Bed shore up and digging

My lowest raised bed (below the house) has been collapsing a bit (on the lower side) for awhile.  But it gets plenty of morning sun, along with oblique afternoon sun, and now that I have woodchuck-protectant cloches,  I'm thinking I can grow some veggies (aside from garlic and leeks) down there again.  (Although Tim reported a new woodchuck burrow in the ravine.  Rats. Hmm.)

So I rebuilt the rock wall on the lower side (a LOT of work), so am ready to go.  I didn't take a new photo (I was pooped), so here's the view.

This image doesn't show how it was collapsing on the far side, but demonstrates how fertile it was last summer!  This was a tromboncino squash vine on steroids (AKA nitrogen).  It never produced any fruits, but its foliage was amazing....

I also refreshed and amended the beds on the side of the house (between the house and the apartment next door).   They're good as summer beds since they get full sun then;  they're no shows as winter growing areas as they're shaded by the house.

Terra Cotta Reds

Chuparosa in full bloom.

The desert is changing color!

When I arrived, in late January, it was yellow. Perky little daisies - Brittle Brush - everywhere I went.

Desert Globe Mallow

Two weeks later, Globe Mallow began to blossom, giving the desert a brand new, and bright orange, personality.

I happily wasted the better part of an afternoon meandering Spur Cross Ranch, to photograph this pretty girl.

And, then came the reds. That gorgeous, jaw-dropping, terra cotta red. The color I always think of when I'm thinking of the desert Southwest.

This is the Ocotillo - bursting forth on 6 -10 foot tall, gangly, prickly stems with stunning clusters of (edible!) red blooms.

And, right when I thought it couldn't get any prettier... up pops a POPPY!

Well, not just one Poppy. Plentiful Poppies! Mexican Poppies blanketing the hillsides.

I don't remember her name. Horses are the only thing we have in common.

It inspired a horse back ride with a few new friends - who quite literally met up on a horseback riding bulletin board because we wanted to ride and we didn't want to ride alone. (Having a horse is not much different than taking your pup to a dog park. It takes like 5 minutes to meet great people who are a lot like you.)

I'm not sure why I love horses so much. But, sometimes I think the #1 reason is because it's a whole lot easier to climb those high hills when the horsie is doing most of the work! :)

Cave Creek, Arizona, is a crazy, eclectic horse town.

We rode into town, tied our horses to a hitching post, outside the restaurant, and had ourselves some lunch ~ cowgirl style!

Then, we took the long way home.

Where I spotted some purples and blues.

Shock o' the world, there is a Desert Lupine! And, what appears to be a Canterbury Bell! (I don't know the correct names of these.)

I'm from Minnesota - where Lupines shrug off that ridiculously cold weather...

It's so hard to imagine they would grow well down here. But, I guess we all flourish with a wee bit o' sunshine.

Here's hoping y'all had a wonderful week.

~ kate

* I rented my house to a snow lover, in exchange for this house, in sun country. I'm visiting Cave Creek, AZ for 6 weeks this winter. My! How time flies! Next week, it is time to go home.

Follow @Kate_HAGardens

Kale, komatsuna, and cilantro

Hmm, the surface of my raised beds was frozen this morning, but by late afternoon, the air temperature was in the mid 50's, so I thought, what the heck? I sowed a couple of different kales (a red bor type from a local seed company and baby Tuscan from Renee's), red Komatsuna from Kitisawa, and cilantro, as well as three types of sugar snap peas, sugar daddy and super sugar from Renee's and a hybrid from Sygenta (a freebie from somewhere). There's more seeding to come, but I AM trying to be patient.

The outlook for the next couple of weeks is moderate, with low temps above freezing (aside from a low of 31 F one day next week) with moderate "seasonable" highs.

Woo-hoo, spring is definitely on the way.

Tomorrow, I'll round up some decent potting mix for my flats (the "organic potting mix" that I'd bought somewhere locally last fall, and tipped into the flats this morning was laughingly awful - full of twigs, etc. It was certainly organic, but potting mix, it wasn't!)

 

Posted with Blogsy

Spinach, beets, carrots, and arugula

I planted all of these (spinach, beets, carrots, and arugula) early in the week, just before the temperatures dipped again.  But it'll be warming up over the weekend, and it's time to sow seeds, even if it's a bit colder than "normal" -- whatever that passes for now.

I'm going to soak some sugar snap peas overnight, and sow them tomorrow, along with a variety of lettuce seeds, kales, and collards.

It's time.  It's late February.  Even with the extremes of a changing climate, gardeners will keep planting.  And even though it's a bit harder to predict which of the cool-season veggies might do the best this spring, I'll just plant a variety of things, and see.

This has been the third winter that I haven't had greens like kale, mustard, or arugula overwinter (the extreme lows took them out).  I wasn't using any season extension, which would have made a difference, I'm sure.

incredibly tasty and succulent carrots, although not impressive-looking!

In a program today, I was talking about how well a specific sort of carrot (Pusa Rudhira Red Carrot)
had done in my fall vegetable garden.  These were bred for the hotter, drier conditions of India, and absolutely flourished last fall.  I sowed them in August and harvested them in in November not expecting anything. Amazing.

A search of previous blog posts about carrots was interesting, too.  I've had reasonable success with shorter, small varieties like Thumbelina - and enjoyed them as well, apparently!

Witch hazels

Our Ozark witch hazel in the front is beautiful right now.  I was reminded by a gardening friend's FB post about how wonderful witch hazels are.  Ours has gradually been dropping old brown leaves so becoming much more attractive.

Here are some images from last year.  I tried to get a couple of new ones this evening but the light wasn't quite right, and it was luminous last February.

ADVERTISER OF THE WEEK: Grow Your Health Festival

On Saturday, March 5, 2016, the Northern Virginia Whole Food Nutrition Meetup Group will host its fourth annual Grow Your Health Festival at Fairfax High School in Fairfax, Virginia.  The event will celebrate home gardening, sourcing organic and local food, and nutrition and wellness.  We will show a documentary film; offer class instruction on gardening and nutrition; and host an exhibit hall for gardening services, farmers, food artisans, organic food distributors, and wellness products and services.  This is a family focused event that includes education and entertainment for children of all ages.  See details: http://www.growyourhealthnova.com/

ADVERTISER OF THE WEEK Details:
Every Thursday on the Washington Gardener Magazine Facebook page, Blog, and Yahoo list we feature a current advertiser from our monthly digital magazine. To advertise with us, contact wgardenermag@aol.com today.

Video Wednesday: Flora Exhibit at the US Botanic Garden

Flora of the National Parks exhibit runs February 18 - October 2, 2016 at the US Botanic Garden's Conservatory West Gallery. Here is a short video created by Washington Gardener Magazine intern Daisy-nelly Nji at the press preview of the exhibit.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, this art exhibit will showcase some of the plant species and communities found throughout the more than 400 national parks. From giant redwoods and aspen forests to endangered Virginia spiraea and water lilies, the national parks contain a diverse representation of the North American flora. Illustrations, paintings, and photography will take you on a tour of the beauty and importance of the American flora.

See more about the exibit at: https://www.usbg.gov/exhibits#sthash.3TslCvW1.dpuf

Discuss The Rambunctious Garden with Washington Gardener Book Club

For our Garden Book Club Winter Meeting we will be discussing The Rambunctious Garden:  Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World by Emma Marris. Please join us on Thursday, April 7 from 6:30-8pm at Soupergirl, located right next to the Takoma metro stop.

A paradigm shift is roiling the environmental world. For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Emma Marris argues convincingly that it is time to look forward and create the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human management.

Please RSVP to washingtongardener (at) rcn.com or at the book club event page at facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine by April 5, so we know how many chairs to hold for our group.

Here are the rest of our 2016 selections for the Washington Gardener Magazine's Garden Book Club:

SUMMER- Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West

FALL - Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden by Ruth Kassinger

The Washington Gardener Magazine's Garden Book Club is free and open to all. We meet quarterly on a weekday evening near a metro-accessible location in the DC-area. We will announce the details of each upcoming meeting about two months in advance. Please check back on this blog for schedule updates and announcements.

Gardening and creativity

I've thought a lot about this in recent years.  

Gardening has been my end road and lifeline back to creativity in other venues, but remains a foundation of how I think and appreciate our surrounding landscape (my gardening companion, although he doesn't think about himself as a gardener, shapes our surroundings with an eye to native plants and natural design, of course.) 

I really just do the vegetable gardens and pollinator-friendly pocket meadows, truth be told, although I'm always consulted for the other additions to the landscape, now here in the mountains.

But doing a program tomorrow about the "The Creative Side of Gardening" has had me thinking for a number of days now. 

So much of our American gardening writing is still about the mechanics, not about the art and love that gardeners really spend on their landscapes, whatever their garden styles or inclinations might be.

Gardening is an art, plain and simple, it seems to me. 

The language of horticulture, at least in American writing, makes it way too clinical: gardening maintenance, plant materials, etc.    It's about love for the medium, I think; gardeners love plants, and appreciate them, however we interpret that.

Win Passes to the Maryland Home & Garden Show

For our February 2016 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away five sets of passes to the Maryland Home & Garden Show (including Craft Show) at the Maryland State Fairgrounds (prize value: $24).
   Trade winter blues for shades of green at the Spring Maryland Home & Garden Show. Landscaped gardens brimming with bold and beautiful flowers, trees, and shrubs will fill the Maryland State Fairgrounds and—as suggested by this show’s theme, “Art in the Garden”—inspire visitors to transform their gardens from blank canvases into creative masterpieces.
   Showgoers will discover their hidden talents and learn the tricks of the trades at daily seminars, from flower arranging to vegetable gardening.
   Fun surprises! Every hour, one lucky attendee will receive a beautiful bouquet from Radebaugh Florist.
   Held over two weekends, the Maryland Home & Garden Show runs Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6, as well as Friday, March 11, through Sunday, March 13. See more details online at www.mdhomeandgarden.com/spring.
   To enter to win a pair of passes to Maryland Home & Garden Show, send an email to WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by 5:00pm on February 29 with “Maryland Home & Garden Show” in the subject line and in the body of the email. Tell us what your favorite article was in the February 2016 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine and why. Please also include your full name and mailing address. Winners will be announced and notified on March 1.

UPDATE
Our 5 winners chosen at random from among the submitted entries are: 
~ Rajat Sarkar, North Potomac, MD
~  Jeffrey Trunzo, Takoma Park, MD
~ Christa Carignan, Rockville, MD 
~ Kathy Pongor, Savage, MD 
~ Nancy Khan, Washington, DC

A Lovely Place to Visit...

My rental house has orange, lemon and grapefruit trees in the backyard.

"You need to eat more grapefruit."

So sayeth the owner of the house, that I am renting down in Cave Creek, Arizona.

I hear ya! I responded.

Well, actually, I'm hearing the grapefruit.

Plump, ripe fruit, dropping from the branches, with a resounding thud on the stone walkway beneath the tree.

It would be impossible to consume all of the fruit produced by these hard-working trees.

However! I have managed to strip the lemon tree bare.

I love, love, love the opportunity to slice up a fresh lemon, every morning, and add it to the sun tea jar.

The owner is hoping that I'm very happy down here. That I'll come back every winter and pay him lots of money to live in this house.

I haven't the heart to tell him this is a failed experiment. Mostly because I don't want him to kick me out early. :)

Took a walk with the dog yesterday.

He bumped into a Jumping Cholla Cactus, shrieking in pain from the barbs. It took almost 20 minutes to remove those thorns from his feet. He's still limping and my hands are still swollen from the pricklies.

At first, I was enthralled by the harshness of the desert. But, it's almost too harsh for my tastes. Something's always out to get ya!

Anyhoo, back to that perpetual summer... And, the opportunity to grow exotic things...

That, right there, was the number one curiosity that inspired me to try life in a desert climate for part of the winter.

To pick fresh fruit in your own backyard? Such joy!

Fairy Duster

To walk outside, barefoot, in February? How grand!

I rented my house to people who dreamed of a snowy winter vacation. Then I rented this house, in Arizona, to savor a second summer. Which, I imagine is every gardener's dream.

I forced myself to be here long enough to feel like a local. To meet people, make friends, slide into routines. Experience downsides in addition to upsides.

This is actually a sad sight, now that I've done some research on desert plants. 

Droopy arms on a Saguaro cactus indicate that it's sick and dying, 

though that could take many years. It's probably the result of freezing temperatures. 

Which is happening more and more frequently in Arizona. 

I fear it could spell the end of these magnificent giants.

Before I arrived...

I thought of Phoenix as a flat, dry sprawl of a town that didn't deserve to be here, because there isn't enough water to sustain it. How's that for being close-minded?

I still get a little freaked out when I walk through the neighborhood and see people washing their cars... precious water filling the gutters and pouring into the drain.

Using water as if it's a plentiful resource and will never run out.

I keep thinking about that book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. An Arizona native moves back east to try her luck in an environment, where water and soil and sunshine can naturally produce enough food to live on for a year.

Thank you, Barbara Kingsolver, for pointing out the error of my ways. :) The desert is a lovely place to visit. But, I wouldn't wanna live here.



Follow @Kate_HAGardens

Another full moon

It may not be actually full, yet, but it looks close. (A follow up: the full moon was still two days ahead).

I've written about lots of full moons over the years, and don't even want to attempt yet another photo, whether with my old big camera or my late-model iPhone.

The view this evening is of a moon rising above the ravine forest, with city lights twinkling below.

The new hotel on the other side of I-240, added to the Hotel Indigo's lights, plus something going on this evening at the Asheville Chamber of Commerce/Visitor Center/Lenoir-Rhyne University building (so the parking lot lights are all on) - makes for a sparkling cityscape.

It will be a changing landscape in the future, I'm sure. 

We hope our ravine forest remains intact (there's a bit of watershed protection for the empheral stream at the base of the ravine), but certainly the farther viewscapes will develop into something else, as the highway plans solidify and make clear what the eventual traffic and noise patterns might be in the spaces that have been vacant (post urban-renewal many years ago). Various plans have been put forward, but none that succeeded. Duke Energy owns most of the land now, scooped up for a good price for a new downtown transmission site, widely opposed, and now presumably shelved.

In the meantime, the moon is beautiful.

Tulips in our window box

Our Valentine's Day tulips are divided now.  One pot is illuminating our front window box, where I've been enjoying it in the late afternoon light.

From outside, it makes a lovely contrast to the variegated tropical plant next to it, with a diminutive re-blooming orchid further right.

Where do our vegetables come from?

That was a question passed on (in the context of "do we care?") by Carolina Farm Stewardship Association in today's e-newsletter.

Their answer was yes (of course), citing various folks.  Do we care about organic? Is it GMO free? Are the farmworkers safe? Etc.  They didn't ask the question about how far the food had traveled, or how it was grown.  And certainly, there are a lot of us (who receive their e-newsletter) who DO like to know that (at least some of) our food is grown or raised nearby, whether veggies, meat, or eggs.

But the response was prompted by a piece in the Washington Post, which essentially said it depends on how you ask the question. 

We have a lot of folks living in our county who are doing well to put food on their tables, really, and this was an eye-opening piece for me (not having been a mom), about how picky children are as eaters.

I'm getting ready to plant late winter/early spring vegetables, and reviewing a program I'll be doing for the NC Arboretum next week on Sustainable Kitchen Gardening. 

I'm now growing a lot of vegetables in basically 4 raised beds, with additional beds on the side of the house and below, but nothing like the space I used to have down in our Piedmont garden.  But we still have more than enough--even in cold winters, although I don't have any overwintering greens, again! 

I still have tomatoes and green beans from last summer's harvest, as well as fruits from the farmer's markets, and sweet potatoes and butternut squash from my generous friend.

So fresh greens will be welcome from sowings this weekend.  (In the meantime, they're coming from far away, perhaps from places like we visited in Guatemala, but probably largely from California and Mexico.)

vegetable fields in the Western Highlands of Guatemala

Cultivating Kale in February 2016 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine

The February 2016 issue of Washington Gardener Magazine is now out and posted online at: http://issuu.com/washingtongardener/docs/washingtongardenerfeb16

In this issue:

~ 17 Award-Winning Garden Photos
~ Cultivating Kale
~ Local Gardening Events Calendar for the DC-MD-VA Area
~ Meet Dr. Cohan UMD’s Green Roof Research Expert
~ Growing Native Fraser’s Sedge
~ Your Monthly Garden Tasks To-Do List for the Mid-Atlantic
~ New Stamps Feature Vintage Seed Catalog Art
~ Latest Research Shows Gardening is Good for the Brain
~ 8 Exciting Trends for the 2016 Gardening World
and much more!

Note that any submissions, event listings, and advertisements for the March 2016 issue are due by March 10.

Subscribe to Washington Gardener Magazine today to have the monthly publication sent to your inbox as a PDF several days before it is available online. You can use the PayPal (credit card) online order form here: http://www.washingtongardener.com/index_files/subscribe.htm

Indoor Flowers for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

zonal geranium

primrose

drumstick primrose

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. Here on the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border it snowed, so my garden is covered in 2-4 inches of white fluffy stuff and I did have Hellebore, Heather, and Winter Jasmine blooms I could have shared with you.


Instead I will share some of my indoor blooms, which include some Geraniums wintering over on a windowsill and grocery-store Primroses that popped back into flower this week. I also have Forsythia branches and Freesia bulbs that I am forcing.


What is blooming in your indoor or outdoor garden this week?

Valentine's Day

A lovely Valentine's Day, with tulips, orchids and cyclamens.  The rose-colored cyclamen was from last year's celebration!

The Superstitions

Recent rains have inspired some stunning desert wildflowers. This is Globe Mallow.

Weeknights, I pour over the Arizona map, in search of cool destinations to explore on the weekends. (I'm spending the month of February in Arizona, to escape a harsh winter.)

Find the Superstition Mountains on the far east side of Phoenix.

And, that's how I learned about the Lost Dutchman. A super lucky and also terribly unfortunate fellow ~ who found an amazing gold mine, got rich quick, and then the Indians killed him.

But NOT before he carved a map into stone, so as to never lose the path to that gold mine!

The odd map to the Lost Dutchman mine ~ carved on stone tablets.

Fast forward 100 years, and some hiker finds these stones -- with the map carved into them!

To the gold mine! 

Where we can all get rich quick! 

And, pray the Indians don't kill us, after we've found the loot.

Brittle Brush, celebrating the sunshine.

It's become the Holy Grail of hiking trips.

For 60 years, people have been searching for this lost mine. (Which makes me think the Dutchman was a pretty lame cartographer...)

Buckets of gold are hiding in them, thar hills.

We had the entire afternoon free so we thought we'd give it a shot. You know, feeling lucky and all...

So, off we went ~ into the wild ~ in search of riches and glory ~ and, with any luck, some pretty wildflowers.

Ocotillo: the flowers are often served in salads.

Turns out that Dutchman is one popular guy.

There must have been 500 people on that trail. None of them willing to walk a step past the spot where the pavement ends. Can't really blame 'em.

It's hot out there!

Entire [fake] ghost towns have cropped up along the route.

It was an absolute riot poking around this tourist trap! Complete with prickly pear ice cream.

With so much competition for the gold mine, we decided to head on down the road, into the Tonto National Forest where we discovered Canyon Lake.

A delightful break from the sand and heat of the surrounding desert.

We dipped our piggies into the cool, clear water, relaxed beneath a shade tree...

'Twas here... where I confessed I don't think I'll ever become a desert gal. 

Oh, this was a fine experiment - seeing what it's like to be an Arizona native.

And, it's pretty and everything.

But, home is where the heart is. I'm missing my snowy mountains. My family and my friends.

The same three things that were making me absolutely miserable just a few weeks ago.

But, I guess that's why we take vacations. And, also why we get pretty excited when it's time to go home.

Here's hoping you're all having a lovely Valentines Day.

~ kate



Follow @Kate_HAGardens