Gardening

"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet Kilburn Phillips


 Last summer I was quite pleased by the low expectations garden. I thought one little garden box would be enough to satisfy my vegetable desires when I originally planned out my backyard. 


I was wrong.


It is just too much fun to pick food from the garden. And when I saw all the pretty flowers at the nursery I couldn't help myself. Then my mother heard how much money I spent and started digging up pieces of all her plants so I could have even more for FREE, I just couldn't help myself.


So after the season's first sunburn, two days, and 10 hours work, I have now finished phase 4 of the backyard. (New Year's Resolution done!) Shout out to my sister and mom for their help.

What you don't see is all of the weed pulling, loading of the manure, unloading manure, digging and mixing the manure, digging up the irrigation lines, repair of the dog chewed irrigation lines, smoothing the dirt, installation all the drippers, planting actual plants and seeds, moving more dirt for diverting water, and searching for missing caps.

You can't tell, but this is going to be a flourishing herb garden.

Since these pictures were taken, I've replaced 8 drippers and several feet of tube thanks to my dumb dog. There is now a dramatic expanse of chicken wire protecting it. We'll see how much of the garden actually has a chance.


Mid planting, my niece added this addition to the cozy coupe.





Where did she get that idea?

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

So it's just plants and flowers and stuff, right?

This is one of those places that just doesn't describe well. It is one of my places. Sacred space sounds too reverent, special place too juvenile, and meaningful place doesn't have the right ring to it, but no matter what you call it, Boyce Thompson Arboretum is one of mine. I had a season pass there when I was a new mom and it always helped me take a break from the bleak depression that haunted most of my minutes. I still remember the recharge I got when my colicky baby girl took a nap while I read a book on a shady bench in the rose garden. It was a little moment of peace I could retreat back to when I needed it.

The desert isn't always beautiful but this place is green, and flowering, and bright. It has enough elevation change and rock hoodoos to feel like you have hiked somewhere. On top of the high trail you get the change in air quality I associate with being on top of a mountain. It cleanses and inspires and gives perspective.

There is always a new little something to discover, whether it is a flower you haven't ever seen or little hidden sculpture tucked away in a corner. While the Desert Botanical Gardens feels open and very much a desert, the arboretum is cultivated on a different scale. There are tall eucalyptus trees giving you shade and bushes and shrubs to make you feel like you are the only ones in the place. Birds are every where, some in the brightest reds and yellows you would never expect in a place with less of 9 inches of rain a year.

And the arboretum in the spring! It's beautiful! Here are a few of the pics I snapped on the most recent trip with my sister.

This is the aptly named rainbow garden.

This fountain was the highlight of the outing and they were all temporarily soaked. It is still Arizona so they were dry in about 5 minutes.

We found this statue in a new location but the girls remembered this picture from the scrapbook and tried to recreate it even though they are 2 years older and a couple feet taller.

These blossoms are the size of dinner plates and were stunning! I've never seen a cactus blossom so large. The petals are the width of a quarter.

A week before and these irises must have been prolific. They were in so many colors, my favorite being the wine colored ones off to the right.

Here are the boys riding in style

The humming bird garden is always full of humming birds (go figure) and has the most amazing scent.

 These armarylis blossoms were the size of J's head, but the photo's perspective is off.

We spent most of our time in the children's garden because, seriously, we had 5 kids between us. The animal sculptures were a real hit since they were just asking to be ridden. M even had a short conversation with this javelina. I always laugh at that word because I can't help but imagine how someone would pronounce it would didn't grow up in Arizona. Java-lie-na?

I made a little video of our adventure so Grammy and PopPop can feel like they went with us. Enjoy!

A tisket, a tastic, a flower making basket

In my head I always think of the play dough commercial in the 80's for the flower basket toy. I found it on youtube here at 1:02 if you want to hear it. My sister had that toy and like everything of hers, I was jeal-ous.

Now as an adult I've found clay flowers just don't compare to the real ones. I always felt planting flowers was a waste of money because I figured it I was paying to water a plant, I should be able to eat part of it.

This year I changed my mind.

I'd go to the nursery for veggies and I just couldn't help myself. Then I'd go to Home Depot and not be able to help myself. I also got a bunch of AZ friendly flower seeds from Madre Dos for Christmas and couldn't help myself.

But look how pretty they are (were)! Worth every penny!

After the frost hit I thought they all died so I bought more. Nope, most perked back up!

Anyone know the name of these? I forgot and they ended up being my favorite

This is a blue hybicus plant from a couple years ago. The frost wiped it out and I kept meaning to hack off the 3/4 of it that looked dead. I just kept putting it off and my laziness was rewarded when it magically turned verdant and blossomed more than it ever had. Go figure.

My new favorite thing is to let plants go to seed, just to see what they look like. Sometimes I manage to harvest the seeds too. This is cilantro gone crazy.

 Canna lilies are the prettiest flower ever to love the heat and full sun. And they are indestructible, as proven my my dog destroying them last year.

And while I took those good photos over a month ago, I had a bunch of random flowers I didn't even plant pop up. This guy looks a lot like a weed when it is small. I'm pretty sure I've been pulling them by mistake for months. Note the fuzzy stem that usually is a sign a plant is trying to hurt me.

I have no idea what this flower is either and I found it hiding in the back of the planter.

This one I'm pretty sure is blanket flower that I did plant seeds for but this is the only one that came up. Or that wasn't weeded...

I don't remember the name of this flower, but I planted them last year and found this little guy grew all on his own this season.

This gladiola looks just like my mom's garden. I didn't plant it but it is in the side of the planter that housed transplants from my mom's yard two years ago. All of the plants I took from my parents' house have been pulled out but I wonder if a seed came along with them and just found the right  condition two years later. Or perhaps a bird pooped it recently.

This is what kale looks like gone to seed, in case you wondered. There is a cute little yellow flower near the top. J likes to tear leaves off and eat them. Strange child.

This is some volunteer lettuce I had. No lettuce seeds grew where I planted them, but apparently the gravel with sprinkler overspray was the perfect spot. I let it go to seed and it has such interesting fluff.

These red ones are probably my favorite little ones. I'm pretty sure they are the red flax seeds from Madre Dos.

I love how nature just takes over despite whatever I intend for it to do.

Easter Dinner

We invited some friends and neighbors for Easter dinner but I felt self-conscious snapping pictures of them because I don't know them very well. I don't want to seem like the photo-crazy mommy blogger that I really am. I should probably just own it. Anyways, since we were having a good-sized group I decided to make it all pretty.

Can I just tell you how much I love my husband's support of my craziness? He doesn't ever complain about helping me with tablecloths or tables. Or more impressively, no complaining about my frazzled and stressed state when I'm trying to make it all look good 5 minutes before people are supposed to show up. He even acknowledges that it does feel more special when things are staged to look nice. Of course he probably still thinks dying eggs with a purple cabbage (from my garden no less!) is a little ridiculous. Then again, I think it is too, but it doesn't stop me. Tutorial on cabbage egg dying here. Isn't that blue fantastic?

 I was a bad hostess and ignored my guests a little to snap my kids in their Easter outfits. The lighting was so lovely though and I don't think anyone cared. I have to say I'm proud of how her Easter dress turned out.

I had this old tshirt in the back of my car just in case I spilled chemicals on myself at school and had to use the safety shower. I haven't taught for 3 years and that shirt never left the trunk of my car until we sold the car. So I threw it in the wash and it became a size I could barely wear as a 10 year old. With upcycling it in mind, I chose the floral to match. You may recognize the goodwill sheet fabric from its reincarnation as this dress.

I tried to find a pattern I liked on the interwebs but nothing had a combo of Tshirt knit and cotton. Well maybe there was something but I have a 20 click attention span for pattern searches. I get tired easily. So I made this one up with elements I liked from other dresses. Because I'm the ultimate in lazy sewer, I reused the seams on everything so I didn't have to hem anything. The meant the dress came together in about 20 minutes. Until I decided to add pockets. Made by Rae, dana made it, and make it and love it all inspired a part of it. The shirred pockets took forever, but J LOVES anything with a pocket. She likes to store her "handy handy notebook" in them.

Here is what I get when I try and get them to take pictures.

So I hound them for 20 minutes to get more like these

This one is a favorite.

At this point I went back to enjoying my guests. Then I see that the kids had relieved my flowers of far more blossoms than I thought. They were all in the bucket and just needed to be thrown in the air so I picked up my camera to record the festivities. It's not like I could put the flowers back so might as well enjoy them to the fullest.

M didn't know what was going on, but he knew he liked it.

Such joy!

I made myself a new pink pencil skirt to coordinate, you know, so we could be one of those families at church, but Husband was focused not on documenting my fashion for the blog, but on the smiling faces of his girls. Just where it should be :)