Works in progress

It's been almost a month since my last post... how time flies when you're having fun!  I have been indulging my love of dyeing on some new summer tops:

Once I got started, I couldn't stop!  And I have more on the way...

Meanwhile, I am working on a piece for the Appetizers Exhibit coming up August 2nd... I know that's almost 3 months away, but I really want it to come out right... here's a sneak peak at what I'm working on for embellishments on the piece:

I just made a prototype feather to see how it would look... I plan to use different fabric, and hope to include some fabric beads as well, but for now, I needed to see if the size was good.
What I should be working on, and hope to get into over the next day or so, is a series of posts for "...And Then We Set It On Fire".  I will be posting about a Round Robin Solo surface design project during the month of July, and I really need to move beyond the planning stage into the execution phase!
On the garden front, I have Lettuce and Peas sprouting:

This is my second year growing lettuce, and my first try at peas.  Everything is in containers so I can keep them above ground - our prairie dogs are very resourceful, and I have discovered they even know how to climb, so nothing is safe in the ground!

As for flowers, I am keeping fingers crossed - in the next few days, at least one of my Lilac bushes will be in full bloom, barring unforseen frost!  I will take pix as soon as the blossoms open up.  And I have a coupon for rose bushes from Home Depot... I sorely miss my cutting roses, and think I will splurge this year - buy 2, get one free!  Hope I can find some that will bloom!  More to come... 

Greenhouse and Garden report

I haven't posted much lately about the greenhouse, but there has been much progress since my first planting of seeds April 25th!

The tomatoes were purchased at a local nursery, but were much smaller when I transplanted into their containers.   And the lettuce were the first seeds I planted in April.... really, the lettuce was my main reason for wanting to have the greenhouse built!  I love salads, and wanted to be able to grow my own salad fixings! 

I harvested my first little pile of lettuce leaves this morning to add to my lunch... can't wait to try it out!

The radishes, shown on the right above, were planted in the same time frame as the lettuce.  I may be able to harvest some soon!  On the left are some basil seedlings and bell pepper... both in the early stages of development, but coming along nicely.

Above are some cukes I planted in a raised planter the other day... they spent their formative days in the greenhouse, but the weather is warmer now and they should do well in this environment.  I have them well protected from the prairie dogs and elk, and have a trellis in place to train them on.  Right now, I have a strip of shade cloth clamped to the trellis to protect the cukes from the intense sunlight... we have sun for at least 6 hours a day, and it gets pretty warm!

Yesterday, I brought home some color to add to several planters: 

 

 

 It's a start, but I think I'll be bringing more home soon!  Monsoon season will be here before you know it, and then the yard will be bloomin' all over!

Plant Growth

I got a couple of pix of my gardening efforts this morning... first is my window garden:

On the left is a Tea Rose I bought in May... almost lost it the first month! I forget that potted plants sometimes need more water than those we plant in the ground! Once I started watering it almost daily, it came back and has bloomed a couple of times since!

In the middle is a container with Rock Rose seeds... I'm experimenting to see if I can get them to germinate. If not, a friend with tons of them has offered to let me try transplanting one to my yard. On the right is a vagrant plant that sprouted at the base of a Rhododendron I bought and put in the yard, again in May... don't know what it is other than a vine, and probably a squash vine. Another one is still out in the yard sprouting flowers, but no squash.

Below is a shot of two Nasturtiums I planted in the yard this summer... at first, I had the pot facing East, but it was too hot and the plants weren't doing well. So I decided to move them to the West side of the house, giving them morning shade. Then along came the Monsoons and kept them watered nicely... much better!

I really love the brilliant colors of the flowers, and I also like the shape of the leaves. I have had Nasturtiums before, but they always seemed to get leggy and weren't too attractive. I think I have solved the problem here by planting in a pot, and now that I know I can grow them here I will keep them in mind for color spots in the future. I will admit that this is the best year yet colorwise in my yard! I have been focused so much on planting trees that I haven't done much with flowers before. This year, I have Marigolds, Pansies, Geraniums, the Nasturtiums, Snap Dragons, Shasta Daisies, and of course our wild Brown-eyed Susans, Coreopsis ( I know that isn't spelled correctly, but can't find it in the dictionary!), Mexican Hat and Mallow... now if only I could get more Bearded Iris to grow for Spring! Maybe I'll splurge this fall and buy bunches!

August in Flagstaff

It's August, and with August comes the Brown-eyed Susan, a medium-sized sunflower that grows wild here. Our whole valley turns a bright, sunny yellow. The plants grow to at least 6 feet in most cases, so when you drive or walk down the road towards the highway, you are surrounded by them! It's really incredible. I love that they sprout up without any urging on my part. Oh, and this year, we got a lovely shrub that I haven't seen before, with yellow daisy-like flowers.

Here's what it looks like in front of our storage shed looking southeast:

And here is the 'mystery shrub':

And of course, we have the perennial crows hanging around the bird feeder:

My poor bird feeder... it's warped on the bottom, the lid has to be weighted down to keep the wind from blowing it off, the birds have figured out how to remove the plexiglass to get at the seed. I think it's time to replace it!