It’s in the upper-80’s here (about 30º C) and I’m spending every possible minute outside, working in the garden. I am working to make a more abundant garden this year, with more food and flowers than ever before. While the front yard is a white garden, the backyard is where I plant flowers of several…
January is the month where I spend the most time in my garden, pruning, tidying, and planting. I’m outside working for several hours almost every day. I have some goals I’d like to achieve in the garden this year, and a lot of those will come from good planning and preparation done this month. This…
Good things to come. . . . Baby expected in a few weeks!
The garden is becoming rather full and lush lately. We had a beautiful, cloudy weekend, with a bit of rain, which gave me the opportunity to photograph the garden without the harsh light that it normally gets. Rain in April is extremely unusual here, but oh so pretty, and we were happy for the storm…
It’s been a long time since I shared pictures of the backyard garden. It is so incredibly beautiful right now. The fruit trees are in bloom in the garden, and if you stand still, you can hear the bees and see them work. The birds have been enjoying the garden, too. I’ve…
I spent several hours in the garden this morning, picking fruit. I picked Mission figs, Royal apricots, Apache blackberries, Red Flame Grapes, Dorsett Golden Apples, and white alpine strawberries. Tonight I’ll pick more apricots and blackberries, towards the end of the day when the sun is going down. I love the fruit we receive from…
Larkspur. These reseed themselves in the garden every year. I tried last week for a shortened to-do list for the week, and still, it didn’t happen. It reminded me of this quote from C.S. Lewis. Interestingly enough, my children picked this video to watch on Sunday, which was a great thing for me to see in…
During a break from the wind, my dad helped me finish taking out the Liberty apple tree. He also cut down the two grapefruit trees you see in the photo above (on the left; one is just a dead trunk). I still have the roots to remove on those two, but they are down…
The two most common complaints I hear people give about their home-grown fruit is that the tree produces fruit that is too small, and that the tree only fruits every other year. Both of these problems are easily solved by thinning. A tree naturally thins itself, to some degree. Wind helps with this, knocking down…
The white garden is very green right now. In a few days it will be full of flowers; even as I write this, several tulips have opened, and there are roses that will open within the week. Here are some scenes from the garden from a couple of days ago: The Katy apricot tree…
Would you like to see my garden? I will be having a tour on Saturday, March 14th, from 10 a.m. to noon. The weather should be beautiful. The tour is a 2-hour class, where I’ll teach about gardening in the desert, including soil, drip irrigation, choosing fruit trees, pruning, thinning, what grows well for me,…
While most of the United States experienced a really cold week, for us, the weather turned warmer on Wednesday. I turned off the heater, and even opened the windows for a few hours to let in some fresh air. Warmer weather made it perfect for planting. Even though we can still get a frost for…