No Rest in the Garden!

This tree has soo many thorns, it's worse than a cactus! So why do we keep it? It's came with our property and it has an edible seed pod that is juicy and more tanic than a young red wine! Ed says this type of tree grows in dessert climate and that people use it for nurishment.

The radishes that were growing in the seed packet are actually doing quite nicely in the rain gutters...

... and then there was 4... my chickens were attacked by my dogs. Solo, a giant playful lab, was chasing them around and accidently killed them... The four chickens left aren't giving any eggs right now.

We have a lot of guavas right now!

Lettuce is growing in the front.

Whata Mess!!!

So on Wed I thought a water pipe broke in my yard, thank goodness it was just my drip irrigation line which was a lot easier to fix!

My worms are doing better after the rains. I am searching for a better location to put them before the rains begin again.

The rains also leaked into my plastic bin where I was storing my winter seeds... The radishes sprouted up and out of the seed packet!!! My first instict was to toss it into the compost bin... Then I decided to plant it in my rain gutter pot. Hopefully they'll survive...

While searching for winter seed packets, I found a "seed tape"- the carrot seeds are evenly spaced on a thin strip of tissue paper which makes sowing them easy! I am planting the carrots, turnips, and radishes where I was growing my mini pumpkins and bird house gourds.

Enjoying a break!

Max and Eli are posing in front of the pumpkins we grew. The giant ones were planted in early May and were orange by Sept. We kept our finger crossed that they would last until at least October, and they have so far held there shape.

With the rains now upon us, Ed's shut of the backyard automatic drip water. I also went out to take some frozen goodies to the worms. I place over ripen veggies and fruits and egg shells into a freezer bag and freeze everything until I have time to go outside and feed them. It's a trick I learned from a fellow worm farmer. She said that by freezing the kitchen scraps it helps break down the food for them faster- which also helps prevent food from spoiling and smelling, the thawing helps moisten the soil and by freezing it she didn't have to worry about going outside every day, she just waits until the bag is full. I had moved my worm bins to a new location earlier this summer, just under my avocado tree. What I didn't realize was that there was a water sprinkler system a few feet from there and my table where my bins are on top of, has been slowly sinking down (only the two right legs). So now with the rain, the table sunk further in and my bins were very close to sliding off the table!!! I tried lifting all three trays at once, I couldn't get it off the table... So I had to lift each tray out individually and move them over to a nearby bench. I have no picture of any of this, because it began to rain and I had to round up the boys who were enjoying the mud... I dropped one of the trays on the floor and lost at least one hundred worms. The chickens had a feast and with ten of them by my feet, I couldn't see past there feathers to pick them up.

On Thursday (if it doesnt' rain too much), I'm heading outside to plant some sweet peas along all the fencing area and the peacock ex home/temp tool shed/my thinking space. I haven't had much luck of anything growing there, so hopefuly I'll have a winter's luck crop. I'm also planning to sow some more onions and garlic.

Fall Cleaning- and New Arrivals

Since we've harvested the last of the summer squash, Ed asked Josh to help him pull out the dead plants. The boys were also there to lend a hand.

We found some basil growing where the squash was. We had grown basil in this area a year ago, but when the rainy season started, the plant was lost among the weeds and died. Three basil bushes are growing very well, so I'll leave them there and contine to water them. We also found some tomatillos also growing where the zucs were. We had also planted some in a close by location last year.

My bear didn't do well with the heat so I'm not sure if I should continue watering it or plant something else or cover him with succulents... The grape vine growing just behind the bear, grew quite well, but didn't give any grapes this year, which is shame, because the were really sweat last year. I planted another grape vine that and been near a shaded fence and it too took well to it's new location. To the right of the grape vines are my raspberry/blackberry/ back raspberry bushes need a better support system, so I need to tend to that this week.

Our passion fruit got a second wind and is producing more flowers and I see lots of fruit already growing. I found another wooden fence piece near the garage and dragged it half way to the passion fruit. I plan to set up a similar trellis like the one used for the grape vine.

Our bird house gourds and mini pumpkins did well. So well in fact that Panfilo to Pony ate most of the ones on his side of the fence!

The dragon fruit plant that I purchased earlier this summer is already flowering! I'm very excited to see what color the inside fruit will be since they range from white to pink!

We just realized we are growing 2 different types of pomegrants! We've had the traditional red tart one for 2-3 years, but the light pinkish one we purchased early this summer. While the color appears light and the seed look bigger, it's actually quite sweat! You can clearly see which one Eli prefers.

Got Guavas? you bet!!! The tree we purchased and the ones my grandma gave us from her garden- which I should take pics of because everything is in pots and grows in abundance! Here are to guava trees from my yard, the ones on the left look real round... the ones on the right look almost pear shaped. I guess we'll have to wait and see what each one tastes like. The one on the left has had a few harvested from my little helpers and by the look on thier faces, I know thoses are good eats!

Our giant pumpkin patch is now a air port for a private plane and helicopter! Which is fine by be, I'm not planning on planing anything in that area for a while. That black doughnut shape between the fence and the plane is where I had plantd horseradish, but the only thing growing out of it seems to be weeds, so it'll be coming out soon and maybe plant a blue berry there... we'll wait and see!

New Fruits growing!

We have several guava plants that have a ton of fruit on them.

Our corn has died!!! at least the neighbors horses will eat it and our pony.

finally finished my bear, he's sniffing the blueberry bush.

This week: 9-7-09

My green bean covered area never happened so now i'm using it to store my tools and clean up the giant pumpkin site next to it so the kids can play there.

My topperari is almost complete... it's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I'm almost done. he'll be connected near the blueberry bush since he's my little blue bear-y

Max helped me harvest a lot of pumpkins and zucs!!! He got tired of riding his bike and also thru it on the wagon! He's so cute, he's pointing at his favorite pumpkin.

i thought I was crazy about bees...

Getting ready for 2nd Crop Season!

While we are up to our ears in squash, we are thinking of what to plant in its place (maybe peas, edamames, beans). and Speaking of ears, we have starting harvesting our heirloom corn!

While removing old poting soil from a pot to decorate for fall, Melisa and I discovered that the potatoe plant indeed give potatoes. We found these growing with the roots even though I had yanked out the dried plant a few weeks ago. In it's place, I transplanted a corn plant and we sprinkled in some "egg" gourds and baby pumpkins. After three days, most seeds have the first pair of leaves!

Ed had bought an upside down tomatoe pot early during summer, I used the "soil" it came with to start another worm bin. So when he came across this topsy turvey pot, he decided to give it a try again. Feeling bad for using his soil and losing the pot, I decided to surprise him when he came home. The boys and I set out to Blue Hill and found his fave habanero plant. The boys and Melisa helped me fill it while i holded the pot up. We hung it in front of our home in the porch where it gets plenty of morning sun.

New Arrivals!!!

Still picking squash and it's back down to normal size.

"We" have pomagrants now... I'll leave it at that...

We picked passion fruits today!!! We aren't sure when

As Big as it Gets!

We left town for about 3 weeks. My cousins were in charge of watering and harvesting the vegies... we return to super sized giant eight balls and summer squash the size of frisbees! We picked so much squash the day after we return Melisa and Josh both carried it in a large laundry basket into the kitchen. It took over a dozen fully stuffed grocery bags to distribute all the zucinis, eight balls and summer squash... As of today, we are harvesting 2 bags a day... thank goodness my mom's coworkers are asking for more.

Speaking of big, we have a hen that every few days lays an egg with a double yolk. We have no idea which hen is doing this amazing thing, but we love cracking the egg... I guess i'm not the only one with bragging rights to having twins. How can we tell it's a double yolk egg even before cracking it, well just look at it's size! (answer: back row, 2nd from the left).

My prize winning pumpkin got as big as it's going to get. After the bee sting incident, I'm staying out of the patch untill all leaves have wilted away. Both pumpkins are turning orange, so i'm not sure if i should continue watering or not, I'll ask the Pumpkin Guru on that. Apparently a few days after we left, a white powder formed on the leaves and started causing the plant to wilt. I was told, the weather was extremely hot and Ed's uncle place a tarp a few feet above the entire vine to help give it shade. Ironicly, the only part of the vine that was wilting was the one not shaded. I'm very happy with the growth of my pumpkins and plan to show them off for all of fall!

Out with the old (my giant pumpkin), in with the new (bird house goards and watermelon)! I planted some bird house gourds along the fence near the pony and my neighbors, in the middle part, Ed sowed watermelon seeds and the are growing! In this same spot a year ago, I sowed sunflowers, however none ever sprouted until now. Between all the vines is a five foot tall sunflower with it head just barely raising to bloom.

Our heirloom corn is growing tall and forming well. In some space, the corn didn't grow, so Ed will be filling it in with edamame (soy) beans and peas. The corn will make natural bean/pea poles.

Do bees fly at night?

Ed's "the shack" bbq was inspired by the OC/LA County Fair Turkey Leg Grills. We grilled the night it was built and almost every night since!


These are my last two pumpkins each on its own vine. I thought it would be idea to remove pumpkin flowers at night since they would remain fresh for morning breakfast. I also thought that when the sun set, bees couldn't fly. As I was out picking off flowers with Mellie, she said, "Liz I hear buzzing..." as I tried to leap out of the pumpkin patch I felt a the legs of a bee crawling on my back under my shirt. Yup, I was stung.. twice! (can a bee do that or maybe it was two bees). My husband came to my recue and flicked off the stinger. While the initial sting didn't hurt, I still feel like i have the stinger in my skin. While Ed gets stung every year in the same ear, I haven't been since I was ten. Now I'm rethinking my bee hive hobby that I was planning to start.

Just a few days later!

We cut on of the pumpkins off and ate it over the 4th of July weekend. Today, I went out there to see how it's grown. Wow, it really took off! There are a few more on the same vine, we are going to have to eat. In our home, the "loser" get eaten... yum!

The eggs have finally hatched and the birds have flown away. "Empty Nest" -

July 5th

Wow, chickens go to bed early, the sun hadn't completely set and they were all calling it a night.

This peach jam came from the peach tree next to the house. This season's bounty was very large and sweet! This was the first time Melisa and I had canned.

We picked zucs for the first time this season. On our first day out there we got alot.
Look at our baby pumpkins grow! Its nearly the size of the soccer ball! I need to place a pellet under it and cut some of the smaller pumpkins off the vine.

Slight overflow -June 20

The chives and chiles are being grown on the side of our home, close to the kitchen for easy pickin'.

This picture is so cool 'cuz it shows different stages of passion fruit.

My poop donors are having a union meeting, as soon as I got close, they scattered. They are plotting something...

My boys love wagon rides.

don't worry, this is recycled water.