The temperature is still freezing some nights, with daytime highs in the 70's. Lost some tomato tops and flowers to frost night before last. Yes, squash and canteloupe seedlings made it fine. It's as if a deadly ribbon of cold sneaked through the garden, selecting its victims in the night.
Sometimes
I think my life is measured by the dogs I've loved. From a child to an
old lady, I fondly remember them all. Puppies growing into old dogs,
and then leaving me behind.
My muddy, old barn shoes are not allowed inside, therefore, they reside next to the back door. Most of the time they are protected from the rain. (You know, that wet stuff that comes down from the heavens when Mother Nature decides to bless Arizona). Possibly She's forgotten us on her 2020 list, or maybe Santa told her about the pansies I forgot to water last summer. Whatever the reason, the shoes are not caked with mud, just chicken poop and mule manure.
I learned at a young age that shoes left at the back door are suspect for safe wearing the next day. Tiny snakes love to hide in the dark toe spaces, as well as lizards and insects. Beatles and other spiny insects are especially bad as they can become entangled in your socks. You just can't shake the creatures off - you first have to pry them away from the threads. Yuck. So, I'm especially careful during warn weather, and thump out the creatures before I put them on. Winter, not so much. Too cold for reptiles.
This morning I bopped the shoe heels and emptied my tenies. Nothing. I did manage to awaken a couple of lost rocks. Then I slid my left foot home and felt the crunch of something large, quickly tossing the shoe across the porch.
I looked into the shoe and saw a faint outline of something familiar. A lost (and crunched) maple leaf.
Highway 95 looking toward Kofa Wildlife Refuge. Tough place to live, but the mountains were colorful and spectacular.
We have planted a garden every year for the last 40 years. Some are good, some not so good. But this year felt different. Slightly desperate, immediate and necessary. Victory Gardens are sprouting everywhere, and many new gardeners were created around the country. So here's some of our successful fruits (and veggies) of our labors.
FIRST... THE SOIL
In January 2020, we had no idea that we would be spending so much time at home, but nature has a way of creating new destiny. So our garden became our focus for daily rituals and renewal.
We had already decided to put in raised garden beds. We were so fortunate to be able to find some railroad ties FREE on Craigslist. It was the first week of January, so the competition was less and Paul loaded 30 ties in our pickup and the hard work began...
1. After we planned our design, Paul dug trenches and plopped the ties. He worked hard fitting them into place and leveling, and then he took out all the old garden dirt (which contained lots of clay and crushed granite).
2. We were determined to build new soil with composted materials and let it "cook" during the winter months.
3. We layered newspaper, leaves, compost, and mule manure. Watered each layer as it was placed down. Then we were blessed with regular rain and a little snow, so the materials underground were able to decompose into rich brown topsoil. We even saw heat coming from one bed!
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Black Krim Tomato
I found a comfy chair and was writing at the Chino Valley Library , engrossed in finding the right words. After an hour of working on a c...
