Written by Jeff

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Don’t you just love it when someone gives the gardening advice “Just cut it back to about 18 inches.” My fear is that I will cut the plant back and it will die or no longer thrive. I tremble (not really) whenever I take a robust, healthy plant and cut it down to the ground or close to the ground to reinvigorate it for the next growing season.

That is precisely the position I was in with my snail vine. We went through a lot of trouble to create a nice home for the snail vine. You can read about it [ here: ]

As the next picture shows, the plant did very well and by the fall, one could hardly see the trellis behind it.

October 6, 2009

So you an imagine my trepidation when I was getting ready to cut away all of that foliage. Some of the time the foliage dies back because of cold winter temperatures. We had a mild winter in the desert in 2009-10 and the foliage stayed green and robust. Nevertheless, we did cut it back. (I must admit that I hedged a bit and didn’t cut it back quite as much as experts suggest!)

April 1, 2010

How sad!

April 1, 2010

Slowly but surely the plant began to make a comeback. See the next two pictures.

May 6, 2010

June 3, 2010

The last picture taken recently shows that the snail vine is well underway to return to its previous beauty and prominence in our courtyard garden.

June 21, 2010

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

writen by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily gardening news!

Wait! Don’t Eat that Celery!

With all the environmental problems we are facing it is getting much more difficult to decide what is safe, or should I say safer to eat than other things. Some of our favorite fruits and vegetables are those that are most heavily sprayed. The link below will bring you to a downloadable chart of vegetables which are sprayed with pesticides less than others.

Download pesticide guide

Enough Pumpkin for 1000 pies

It seems that everyone is bragging about their watermelons and pumpkins. Not the fruits, but the plants. The fruits won’t be ready for quite some time. What a labor of love to nurse those “babies” through the hot and perhaps humid summer in hopes of reaping those sweet rewards.

Would you like to grow an award winning pumpkin? One from which you can make 1000 pies?! Read about Jodi Torpey’s experience at the link below!

Enough Pumpkin for 1000 pies

Lavender envelope sachets

I have to admit I am not crazy about the smell (or taste for that matter) of lavender. One thing I do like, however is that out here in the Sonoran Desert there are some varieties that can “ignore” the scorching heat and grow very happily. I know I may be in the minority when it comes to the smell of lavender. If you are a lavender lover, this project seems to be quick and easy. Did I mention it makes a nice home made gift?

Pretty Lavender Envelope Sachets: {How-To}

Find yourself in a Pickle!

A Dilly of a Post – Make Pickles. Many kinds of pickles! 14 kinds to be exact

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

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The weather has turned hot this week and we are not likely to see many days below 100 degrees until the fall.

Many of the winter/spring plants such as geraniums, petunias, etc. have thrown in the towel. Another plant has not exactly thrown in the towel as much as it is “coming home after the ball!” I am talking about the Saguaros. They were blooming extensively over the last several weeks. The wet winter obviously agreed with them and enabled them to store up the energy they needed for such a spectacular show. The picture below depicts how the saguaros look throughout most of the year. Impressive, but the floral jewelry is gone.

Some time during May, the Saguaro’s begin to show their little nubs something like the ear’s of Shrek!

You can see the many nubs below with one flower.

Here is a closeup of the flower with the numerous buds!

Below is a picture of one Saguaro flower after it has fallen from the cactus.

After the flower falls, the fruits develop and turn red. Native Americans used them as a food source and I am told they are very sweet.

Long before the fruits develop completely, birds such as Curve Bills and Doves begin to hover over them to claim their loot. They will watch them and when they are ripe, they will devour them. When they aren’t eating the ripe fruit, they are busy keeping other birds away.

Below is a picture of a dove watching over the ripening fruit (center, right).

While this year’s display is almost over, I can look forward to an encore next year!

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post

Written by Jeff
Non-GOTM pictures credited by hover notes – move cursor over image

Fine Gardening provides a very good video describing techniques to boost seed-sowing success; warm soak, scarification, cold stratification. While you are at the site, take advantage of other video offerings at the bottom of the screen such as “artificial light for seedlings” and “seed savers exchange”

http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/videos/seed-starting-pre-treat.aspx

Martha Stewart has many wondeful gardening ideas. Although she isn’t the only person to propose a planting yardstick, she does provide a good post explaining how to make and use one. I had one of these when I gardened in NJ and it was very helpful especially when planting rows of seeds/seedlings.  NOTE – photo above is NOT the yardstick from the article.

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/planters-yardstick



In my former home, I had 3/4 of an acre of lawn. It took me three hours to cut the lawn using a walk behind, large format lawn mower. I preferred not to use a riding mower because it enabled me to get close the lawn to see if problems were developing. In addition, I didn’t have all of that extra weight traveling over my manicured lawn. I just included this as part of my exercise.

One secret I learned that proved very helpful was to keep the grass long (3.25 inches) to help shade the ground to keep it cool and moist. There are several other interesting tips included in the post at the link below. I think you will find these worth considering.

Five shortcuts to a Perfect Lawn – http://www.diylife.com/2010/05/25/5-shortcuts-to-a-perfect-lawn/

Most have heard about resistant germs caused by the overuse of anti-bacterials, etc. Well, what if there were a group of super weeds developing because of the overuse of weed killers? Read about that potential from this NYT article and ponder the consequences.

Invasion of the Superweeds – http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/invasion-of-the-superweeds/

Complete Seed Starters Resources - from Chiot’s Run

Why Start from Seed – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/10/seed-starting-101-why-start-from-seed/

Getting Started – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/11/seed-starting-101-getting-started/

Containers – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/12/seed-starting-101-containers/

Soil Mix – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/13/seed-starting-101-soil-mix/

The Needs of Seeds – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/14/seed-starting-101-the-needs-of-seeds/

Workflow (of blogger) – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/17/seed-starting-101-my-workflow/

Disease and Problems – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/18/seed-starting-101-diseases-and-problems/

Hardening Off – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/19/seed-starting-101-hardening-off/

Transplanting – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/20/seed-starting-101-transplanting/

Learn More Each Season – http://chiotsrun.com/2010/05/21/seed-starting-101-learn-more-each-season/

Written by Jeff

Follow Jeff on Twitter for daily garden tips and news!

Many of the cacti in the Sonoran Desert are finishing their spectacular bloom cycle. Lucky for those who live in this amazing area, cacti provide a show with many acts. From the time they set buds, through blooming and then with decorative seed pods, there is beauty to behold.

Above is a Prickly Pear cactus in our landscape with a good number of spade-shaped buds.

In these pictures, they serve as a crown for the pad of the host plant. Each bud seems to resemble a small artichoke.

When the time is right, those tightly packed buds explode into bloom.

Notice the cup-like structure on the left in the picture above which adds interest even after the bloom has fallen to the ground.

Cholla buds (pictured above) are a bit more complex. They crowd together at the ends of the branches bringing bits of color to the bundles of thorns. Keep your distance from these cacti because they are eager to grab on and hitch a ride.

When in bloom the Chollas offer even more color.

Cactus buds (below) can be quite bright in color even when smaller. This is a small unnamed cactus that was given to me and which the Javelinas enjoy munching on from time-to-time.

The red buds emerge for several days and explode into color, but last for only a day or two.

There are other stories about cactus and their blooms, but that is for a later post!

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post