Summer Garden

After losing all my spring flowers my garden was looking bare. Living in Arizona you'd think I would just give up on gardening during the hot summer months of the usual 110-115 degree weather. Not much will grow but a few that will are vinca, portulaca, zinnias, and marigolds. So I made a trip to the nursery and also came home with a few I had not tried before... angelonia, pentas and lisianthus. 

Since I didn't buy enough plants to fill the flower beds,  I decided to plant these in pots. They made it through the summer and actually thrived thanks to automatic daily watering.

My vegetable garden went wild. I was gone a lot and it was ignored. I don't think you are supposed to ignore vegetable gardens. If you do, they will make you pay. I had vines growing everywhere. Not knowing what it was I let them grow. I found out I was growing cantaloupe.

 I never know what will come out of my compost.

Because this vine overtook the vegetable garden I was afraid to step into it. I wish I had taken a before picture. I finally got the nerve to clean it out and was surprised to not find any creatures living under there.

Gardening is therapeutic for me. The harder I work out there the better I feel or should I say forget, and I needed it since I was letting worry overcome me. This round of Michelle's chemo treatment was leaving me feeling helpless and worried. Click HERE for an update.

So I was happy to tackle the cleanup. I pulled and raked and trimmed and dug and before the end of the day it was looking pretty good.

Under all the mess, I found I still had rosemary, tomato plants, new green beans sprouting, swiss chard,

eggplant, bell peppers, sweet basil, and more eggplants

I have about 8 eggplant volunteers (thanks to the compost).

Be ready family and friends. Get your eggplant recipes out!

In my smaller vegetable gardens, I have hatch chiles...

  boxwood basil

I trimmed the overgrown oregano

I also have marjoram, thyme, mint, jalapenos & chives

and now that our weather is cooling down,

I have room to plant lettuce, spinach, cilantro, parsley...

and I'm going to try beets for the first time!

And when I get back from Michelle's I will be filling up my flower beds!!

So happy summer is over!!!
:'( my mandevilla did not make it)