springtime poetry

Julie, Julie tell me truly,
How does your garden Grow?

uh...Believe me, I have my doubts, you know!?!?

OK, so i'm not a poet

and i don't think i'm a gardener either.

yet.

but i'm giving it a whirl.

the odds are stacked since i live in a HOT desert.

a garden, in Las Vegas?

i reminded myself...it IS possible.
others have overcome our climate amazingly well....and maybe i will to.

here's a picture of our friends Kevin and Kira Barney's amazing desert garden...just a small piece of it!

i have hope.

and i'm finally getting around to something i've wanted to do for YEARS!

it all started about 3 weeks ago when i was talking with my friend melissa and she asked if i had a garden and mentioned that she was going to garden this year. i replied that i didn't but always had wanted to. i also went and looked at courtney's garden. and i mustered up the motivation to plant my own! then i realized that now was as good of a time as any.

so we got things started.

i learned as much as i could from here..
http://www.agardeninthedesert.com/


Here's what I learned....

Gardening notes

Water dirt once a day for a week or two, as needed, to get the dirt working

I would keep your very first garden small so you don’t get discouraged if something doesn’t go quite right.

I put my garden along my west wall to shade it from the brutal, summer afternoon sun

Your garden will need full morning or early afternoon sun, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight.

The soil composition is very important. You want to have lots of organic material, meaning manure and compost. The more dead, organic matter the better the soil, which means better produce.

You also don’t want to step on the garden dirt and compact the dirt

Don’t plant right after you add the amendments because the soil needs time to release all of what the plants need.

When shopping look for the words compact, patio, pixie, tiny, baby or dwarf. Just because the plant is bred to be small doesn’t mean that the fruits will be small.

If you want green beans you can get more yield from a pole variety than a bush. You can let them climb up instead of on the ground, using less space.

WATER: when it comes to watering your plants, you might look for a “weeping” hose. These can be found at Lowes’s and Home Depot. They use less water and actually give your plant a drip that saturates the root zone and water better than all at once. Be sure to water regular at least every two or three days.

SOIL: Make sure your soil has enough compost and fertilizer. Soil is important. Vegetables need a rich organic soil to mature and produce good tasting fruits. Remember, if you are going to eat it you have to feed it!

SUN: Vegetables need a good 6 hours or more of sun in a day. Without sun the fruits will not ripen and the plant will be stressed.

For those of you who don’t have any compost of your own, be sure to buy a good quality compost like Kellogg’s or a similar brand. The cheap compost-mulch is just that. The forest magic is mostly ground up bark and does not do much in the way of adding to your soil.

Now is the time you should have already gotten your soil prepared for spring planting. If you haven’t, not to worry, you still have time if you act quickly.

Now is the time you should have already gotten your soil prepared for spring planting. If you haven’t, not to worry, you still have time if you act quickly.

I also found some more information here.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/home/gardening/mills_tomato.html

can you say brain overload!?!

i got over the overload.


then we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

we brought in some pretty dirt.

justin tilled the land.(while sporting every plastic tool known to man.)

we planted some seeds ..some of which have even grown seedlings.

[along with the seedlings grew some pretty tiny white worm looking creatures too.]

yuck. we threw those away.

then we picked up some cheater plants from the nursery....a little help you know since we got a late start.

we hooked up some cute little soaker hoses.

made cute little rows (which i love.)

then lovingly put each little plant in it's new home.
(most get to live here.)

(the lucky ones get to live here.)

[as ugly as it looks...this thing is amazing. it's like an earth box (but i made it.)
go here for info. no ground or garden of your own? then make one of these. if you want to know how to make your own, let me know. ]

all of which made my fingers beautifully dirty. pretty huh?!?


now i get to go outside and water and check on my garden..which is fun.
except when i notice some plants dying...already.

but i'm o.k. with that.
it's a learning experience right!?

and do you know what makes me happier than anything???

justin is LOVING every minute of it.

EVERY DAY he asks, "can we garden today mom?
and i say yes.

so that's the beginning of our gardening story.
there may be many more beautiful chapters to come.

but there may be just one more chapter....
the end.

but i pray this is just the beginning.
and if any garden needs prayers...mine does. :)