. When I leave for work in the mornings I let the chicks out, feed and water them, and upon return, I hang for a bit. Not only do I have two compost places where the little amount of food scraps go, some now go to the chickens. It is fun to toss them (the scraps) over the wall and watch the girls go after it. Pure and free entertainment. When the sun gets low in the sky, the girls need little nudging to get back in their pens for safety. Most have already made it in each night on their own, and a few need a little beckoning.

I am glad to be a chicken farmer for a week, but since I do not consume anything that comes from this creature, I have found it is not for me. I had the small thought early on to get a few chicks myself, but I think I will stick to plants. There are too many predators out there that could get these girls, and I am a little on edge this week due to this fact. They are cute, barely cuddly, and do provide entertainment, but I think after this week I will enjoy as a neighbor and not an owner. That is until next time R leaves for a small bit. Now I am not griping, but I did find out the easy way that chicken farming is not for me in the long haul.

a little video

Here is a video of, not all, yet various parts of the garden. My apologies, the takes were with a sub-par camera, and possibly a sub-par videographer. But, you get the point.

Enjoy!

Time creeps by as the plants continue to grow

It seems as though I could stare at these silly plants in the garden for hours that turn into days. But it is not til I ignore them for a day or two that I really see a difference in their growing patterns. Other than the lettuce and other leafy greens, which I have been happily eating for a month or so now, most plants are still in the growing stages and not ready to eat. The waiting game is much longer when you start your plants from seed instead of purchasing them ready to be placed in the ground.

While watching the plants grow tall I have found that many, or most, of the seeds planted actually sprouted. Man, was I surprised! I had hoped things would prosper, but had no idea so many would. With so many plants, more space was needed to allow the plants to grow to their full potential. Fortunate for me I am not doing this gardening bit solo, I do have a helper. S was able to work on the top garden and get the land worked to where it would be suitable for planting. Many of the abundance of plants were transplanted to the top, and at this point many have survived. Unfortunately we did lose a few, but the majority of the plants are still live. I do have about 1/2 a fence put up, and if everything goes well this weekend, the other 1/2 will be laid. Luckily no critters have had their meals on the plants. 

Before picture of the upper garden

Another item in the garden that I have ignored would be the worms. It took me a bit of time to acquire more worms for the bin, who knew they were such a hard commodity to find? A person at work graciously gave me quite a few, and in looking in on them a couple of weeks after obtaining them, the compost is doing just fine.

Worm and a bit of compost

Since I was unable to find worms for quite some time, I did have to supplement the soil to ensure the soil had enough nutrients to feed the little plants. I had a bit of heartache over this at first, but quickly got over it. The alternative would have been to replant everything ever so often, and since I am not a fortunate one, I cannot afford soils in this manner. From taking a hydroponics quick course one weekend, I remembered NPK- nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the three things plants need (under most conditions). I stopped by the hydroponics store while in Tucson and chatted with the helpful sales people on 4th Ave. I came home with an organic mixture of NPK, mostly made of various animal poo. Once the worm bin and the other compost bin have enough time to create its goodness, I will happily use this fertilizer in place of the bought stuff. Atleast the bought stuff will do the job until this occurs.

Patience is definitely not my middle name. I will of course try to calm down and watch to enjoy the garden grow. As slow as it seems at times, I do not want to rush the yummy goodness that comes from such an activity. Hopefully there will be new pics to post next time. I did catch a glimpse of one of the pepper plants happily producing a pepper. Oh I can't wait to make burritos with the first pepper of the season! Or possibly a chili rellano, or salsa, or....oh my the choices might be endless!

And scary she is

The past week or so has been a slow one I would say, atleast for my working in the garden. I and the other gardeners on the property have done the usual watering and the likes around the place, but the additions have come to a halt, but only for a short time. The plants continue to grow, grow, grow, there is no mistaking that.

The squash, corn, and beans that have been strategically planted together have just doubled in the last couple of days. They are located in the same area as the transplanted lettuce where the scarecrow was placed.

A couple of people have asked me about the scarecrow and what it was made of. Since the hill above and behind the place technically belongs to the property, I went up and found a couple of agave stalks from previous years and used the natural thread laying around outside (thank goodness my neighbor and I are sharing the gardening duties, along with the supplies outside) to tie together the two pieces.

 

From this point I was able to find all other materials lying around the houses. We had kept many of the cardboard boxes that would acquire around the house just in case there was a need to cover the plants in the case of a frost. And believe me, they were used during that last cold spell a couple of weeks ago. I chose a pizza box lid from a bit of take out and painted the box as a face to scare off whatever little critter ate most of my transplanted lettuce. Thank goodness all three occupants are artists, paint never seems to be in need.

Ye lovely lady face

Arms stretched far and wide

Now all this paint and such isn't all that good without something that will stir in the wind, or in my terms, the hangy blowing things. I had many bottle and pop tops hanging around from an art project I have been working on, and I have kept my old worn out guitar strings for some time now, knowing I could use them somehow. I shimmied the bottle tops on the guitar strings where they could blow in the wind.

As cool as I thought the guitar string and bottle caps might be, I wondered if I needed something else. I found a scrap of an old sheet and tore off pieces about an inch and a half thick. Then, using the sewing skills I learned in the third grade, I sewed the pieces on so as to have an additional distraction for the hungry critters.

An added distraction

Hopefully this scarecrow made of found-a-bouts will keep the critters from this corner of the garden. And soon the plants that are a bit crowded will make their way up the hill after a tad bit, with the high probability of needing another scarecrow. Unfortunately the fence making and bed readying have taken a bit longer than I had anticipated, but with time. It is still early yet. This whole work thing takes up more of my garden time than I would prefer, but one needs an income to increase their plant list. Hopefully the next time will have a focus on the top garden, one we are all pumped about and working on finishing.

up the hill it goes...

Whew! This weekend's freeze tried to wipe out the garden, but the top floor of the old brothel on the hill's residents covered quickly for two nights, and I am hopeful that nothing was taken out. The cold made my weekend bland, hardly any garden work, and lots of inside stuff to do. I would much rather be in the garden, but since I am now a Southeastern Arizona girl, the cold gets me pretty quickly.

Late last week I surveyed the surrounding grounds to see if there would be any other place to plant a few more seeds. Without being able to build something quickly I took another approach. There is so much sun on one end of my front porch. Since I have not gotten to the hardware store to build another planter, I decided the only way to take advantage of the approximate 6 hours of sun daily would be to hang planters. So with my macrame and shell planter holders I planted a couple of more things to soak up the sun on the porch. Not only will the Nasturtiums and Calendula add color to the area, but both are edible or usable. Mmmm.

Possible Calendula popping up from the bricks on the wall  (or a sage, the only plants not marked). 

So tonight's plan in the garden is working on the top of the hill. My neighbor and I have planted so many things under the light of the moon to start things off, and with time, water, and sun, almost all have sprouted. Now that corn, squash and celery has sprouted there is only one plant, beans, that have not sprouted from the lot of plantings. Don't start hating on the beans just yet. My neighbor and garden partner just gave me the idea last week, and in the ground they went.

Carrots

This means in a few short weeks most will have outgrown the places they currently reside. Good thing for this little house on Opera Dr., the landlords own most of the land behind the house and up the mountain. This could get out of hand folks. So two of the three gardeners on the property will be heading up the small staircase to the soon to be upper garden. Reports of great soil above have me in high hopes that if done right this garden will prosper. One big problem, critters. The next few weeks we will be making a fence in hopes of keeping the food for the two legged creatures, not four. And once the fence is in place, the plantlings will move up a few feet in elevation to the upper garden. This gardening year is going to be great!

From artichokes to zinnias

The little spare time I acquire in life is no longer spare, it has a purpose. Gardening, and boy has it kept me one busy lady, expanding day by day. It all started with a lettuce and herb tray with only a hand full of yummy growing, to an old bookcase turned planter, to a brick laid attachment to the house, to empty compartments from the cement block wall, to...

After a doomed attempt at creating a compost pile on the hill above my place, I carried the old, worn out bookcase from above down to mid-level and stared at it for quite some time. Oh what to do with such a thing. To fill it with ample soil would cost a small fortune, one I am not privy to. So my solution was simple, straw bales.

I stopped by the feed store I pass on my way to and from work, and for a reasonable amount, I was the proud owner of one straw bale. As I watched the feed store boy climb the ladder to the top of the straw tower numerous feet above ground,  watch him pick the one that was to go home with me, I pondered. Where will I carry such a thing? The backseat of a four-door car, that is where. As I drove home, windows open, straw flying every which way, gardening thoughts of grandeur filled my imagination, as a smile reached  a thousand miles. Then as I parked and looked stunned at the bottom of the stairs, my grandeur thinking fizzled to, oh no. Yes, oh no. You see I live in a small mining town where most homes are affixed to the sides of a mountain, and where I live is 52 stairs to the gate of my yard. Yes folks, 52 stairs. But I made it up the stairs with the majority of the straw still intact.

I filled the reallocated bookcase with straw and soil and started planting. First section contains celery, second section has what is left of a few lettuce transplants, and the third section contains corn and squash. All planted fairly recently and I am anxiously waiting their arrival. Some creature had a tasty snack of lettuce one day, so a bit of chicken wire and a newly made scarecrow have been added for further protection.

The wall behind the scarecrow has a row of zinnias in the bricks to add a bit of color to the garden. I have planted every type of seed packet purchased so far, and have added a few more plantlings picked up around town. Here are the rows of onions, mesclun lettuce and mustard mix, cilantro, and spinach that was the second stage of the lettuce planter.

Collards and chard in the back, a pepper in the brick, and broccoli in the container.

And what is summer without strawberries or mint to be added to many favorites like lemonade? Using whatever I can get my hands on or find lying around the house I made a small bed off the house to hold the mint and an old container that was once used by a friend for holiday decorations for strawberries.



mint



strawberry

The days are reminiscent of an advent calendar, but what is new each day is a new seedling, not a piece of candy behind cardboard doors. Each day has its surprises in the garden.