Gardening

stever

Picked three pink grapefruit in Palm Springs in the yard of the B&B the other day and they were good. Before we left town, we cooked up one of our Meyer lemons in our lemon chicken recipe.

We left the courtyard gate open a few weeks back and a rabbit or something got that pomegranate.

gagrice

We are headed to Palm Springs. Spend a couple days with the Grandkids in their condo. They have some great thrift shops. Pick up some grapefruit in Indio along with some fresh dates. Looks unseasonably cold there. It is bad here, high around 50 degrees. Close to freezing last night.

stever

It was chilly. And yeah, great Angel View thrift close to where we stayed. I had to go back without my wife to score some "good" stuff.

Also noticed a few Hawaiian shirts and thought of you, although I didn't see any that looked like your brand. Nice Patagonia shell there but way too big for me.

Indio was nicer that I was expecting (kind of think I bombed through there once before but can't remember). Good breakfast at Sloan's.

Missed the dates unless you count the bacon wrapped ones at dinner in Phoenix last night.

Grabbed a Joshua Tree and two cactus on the last leg home.

gagrice

It must be Spring in San Diego. Over night lows in the high 40s. Mid 70s to low 80s during the day. We have had one of the best winter crops of Snow Peas ever. Even with the mocking birds getting their fill. Tomato seedlings are about 3 inches tall.

Flowers everywhere. Irises have been blooming for a month now. Daffodils have come and gone. Hyacinths are just getting ready to bloom. Lots of Freesia and alstroemeria of every color. I took a cutting off a friends Angel Trumpet about 3 years ago and this has been the most blooms ever.



Our Blue Hibiscus is also doing well.

imidazol97

Thanks for the photos. I enjoy seeing what's blooming in your area.

I'm here in Ohio waiting for spring. The first car cruise-ins are 5-6 weeks away.

stever

We got flowering trees and daffodils, and some wild poppies. Need to order some gourd seeds and see if I can keep them going. They did good in Boise.

gagrice

stever said:

We got flowering trees and daffodils, and some wild poppies. Need to order some gourd seeds and see if I can keep them going. They did good in Boise.

I would think gourds, squash & melons would all do great in Las Cruces. Here is an idea that I would love to try.



This is the best year for iris, both yellow and dark purple. That 6 inches in February must be the reason.

stever

Neat -- I really like the birdhouse gourds. Be fun to carve some too, but the dust is nasty stuff.

imidazol97

What's holding up the gourds? Never mind. I see the plastic tubing framework now.
Great idea.

imidazol97

I'll post a couple of pictures of our gardening here in SW Ohio as of March 2.





The tulips are a variety called early Kroger yellow.

stever

Nice, my wife used to take over out living room like that.

Actually found some seeds locally so the birdhouse gourds are in the ground (and in a couple of containers). Got the hibiscus and Meyer lemon staged in the garage. Usually open the door during the day so they are getting sun without getting burned.

(nice mug btw, LOL)

gagrice

That is a lot of starts. Are you supplying a nursery? Your tomatoes are about the size of ours. Except we have them outside. Lookin' real good. We are being run over with Freesia this year. I don't remember planting them so many places. Not sure if the birds carry the seeds. These red/orange ones smell great. Of course the orange blossoms are getting in full bloom. Just hope we don't get a cold snap.

imidazol97

The starts get transplanted into various size containers. In late April the young plants will go outside. The tomatoes will be protected under plastic 2-liter bottles on cold nights and days as needed. My wife would love living in TN where she could make an earlier garden, except for the soil not being like we have here.

As for the Kroger tulips, we usually have two pots to brighten up things. I tell her we're responsible for the extra good profits they're reporting right now because we buy so many tulips through the spring. But they brighten up my computer area.

gagrice

I don't recall seeing a golden Bumble bee. It is the male of the Carpenter bees, Xylocopa varipuncta. Very large pretty bee.

gagrice

I watched a couple Monarchs flitting around a few days ago. Today one of our milkweed plants has 3 caterpillars chowing down. We have about a dozen milkweed plants around the property. They just pop up here and and there. All from a couple original plants.

stever

Reminds me of a story where someone ordered some butterfly eggs and stuck 'em in some houseplant and then got all excited and killed a bunch of caterpillars that "just showed up". They were afraid the caterpillars would eat their butterfly eggs.

Got a few starts appearing. Naturally we're going camping for a few days next week and the neighbor kids will either miss watering them or they'll drown them.

gagrice

Only have one out of about 8 Milkweed plants with any leaves left. They just strip the plant down. This plant has 5 caterpillars left on it. Also best year for irises I can remember. We have so many varieties. This is my favorite.

stever

Nice. We have some gourds coming up and I'm hoping the rabbits don't like them. We postponed camping so at least they are getting watered well. Bunch of stuff still blooming away - nice batch of claret cups this year.

gagrice

I think I have discovered why we get so many robins now. We never had them before planting the Milkweed. We saw them this morning out grabbing the Monarch caterpillars.

Very nice cactus flowers. Ours not so many flowers.

gagrice

I returned to find my 4th of July roses blooming nicely.


We have lots of flowers, but Oregon has us beat by a long shot. I love the Rhodies in so many colors.







Clematis may be one of my favorite flowers. I tried growing them several years ago when I first saw them in Oregon. They don't like our dry hot weather here. Same with Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

stever

Guess the sunflowers took a little setback.

gagrice

That is not snow in May is it??

stever

10 minute hailstorm with pea sized hail.

Lost all my gourds and the potted lemon got stripped too.

Had some nice clouds over the Organ Mtns though.

There's another pic here - at least my wife had the van up in ABQ so it was okay, and we didn't lose any skylights.

gagrice

Fourth batch of baby quail came out of the bushes yesterday evening. This is the smallest ones I have ever watched. I counted 13 of them.

stever

Haven't seen any here yet. The hail storm denuded the desert "understory". We have scaled and Gambel's quail wandering through and I didn't realize they were so territorial. With less ground cover, you can see them chasing each other around the creosote bushes.

The other exciting news was a javalina spotted crossing through town. Don't see many of those here, even out in the county.

slorenzen

gagrice said:

Fourth batch of baby quail came out of the bushes yesterday evening. This is the smallest ones I have ever watched. I counted 13 of them.

We get a lot of quail around here as well. Last year, a bunch of them(about that size) were trying to run across my lawn. Hilarious!

gagrice

We have some large patches of Rock Rose and Rosemary that the quail seem to like nesting in.

Michaell

 The roses are finally blooming here in Colorado! 

stever

Nice, we tried to buy a yellow climbing rose a while back and all the local nurseries were out of stock.

Most all the hail damaged plants are trying to make a comeback and the growing season is long enough so I have my fingers crossed. May actually get a gourd or two.

My wife cut up two ocotillo branches into 12 sticks last fall and stuck them in the ground. So far five have made it - lined up like a short section of fence. Hopefully it'll look something like this in a few years:

stever

Got hail smashed gourd plants blooming. They are a lot shorter than I expected they'd be right now. Found this hummer nest while watering some posts near the mulberry tree - bet the storm knocked it out of the tree too.

gagrice

Here is my sad tale of woe. We have 19 beautiful heirloom tomato plants this year. So far only one tomato. Lots of blooms that dry up and drop off. Our zucchini are producing like crazy, which is wonderful. My grandson came for a month and motivated me to build my wife a shade/greenhouse. All screened in to keep out critters. Only room for ten tomato plants, so far that has made no difference. We have had hot days and cool nights which is supposed to be ideal for tomatoes. We just switched to a lower nitrogen fertilizer. So far just a waste of water.

stever

That's odd, but strange things happen to tomatoes. My sister lost most of hers back in NOVA a couple of years ago.

Hot here and stuff is trying to burn up. Have two small birdhouse gourds, and some basil.

Meanwhile, Everything we love to eat is a scam. (NY Post)

slorenzen

gagrice said:

Here is my sad tale of woe. We have 19 beautiful heirloom tomato plants this year. So far only one tomato. Lots of blooms that dry up and drop off. Our zucchini are producing like crazy, which is wonderful. My grandson came for a month and motivated me to build my wife a shade/greenhouse. All screened in to keep out critters. Only room for ten tomato plants, so far that has made no difference. We have had hot days and cool nights which is supposed to be ideal for tomatoes. We just switched to a lower nitrogen fertilizer. So far just a waste of water.

Gary,

Sadly, the plants you brought up last year didn't produce much either, but Sheryl tells me that's the nature of heirlooms, very finicky.

Our other tomatoes are really producing well!(sweet 100's, sun gold, early girls.

Up here, you know the person is a furriner if they actually BUY zucchini in the store.

Around here, we wait at the stoplight, and if the person's window is down, we throw zucchini in the car's window and RUN!

gagrice

I think you are right. My buddy also planted a bunch of our heirloom seeds last year and nothing. And he has a PHD in AG from UC Davis. Worked as a farm coordinator in several countries with the Peace Corps and several mission boards. I will talk to the guy that got us started when he gets back from his Summer in Canada. He takes about a 100 plants with him and does pretty well. He may hand pollinate his. Very frustrating.

So Zucchini do well up there, eh? Our Plumeria are blooming very well right out my office window. Smell soooo good.

gagrice

Some good news. My wife's Nephew has tomatoes in abundance. His secret cocktail is Epson Salts and Molasses. My wife has been watering with that diluted mixture the last few days and she now has 5 tomatoes. We went down and picked a couple dozen of his heirlooms and have really been enjoying great tomatoes and his peppers.

askserge

How do you add tags to your post?

stever

You only get to add tags when you create a new discussion. Individual posts aren't tagged (not to be confused with the flags, like LOL or Like).

gagrice

Well no tomatoes to speak of. Lots of Zuchinni, Cukes, Pears, Plums, Squash, apples and the best red onions I have ever eaten. We got the starts in Oregon this Spring.

hilda010

gagrice said:

Well no tomatoes to speak of. Lots of Zuchinni, Cukes, Pears, Plums, Squash, apples and the best red onions I have ever eaten. We got the starts in Oregon this Spring.

They look fresh and yummy.. That's an awesome pic

gagrice

Thank you Hilda and welcome to Edmunds.

stever

Not sure if the gourds would have done better if they hadn't been wiped out by the hailstorm - one in another pot is actually big enough to house something larger than a hummingbird.

It's prime time right now in spite of the short days and taking breakfast in the front courtyard makes me wonder why I'm jonsing for another road trip already.

gagrice

Shade/Greenhouse we built last summer is producing Butter lettuce, Basil, Tomatoes, Swiss Chard, beets, turnips and lots of Snow Peas.

Looks like a Solar PV greenhouse could be in my future.

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/solar-greenhouse-could-change-way-we-eat

gagrice

We are not going to plant any more veggies till after we go to Hawaii. This is the best year ever for Irises and roses. Flowers everywhere on our acre of land.

imidazol97

Beautiful. And beautiful pictures. They look almost real in the photos.

The rose leaves showing are unaffected by blackspot, fungus, and insects. Mine always show damage. I'm giving up on all but the Knockout roses I have--two out of 13.

gagrice

imidazol97 said:

Beautiful. And beautiful pictures. They look almost real in the photos.

The rose leaves showing are unaffected by blackspot, fungus, and insects. Mine always show damage. I'm giving up on all but the Knockout roses I have--two out of 13.

I use Bayer 3 in 1 Flower and Rose. It comes in both liquid and pellets. I have problems with Rust sometimes. I cut back my roses and pick up all the leaves around the base. I only have mildew when we have lots of fog, which is rare up here in the hills. I spray aphids with a fine mist and that usually takes care of them.

PS
I took the pictures with my Samsung Note 4 Smartphone. I just it for everything but long distance. I am amazed at the quality.

PF_Flyer

Hard neck garlic is looking good. 300 onion sets planted the other day. Snow peas in this afternoon, potato bed prepped, and everything weeded (for the moment)

gagrice

What a difference a year makes. Last year we did not have enough tomatoes to make a decent Greek Salad. This year, same pots and soil. Same shade house and we have them coming out of every plant. Go figure. We will have a great Citrus crop for who ever buys this place.

gagrice

Just wanted all to see the tomato crop this year is crazy.

GloriaWalker

I love gardening and always try to do some unique changes in my garden. Any new innovation to make garden look more beautiful?

blackd1

Hey guys! I am a gardener too, and I really like flowers. My favourite flowers are the bell shaped pink flowers, they are gorgeous. I liked them so much, that I have decided to grow them in my garden. At first, it was a little bit difficult, but I have read a lot of information on the internet, and it became really easy to do. Now I have a lot of flowers in my garden! God, they are so gorgeous.