Framing the Plants

I woke up during the weekend and heard my neighbors' gardener working on their yards. I finally was able to get up and get out there to talk to him about doing yard maintenance for me. With my new full time job, I just can't keep up with the garden. The front garden is easy as I planted all drought and deer tolerant plants. They are tough. They can be cut back and grow back in no time. The back yard, where Sand Village Farm is, requires more attention when it comes to weeding and pruning.

I have planted various shrubs and ground covers hoping that they will reduce the amount of unwanted weeds as they establish in the garden. Most of them are covered under tall weeds. I have been pulling off the weeds to uncover some of the plants I have added. I am adding some wire fence around them, so they won't accidentally get removed by the gardener. The gardener will start when he comes back to work on my neighbors' yards in a couple of weeks. That should make my life a little easier.

Strawberry section

Merritt College Herb Garden

On Sunday I took Kelsey to Merritt College with me to work in the herb garden. The crew has built this stairway (shown photo above) recently, and we were eager to pull the weeds out and plant more flowers and herbs along the path way. The weather was nice and warm while we worked in the garden.

Kiwi vines

The kiwi vines we pruned earlier this year has grown a lot longer. They are just about to reach the top of the arbor. I was surprised to see that all the strawberries seemed to have returned after the winter. This prompted me to check on my own strawberries after I returned home. I was surprised to see that my some of my strawberry plants are thriving.

Strawberry plants

After we were done working, we watered the garden thoroughly. We were getting ready for our annual spring plant sale on May 5th and 6th. We wanted the garden to look extra nice and inviting. Kelsey made sure that she moved out of the way before the water reached her.  Little did she know that she was going to get a bath after we left Merritt College.

Kelsey in the garden

Speed Gardening

Snow pea flower

Last week I thought that I had no snow pea flowers, but I was wrong. There are many flowers, so hopefully I will have some home grown snow peas soon. I spent just about 30 minutes in the garden planting some more seedlings, pulling some weeds, and checking on the fruit trees. Last year I worked in the garden as if I had all the time in the world, and I did. Now that I have a full time job, all I have is about 2 hours of daylight during the week. I have no time to waste when I get home from the office.

Apple blossom

Both apple and cherry trees are now covered with flowers. The peach tree has a bunch of tiny peaches already. As I passed by the strawberry cages that I made last year, I thought I would see whether the strawberry plants grew back. As I removed the cages and started pulling out the weeds, I saw something red. There was one single ripe strawberry and several flowers. I am so excited! I removed the cage so the strawberry plants have more room to grow. This year I have Kelsey, and she does chase after squirrels. Perhaps the squirrels won't be able to steal strawberries off the ground now that Kelsey is guarding the garden. We will see.

One single strawberry!

Beans and Peas

Green bean seedlings

We had a lot more rain and some serious thunder storms since my last blog entry; however, today felt like summer. I was eager to get all of my seedlings into the ground as soon as possible before they scorch in the heat. At the end of last month I started a new full time career, so my gardening time is now extremely limited. After I got home from work today, I quickly transplanted the green beans. I didn't plants as many as I did last year because I just couldn't eat all the beans last year.

Snow peas

I also planted 3 pumpkin seedlings. The snow peas have grown a lot but still no flowers yet. 

Green beans are now planted next to the trellis