Stayin' Alive

This year we're trying something new for us: temporary shade screens. I got the idea from some Facebook gardening groups I'm in, and Mike figured out how to build them. We have a couple of different designs. The simplest ones, shown above over the tomato plants, are just 30% shade cloth from Arizona Bag Company.. Here's a link to a Youtube video on how to construct these. The instructions are for young fruit trees (see picture below) but we just made a bigger one for the tomatoes.

Our new Ein Shemer apple tree (planted this spring) was really suffering from the heat. I'd painted the trunk earlier in the spring, but it just doesn't have enough of a canopy to protect it from the afternoon sun. The leaves were becoming dangerously singed around the edges as our temperatures soared into the teens. We hope that by providing it a little extra shade this summer, it will survive and grow big enough that it won't need the shade screen next summer.

We also expanded the shade screen over the blackberry bush to cover our new Brown Turkey fig tree (planted last fall). It was thriving until the heat set in, and produced several dozen figs which are ripening now. This design is made out of PVC pipe, with the shade screen held in place by grommets. It's a little sturdier, but also more time-consuming to construct. We purchased all the materials at Home Depot, and I'm not sure what percentage the shade screen is but it's more than 30%. I got the idea for this one from pictures people had posted in this Facebook group. and Mike adapted their designs for our needs. Once an engineer, always an engineer...and a very handy one!

This month in the garden

I've been neglecting this blog, but have been fairly diligent about posting a picture a day to my Facebook gardening album, which is easier than thinking of something clever, inspirational, or educational to post here. Plus I think most of those who read this blog are also my Facebook friends.

We've had an unusually mild spring so far, but summer is here, and I tend to let the garden go because it's too hot. As you can see, zinnias are taking over our largest raised bed, which we planted in February with tomatoes, squash, beans, and eggplant. We're working on thinning them by "chop-and-drop" method, which means cutting them off and ground level and cutting into smallish pieces to use as mulch. This time of year plants can use all the mulching they can get.

Mike built a shade structure for one of our blackberry bushes out of PVC pipe and shade screen. Here it is behind the fig tree.. It has been a success...we harvested blackberries for the first time this year. In the past they've dried up before ripening.

Speaking of figs, they are also beginning to ripen. We planted a Brown Turkey fig last fall to replace the Ein Shemer apple that died after we converted the grass lawn to gravel. The small tree is loaded with figs.

We continue to harvest tomatoes and squash, but they're fading fast. The green beans have about had it too, but the eggplant and melons are beginning to produce. I didn't even plant the melon..several vines came up as volunteers, including this one in the gravel pathway! Part of the fun of gardening for me is unplanned surprises like this.

Fruitfulness

Zinnias (and beans, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, even if they aren't obvious)

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control"

I've been thinking about this verse as I watch beautiful and delicious things grow in my garden. It's always been one of my favorites, but my understanding of it has changed over the years. I used to think of it as a checklist of qualities I was supposed to have, and berate myself when I felt depressed, anxious, or otherwise lacking in any of them.

But as I've watched my garden grow, and as I've grown older, I've come to the realization that I can no more will myself to bear spiritual fruit than the flowers, fruits, and vegetables in my garden can will themselves into being. A tomato plant creates tomatoes because it is a tomato plant, not because it decides to do so. Given the right amount of sunlight, warmth, water, and nutrients from the soil, it has no choice but to produce tomatoes. It is true that I planted some of the things growing in our backyard, but others have come up entirely on their own, from seeds scattered by the wind or birds, or from vegetable scraps I threw out for compost.

I think "the fruit of the Spirit" manifests itself in us like the fruits in a garden. It's not something we strive to achieve, but something that grows out of our relationship with God. As we nurture that relationship in whatever ways we've found work best, the "fruits of the Spirit" can't help but grow in our lives.

Tomatoes

Artichoke

Fig

Green beans

Strawberrie

Yellow squast

Peaches

Red potatoes

A time for every thing

Now that the photographer has come and gone, we're enjoying this (probably the last for a while) cool spell by working on some garden projects that we've been putting off. I also find my garden time more relaxing since I don't feel the need to keep it "company ready" at all times. Here are a few overview photos taken from different angles.

We've wondered if the photographer came out at exactly the optimum time. The roses were past their peak and fading fast, and the hollyhocks and coreopsis weren't blooming yet, although I think he got some nice pictures of larkpur, nasturtiums, and Mexican petunias in bloom. The vegetables have grown quite a bit, and I picked the first squash and green beans yesterday, along with the last of the broccoli and asparagus.

 I've also noticed this week, that while I thought of several ideas for blog posts about the thoughts that came to me while I was gardening, those posts never came to be. I'd think of an idea and tell myself I'd do it later, when I finished whatever gardening task I was doing when I thought of it. Then I'd find something else to do and promptly forget about it!

Ideas, like gardens and much else in life, are fleeting things, and sometimes it's best to act on them right away. However, I think there's something to be said for delayed gratification as well. "Seize the day", if acted on continuously, becomes "Look, a squirrel!" and nothing gets done. There needs to be a balance.

Although the photographer missed prime time for some things, I think he found plenty of things worth photographing. The nature of a garden, like that of the human mind, is growth and change. Like life, not everything in my garden is beautiful at the same time, and there is no such thing as a perfect moment. Roses give way to larkspur and larkspur gives way to coreopsis. Lettuce and peas will be replaced by squash, tomatoes, and beans, and those will in turn give way to eggplant, peppers, and melon. So it is with ideas, and with life in general.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

"He has made all things beautiful in his time."

Photographing the photographer

A photographer from Phoenix Home and Garden came out the afternoon of April 1 and spent about three hours taking pictures in our backyard, and I sneaked a few pictures of him taking pictures. It was interesting to watch him at work.  He was assisted by a digital designer from the magazine, who turned out to be one of my former students.

I don't think I'll ever look at a magazine picture the same way again. They probably spent more time composing pictures than they did taking them. First, they walked around the yard and when they found something they thought might make an interesting picture, looked at it from several angles. Then they waited for the light to get just right before taking any shots. Parts of the experience were simply hilarious, mostly the ones that included us in the picture. The photographer posed us the way he wanted us, and then we had to pretend to be working while remaining looking in a particular direction. The sun was in our eyes, so Julena (the digital designer) had to stand up in one of the raised beds and put her arms out to block it so we wouldn't squint.

I'd love to have copies of the pictures he took, but I understand there are probably copyright issues involved. We don't know when (or if) the article will come out in the magazine...they said it could be two months, or it could be a year.

Is it spring yet?

Panorama taken on the first day of spring

We've been working to get the backyard ready for my retiree lunch this weekend, and a possible Phoenix Home and Garden photo shoot, date TBD. It's an enjoyable time of the year to work outside as we find new surprises every day..

Grape arbor and "Orange Bells" Tecoma

"Queen Elizabeth" roses and nasturtiums

Mexican primrose, rosemary, and mint

Baby squash!

Water lily and iris

Roses and larkspur buds

Roses and orange blossoms (I forgot to prune this bush!)

Tomatoes!

Every rose has its thorns.

The air is full of the fragrance of citrus blossoms, the roses are beginning to open, and I'm enjoying fresh roasted asparagus on a regular basis. It must be springtime in Phoenix!

Unfortunately this spring we are having a particularly bad allergy season in the Phoenix area, probably because of our mild winter, and it has been interfering with my gardening enjoyment. There is a widespread misconception that citrus is allergenic, because spring allergy season is usually at its worst when citrus is blooming. However, this misconception is a prime example of  the scientific principle that correlation does not prove cause-and-effect. The culprit as far as allergies are concerned isn't usually fragrant plants, which tend to have large, heavy pollen grains that require insect pollinators. The problem is the things you can't smell. Wind-pollinated trees such as ash, juniper, and mulberry produce huge quantities of small, light pollen grains that float around in the air, just waiting to be inhaled and set off a histamine reaction. Here's a handy link where you can enter your zip code and find out what's causing your sniffles and sneezes.

The way I see it, allergies are to be expected in spring, just as I expect to find thorns on a rosebush, and I don't plan to give up either spring gardening or roses.

Orange blossoms

Queen Elizabeth rose buds