April 02

2008

2011

2012

2008

Gardening in the High Desert

• Watered weeds, veg beds and garlic
  
• Some weeds starting to bloom - a delicate lavender one, and one with white flowers. Also tumbleweed now germ along with a new weed that I haven't seen before.
  
• First daffs in garden blooming - pale cream yellow
  
• Weeded all beds
  
• Irises growing like crazy
  
• Large rabbit tracks in the garden
  
• Time to feed and water trees - they are starting to break dormancy
  
• I am thinking of buying some onions and some garlic at the store to grow - just to see what happens
  
• Forgot to water my oregano transplant. Well, I guess we'll see just how bought it really is.
  
• Got to sleep good, gt to work early, go home early and then take lots of photos of the garden tomorrow
  
• More pease are up
  

2011

Gardening in the High Desert

• Water garlic, peas, spinach, daffodils
  
• Pulled grass from 3 west rows in corn patch and added osmocote fertilizer. It is ready to receive seeds
  
• Finalized oasis plan
  

Received from a trade on Dave's Garden from R.X.

• 6 flying saucers morning glories
  
• 6 purple white stripped morning glories
  
• 6 star of yenta [morning glories]
  
• Lots African Marigold
  
• 6 Mexican Sunflower
  
• Summer thyme
  
• Lemon Balm
  
• Anise Basil
  
• Salad Burnet
  
• Crystal White Wax Onion
  
• Pepper Mint
  
• Pkg Scarlet O'Hara [MG]
  
• Pkg Heavenly Blue [MG]
  
• Pkg Tall Mixed [MG]
  
• Pkg Forget-Me-Not
  
• Pkg Purple Cone Flower
  

Sent in exchange

• Spinach - Bloomsdale
  
• Spinach - Matador
  
• Sages - Broad Leaf, Blue Bedder Salvia, Culinary Sage
  
• Garlic Chives
  
• Basil - unknown small leaf, cinnamon
  
• Lemon cuke
  
• MG - ground
  
• Lavender moon flower
  

2012

Gardening in the High Desert
The gale-force wind from yesterday seems to have abated, so maybe today I will go out in my barren garden and see what's alive. Even though there are no veggies to put out yet, the strawberries and irises and daffodils should be making an appearance, along with lemon balm, oregano, thyme, and rosemary.

January 30

2010

Gardening in the High Desert

• Freshened up coop with half a bale of pine shavings
  
• Filled bird feeder. Little birds making all kinds of noise hiding in the old Christmas tree
  
• Hurried to put food and water under cover for the chickens
  
• Imbolc is this week - the halfway point between winter and spring
  
• Old seeds still seem to be quite viable
  
• no more peat pots - I have advanced to sowing seeds in flats and transplanting. This works for items that transplant well, anyways. Going to have to figure out how to deal with MG's [Morning Glories], however.
  

January 23

2006

2012

2006

1:03 AM

Gardening in the High Desert
Germination:
5 of 8 Sweet Baby Girl Cherry Toms
7 of 8 Mortgage Lifter Toms [1/31/2006 - one more germ'd]
Snapdragons germinated but did not survive my [business] trip
6 of 8 Steak Sandwich Toms [1/31/2006 - one more germ'd]
2 of 4 Morning Glory - Heavenly Blue
One Steak Sandwich Tom did not lose seed shell

21:54

Skinny, spindly, leggy seedlings. That's what I get for starting seedlings and not being there to see them sprout. Removing the cover & leaving the lights on seem to have helped. Need to find my grow light.

Can I start spinach yet? I've read it will grow in partial shade and tolerates frost.

Onalee says my lavender and white moon flowers have shipped. [2012 - Note - Seeds from both the lavender and white moon flowers were successfully grown out in the summer of 2011 from the 5 year old seed]

2012

Gardening in the High Desert
Weather: Snowed on the overnight
Traffic: 2 1/2 hours to get to work
Looks like it will be warming up so that the snow will all melt. Trees getting some sweet water today.

December 02

2007

Gardening in the High Desert.

• After mapping out the 56 cloves of garlic in Veg Bed 3, it seems to me that I wasted a lot of space.  Maybe I can tuck in some basil after everything is up.
• If garlic in the ground does well, I won't waste raised bed real estate on it in the future [Note: Garlic does well everywhere]
• Veg Bed 1 is limited as my irises are still in there - but since I won't be growing toms in there this year, I can use it for my basil garden.
• Veg Bed 2 is becoming my strawberry bed.  Need to feed it well.
• Veg Bed 4 will be the tomato bed - but can I really limit myself to just 8 tomato plants?  I think not.  Going to try a yellow pear [tomato plant] between the root stock shrubs in the orchard area.
• Veg Bed 5 - zukes and cukes.  Also going to try some ground-based zukes and yellow squash
• Veg Bed 6 - beans and blackened peas
• Along East Fence - pole beans and scarlet runner beans
• North fence - MGs [Morning Glories] and moon flowers on the fence; sunflowers in front of the fence
• Corn on the east - pole beans may impact sunlight, so probably won't plant the whole fence row
• A pumpkin vine or two among the apple trees?

NEED TO KEEP A GOOD FEEDING SCHEDULE
And that's about all the veg garden I really want to do.

Now, backyard landscaping is another issue.  Really need to start thinking about what I shall do about that. I know I want green on the fences.  If I can keep things from eating the sprouts, runner beans might be the thing.  MG's, too, and sweet potato vines.  Can I get some oregano established as a ground cover?

January 22

2006

2008

2011

2006

Gardening in the High Desert

Seed Orders

Bought 200 seeds of a lavender moonflower.  Never seen lavender ones advertised before.  [Finally got a few blooms in 2011 from a rabbit ravaged vine.] [Purchased from Onalee's Seeds] Also bought a few more seeds.  We'll see.

D has put up 10 more fence posts and is out of concrete now.

Should I get a Mantis Tiller? [2011-11-18 I did not, and I'm glad I didn't.  The sand is easy enough to just hoe up, and I do not have that big of a plot.]

Ordered some [used] "backyard bird" and "backyard wildlife" books from Amazon.com.  Had so much fun watching birds and such with my brother at his house.  Ordered a bird ID book, too.

From Onalee's Seeds - $27.50 Onalee@aol.com

• $15.00 - Impomoea Alba - White Moon Flowers
• $12.50 - Impomoea Turbinata - Lavender Moon Flowers

Plants of the South West $28.50 (Rec'd 1/28/2006)

• $2 - Lemon/Apple Cukes [2011-11-18 - Grew this in 2011 - seeds still viable - did not check germination rates, but it was over 50%
• $8 - High Desert Wildflower Mix 1 ounce
• $5 - 2 Pkt Blue Gama Grass
• $2 - Yellow Pear Tomato [2011-11-18 - These were also still viable in 2011]
• $2 - Sugar Snap Peas
• $2 - Mexico Miget Tomato [2011-11-18 - These were also still viable in 2011]
• $5 - Shipping

Prairie Garden Plant Ideas

(medium tall)

• Butterfly weed
• Columbine
• Cream False Indigo
• Narrow leave purple cone flower
• Nodding pink onion
• Orange Cone Flower
• Prairie Smoke
• Prairie Spiderwort
• Purple Con Flower
• Purple Prairie Clover
• Western Spiderwort
• Wild Petunia
• White Aster
• Prairie Dropseed Grass
• Blue Sky Aster (short)
• Downy Sunflower (tall)
• Little Blue Stem Grass
• Prairie Blazing Star
• Blue Gama Grass
• Big Blue Stem
• Prairie Sage
• Common Ox-eye

[2011-11-18 Note: Need to check if they are on the state "invasive" list.  Also, need to see what is poisonous to livestock, incase some escape from the "Prairie" to the "Pastures."]

Prairie Garden Tips

• Grow some samples in know places so you know what the seedlings look like
• Photograph samples for future 

Sweet Potato Storage

• Wash/Dry
• Grease with crisco, prick w/fork
• Bake 350*F until done
• Let cool & then wrap in foil (regular)
• Put in plastic bag and freeze

To Use

• Run under hot water and peal
• Prep as if fresh boiled
• Or microwave and will be like fresh baked

2008

Gardening in the High Desert
Need to start tracking weather in N TN and S Ky.

Remember: Procrastination Kills Plants!

2011

Gardening in the High Desert

00:46

I swear it feels like the tomatoes grew 2 inches in the last few days. Looks like the weather will be warm enough to put them outside a spell again.
Started, yes, more tomatoes. Also started some peppers. 12 weeks ahead of transplant time - just about right. Tomes will be leggy for sure, by then. But still, the more important thing is that they'll be old enough to start flowering as soon as they're in the ground. And set fruit before the scorching season arrives. Hopefully sunflowers will shaw and contain them.

22:17

Got so much done today; it was a good day for gardening

• Toms and basil and some ivy went outside
  
• Potted up some more basil from lettuce tray
  
• Potted sweet potato cutting in old Jack In The Box cup and put in a [decorative] tin pot
  
• Brought small daffs in for forcing
  
• Turned compost
  
• Hoed under some weeds in future beds
  
• Can't believe how much bigger the transplanted basil is