I was late this year getting everything planted. I think most of the US had a crazy weather pattern just like we did in AZ. With the late possible frosts and my travel schedule, I was about a month behind. That is a HUGE deal here as our growing season for certain things – ie: Heirloom tomatoes can be pretty short. And that is probably my most favorite thing to grow. So – fingers crossed – along with a lot of extra attention to the garden! I follow some garden sites on Facebook and such and I see that some people have continuous gardens here (year round). Sometimes I envy their persistence, but I’ve also come to realize that it can be very good to take a break. You end up more energized and excited when it’s the season to get back to whatever it is you are taking a break from. It might be a week off at the gym, a vacation from work or a winter off of gardening.
I pulled almost everything out of the garden over the winter to prep for this next season. The only things I left were a few herbs that were hanging in there and my eggplant (because I wasn’t strong enough to pull those roots out!). This is the Rosemary that I left.. it won’t stop growing! Also – my eggplant produced all winter long – about 5-8 at a time. I never watered, pruned or did anything to it for that matter and it would NOT give up. Don’t get me wrong, we do love eggplant in this house, just not enough to know what to do with that much. So – I forwent the eggplant this time around.
I love to plant lots of herbs and most of them do quite well year round here. Cilantro is a finicky one.. it does not like the heat. So – it won’t be here much longer. It’s still holding on.. you can even see the little sprouts of new growth that might make it before our temps get it. I will cut it down over the next week or so and make some chimichurri that I can freeze. I also have planted: oregano, parsley, sage, lavender, thyme and lemon thyme, chives and lots of basil.
I am so excited to see the first fruits – tomatoes, peppers, cucumber flowers. These pictures were taken over a week ago so they are slightly bigger now.
I love having these pictures for comparison. In about a month it will be amazing how big these plants all are. This year we added some height and some chicken wire to help keep the bunnies out.. last year I had a few baby bunny nests in my gardens. They are so cute, but need to find another place to sleep!
Lastly, I will share with you a funny story about this hole you see. We do struggle with a few pocket mice in our yard. They like to burrow under our palm trees and eat the roots. The make messes everywhere! We cannot and do not want to put poison out for several reasons, 1)the bait simply attracts more mice and 2)we do not want to kill our beautiful owls and other predators in the area. Therefore we try our best to manage the problem with grains and sprays filled with essential oils that are supposed to deter them. One day – ONE day after I planted my garden and put up my chicken wire.. I walk outside the next morning to find this hole. It looks a lot like the holes the mice make throughout the yard. However, they hadn’t eaten anything so I was slightly confused – thinking they are just waiting for the veggies to grow. I spent a very long time at the local hardware store researching and buying about 10 different products to get rid of whatever was making this hole. Be it a vole, mouse, rat, ground squirrel.. you name it, I was going to get rid of it. I sprayed, sprinkled, filled in, said a prayer.. and the next day, the hole was back! So.. fast forward about a week (of this same thing). I was heading out of town on an early flight. Which meant, I was tending the garden earlier than normal. We have a drip system sprinkler throughout the yard and one of the zones was on at the time.. can you believe this entire time – the hole was caused by a broken drip line?! I caught a video of it bubbling and shared the good? news with my husband. The things we learn while gardening 🙂
