Watermelon, Senna, Red Yucca

 One of the watermelons finally was ripe enough to pick. I read that when the tendril nearest the node dries out, the plant is done feeding the fruit. It's been huge for weeks. Turns out it's as big as a head.

The flesh was ok. Not some glorious fruit that defies corporate watermelon oligarchs. But it's mine, and that counts for something. It's a little less flesh, huge seeds.

I had removed a hesperaloe parviflora, Red Yucca, to make way for something else out front. I combined the whole plant in one big pot, that then started wilting and falling over. So I tied the whole thing up, it looked like a wave or an awesome hair cut. Fortunately no pictures or complaints from the neighbors. Yesterday, I divided them and put them in the ground in the gravel driveway.

The soil was so compacted and hard I could barely dig holes for them. Desert soil has a challenge called caliche. It's a layer of naturally forming concrete basically. I've never run into it before in personal digging. Definitely did this time. I wonder if the plants will have drainage issues, root rot or something.

I'm not sure I'm crazy about this location, but it's ok, adds some green, and it's easy easy to remove later. Again these have like bulbs for roots. I googled but found no results for edibility.

I found a desert Senna with seed pods a while back and decided to collect and plant. Yesterday they bloomed.

I collected the seeds at Apache Wash, the trailhead where my oldest rides mountain bikes with his team. (Did you know mountain biking is a sanctioned high school sport now days? It's a wonderful time to be alive!) I actually like this desert weed. It turned out great.

Inspired by Hoover over at Piece of Eden, I fixed up my hummingbird feeder, cleaned it, refilled it, moved it.

This is the view from the kitchen window. Hopefully we'll get some hummingbirds soon!

Bloom Day, August 2015

Being new to the garden blogging world I didn't realize there was a tradition of posting pictures of blooms on the 15th. Being in the desert in August really made me jealous. Not much is blooming. But here's what I have:

 Bouganvillea, always a sure thing.

 Aloe from a mother's day flower arrangement.

Lantana, but sure of the variety, but it's a big, happy, healthy plant.

Lantana, a different variety. A little smaller, not as robust, but doing well. Lantana and Bouganvillea are pretty reliable here for blooming.

This is a red verbena, barely hanging on through the heat, the only beautiful bloom in this hanging pot.

Russelia equisetiformis, firecracker plant. I just recently planted this where a red yucca used to be.

Now on to the blooms I'm excited about! My kitchen garden.

 This little flower, with a bee, grows into this....

Watermelon, beach ball sized! 

My mint in the herb garden is blooming.

Even though the sweet peppers are tiny, and need some supplemental calcium, they are still flowering and growing.

The 3 sisters garden is doing well. The tassel on the corn is a male flower technically, anthers.

 Just this morning the squash flowered for the first time!

Happy belated bloom day.

Three Sisters Garden

Coming home I was excited to see the corn all sprouted, except about 10 of the 60 I planted.

Last night I planted white tepary beans by the every other corn mound. The other corn mounds I planted with rattlesnake green beans. The beans will climb the corn stalks and support them from the winds.

In between the corn mounds (5 corn mounds per row, 4 seeds per mound) I planted 3 different squash-like plants, Tohono O'Odham squash, yellow flesh watermelon, and dipper gourds. Each mound had only one species, 3 seeds each. Then diagonally the same seed in the next row. So I have 5 mounds for each species.

Something I'm excited about is I found a beautiful bloomed agave perryi "artichoke" and planted the seeds in a little home greenhouse and they sprouted right before we left.

Right before we left I planted some seeds from a few agave geminiflora blooming over by Wal-Mart at Pinnacle Peak and Lake Pleasant Pkwy.

Now I have tons of small sprouted agave seeds and not sure how to get them from seedlings to viable plants!

Another thing, right before we left I stopped by a nursery in Wickenburg, Cactus Ranch Garden and Nursery. It was the best nursery I've ever seen, by far. The owner Gilbert is creating a museum, and I'm pretty sure some of his customers have no idea what kind of amazing place he has there, other than it's beautifully designed.

I bought a pedalanthis macrocarpis (slipper plant), I put in the ground this morning

and a fire barrel cactus.

He gave me a cutting from a specimen succulent arrangement he has that is rare and gorgeous. Here's an image I found courtesy of this site, it's not exactly how Gilbert had it arranged, but close:

I'm excited to go back up with Lori and wander around with her there. I was so overwhelmed by the spectacle he has I didn't think to document it for the blog.

The heat also did it's damage while we were gone.

The red hibiscus I've been nursing along in hospice care finally checked out. Hopefully the roots are still alive and I can cut the dead wood off and let it come back.

Tragically, one of my very favorite agaves, the variegated attenuata burned up, and I'm pretty sure it's toast.

We hardly knew ye fox tail. Hopefully you will have just enough energy to sucker a new one.