New pictures as of May 7-8, 2009

Been trying to take videos with my new Flip but haven't been able to up load videos, so I took these photos and made a new slideshow. Be sure to double click on any photo, it will take you to picasa. Then click on slideshow in the upper left and you will get a full screen with captions. You can change the speed of the slide show at the bottom of the picture. When youv'e seen all you want then click on exit and back you way out of picasa. Thanks for viewing my garden!!!

The Garden has flourished

I think I have a handle on how to get my slideshows into my blog. I will put the one for April here and then move it to the side when I want to add another slideshow at the end of April.

We have really been working hard to get the garden in top notch shape so we can enjoy and share the fruits of our labors with family and friends. I still have some empty squares but those are saved to do sequential planting of crops so everything doesn't come ripe at the same time. For instance I have four squares of baby carrots in different stages of growth.

The tomato vines have been loaded with blossoms and now lots of fruit has been set (have 15 plants). I've counted about 75 tomatoes in various stages so far. The strawberries are ripening at a rapid rate and we pick a few every day. I put a 3" collar around each plant (cut from plastic cartons) to hold the berries up off the ground to avoid rotting the berries when I water, also makes them easier to pick

All the trees planted last month seem to be thriving and many of the blossoms are still on the citrus . The bird feeders are now back out and we've seen several birds that haven't been around for awhile (a white winged dove and a ringed neck turtle dove, and also a yellow finch). Because we have so many birds around they have gone after some of the small seedlings, in particular, the onions and corn spears. It was the last straw when they pulled up a small asparagus spear. We have covered the beds with bird netting where we have PVC domes and Tom has built me several open frames (2x2 ft by 6" and 1x2ft by 6" and 12") which I have covered with bird netting. They are light weight and easy to move around to new areas where little seedlings are trying to survive.

Tom is in the process of adding automatic sprinkling or soaker hoses to the beds, and a drip system to all the trees. Since it rained hard last night and more today, we won't have to use them for a few days.

Garden through the end of March

I've moved the slide shows to the side so you can see them anytime. There are six so far.
1. A Walk thru my garden
2. Potatoes growing
3. Asparagus growing
4. Removed useless tree
5. New orchard
6. Adding color to my garden
Click on any photo and it takes you to my Picasa site where you can read a description of each slide show and view an enlarged slide show or just run your mouse over each photo to read the captions. Enjoy
I'll be adding a new slideshow of my garden which is pictures taken since 1 April 2009

MARCH WAS A BUSY MONTH

I finally learned how to add a slide show to my blog. To see the captions for each photo and read the description of each album, DOUBLE CLICK on any photo of the slideshow and then CLICK on VIEW ALL. Run the mouse over each photo to read the whole caption.

Catching up on February Gardening

Been so busy working in the yard and other family activities that I haven't blogged for awhile. Matt came home from his mission in Germany the end of February and then Nancy and Troy came to visit for several days. Played and had lots of family fun! Now have to get to work.

My hanging tomatoes didn't do well last fall, so I'm trying again. Filled and planted the unused box in the shade with some broccoli transplants. Planted a few bulbs last fall and a few came up in the strawberry bed. Love the color it adds.

It was time to add more boxes to the garden, so we continued to move toward the middle of the yard. Had a big space and wanted to make it interesting, so we moved the bird bath toward the patio, leveled the ground and added a 4 by 4 box, a 2 by 8 box along side and then a 2 by 8 box behind the lemon tree. You can see the final layout in the last two photos.

These are the current citrus trees that we have in the backyard. Enlarged all the watering basins and fertilized and watered each well. Found some nice citrus at Costco. Bought more orange (3), lime, myer lemon, mandarin and grapefruit (seven tree is all). Will plant them next month after we are sure there will be no frost.

It became harder and harder to move the Mel's mix around so we invested in a dump cart. As you can see we went from a box to a full fledged dump cart, that can also be used as a wagon with or without the insert and removeable sides. At first we thought it was too big, but as you will see in the post for March, we love it.

Know some of the pictures are in strange positions but did this in a hurry. More soon for March gardening.

The New Year 2009

In early January, Tom opened his Christmas present and put together our new gas generator. He mounted it on the wheel base and checked out all the parts, then took it out of the garage to prep it with the oil and gas. It worked!!! See the light in the photo.














My Christmas present was assembled in December, then we left it sitting on the patio until last week when we gave it a home along the back wall behind the grape arbor. This way it will get some shade from the hot summer sun when the grape vines are in full bloom.




Forgot to rotate the picture before I uploaded to the blog. Anyway I am doing my usual January chore of cutting the grape vines and the roses back. Did this last week on beautiful winter day with a little cloud cover so I didn't get sunburned.

Tom is great about gathering up all the mess I make with the trimming. He doesn't just stuff it in the barrel, but cuts the branches into little pieces. Amazing what he can get in. The next photo shows the trimming all done.

This is some ofthe end product of last year's labors. Picked all of the Arizona sweet oranges and lots of lettuce. The tomatoes are from the vines I pulled after the frost last year and have been ripening them in a box in the kitchen. Not a tasty as vine ripened but still good. We've enjoyed lots of salads and some stir fried vegetables for the past two months. The beets still haven't matured enough to pick and the carrots are very small.

Went out yesterday and did some clean up and then decided to plant some more carrots, radishes and bok choy just to see how they would do before it gets too hot. Found some really good looking citrus trees at Costco last week, will probably wait until after the last frost to plant them. Also bought some hearty tomato plants when we went to the Home and Garden show a week ago, but have them in an area that is protected from the cold nights.

Went to an Urban Farms tree cutting demo last Saturday and learned a lot about keeping trees in reasonable size for a small yard. We even did some of the pruning. This Saturday, Tom and I are going to tour Greg Peterson's (of Urban Farms) home garden to learn more about compact planting and also solar water heating.

Let's finally hear it for the broccoli plants!!! They have about taken over the square they were planted in because the plants got so big. Picked several heads last Saturday and enjoyed them for Sunday dinner. The last two photos show another small head and several more small buds growing after I cut the main head. These won't get as large. Lots to do to get ready for spring planting.