April in the Garden

First iris to bloom in the yard

I love this time of year, when some of my favorite flowers are blooming, iris, lilacs, roses, apple trees... It seems the garden is bursting at the seams these days!

I have so many old bearded iris in the yard, these plain white ones and some plain dark purples are the early bloomers; later there will be a tall yellow and a two toned purple and lavender.

lilacs in bloom

I love my lilac bush, it smells heavenly. The scent of iris and lilacs reminds me of when I was a kid and mom would put vases of them around the house.

apple blossoms

While that late snow browned the edges of some of the petals, the apple blossoms seem to be ok.

the terrace garden

On the hillside terrace garden the poppies, cilantro and wild flowers are getting a good start.

patio garden, west side of house

The patio still needs some cleaning up.

Princepe Borghese

But the Princepe Borhese tomatos are blooming.

Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea

Between the crazy weather and some rabbits, there are only a couple of Sweet Magnolia plants left, but they are making peas.

Sweet Magnolia pea blossom

And their flowers are pretty too!

Bleushokker pea blossom

There are only a couple of Bleushokker peas left too. They were in the coldest spot in the back garden and the Dec. snows did most of them in. They do have pretty flowers and they are the yummiest soup pea ever!

weedy spot in the back garden

I tried to get this silly picture to be vertical, but Blogger doesn't want to do it so it's sideways. This is a corner of the back garden, on the east end. This is a narrow trellis bed where I had planted Sugar Snap peas. there were only a couple of plants left in there and they were pretty sad looking with the crazy weather we've had this year, so I pulled them out along with all the weeds and fed them to the chickens.

Most of the weeds are gone.

Most of the weeds are gone now. I will probably plant either beans or cukes here, haven't made up my mind which one. On the right of this picture you can see the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas, which just started producing. More about those on Harvest Monday!

brassicas

This is one of the two brassica beds. on the right side is the purple sprouting broccoli, in the center are the Romanesco and on the left are either De Ciccio or Waltham, the tags got lost so I'm not sure which. I weeded out all the hen bit and discovered the bed was pretty dry; perhaps that's why they haven't done as well as they should have. Either that or I'll blame it on poor soil, late planting and crazy weather! Behind this bed is the one with the Mammoth Melting Sugar peas and behind that, the trellis bed that I weeded out.

Red Pontiac potaoes

The Red Pontiac potatoes that I planted in January are sprouting up and looking good. Some of them were just breaking ground when the snow came a couple of weeks ago; I just piled a little dirt over their tops and they didn't get frost bite.

Cecile Brunner Rose

The Cecile Brunner climbing rose that I planted a few years ago has grown quite large. I spotted the first blossom this after, after catching a whiff of it as I walked by. While the blossoms are very small, they are very fragrant. I hate that modern roses have so little scent and refuse to buy them. I want roses to smell, what use is pretty if there is no fragrance?

bolting celery

In the greenhouse the celery is bolting. The cilantro is already there. I let it bloom all over because it's small fine flowers are good for the beneficial insects.

Cilantro/coriander blooming

snapdragon

The snapdragons are blooming in their wall pots. The ones I planted around the yard are a bit behind since the air and soil outside are cooler.

tomato plants on the shelves, peas in the background

The greenhouse shelves are loaded with plants; more small fruited tomatoes, Snow White, Currant, Princepe Borghese.

baby tomato plants

The large fruited tomatoes were started later and so are smaller; Amish Paste, Italian Heirloom, Black from Tula.

basil seedlings

Lots of Classic Italian and Lime Basil seedlings.

green strawberry

There are some green strawberries in the greenhouse bed.

old seeds sprout!

The greatest thing though, is those Hale's Best Jumbo cantaloupe seeds that I saved in 2003 had almost 100% germination in the greenhouse under their cute little Victorian cloche!

Chickens!

And here are all the chickens, my four hens and my young Buff Orpington rooster, standing tall in the center. He isn't crowing yet but I have seen him getting after the hens, so I think I'll set aside some money next month for an incubator. I'd like to hatch small lots of chicks at a time for meat.


These chickens are not as tame as my previous ones. My other chickens I raised from chicks when my grand daughters were with me all the time and the girls were always petting and playing with them so they were very tame. These were in a large pen with about 50 others and while not exactly wild they don't come sit in your lap either! In fact they are just now getting the idea that when I come up to the fence and call them they should come because it means I have a treat, either scraps, weeds or worms.

Seedy Saturday; Purple Peas!

Purple Peas

Happy Seedy Saturday! This week I have decided to part with some of my stash of Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea. I am going to give away about 25-30 seeds. Sweet Magnolia was developed by Alan Kapular of Peace Seeds and is the product of trying to breed for a purple version of the Sugar Snap pea. I bought some seeds from him a few yeas ago and have been saving my own seed since.  Occasionally a vine will put out green pods instead of purple ones. Just make sure you don't save any seeds from those.

Sweet Magnolias are not quite as strong a grower as my Bleushokkers but they do well in fertile soil and can easily go to 6 feet or higher.

And it's possible that this picture is actually of Bleushokkers before they fill out. However the Sweet Magnolia's look like this too. The flavor is much the same as any snow pea. I have forgotten now, (it's been about 2-3 years since I've grown a batch of these) but I'm thinking they turn green when cooked, much like purple snap beans. But I usually eat most of my snow and snap peas raw, either as snacks while gardening or in my salads.

How does the Seedy Saturday Free Seed Giveaway work? Well, first you comment on this post any time before 6AM Monday morning (my time, I'm in Arizona). From all the comments I draw one name and announce the winner in my Harvest Monday post. If I can contact you through your blogger profile I will. Otherwise the winner should email me with your snail mail address at hysong AT cableone DOT net,(replacing the capitalized words with the appropriate symbols, of course.) I am willing to send seeds to other countries but I am not responsible for any duties, fees, etc. or if they can or can't be imported. If you live outside the US please check with your government agencies about small lots of seed coming into your country. (you might tell them you are involved in a seed exchange, not a commercial venture)

Grow Peas!

Sweet Magnolia, a purple snow pea

I love peas, I could eat green peas every day of the year. However, here in the desert they only grow from fall through spring as they don't do well once the temperatures start getting over about 80 degrees. So I plant peas everywhere I can and gorge on them during the season. I don't like canned peas so don't bother growing a lot of shelling peas.

If there are any extras I do freeze some of the snap and snow peas to use during the off season. I've just written an article about growing peas of all kinds, including sweet pea flowers, which you can read at How To Grow Peas.

A few years ago I grew six different kinds of peas and wrote a review of them which you can read at 6 Pea Varieties on Trial.

So what else is new around here, not too much, mostly I've been working the day job and with the days getting shorter there is less time to be working outside. I'm still hauling rocks and building walls as fast as I can and of course, planting peas!

Around the Place

baby lettuce mix

I thought today I'd just give you a few pictures of things happening around here.  The baby lettuces are taking off. Botanical Interests has many varieties of organic lettuce seed for you to try; I love all the colors, flavors and textures available!

Bleushokker Soup Peas

The Bleushokkers were the first peas to go in this year and are doing well. I grew them for the first time a few years ago. You can read a review of them and 5 other peas varieties that I wrote over on Associated Content.  I'm really looking forward to pea season this year with the Bleushokkers, snow peas and green and purple snap peas.

Along the south side of the house

I whacked down some of the weed trees along the south side of the house. I would like to get the greenhouse finished along there but I don't know if that is going to happen before it gets cold this year. Still so many things to do!

Heavenly Blue Morning Glories

The morning glories are still going strong; can you see the white gourd blossoms mingled in with them?

Gourd blossom peeks out from under the morning glories

potatoes growing in a pot

My potatoes growing in pots are doing ok but not the best. The ones I planted in the garden beds basically croaked while I was on vacation, there was a 100+ heat wave while I was gone and they just didn't get enough water. Better luck next year!

planting bed

 







I divided this bed up into sections for planting. In it I planted Bloomsdale longstanding spinach, Golden Globe yellow turnips, Easter Egg radishes, Western Front kale, mixed lettuces, mache, mizuna and chard. The turnips and radishes are planted in the dividing lines. After watering I covered  it with a row cover to keep out the birds.

stone steps in the creek

Last weekend I also worked down in the creek. I'm on the down stream side of the culverts. The July 4th storm washed a lot of dirt out of this area.  Since part of it was washed out anyway and a very steep drop to the bottom I decided to make some steps to make it easier to get up and down. I'm also working on the walls around the culverts.

stone walls in the creek