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.

Grapeleaf Skeletonizer AKA... caterpillars...

      Trying to maintain home life, garden life, work life... Well, I must say is a challenge, but not knowing the enemies of a battle that is happening behind your back. Well that is a whole new challenge..

      So what does one do when you find beautiful little caterpillars and you think all is lovely and good in the world of nature? 

     Well, get vicious and start killing, of course... 

      No, really....  I have done my research and found out that these little deceivers can cause a load of trouble... Not only by touching them, they can irritate and cause problems by ejecting fine little hairs 

that could get into your lungs, eyes, mouth, etc... in which you really don't want to happen.. 

     They devour your incredibly manicured, bulging with fruit Grapevine.. 

     Which  would be a travesty... 

     So... I asked some very experienced Gardeners on a Facebook Group that I follow what should I do? After the suggestion from Mr. Hills.      

     I went to my local hardware department store and had to buy insecticide that had BT in it to start the war on the nasties... 

     I will be fighting this battle for about 6 weeks more... But thanks to my Executioner Husband... 

    We could win the war on my Grapevine.

 These nasties were on my grapevine...

They are called grapeleaf Skeletonizers...

They are devastating... 

Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Home Horticulture:
Environmentally Responsible
Gardening & Landscaping in the Low Desert

Grape Leaf Skeletonizers in the Low Desert

DESCRIPTION:
Small, black, yellow, and blue striped caterpillars which mature into a blue black moth which resembles a wasp with feather like antennae.

DAMAGE:

Larvae feed side-by-side in groups devouring grape leaves rapidly, leaving only the veins. Soon only the "skeleton" of the leaf remains.

MANAGEMENT:

Hand pick and destroy any adults, larvae, or eggs you see. Wear gloves and a dust mask because the larvae are covered with stinging hairs that may become airborne. Spray plants with Bacillus thuringiensis or carbaryl.

To Gardening and Landscaping in Maricopa County, AZ

Grape Leaf Skeletonizers in the Low Desert
visitors since June 10, 1998

Last Updated July 18, 1999
© 1998 The University of Arizona, College of Agriculture,Cooperative Extension, in Maricopa County. Comments to Lucy Bradley, BradleyL@ag.arizona.edu 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85040, (602) 470-8086 ext. 323

http://ag.arizona.edu/…/garden/html/t-tips/bugs/grape-sk.htm

Still Composting....

As life's compost has been, well, composting... It has a lot of stink with the good... I, finally after many years, have a flowering jasmine... the lovely fragrance is captivating... every morning I check on my beds and plants I have the perfumed scent wafting at me as I pass by... It puts my mind at an ease that this spring will be good with full of things to come...

 I think there is a smudge on the camera lens... lol.. oops!

 The beds are vibrant and happy to be growing so far...

And the list of things growing are... with continued planting of empty spots around here, or there...

tomatoes
bell peppers
carrots
radish
lettuce
parsley
oregano
cucumbers
and sunflowers
squash
eggplant
bunching onions
green beans
cilantro...

This year will be a  lush and full garden of vegetables...
I hope...

I do have a big problem though and I don't  know what to do!
My Avocado tree has a fungus I believe...

A canker of some sort 

I don't know how to handle this particular problem... research, I guess...

But on the up scale my fur kids have a wonderful amount of catnip at their disposal....(this is just one secret stash, tee hee...)

So I leave you with this intensely green grapevine... (that I thought I pruned to harshly and left for dead) ...LOL... but... look...

Life's Compost...

It has been such a long time since the last post... seasons have come and gone and  it's still snowing in the northern parts...  

Gossip for Shifting lives of Tangent...

I have thrown myself a new path… Yes, not "found"!  Most choose a path, or find a path, may stumble upon, last blessed with following a path... No not me. I have thrown it down and made it a stone, paver, brick, whatever the thing to step on could or would be.

 I threw it down… bam, POW, kurplunk...

I am now a full time home hearth engineer... Husband constructs the technical red veins of the home, and I feed the hearth and cleanse the immune system of the house, and we manage the brain of function together... Well, mostly him!

So many people make "self sustaining" look so easy...  What a term! I see books, blogs and articles about such ideal situations picturesque...  Gorgeous areas of the home, gardens and pastures... 

I have  acquired this title just of recent months... Money, as for many, is a precious entity in our life...So, making things work, well must be worked at...

So now Tangent really isn't a tangent any longer... It is a need…

Tangent did well for me through summer and fall…

My tomato harvest lasted up until September… I had some Bell Peppers not many, a couple of Armenian cucumbers…

I was blessed with tons of figs, parsley, oregano…

I dehydrated an immense amount of herbs…  I have a great collection in my pantry… 

My grape vine has now made itself known to tangent… I have to prune it or figure out how to get it the way it will be happier, it was a huge mess...

Blackberries have not berried… Why?  Maybe because of where I planted it? I don’t really know…

But now it is Feb... I have life in the the Tangent yard... 

It went from complete neglect to an almost ready to produce the most yummiest veggies and fruits of life...

Before- work in progress, lookin' like a mess

Now - tomato bed

and the Pepper bed which looks even better then this now...

The diagram , I have drawn out is actually working... I am positive when this yard gets going, at least 50% of of our food purchases will be alleviated... 

So the list of plants that make up Tangent is:

3 San Marzano Tomatoes
1 beef steak tomato
seeded black cherry tomato

2 Armenian cucumber plots
1 grey squash

2 Bell peppers: yellow and green
1 Jalapeno

1 Eggplant Black Beauty

3 Hanging baskets with different varieties of loose leaf lettuce

parsley
oregano
rosemary
thyme
Chocolate mint
4 Varieties of Sunflowers
seeded Four O'Clocks
and 
Nasturtiums

I still have much room for other plants to grow, and see if I can take this 1/16 of a lot and make something out of it... Not just being on a tangent but a continuous way of life... So sustainable living, well no, more like Tangent reliant, could be the thing!

Maybe the title will change to Tangent Reliance... lol...