Wordless Wednesday! Fall

Garden Tomatoes Galore!

Greetings garden lovers! I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Hopefully you have lots of delicious garden gems to enjoy! ♥

Back in April, we picked up a few tomato seedlings at a Tomatomania sale at Descanso Gardens:

• Sungold
• Cherokee Purple
• Mario's Roma

They were supposed to be the best varieties to handle extreme desert heat... and they are growing like I have never seen tomato plants grow before! Last year, my best tomato plant had maybe 6 tomatoes total... for the entire growing season!

But these varieties are amazing! There have been so many tomatoes... I have not been able to keep count!

'Sungold' variety

They are so delicious... wayyyyyy better than grocery store tomatoes any day!

'Cherokee Purple'

'Mario's Roma'

Does anyone know of any other tomato varieties that thrive in extreme heat?

Bright Summer Zinnias!

Greetings!

I apologize for not posting a garden update in a while. In addition to starting my health coaching business & staying on top of my coursework for Integrative Nutrition, I also just got a full-time job for 6 weeks!

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, it is already the middle of July! The plants in the garden have tripled in size! All of the sudden, we have patty pan squashes, ripe roma tomatoes, and a baby cucumber!

But today's post is about zinnias! They are so bright & beautiful! ♥

According to Wikipedia:

Zinnia is a genus of 20 species of annual and perennial plants of family Asteraceae, originally from scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the American Southwest to South America, but primarily Mexico, and notable for their solitary long-stemmed flowers that come in a variety of bright colors.

Zinnia leaves are opposite and usually stalkless, with a shape ranging from linear to ovate, and pale to middle green in color. The flowers have a range of appearances, from a single row of petals, to a dome shape, with the colors white, chartreuse, yellow, orange, red, purple, and lilac.

Zinnias are popular garden flowers, usually grown from seed, and preferably in fertile, humus-rich, and well-drained soil, in an area with full sun. They will reseed themselves each year. Over 100 cultivars have been produced since selective breeding started in the 19th century.

Good Morning 'Morning Glory!'

Greetings! ♥

I hope you had a great weekend, and are having a great Monday morning! 

Yesterday a.m., I was ecstatic to find that I had a morning glory flower blooming! The best part? It was grown from a seed! ♥

The plan is to have the vines growing up a sunny side of the fence. I can't wait to have more purple blooms! ♥

Sunflowers and Squash Blossoms!

Greetings fellow garden lovers! ♥

This week has been very warm, high 80s - low 90s. But that is nothing compared to how hot it will get! But the garden loves it! 

My plants are growing like crazy! I've been harvesting garlic, strawberries, lemon balm, figs, basil, and oregano. And very soon... TOMATOES!

Here's a photo update: Sunflowers & 'Peter Pan' Squash 
(They were both grown from seed!) ♥

'Hello!'

What's thriving in your garden this week?

Purple Delphinium!

Greetings! ♥

The other night, Jon and I ventured into the garden center of a local home improvement store...

and these purple delphiniums immediately caught my eye! ♥

I think this might be my favorite flower! I adore the color... I definitely see these lining the brick retaining wall in the backyard.

And, they are a perennial... which is perfect! (save $$ on next year's plants!)

Have you ever planted these?

Harvesting Garlic!

Happy Friday fellow garden lovers! ♥

I have really been missing blogging about gardening lately!

This month, I officially started my health coaching practice! It has been the subject of all of my time, energy, & attention. 

Anyways... I was able to take a break today, so I spent some time in the backyard. ♥ 

I had plenty of seedlings needing to be upgraded to bigger pots, and all of my plants just needing attention in general...

But, there is one plant in particular that received the most attention!

Garlic!

Rumor has it, once you've have fresh, homegrown garlic... you never want to go back to the store variety!

You might recall... last October, I planted a bag of garlic gloves! (At the time, I could not even picture what garlic would look like growing!)

But it's pretty simple... just stems (about 2 1/2 ' tall) growing out of the bulb! :)

Apparently, the ideal time to harvest garlic is mid-summer. According to About.com, the stems growing out of the bulb should be turning brown.

However, I was impatient (I wanted the gigantic pot they were growing in for the 'Big Max' pumpkin!)

So out they came! This fall, I will make sure I plant the cloves (saved from 1 or 2 of the bulbs from this year) in a pot I will not be needing for another plant until July! :)

Have you ever planted garlic? Or enjoyed a friend's home-grown garlic?

Fresh Strawberries!

There is nothing like stepping out into the backyard and picking your own berries for breakfast! ♥

Snapdragons and Strawberries!

Happy Saturday garden lovers!

Are you enjoying your weekend? 

This morning I walked for MS and then enjoyed a relaxing, delicious lunch with friends... salad with juicy tomatoes, honey-dipped baked sweet potato fries, homemade agave-sweetened lemonade, and fresh basil pesto! The afternoon was spent weeding and taking care of the garden. ♥

What's blooming? Snapdragons and strawberries!

Last year's strawberry pot is taking off! I followed the advice of "The Girl's Guide to Growing Your Own: How to Grow Fruit and Vegetables Without Getting Your Hands Too Dirty" by fertilizing my strawberry plants with seaweed! 

The author recommended a liquid seaweed feed, (what?! sounds scary...) but I decided to try kelp, from the local vitamin store in the form of capsules, which I opened and sprinkled on the strawberries! Between the 2 small plants, there are 25 strawberries!! (Last year I got maybe 7 berries total?) I will definitely be using kelp powder again this year! ♥

What's blooming in your garden? Have you ever used seaweed as fertilizer?

Wordless Wednesday! Easter

Lavendar and Lemon Balm!

Greetings!

I have not posted in a while, as I've been spending a lot of time focusing on building my holistic health coaching practice!

In May, I will begin taking on clients as a certified health coach! ♥ Specifically, I will be supporting women with attaining their ideal weight, increasing their energy, and creating a healthy lifestyle!

Anyways... here is a backyard update.

Lavendar in full bloom!

Lemon balm (grown from seed last year!)

Lemon balm tea, anyone?

Well... what do we have here? :)

Beautiful Desert Flowers!

Happy Wednesday! :)

Have you been enjoying some nice spring weather? This morning I planted the tomato plants that we found this weekend! But I am holding off on planting the rest of the seedlings... as it looks like it will be chilly again this weekend.

Anyways, today I wanted to share some photos of what the hills around the Antelope Valley currently look like!

Can you believe this is the desert?!

When most people hear the word 'desert', flowers are not the first thing that usually comes to mind! ;)

Descanso Gardens in April!

Hello garden lovers! I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!

I wanted to share some photos from Descanso Gardens. ♥

It was a beautiful day! ♥

Tomatomania was having a tomato seedling sale... we came home with 3 baby tomato plants! They are supposed to be able to handle extreme heat...

• Sungold
• Cherokee Purple
• Mario's Roma