Wednesday, March 4, 2009

A New Backyard Tour

Finn mentioned that they were now looking at the ugly brown that you get when the snow starts to melt. I remember living with snow and how dirty and yuck things looked as it started to melt and you were waiting for that green to show though.

So I thought I would give you another tour of the AZ backyard come March. We have had temps way above normal so things are really doing well. Our ugly brown is in July when everything looks scorched.

The citrus trees are in bloom. This means when you walk out the door, you get hit with the heavy,almost thick smell. At a distance, it is wonderful, get too close to the tree and it is way heavy and overwhelming. When we first moved here, there were a lot of orchards right in town and this time of year, you could smell citrus everywhere. Now most of those orchards are apartment complexes or strip malls.




Here are the Sweet 100 tomato plants we planted in the fall. They are still producing fast and furious. We are not sure how this is going to go as far as lasting as we have never been able to keep them going this long. The small amount of frost we get usually takes them out.



Here are the new tomato plants, the empty part of the bed is for my sunflowers. We are trying some full sized tomatoes to see if maybe the work the great white hunter has done on the beds will help us shade the plants when it gets hot. He spent a lot of time this winter building the wooden frame around the beds to hold shade cloth. We had PVC pipe frames but they were falling apart. PVC does hold up well in the sun.

I assured my great white hunter that if nothing else, his hard work makes it look like we know what we are doing. The key word in that sentence being "look".



This is the fun part of all this, our sunflower seeds planted and popping those green shoots out of the soil. To me, this is the true illustration of the "circle of life". I bought a couple of different varieties this year so we well see how it goes. Last year the flowers did not get near as big a heads as we have had in the past. Not sure if it was the seeds or the conditions........or the would be farmers that tended them.



This used to be the grand kids sand box. My great white hunter built it with the idea that it would become another raised bed. He took the cover off and most of the sand out, built the shade cloth frame and set up the water. The plants are cucumbers and summer squash.




This is what I see out the kitchen window when I wash the dishes. I am looking forward to the flowers growing longer and hanging down. Can't ask for a better view than that!




Hummmm, what is this? This is where Norma takes her handwork, her music and her ice tea to enjoy the afternoons and is the very best spot in the whole house. It was a Mother's Day gift about eight years ago. I have fond memories of giving both Julia and Colin their bottles while we rocked back and forth and enjoyed the fresh air. Now it is just Nana, enjoying the whole back yard.



Hope you all can dig in the dirt soon and plant the things that make you happy!

14 comments:

Teresa said...

Thanks for the great tour. Your yard is so nice and I just love your garden. Please keep us up to date on its progress.

I have an outdoor swing that I just love too. My favorite thing to do is grab the newest grandbaby infant that is fussy after Sunday lunch and take him out to the swing for some granny time. So far I have rocked all four of my other grand children this way, giving their parents some time to visit, and now I have a new grandson to look forward to sharing my swing with. Only now, the other four are old enough to follow me out there and run and play and ask questions and jump on and off the swing. Gotta love those times - they go by so fast.

QuiltingFitzy said...

My goodness, my backyard smells SO GOOD! Looks like we will have a bumper crop of oranges next year, this year it was slim picking. We've been lucky with a HUGE lemon and grapefruit yield, this weekend I'm going to try making lemon marmalade.

Amelia said...

Oh Norma, so enjoyed the guided tour of your back yard...hard to believe the tomato plants are still that green. Yes, everything here is still pretty much brown. Some things are blooming and green - but very few.

Kristie said...

You certainly have a lovely backyard! I sure wish Spring would hurry here in Kentucky!
Kristie

Granny Lyn said...

Oh, it is absolutely WONDERFUL to see all the life in your yard!! it is still snow covered here, we won't have any life for another month or so.

Thanks for the eye candy!

homegrownsongwritersalabama said...

The tour was great. I love gardening but mine has dwindled to a tiny patch for herbs and one tomato plant! We've had the coldest temperatures of the winter just this past week. I can't wait for warm weather and pots of flowers.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Oh the winter in the desert - we used to live in SoCal - between San Diego and Yuma, AZ - fabulous winters. We had roses on the Thanksgiving table (ate outdoors) and the citrus - we had a small orchard and I loved it. But you can have those summers - noooo thank you. I'll just stay here in my rainy, soggy PNW and be happy when spring finally comes. Thanks for the tour - we all need that once in a while.

limpingalong said...

Your back yard/garden looks just like my parents had in Phoenix. Brought back memories. Daddy grew wonderful vegetables.
Thanks for the visit!

Sara said...

Hey, everything looks beautiful out there! I so wish we had some color, but its still brown and yucky! I got a similiar swing for my bday several years ago, I LOVE it! I go outside everyday when its warm and read! Thanks for that ray of sunshine!

Belvie said...

Lovely backyard....and I love swings! I've never smelled citrus blooms.

I am soooo jealous of those tomatoes! Can't wait until we warm up enough to get some in the ground. Those are nice supports for the shade cloth. You can tell they are made by someone who takes pride in his work.

ZONE F DG TEAM said...

Until the weather warms, can I come dig in your backyard???

Purple Pam said...

What a great backyard adventure! I love the swing. I wish my hubby would get our yard looking that good. I have a hanging basket outside my kitchen window, but it certainly does not look as nice as yours. Thanks for the tour.

Melanie said...

Totally jealous--- I can't imagine tomatos -- fresh ones--- year round. What a treat. Everyone deserves a swing to relax on--We never out grow them.

SueR said...

Thanks for the backyard tour, Norma. I've done the tour now about 5 times, still waiting for spring to show up around here. What I wouldn't give right now for a fresh-picked tomato!