Have you been faced with the dilemma of what to give someone special for their birthday? Well, the stakes are even higher when it is a ‘milestone’ birthday. My siblings and I were faced with this very dilemma in deciding what to give our mother, (Pastor Farmer) of Double S Farms, for her 70th birthday.
After some deliberation, we decided upon building her a vegetable garden.
Now for those of you who are familiar with my blog, you may recall that my mother already has a nice vegetable garden….
Perfect Birthday Gift
But, for those of you who enjoy vegetable gardening; don’t you sometimes wish that you had more space to grow vegetables?
We knew that our mother did, even though she never mentioned it. So, we got to work planning on what we needed to build a new one.
My brother-in-law, built the first garden by himself…
For the new garden, my brother-in-law and I planned on what we would need and where the new garden should be placed.
Actually, my part was easy. I just figured out where to locate the garden and how many cubic yards of compost we would need.
Well, the date was set when we would all congregate at Double S Farms and start building the new vegetable garden.
My mother had NO idea we were coming or what we were going to do.
Early on a Saturday morning we showed up with shovels, rakes, picks, drills and wheelbarrows.
My mother wasn’t there when we all arrived. She was at the local farmer’s market – at this point, she was still clueless that anything was going on.
First, my other brother-in-law and my brother hammered in stakes so that we knew where to remove the grass.
Perfect Birthday Gift
Then came the fun part (just kidding). Digging out the grass. Actually, it wasn’t too bad because the grass had been soaked two days before so that it was easier to dig out.
There were a couple of rocks that we used a pick to get out.
It has been years since I have used a pickax, as you can probably tell from how I’m holding it.
Soon, we had the grass removed and a muddy area left behind, which was absolutely irresistible to my 5-year old nephew, Finley.
At this point, my mother returned home from the farmer’s market and was surprised to see all of our cars parked out in front of her house.
She was quite shocked when she came into the backyard and saw us working on her birthday present. She was so happy. She then got busy making us food, including the cinnamon chip bread that she had just bought at the farmer’s market.
After a break for lunch (pizza), we began to add some loads of composted leaves and soon, it was time to start putting up the sides.
Sodapop and the chickens took time to come over and see what we were doing.
This is Francie, and this is how she is supposed to look – she is a ‘naked neck’ chicken.
From time to time, we would take small breaks to play with Sodapop, who would drop her ball at your feet and wait hopefully for someone to throw it.
Of course, there was also time for the cousins to play catch too.
At this point, we had to quit for the day because it was almost dinner time. We all decided to come back the next Saturday to finish the project.
I went home and while my husband cleaned our mud-crusted boots, I put a load of very dirty clothes into the washing machine. Please come back for Part Two and see the end result of our labors 🙂
Vegetable Garden Progress
az plant lady familyWe have been a bit busy this week working on our new vegetable garden.
Monday and Tuesday, my two strong nephews came over to help. I must admit that it is more fun to dig with someone else to talk to.
So far, we have dug up 6 inches of the existing soil, cut the wood for the sides of the raised bed and the fence planks. My husband nailed the planks to the wooden sides today, at 3 1/2 inches apart.
Next, we will add the bags of compost and aged steer manure and mix it with the existing soil. Then we will put of the sides.
I haven’t included any photos of progress today, but I promise that I will when we have finished – hopefully this weekend.
I have had some questions about how we will use rebar for supports for shade cloth in the summer. I promise to show you how we will do that as well.
**************************
I hope you are all having a great week so far.
I can tell that spring is on its way because my phone is getting busy with people calling with questions and requests for consults.
I visited with the HOA board of a condo complex today to help them with their hummingbird garden. Tomorrow, I’m off to do a photo design to update a church memorial garden.
I will be adding another feature to my blog next week, which I hope will be helpful to many of you 🙂
The Beginning….
AZ Plant LadyThis is the ‘beginning’ of my new vegetable garden!
It’s also my Christmas/Birthday gift from my husband.
I love my existing vegetable garden, but every year, I wish that I had more space to grow more vegetables. After all, I have five kids and four of them are still living at home and they all like vegetables.
The garden will be raised, so we visited our local big box store (whose initials are THD). We purchased compost, aged steer manure, wood for the sides of the garden, slats for the garden fence (to keep the dogs out), rebar to build supports for shade cloth in the summer, fasteners, bone meal, blood meal and irrigation supplies.
My sister and my two strong nephews came over yesterday to help us. My nephews are 15 & 17 years old and have tons of energy, which is so welcome to this 46 year old 😉
My granddaughter, Lily, also came out to see what we were doing, but she found it a bit boring….
So, she stayed on the patio, next to my existing vegetable garden.
The quilt in the photo above, was made for my oldest daughter (Lily’s mother) by my mother. Now Lily gets to use it.
The garden is progressing very well. It is now day two and we are finished digging up the top 8 inches of existing soil. My husband will be building the frame for the garden today and we’ll start to add the compost and manure and mix in with the existing soil.
Stay tuned for our progress.
I am just so excited!
I can’t wait to plant my new seeds next week!!!
Vegetable Garden Progress
Blooms in February
AZ Plant LadyHave you experienced a warmer then normal winter this year?
I certainly have, although I’m not complaining because my garden loves it. I took a walk around the garden and was so pleased to see quite a few plants blooming….
Plants blooming, Purple Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violaceae)
My purple lilac vine blooms this time every year, which makes it a great vine for the garden. The foliage is evergreen in my zone 9a garden through out the year, which is also a plus.
It can be hard to find this flowering vine in the nursery later in the year. So, grab it now if you want one.
Plants blooming, Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii)
Firecracker penstemon is my favorite plant. I starts blooming in January and goes until May. Hummingbirds love it too!
Pink Beauty (Eremophila laanii)
My pink beauty shrub has grown tall 8 ft.), which I love because it covers an expanse of bare wall in the garden. This Australian native is evergreen in my garden.
Valentine (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’)
This is my second favorite plant. Valentine flowers from December through May in my garden, with the peak bloom arriving on Valentine’s Day! Hardy to zone 8.
Purple Trailing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis)
Normally, my purple trailing lantana is brown and crispy from frost – but not this year. Butterflies just love this plant.
Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana)
My pink trumpet vine blooms next to my vegetable garden. I just love this plant too!
How about you? Do you have anything blooming in your garden this month?
‘Friendly’ Plants in the Vegetable Garden
Confessions from a ‘Plant Nerd’
az plant lady familyI have a major confession to make….
I am a total ‘plant nerd’.
When I mentioned that to my husband, he said “I already knew that” with a smile on his face.
I came upon this revelation when we visited Disneyland last week.
I had my camera ready to take pictures of the kids enjoying themselves. But, I found myself stopping to take photos of the beautiful plants, particularly the container planting.
In the end, I had three times more photos of plants then of my kids….
But in my defense, it is easier to take photos of stationary plants then kids on moving rides (the pictures came out all blurry).
I do have some great container photos (and other plants) to share with you and some of the kids having fun….
Ivy pruned into a topiary surrounded by pansies.
I just love this color contrast, don’t you?
Creative use of different grasses and flowering plants.
Gracie and Kai having fun in ‘ToonTown’
If I had a pretty staircase like this one, I would put container plants along it too!
Icelandic Poppies and Alyssum
Camellias (they don’t do that well in the desert, but they are pretty just the same).
A three-tiered Azalea
Gracie and Kai got ‘caught’ up in a fisherman’s net along California Adventure’s Fisherman’s Wharf
I love this planting shelf with herb-planted containers.
You don’t have to plant flowers for a pretty container.
Primulas are one of my favorite cool-season annuals.
Italian Cypress pruned into a spiral.
The kids ran into a storm trooper as well as Darth Vader & Darth Maul.
container planting , Strawberry Pot planted with succulents.
I love how the ivy trails down the sides of the container.
When we were walking into Disneyland, Gracie told us that the only character she wanted to meet was Mickey Mouse.
To her delight, she saw him three different times 🙂
Guess Where I’ve Been?
Guess Where I’ve Been?
az plant lady familyYou may have noticed that I haven’t posted for a few days (or maybe not 😉 I feel somewhat incomplete when I have gone more then three days without writing a blog post, but sometimes life gets a bit crazy or sometimes I go out of town.
I went away for a few days to a ‘mystery’ location. I had a great time and was able to take some pictures of some beautiful potted plants, annuals, perennials and shrubs.
Some of you may be able to guess where I have been from my photos….
Pink and White Cyclamen
Beautiful potted plants , Easter Lilies, Pink Primrose and Trailing Variegated English Ivy
Perennial bed full of winter-flowering perennials
Beautiful potted plants , Vegetables used as ornamental plants.
Have you guessed where this is yet?
Let me zoom out a bit in the next few photos…
I love Icelandic Poppies, don’t you?
Mt. Lemmon Marigold
Japanese Evergreen Pear Tree
I love daisies, don’t you?
Okay, I think this photo will be a dead giveaway…
A pair of ‘swans’ amidst Blue Pansies
Do you notice the castle in the background?
I was at Disneyland!
Now don’t think for a minute that I didn’t bring my family along…
Can you tell that the sun was in their eyes?
My husband and I decided to surprise our kids with a 3-day trip to Disneyland.
When my father-in-law died last fall, my mother-in-law received an unexpected life insurance payment from his few years on the Air Force.
She gave some the insurance money to each of us. So, we decided to use the money to treat ourselves and the kids to a fun vacation.
We didn’t tell the kids anything about leaving on a trip. I had my daughter, Rachele, take the kids to church and I packed up both our cars while they were gone.
When they got home, we told them to get in the cars and we took off. They had no idea what was going on. Gracie (above) was in the car with my husband and I. She guessed where we were going within 3 minutes.
However, Kai and Ruthie, who were in our daughter’s car, couldn’t figure it out. They kept calling us on the phone, trying to guess. About two hours later, we stopped for gas and told them where we were going.
Kai is a little wet after Splash Mountain.
We had a fabulous time and stayed until the park closed each day.
We even spent a whole day at ‘California Adventure’ as well.
I remember going to Disneyland quite often as a child and teenager. We had taken our two oldest girls quite often when they were young. In fact, it was our oldest daughter’s idea to go to Disneyland with the younger kids because years ago, we had surprised her and Rachele with a trip there as well.
I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the gardens were. I didn’t remember them looking so nice, so I took quite a lot of photos.
There were some great examples of plants that look great in winter for our climate and a unique way to use vegetables.
I’ll share more plant and family photos once my husband emails them to me from his iPhone 🙂
Confessions from a ‘Plant Nerd’
Family Photographers on a Field Trip
az plant lady familyField trip
I enjoy photographing the beauty that surrounds me, especially plants and landscapes.
My youngest sister, is a very good photographer and her focus is usually people.
And then there is my nephew, Kenny, (son of my other sister), who likes to photograph both nature and people.
So what do you do with three family photographers? Go on a field trip to our local riparian preserve.
Even in winter, it is a beautiful place to visit…
In addition to my sister and nephew, my son Kai and my other nephew, Josh came along.
Of course, they soon set off to explore on their own…
Now, the rest of us got our cameras out and started taking pictures.
My focus was trying to capture photos of the many hummingbirds who make their home in the riparian preserve year round.
Anna’s Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird
What fascinates me about hummingbird photos, is that although the photos above are of the same hummingbird; you can only see the bright color when the sun is shining directly on the feathers of their throat.
While I was taking pictures of hummingbirds, my sister wanted to practice taking pictures, so she was taking pictures of me, taking pictures.
I must admit that I feel a bit uncomfortable posing for pictures. But it wasn’t too bad because I didn’t have to pose.
My nephew has a very good eye for both landscape and people shots.
Sunlight and Purple Prickly Pear Spines
Great White Heron
My nephew also caught me in the midst of taking pictures of three mallard ducks.
I know that mallard ducks are quite common, but I have always liked them and their beautiful colors. I even used to have a pet mallard duck when I was young.
A curious goose was hoping we had some bread crumbs to share.
Another photo from my nephew, highlights the babbling brook that winds its way through the preserve.
Across one of the lakes, we spotted the boys who were visiting some of the ducks…
Soon, the sun was beginning to set and I had to get home to make dinner.
So we started making our way back to the parking lot.
On our way, I spotted some Canadian geese flying back for the night to one of the lakes.
Kai had a little help over the muddy spots on the path…
As we neared the entrance, my sister asked me to pose for a picture – did I mention that I really don’t like posing for pictures? I feel so self-conscious and am worried that I have lipstick on my teeth or that I will look so ‘fake’ in the photo.
My nephew took this photo and I must confess that I cropped out the bottom part because he didn’t push “the skinny button” on his camera.
Okay, I realize cameras don’t have “skinny” buttons, but I certainly wish they did, don’t you?
We had a wonderful time.
I hope you did too 🙂
The Gift of a Vegetable Garden: Part 2
az plant lady family, CompostIn my last post, I undoubtedly left you hanging, wondering how the second part of our project ended (just kidding).
What project is that? Well, my siblings and I along with our families surprised my mother for her 70th birthday by building her a raised vegetable garden to go along with her existing one.
I posted the first part of our project, which ended up with a lot of muddy shoes as we dug out the grass. You can catch up on the first part here.
Now we all gathered again the next Saturday and were excited to finish the project.
Birthday Gift
We worked on building up the remaining sides. It helped that my brother-in-law had a portable table saw, (if you don’t have one you can always have the store do it for you).
My 1-year old nephew Danny, (one of my brother’s twin boys), is just fascinated about how things work and he was wondering how much older he would have to be to use his dad’s cordless drill 😉
Birthday Gift
Almost finished with the sides!
My mother put out a blanket for the twins to play on and then the other grandkids came to play with them too.
Once we got all the sides up, we lined the bottom with newspaper, which helps to supress weeds and will break down.
My sister takes the twins, Danny and Dean for a walk around the backyard.
Here I am with my two sisters.
Okay, enough with all the family photos, let’s get back to finishing the garden.
I don’t think that there is anything quite as wonderful to a gardener then a trailer full of compost, do you?
Here is an action shot…
One of the clients that I write for wants gardening ‘action’ shots, so I try to get them whenever I can.
I love the fragrance of compost or as I like to call it “black gold”.
My niece Sofie (left), and my kids Ruthie and Kai had fun spreading the compost inside. They kept getting higher and higher up as the garden filled up with compost.
We finished the project by connecting the garden to drip irrigation and also put up support for the shade structure.
Some of you have asked me how we did this and you can see how it was done with the first vegetable garden…
The supports are made out of rebar. Two pieces form each support and they were bent by hand and fastened in the middle using wire. The support is used for shade cloth in summer, frost cloth in winter and bird netting all year to keep the chickens out of the garden.
****************************
My mother was so excited about her new garden and she fed us all a fabulous lunch that day.
Later, we celebrated her 70th birthday with two cakes….
A few of her grandsons were more then happy to help her blow out her candles 🙂
The Perfect Birthday Gift – A New Vegetable Garden
Compost, Double S FarmsHave you been faced with the dilemma of what to give someone special for their birthday? Well, the stakes are even higher when it is a ‘milestone’ birthday. My siblings and I were faced with this very dilemma in deciding what to give our mother, (Pastor Farmer) of Double S Farms, for her 70th birthday.
After some deliberation, we decided upon building her a vegetable garden.
Now for those of you who are familiar with my blog, you may recall that my mother already has a nice vegetable garden….
Perfect Birthday Gift
But, for those of you who enjoy vegetable gardening; don’t you sometimes wish that you had more space to grow vegetables?
We knew that our mother did, even though she never mentioned it. So, we got to work planning on what we needed to build a new one.
My brother-in-law, built the first garden by himself…
For the new garden, my brother-in-law and I planned on what we would need and where the new garden should be placed.
Actually, my part was easy. I just figured out where to locate the garden and how many cubic yards of compost we would need.
Well, the date was set when we would all congregate at Double S Farms and start building the new vegetable garden.
My mother had NO idea we were coming or what we were going to do.
Early on a Saturday morning we showed up with shovels, rakes, picks, drills and wheelbarrows.
My mother wasn’t there when we all arrived. She was at the local farmer’s market – at this point, she was still clueless that anything was going on.
First, my other brother-in-law and my brother hammered in stakes so that we knew where to remove the grass.
Perfect Birthday Gift
Then came the fun part (just kidding). Digging out the grass. Actually, it wasn’t too bad because the grass had been soaked two days before so that it was easier to dig out.
There were a couple of rocks that we used a pick to get out.
It has been years since I have used a pickax, as you can probably tell from how I’m holding it.
Soon, we had the grass removed and a muddy area left behind, which was absolutely irresistible to my 5-year old nephew, Finley.
At this point, my mother returned home from the farmer’s market and was surprised to see all of our cars parked out in front of her house.
She was quite shocked when she came into the backyard and saw us working on her birthday present. She was so happy. She then got busy making us food, including the cinnamon chip bread that she had just bought at the farmer’s market.
After a break for lunch (pizza), we began to add some loads of composted leaves and soon, it was time to start putting up the sides.
Sodapop and the chickens took time to come over and see what we were doing.
This is Francie, and this is how she is supposed to look – she is a ‘naked neck’ chicken.
From time to time, we would take small breaks to play with Sodapop, who would drop her ball at your feet and wait hopefully for someone to throw it.
Of course, there was also time for the cousins to play catch too.
At this point, we had to quit for the day because it was almost dinner time. We all decided to come back the next Saturday to finish the project.
I went home and while my husband cleaned our mud-crusted boots, I put a load of very dirty clothes into the washing machine. Please come back for Part Two and see the end result of our labors 🙂
Motherly Wisdom and Group Photo Shoot
az plant lady familyOkay, I realize that I am terribly late when it comes to posting holiday photos. But believe it or not, I am quite organized when it comes to other aspects of Christmas – especially shopping for gifts -I’m usually done in November 🙂
With an extended family as large as ours, it is hard to have everyone present for photo opportunities, but this past Christmas, we were all there.
The second difficulty that frequently arises when trying to get everything to gather together for the photo is getting all the kids to stop playing and come and sit and smile – (I’m sure many of you know what I mean 😉
Well, my mother in all her wisdom knew how to get everything one all together and fast….
“No one could open presents until we had taken our family group picture.”
My mother, two sisters, brother and our families.
Well you can only imagine how quickly the kids ran inside and sat down. Even us grown kids put down our coffee and snacks to smile for the camera.I only hope to be as wise as my mother someday 🙂
An Icy “First” For Me…
ArizonaOne of my favorite summer places is a lake in the town of Williams, Arizona. Every year, our entire family (grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins) make the 3 hour trip up to the mountains and stay for a week.
Favorite Summer Places
What many of us really like to do while we are up there is fish. Actually, it is the only time that I fish each year.
We usually fish from the dam itself and it is such a wonderful, stress-free way to spend a day.
Last weekend, my husband and I left the kids behind (aren’t we terrible parents ;-). We traveled up to Northern Arizona and visited some of our favorite places – Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott.
Since we were so close to Williams, I asked my husband if we could stop by and see what it looked like in winter.
So, we headed that way and drove by our favorite lake. There was still areas with snow, which I expected.
What I didn’t expect to see was our favorite lake frozen over….
As I stood by the water’s edge, I realized that this was the first time that I had ever been to a frozen lake.
Of course, I have been in the snow many times, but none of those visits had brought me to a frozen lake.
I realize that it maybe hard to believe that in all of my 46 years, that I had never seen a frozen lake, but it’s true. I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles and then moved to the Phoenix area when I got married. So you see, my exposure to icy lakes has been somewhat limited.
This lake fascinated me. I was pretty sure that I could throw a rock and it would sink through the ice….
I was shocked to see that the rock did not sink, but just bounced over the ice.
At this point, I felt like a little kid who has just experienced a new thing for the first time.
It is nice to experience that feeling again.
Before I know it, we will all be up there again and I will be hoping to catch some fresh fish…
What about you?
Have you experienced any “firsts” as an adult?
*************************
I hope your week is off to a good start. I am working on my latest batch of gardening articles and designing a butterfly/hummingbird garden.