Raised Beds Update

It's been awhile...

I realized it when David told me it's been a long time since I blogged.

I didn't think he noticed.

He's right cause when I last blogged about my new raised beds

they looked like this

and now they look like this

but along the way spring turned into summer

 

so I no longer have peas or lettuce or cilantro.



My tomatoes ripened beautifully and I enjoyed them until it became a race to see who would get to them first, me or the birds.

The birds won.

The zinnias that I planned to transplant into my flower garden,

 didn't make it into my flower garden

I liked them right where they were♥ 

My cucumbers in the pot have been plentiful

and even though my zucchini and squash are having a lazy start,

my swiss chard, chili peppers,

kale, thyme, oregano, and basil will be around all summer

and I'm still enjoying lots of beets and carrots.

Now that my time gardening is limited to a couple of hours in the morning (and that's if I get up really early) it's time to start envying those who can garden all summer long. But I won't be stuck indoors in this 110+degree heat. I'll be in here...

"The Lord will guide you always~

He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land~

You will be like a well-watered garden~

like a spring whose waters never fail."

Isaiah 58:11

New Raised Beds

My garden angel : )

Below is how my old vegetable garden looked

 I had a fence around it to keep critters from eating the green goodies.

After our winter months (December and January) the garden was looking pretty sad so I decided it was a good time to make a change.

The larger garden was difficult to get into once things grew. I was always afraid to step on a snake when I walked in it, never happened but it could!

This is how it looked at the end of January.

After clearing the space, I bought a raised bed from Sam's Club.

 Then bought two more to put down where the existing garden was.

What survived the cold weather was transplanted into one of the new raised beds... lettuce, bok choy, arugula, spinach, swiss chard, cilantro, and beets.

 I now have space to walk in between.

 So nice to have a clean slate to start over

In February, I planted tomatoes, squash, and cilantro.

 In March I added peas

and green beans in one of my ground beds.

Made this lattice screen for the green beans to climb but when they weren't climbing I realized they were bushes not vines, oh well!

What's important is all the green beans I've been picking!

I planted rows of carrots, beets, onion

 and zinnias to transplant to my flower garden.

Planted thyme with a freebie strawberry that decided to grow in between.

a new swiss chard

cucumbers in a pot

and a bay tree in a pot

loving my new garden space♥

Fairies in the Garden

~Wind chimes in your yard will serenade garden creatures...

squirrels, fairies and angels.~

author unknown

"And as the seasons come and go,

here's something you might like to know...

there are fairies everywhere

under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play,
singing through their busy day

 so listen, touch, and look around - in the air and on the ground
and if you watch all nature's things,
you might just see a fairy's wing"
~author unknown~

 "When the first baby laughed for the first time, 

 it's laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about,

and that was the beginning of fairies.

and now when every new baby is born

its first laugh becomes a fairy

so there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl"

~Peter Pan~

"If we opened our minds to enjoyment

we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side.

We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam,

and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower"

~Samuel Smiles~

Summer Garden

After losing all my spring flowers my garden was looking bare. Living in Arizona you'd think I would just give up on gardening during the hot summer months of the usual 110-115 degree weather. Not much will grow but a few that will are vinca, portulaca, zinnias, and marigolds. So I made a trip to the nursery and also came home with a few I had not tried before... angelonia, pentas and lisianthus. 

Since I didn't buy enough plants to fill the flower beds,  I decided to plant these in pots. They made it through the summer and actually thrived thanks to automatic daily watering.

My vegetable garden went wild. I was gone a lot and it was ignored. I don't think you are supposed to ignore vegetable gardens. If you do, they will make you pay. I had vines growing everywhere. Not knowing what it was I let them grow. I found out I was growing cantaloupe.

 I never know what will come out of my compost.

Because this vine overtook the vegetable garden I was afraid to step into it. I wish I had taken a before picture. I finally got the nerve to clean it out and was surprised to not find any creatures living under there.

Gardening is therapeutic for me. The harder I work out there the better I feel or should I say forget, and I needed it since I was letting worry overcome me. This round of Michelle's chemo treatment was leaving me feeling helpless and worried. Click HERE for an update.

So I was happy to tackle the cleanup. I pulled and raked and trimmed and dug and before the end of the day it was looking pretty good.

Under all the mess, I found I still had rosemary, tomato plants, new green beans sprouting, swiss chard,

eggplant, bell peppers, sweet basil, and more eggplants

I have about 8 eggplant volunteers (thanks to the compost).

Be ready family and friends. Get your eggplant recipes out!

In my smaller vegetable gardens, I have hatch chiles...

  boxwood basil

I trimmed the overgrown oregano

I also have marjoram, thyme, mint, jalapenos & chives

and now that our weather is cooling down,

I have room to plant lettuce, spinach, cilantro, parsley...

and I'm going to try beets for the first time!

And when I get back from Michelle's I will be filling up my flower beds!!

So happy summer is over!!!
:'( my mandevilla did not make it)