Losing your little one is hard...

A while back before  my garden even started my dear Rosie passed away  leaving her two beautiful daughters orphaned and I have not had the heart to write about her or the garden. As I cry I type this. I can't believe that she's no longer with us she was the highlight of my day always loving and playful.
 I remember the first time I saw her because after all I was there when she was born (while the man was asleep) and I watched her pass away in my arms, leaving me to look after her most precious possessions.

                      Her garden will live on for she taught her babies well and they adore it as much as she.

 Rosie I love you wherever you are...

Chonga (Left) and Cheecha (Right, looking just like her mother so I'll never forget her  ) 

Spring will be here before we know it ....

It seems as though where we live we hardly got any "winter" weather, maybe I'm speaking too soon but we're almost  in the 70's in the evenings and it's January? Yup it's January.

It's time for me to start my little seeds once again and I know I didn't post much in the way of pictures or anything this past year but it was kind of a difficult year I lost a good friend, my mom was in the hospital for a good long while, Rosie is now a mommy of two, I lost my job and some questionable people moved in to our home...(long story). 

This year is a new year!



 I hope it won't be the same as last year though it started off on a couple of bad notes the worst one being we lost a member of the family (he will be missed) 

I'll see you soon when my seeds are named and somewhat grown there is alot of work to do and I WON'T back down.  

Going ons in the garden



Hailstorm aftermath not bugs



Rosie posing for a picture
(she loves having her picture taken)



I do realize that this year I've not posted anykind of weight for my harvests or posted alot at all this year it just seemed kind of a lazy year for me.With that being said here are some more pictures.   



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The perfect radish



Waltham butternut squash (1 of 5)



Playing hide and seek







Teddybear sunflower



One of the many lettuce growing amongst the
squash they are suprisingly not bitter even
tough the heat is unbearable.



Bed #1 Contains Butternut squash,
cocozola zuchinni,regular zuchinni,
yard long beans,pinto beans,
3 ypes of lettuce, boc choi, tatsoi,
carrots (2 kinds), seeding cilantro and
some volunteer tomatoes.



Bed#2 Contains tomatoes(grape, large cherry,
 sungold,sweet 100, roma and 1 other),
Broccoli, Garlic chives, regular chives,
cucumbers, carrots, cilantro
and some seedng radishes.



An amazing thing happened about a week ago ...

Ever since I have lived here with Mike  I've taken care of the plants to the  best of my ability  but ever have I seen something like this. Last year I had to go out in the pouring rain and stake the poor thing, we were afraid it was going to break because of the high winds we were having.  Last week Mike was out in the backyard and I was on the couch suffering from what I consider to be the worst cold over when he started calling to me  I went outside and this is what I found ....

Our cactus plant bloomed  !

I've never seen out cactus bloom nor has it ever according to Mike. That plant has been here  since he was a child and ever since he could remember, it's currently towering at about 14 feet in height and it is too bad but the blooms only lasted for one day but they were gorgeous. 

First post of the year

I probably should have posted one sooner or even not stopped at all but you know life is like that, sometimes you're in the swing of things sometimes you're not.
So my updates so far are that well I've started some seeds indoors which I thought would do great outdoors since it hasn't been freezing around here as I had expected but well I think they froze OOpSIE !!!! You live you learn  and then apparently you get luvs but not in this case, I just planted some more seeds hoping that they'll grow but I placed them outside weather permitting these little ones will get me the results I need.
I also took some pictures of the garden so far, some lettuce was overwintered and amazingly enough it still tastes great even though it's been in the ground for almost 4 months now. Some Bokchoi is going to seed I actually just let it go to seed because I was yearning for flowers any kind of flowers I was desperate! We don't have many flowers planted in our yard except for the rosebushes but they're summer blooming plants,  this year I've ordered some flower seeds exotic ones might I add and some mini sunflowers to fit into my garden better and last fall I planted some bulbs which are just coming up (honestly I've forgotten what kind they are) I know for a fact I have some daffodils but the rest are quite a mystery to me since I have a really bad memory.
I finally got carrots to grow !!!!!! The carrots overwintered along with the lettuce so I hope they're fit for human consumption, if not I'm sure Rosie will be more than eager to help me dispose of them properly. Speaking of Rosie her and her mother helped me with the planting of some things the other day ... I was planting my one Cocozolla zuchinni plant into a bigger pot and left it outside to enjoy the sunshine well when I got home it had been stripped of all it's leaves I thought for a second slugs! but nope all the leaves were intact a couple of feet away which brings me to the conclusion that Rosie and mom had a great time peeling the poor little things' leaves off. Enough of my talking on to the pictures !



11 pounds of oranges



Turned into a little over a pint of juice



Daffodils finally blooming they're 3 weeks late



Mystery flower for now



Camelia bush in bloom



August 31st, 2010

  This post will not involve any pictures as i am quite lay at this moment and will not get up for anything.Since Ive last posted alot has happened in roies little garden  she seems to think tomatoes are play things and I keep finding them aroung the yard half nibbled and slobbered on, plus she takes great pride in stealing them straight out from under me when I am picking them sneaky little think she is.
   Sunflowers have come out and are hung to dry in the sun they'll either become bird seed for winter or salted sunflower seeds for Mike and me the dogs don't seem to mind them either as is. Most of the marigolds have been pulled out as the plants were way too big and too few flowers were being produced, all of the crookneck and zuchinni squash plants have been uprooted and sent to the green bin.
   I finally got my butt in gear and got some weed tarp down for pathways around the beds and have started to mulch, we still need to put a border to contain the mulch and to put the fence back up so the dogs can't go in and kill everything. The soil has been amended with peatmoss and steer manure and I've started to plant my fall garden which will include snow peas, cabbage, cauliflower and multiple types of lettuce including baby romaine and buttercrunch and more than likely some pac choi.(Here's to hoping it will all grow grow Grow!)
    I think next year I will have to find a better way of preserving tomatoes, I have read all of the ways Granny and Ribbit and some of the others preserve their harvest I'm into the freezing thing but I can't seem to keep up (what can I really do with 6+lbs of cherry tomatoes every couple of days?) I guess for now I'll just have to dice them and freeze them for future use like I did with the squash.
 As the Harvest stands now :

1. Tomatos: 29lbs 15 oz
2. Yard Long beans: 2lbs 5 oz
3. Bell peppers: 1lb 7oz
4. Crookneck squash: 19lbs 8 oz
5. Zuchinni: 18lbs 6 oz
6. Anaheim peppers: 1lb 8 oz
7. Lettuce mix: 1lb 5.5 oz
8. Snowpeas: 1 oz
9. Artichoke: 7 oz
10. Pac choi: 6 oz
11. Cucumbers: 6.5 oz

 Total for the Yr: 75lbs 9 oz 



It's incredible what can be accomplished in less than a year this is my first time ever, keeping track, square foot gardening, having Rosie pie. And almost 2 whole years being with Mike, life is funny that way I guess you never really know how it will truly end up or start... 

To all those keeping tabs on me or even just passing by I hope your life is as wonderful, happy and even half as good as mine I'm sure you'll be very happy.Good night.

 

What's been missed since I last posted

        Rosie squash?          Crookneck squash                             Mutant squash

                  

 

                                                                                         Baby tomatos   
First (teddybear) sunflower                                                                                         


  

                                                                                        Harvest zuchs

 Bolted lettuce    Giant sunflower 

Dying giant sunflower        

Giant pumpkin spread out                                                                             

                                               

Giant pumpkin baby

Anaheim chilis

                                               

5 ft tall yard long beans

dwarf oranges

                              

Meyer lemon grew at least 1 ft

Dwarf Grapefruit has fruit this year

                           

Before

After

Half the pile is gone

and last but not least Naked dog ... it was hot what do you expect ...