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Tomorrow noon ends my first full week of teaching college classes. I'm already tired. My kitchen looks like disaster struck it and I don't have the energy today to clean it before I go online to teach tonight. While I know it's going to take a couple of weeks to get acclimated to my new schedule, I'm wondering if I bit off more than I could chew with teaching three summer courses and the garden.
No--wait! Not the garden! I didn't bite off more there...I LOVE my garden. It's my center--my being. All right--it's my obsession. There I said it. The Garden is MY OBSESSION! This morning, I couldn't wait to get out there and put in some more plants, to check for seed growth, and to water it. I was awake at 5:30 and out of bed, dressed and feeding cats before 6:00. Did you know it's still a bit dark outside at that time? The cats are loving this early-rising human because they get to eat earlier than usual. Ava loves this time of day because if she asks "IWantOutsideNowPlease" it will happen. At 7AM, I was loaded up with vegetable plants and tools (along with a bucket, sweater, hat, gloves, coffee cup, and a cat) and was out the door by 7:01:30.
We have some growth. I'm praying that this...
isn't another Siberian Elm tree trying to take root in my garden. I'm hoping that's our Genovese Basil finally sprouting.
I nearly whooped and hollered when I saw this...nearly. I remembered my neighbors were asleep as was my darling husband....they wouldn't have appreciated any loud celebrating that stated YES! THE WAX BEANS ARE FINALLY GROWING! That thing on the bottom looks suspiciously like a new binder weed. I shall banish it shortly if it is binder weed.
I planted sunflower seeds and hollyhock seeds by my fence line. One or the other or both are growing. I might even be able to transplant some of those to other areas. And yes--that's my barbecue skewer sticking up around it. It served as a marker so I know where to water and to keep D from mowing it down.
But this gave me pause and made me stop and thank the forces that direct life on our planet.
It's our first peony flower that bloomed. Our neighbor, Mrs. C's mother planted this bush over 20 years ago when they lived in our house. We still get blooms every year.
In less than two hours, I get online and teach statistics to graduate students for two hours. It will be intense and fast because we have only two hours this week of class time. Tomorrow morning, I teach the three hour stats class in person. I'm so looking forward to Friday--when the most I'll have to do is grade papers. Friday morning, Ava and I will be out in the front yard so I can clear out the front flowerbed and plant strawberries and rosemary. I'm looking forward to my day off since I'm teaching Saturday morning.
I'll get used to this schedule. I always do.
Last year at this time, we had a monster of a hail storm. I took pictures of the event. The hail looked like snow in places and took several days to melt. The damage it did was tremendous for plants and trees.
That's our intersection. Those who have been reading this blog will recognize that intersection from all my snow pictures.
I took this to show how deep the hail was--you can see the ruts.
I took this two hours after the hail storm passed. If you look at the upper left of the picture, you can see the storm clouds hovering.
That was our backyard--several inches deep in hail.
Our lilac bush was damaged badly in the storm. Many trees on the block suffered from tremendous damage from this storm.
The morning after the storm was cold. Hail littered the yards along with the leaves and branches from trees and bushes.
This afternoon, it grew dark, similar to last year. I finished my email communications with my students, shut down my computer, and waited to see if we would have another hail storm. Shortly after I did that, the sky turned black and I decided to suffer from the heat--and shut all the windows. Then a storm began.
At first I breathed a sigh of relief because while there was hail, it was smaller than pea-sized and infrequent. I was worried about my garden as we had just planted pepper plants and petunias this week. By the time I finished my sigh, the hail came more frequently and grew to marble sized. I hurried and gathered my supplies of gallon-sized ziplock bags, barbecue skewers and the big umbrella we've never used. I went out the back door. Immediately, I was pelted by the hail, despite the protection of the umbrella.
Now I've been in hail storms before. There was the summer I worked for the Youth Conservation Corps and was caught out in a hail storm on a mountain top. But I was rescued before it got too bad. Then there was the time I got caught in the parking lot with my son. The car was only seconds away so it wasn't that bad. There was last May when I was photographing the storm.
But today, I felt each and every hail that battered into me. All I could say was "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!" over and over again. I wanted to protect the pepper plants so I went into the hail storm voluntarily. Those plants are producing food for me. It's kind of that nurturer syndrome that affects some of us. I have it bad at times. Most of the times I can control it. And I say that, knowing full well I'm lying through my teeth.
Anyway--I managed to get them covered with only a few leaves shredded. The petunias were a different story. The front yard flowers had to take their chances.
The columbine did ok...not as bad as I feared. Of course it wasn't as bad as last year's storm--thankfully!
The African Daisy took a shredding as did the Blanket Flower.
We lost a few leaves off the trees, but luckily, it wasn't as bad as last year's storm. I realize that we're not out of May yet--but I'm hoping I don't have to worry about another bad hail storm. Of course, this is New Mexico. You know what they say about our weather: if you don't like it--stick around a few minutes--it's bound to change!
Yesterday morning, D gave the final verdict of our old lawn mower. It was kaput, dead, finito, ready to go to that great Lawn Mower Heaven. In short, we needed a new one. Since the weeds were already up to my knees, I agreed. After a bit of a discussion, we decided to run over to Santa Fe and visit Home Depot. The idea of going to a DIY store that boasted a garden center thrilled me to no end.
Just this side of Rowe-Pecos area...Home of Greer Garson's ranch and Pecos National Historical Park.
On our way there, we had to stop so I could grab this picture. We still have snow on our mountains. Nothing like they have in Colorado and other places, but it's still covering our mountain tops in May and that is a very good thing for us water-wise.
D says that my eyes lit up and got huge when we entered the store. He said he's never seen that look on me--not even when presented coffee. I deny that, naturally, but it could be true. Not necessarily accurate.
Anyway, we picked up the new mower and several new plants. I also picked up more seeds. Today, I informed my darling husband that we needed to make our garden bigger. There wasn't enough room for the fennel, the corriander, the carrots, the pumpkin or the pea seeds. And naturally, I needed more room for the bell pepper plants and the basil plants. Here's a picture of our garden now.
Yes, those are straws and barbecue skewers sticking out of the ground. They discourage the ferals from using the garden beds as litter boxes and scattering the seeds I'm trying to grow. I also use tongue depressor sticks for marking what's been planted where.
This wonderful surprise greeted me this afternoon. When we first moved into this house, wild roses were growing rampant every where. I've pretty much left most of them alone--I like them. This was just a pretty sight for my eyes.
Some of the plants I bought were flowers. I realize that flowers have no other value than aesthetics, but I like them. I put those in the ground this morning while Ava, Topaz, Chile, Merlin, Buddy, and Arby took turns being outside. I looked for flowers that were heat tolerant, drought resistant, and perennial. I have two different yucca plants and an Apache Plume. To the far right is the plumbago I planted nearly years ago--it's been spreading beautifully. This morning I added the blanket flower, African daisy, european daisy and the fire witch. I love the way fire witches smell--and I have not been successful in getting one to grow yet. Hopefully, this one will like this spot in the full sun.
Finally, before I go take a well deserved nap, here's a composition.
