Hell Hath no Fury!!

Gates of Hell has opened...

Man! The temperatures are incredible, above record...  Some people are recording temperatures of

upwards to 120 degrees.  How can any garden even survive... 

A lot of Gardeners have conquered weather like to this degree...  I can say my garden isn't fairing greatly, my tomato leaves  are curling, and I won't see much coming from my peppers... 

So other things in my garden that enjoy misery is 
my Bougainvillea...  AKA ... Ms. Vampire
Mainly because you can't be around her without 
drawing blood... Time to prune her fangs and claws...

 My butter cup is doing "ok" but not great... I think mainly that it is in shade of the tomatoes... But maybe success when temps decide to even out some...


Well 11:00 a.m. and 91 degrees will stop my production of fruit and veggie until pretty much until September... 

My yellow squash, just can't seem to get a break, no matter what I do... except maybe one more thing mulching it... 



I have come across some ideas and knowledge for different vegetables and how to grow them... really good info too...can't wait to act on that info...

My first thought is the  Chayote squash, it's a perennial I believe...  

but slow to get going in the beginning but can't wait to get tasting it...

Yard long Beans... I have tried these before and ok to grow no real troubles... But I didn't know how to grow them either... Now I have knowledge and want to try to grow them again...

~Well I have some not so happy news~.... 

My Crimson sweet watermelon cracked at the bottom and I don't think it is save-able... all the other little melons turned black, so I am not sure if I will be getting to see it reach 16 lbs... Well I am sure I won't....

My tomatoes are coming along other than the leaves curling, and Hopefully I will be able to harvest most by this weekend...





















So there you have it ... the torturous weather ...  

The term people say  "The Gates Of  Hell Opened Up," for the time being...
Being that I have lived here pretty much all my life.... 
It is just what it is... We deal with it the best we know how..
No matter the situation... Garden wise you know...

Summer Sweet and Endings

     Growing things in Tangent has always felt like an experiment. I put plants in the ground, or in the raised beds, (you know, the beds that I should worry about) being grown in cinder blocks...
But, I think the main worry about this, are the roots... They are taking over from the trees...

My daughter wanted watermelon this year... So she went out and bought some seed Crimson Sweet, and her and our little neighbor girl decided to plant them...  for about two weeks, nothing happened.
I was thinking that maybe the seeds were buried to deep... So, I went back out and replanted them.. about 5 days later here they are, growing...  This happened a certain amount of weeks back... It's now May 29th, 
Look at these amazing Melons... 

This only shows two, but I have like five more... The anticipation of readiness is overwhelming...   

I am also growing some Squash, I just set in the ground Pumpkin and buttercup... Now I have no idea what to do with buttercup squash but what better way than to give it a go...

buttercup squash

Pumpkin

I have stepped into the canning world and I think I will be canning them... Yea, that is another tangent I'm on... more to come on that soon enough..

Endings, well not really, but Spaghetti, yumm... sure many people's favorite.. but well probably not in squash..

Yep, spaghetti squash...

Now, I was given a spaghetti squash from my mother, who in turn got it from a friend of hers.. Although, she likes this particular type she either didn't have time to prepare it or it was a preempted moment delivered to me to do something with... (I think that's the reason)... yea sounds good... Well, I took it and ran with it!...

I prepared it and it was tasty, only to me though... but that's another story...

I kept the seeds also... I rinsed and dried them and let them sit for a couple days... and said to my self, "Self lets go plant these suckers!"... 

That's what I did...

I waited about a week, nothing... Feeling a bit deflated, I went to plant the pumpkin in its place... 

 But, By the Gods of the plant world... 

Here they are....

Yesterday's picture

Today's picture

I can not wait to see what what happens next... Can you?


 Well, What's the saying or something like it?...

"If you have a garden and a library you have everything."


I'm working on it...



There are really  no endings in the Garden, are there?
That's fine by me...

An old Gardener Learning New Methods....

I have stumbled across such great information for desert gardening.. besides my very favorite books I like to refer back too...

"Desert Gardening" by George Brookbank 

"Extreme Gardening" by Dave Owens "The Garden Guy"

I dont usually talk about youtube videos or such things, but this has lit a proverbial fire under my thinking for gardening in such in climate weather...

There is a youtube channel I have been watching that put out such pertinent information...

He calls himself  "The Vegan Athlete"...

@ You Tube VeganAthlete

True to his title, he sustains his life style on an incredible backyard full of plant life...
Not only fruit trees by the dozens, but great varieties of garden vegetables that grow incredibly well in this type of environment...
He has mentioned, there are quite a few types of trees that should be added to the backyard garden... 
This is exciting even though I have no more space for trees, but for those who might ....

Moringa Tree

Date palm trees

Citrus, even some varieties of stone fruit and tropical trees just to name a few...

Watching his videos has uplifted my way of thinking for gardening in the desert... Making it a paradise of sorts. 

Jake Mace teaches and runs an online school, has tours and an online store, he has information on the best way to plant trees and what type of mulch and how to make your own type of compost that works in this heat...
He shares links to places that are owned and grow locally... 
I have become a believer in being sufficient from my own garden...

So if your inclined or curious about The  Vegan Athlete pop over and watch a video or two and learn some new tricks of the desert gardening trade... You wont be let down... 

With new inspiration at hand I have some work cut out for me to get my garden in gear.

As for Tangent new thoughts are rolling around in my mind... 

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day....

Happy Mother's Day to all of the caring hard working people in everyone's lives...

Sunday care and share...

Today, is cool and calm outside and Tangent is waiting for me to get up and start checking, cleaning and fertilizing...

The Tomatoes are doing amazing...  such nice full bushes ...

But the zucchini and summer squash aren't very happy,  not sure why !

They are both full of flowers and the summer squash even has squash on it... it has had fertilizer once every ten days but it just seems like it doesn't want to do anything better...

Pepper plants are still producing... Just look at them...

That is one limpy branch

and the grape vine is slowly coming around...I haven't seen any of the pesky little caterpillars... but I think I pruned a little to harshly because I only one cluster of grapes...   

There is a surprise visit from the Pea family that decided to produce...

I have some amazing Dill wanting to be harvested and dried too... among some of the herbs I love...

Now watermelon I cant believe how lovely the vines look...  I certainly have high hopes for some melons this summer...

Well, the winds are still happening and midnight thunderstorms popping up every other night... and hot weather threatening to rise it's hot head...  

Peppers, April Winds, Dusty Desert....

So,  In my area of the dusty desert, there are two months out of the year we endure the winds, some have said these are called San Ann winds or something. April & October..
Well, not only are these winds disruptive, but annoying... I get there are reasons for the winds to happen but when I come home and see the thick dust, and broken Bell Pepper limbs, yea aggravation isn't all I feel...

I kept these plants happy through freezes and sun scorch in the hot months..
Okay, maybe keeping them alive for two spring seasons is a little much.. But really why not...? Well, maybe mother nature is strategically telling me why keeping these plants alive longer than needed is not really wise,  The longer they stay alive the more brittle they become... I mean it's only been two days of heavy winds and each day broken limbs..  okay okay not a great ration.. 100% fail... but if the winds weren't so strong i can get another great batch of peppers out them before giving up on them.
With understanding peppers are potentially great keepers for a couple of good harvests...

So the winds finished up some what... really made a mess of things with the dust.... but look at what I harvested so far!


My peach tree had an amazing batch of peaches this go around.. the peaches were a bit small but juicy and tangy sweet...decided to bake a peach cobbler...

This is whats left of this batch,  the birds were making sure they were getting their share so I had to pick a few that were a bit under ripe... I'm all to share some but not letting them be so greedy..

Oh by the way, the birds knew my game of tying ribbon and hanging CD's on the tree to try to keep them away... IT DID NOT WORK...   so other than using the netting not sure what else can be used...
Ideas anyone?

 Hopefully, being the start of May the winds will die back some and dust won't spread so much... and the may flowers will come with an abundance...

The Return of the Skeletonizers

Last year in May of 2015,  I had a war with the grape skeletonizer... 

My Executioner Husband will have a nasty Job to do again... Because they are back...

Either we didn't get them all last year or they just know the best diner in town is located here...

I did take a picture of them and made sure that they were the outlaws, before high noon comes...

So the death date is set, spray time is set, and there is no turning back... 

Grape vine

I have been away for so very long sometimes life gets in the way of best of Pleasures, and well its 
still true for now...

But.... New plans are being drawn up... Thats if other hopes fall through... 

The big picture and hope is getting on the ban wagon of homesteading or at least being a bit more 
self reliant...

But until we find that piece of heaven, we are maintaining our little heavenly backyard as of now...

Some clean up and chopping and growing are in progress...

Tangent looks pretty good so far... I will be letting go of the Peppers... They are weak and ready to be pulled next season
But Tomatoes look great...

My yellow squash set veggies... yay... 
Temperatures are ramping up and 100 degree weather is here..

Hope to have most of the plans or designs made up to share soon.