Spring has sprung!

April showers bring may flowers! .... except there were no april showers. That's the desert for ya. But with my persistent hand watering, we have signs of life! This is the most exciting part about spring!!!! When something that was once dormant has come to life again! I believe this is a Liatris coming up. One of my favorite flowers (although you'll hear my say that a lot!) -especially in cut flower arrangements. Exquisite! I had some bridesmaid photos taken on the beach and stopped at a little sidewalk flower shop on the way for some gerbera daisies mixed with some liatris. So much fun! I wish I had the pics somewhere digitally.

Stay tuned for future posts about my newest hobby, backyard birding! Oh gosh, it's a lot of fun! This is my new hanger that I got. It's made as a system so you can design it how you want it. What hooks where, different deco'd posts and tops and hooks and all sorts of stuff. Highly addicting and not so cheap. But if you're interested...it's from wild birds unlimited.

Oh my goodness, look at the detail in this flower, are you kidding me? Light pink, bright pink, BROWN, yellow and then gold and then even a reddish gold at the very center. Wow! I have a lot of these and their name has completely slipped my mind right now. I'll have to share photos of other colors, but this one has the most color in it. They are all very stunning though! And one of the most magnificant flowers of all times...

The Fuschia. Wow! If any of you know this plant, you are lucky because it's a charmer. Hot pink outside with beautiful purple ruffled middle, not to mention the sugar crystals hanging off the ends. Let's be serious now... and no politics involved... and some say there's no God?

The front flower is a bit spent. This is a very hard flower to grow. Very picky, very tiffy. It doesn't like wind. Most are grown indoors, but I can hardly stand not having this out in my garden as it is a big time hummingbird attracter! It loves shade, especially in hot places like here in New Mexico. And it's very thirsty... all the time! It also is a fertilizer lover. Must be regularly fertilized, or it will be unhappy. BUT, if you can manage to keep it alive, it will bloom and bloom and bloom for years. I saw some pics online of someone's "fuschia garden" and they were enormous and magnificant looking. One of my favorite combinations are the white with pink centers. So pretty!! I might be getting some soon. We'll see.

Gerbera Daisy. Everyone's favorite right? I love them. I have had a hot pink gerbera daisy in my life consistently for about 4 years now - although I've had many other colors over the years before and during as well. Except this one is a replacement for my 3 year long plant because when moving here from Vegas I didn't want to bring any pests with us, or diseases which were prevalent there. So here's my replacement, although I'm still mourning over the loss of my other one. She was good to me! I know I sound like a freak...but there's a story behind my gerbera daisy. Someday I'll tell.

Verbena. I have tonz of this. White, pink, red, purple. etc. It doesn't love me, but it's a great hanging basket specimen because it trails and spreads. Very nice looking though!

Me and Black eyed susan go way back! My parents have been buying one every year for a LONG time. They are annuals, but they are well worth the year they are around because they grow fast and well! Need a good trellis for a nice show!

Not to be confused with this black eyed susan which is also a very lovely flower indeed!

Are you ready to get your hands dirty!?!?! I know I was. I had anxiety for two months about getting this (food) garden going. It's May and I feel like I'm late. I have to remind myself that most of the loved ones I have are in places where there's still snow on the ground, so I'm not doing so bad.

So I finally got them in the ground! Or the raised ground I should say. These planter boxes were homemade by me using these plans... I love how they look and they make gardening much easier for me here in the desert - the dirt is ROCK SOLID. They are about 24 inches high which makes it a great spot to sit down while caring for your garden, and come harvest time, it will be nice to sit and pick, pull, and reap.

Squash, peppers, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, herbs, herbs, herbs. I can't wait! and this is only the contents of one box. The rest are sEeD so they are photoless at the time but they are in the ground too. Yay!

This lovely trellis was also homemade using these plans. I really love how it looks despite the few incorrect parts of the plan! If you decide to build this trellis, maybe don't go by the exact product numbers. The ball on top could have been a wooden - non painted one instead so that it could match the rest of the wood, although it's not a big enough deal to me and I think the different color gives it character. My husband went to the store for me on this one and got EXACTLY what the list said like he was asked to. The other problem was the color of the Australian Timber Oil could have been lighter to match the box, although the box gets oranger after time. You'll notice if you look closely in the picture of my dirty hands, that this last box with the trellis is the lightest and that's because it's the newest made so it hasn't seen the sun and watering that the others have. Those elements make the box more orange...which I really like.

My husband added some tweaks to their plans to make the bottom more sturdy (those two small boards supporting the middle post), and one of their measurements were wrong for the bottom two boards shown in this picture. You'll want to measure that distance and go with your own measurements instead. Let me know if you have questions!

Sorry for the length of that post. Lots of details I wanted to add. It's all about education. =) One more little tip is that on this link, you can find garden plans that fit the size of these raised garden beds. I didn't use any of them although I think they are extremely lovely! Especially the flower ones!

If I can make a garden happen here in the dryest, roughest, windiest place, then you too can make it happen! Don't have the space?... container gardening is amazing. Grow vertically. Don't have the time?... well I have no solution for you there. Time is something I need more of. Don't have the climate? You can grow something in every climate there is. I've lived in 4 different states! But let's all remember one thing... I'm just a beginner!!

Happy gardening! Happy hobbying!