What's Springing Up Around Here

My muscles groaned a little as I dragged from my bed this morning.  On my way to the bathroom, I flipped open the miniblinds to get a good view of the weather that was greeting me.  Just as the blinds cracked open enough, I noticed there was something new and unexpected at the base of our prairie dog hill. As my eyes focused, I could see that there were some wildflowers blooming that I had never seen before.  Intrigued, and delighted, I threw on some clothes, grabbed my ipad mini to take a few pics, and investigated.  Look at the pretty blooms God planted for me! 

The flowers have 4 delicate heart-shaped white petals.  There were also some pink blooms on the same plant.  Huh.  Grew up in Utah, and I've never seen these, at least not that I remember.  Later, I looked them up in the Utah wildflower directory online and discovered that they are called "Tufted Evening Primrose."  They bloom white blooms in the evening, and as they whither, they turn a pale pink.  Cool, huh?   I'm a huge fan of wild flowers.  

After I snapped this picture, the thought came to me, why not share a little spring tour around our property, just so our readers can see what it looks like here in the wild west during the springtime.  So, here it is, on a lovely spring morning the week before Mother's Day.

Up on Prairie Dog Hill (aka- our backyard), the prairie dogs are thriving and chirping in the hundreds. They hide when you try to take their picture, but they are out there!  They've recently had lots and lots of babies. I like watching them play in my backyard, as long as they stay out of my garden. Once they start vandalizing my garden and all my expensive hard work, my attitude changes. (Surprisingly, the meager fence we installed around our garden last year actually did keep the prairie dogs out of the garden.)

Pictured above is a prairie dog hole amidst the dirt, brush, and low-lying cacti.  The prairie dogs have a dense population in the field behind our property, and our backyard hill is swiss-cheesed with their holes.  

Look at the base of this water wheel and you will see a prairie dog.

This particular morning looked like a gorgeous day for yardwork.

The view from atop prairie dog hill is one of my favorites.

When I walked to the back of the property, there were new holes and even a dead prairie dog decomposing.  I wonder at the cause of its death. Maybe he was one of them that was shot by the farmer that owns the field behind us.   The farmer goes out nearly every day with his 22 caliber and shoots into his field at the little varmints.  You see, The farmer also keeps horses, and when horses step into prairie dog holes, they break a leg and have to be put down.

Moving past the dead prairie dog, I also found a nest that must've blown into my yard from a faraway tree. Aren't birds amazing weavers? 

Coming down off the hill, I noticed that weeds are popping up everywhere, even busting through the rocks and the weed barrier in our fire pit area. Time to get pulling... Again. 

If you don't get these buggers while they're young, they grow to be as tall as me (over 5 feet) and with roots to China.  Poisen doesn't bother them until they have flowered.

Speaking of weeds, I want to clear all of these ones out near the corner of my home and create beautiful legacy garden dedicated to our ancestry. 

Yeah, it's going to be beautiful.  It may be hard to envision now, but I can see it in all its glory. It's gonna look like this:

Moving on...

We recently had a fundraising service auction at our church and my mom bought us 6 hours of yard work from one of the teenage boys. She told him to bring his ATV and we hooked up this steel beam for him to pull around our property to scrub the land of the weeds, and even out the dirt a bit. He worked really hard and did an awesome job, and all of last years weeds finally got piled up and burned.

We still have this pile of rocks to deal with.

If we get our wheelbarrow tire fixed, maybe we can fill in more rocks by our fire pit.

On my walk around our home, I noticed this Barbie making "snow angels" in the dirt and then riding off on her trusty steed. 

See the snow angel imprint?

The veggie garden is in resurrection mode. After the spring break mishap and the snow storm, we had very few survivors. This is what we have now, and I just planted a few more lettuce seeds yesterday to fill things in a bit. 

carrots at the forefront and peas behind

peas on the left, radishes in the middle, and spinach (and several weed seedlings)

tiny little lettuces

chard

weeds, and a few beets, chives, and parsley on the far right.

I'm pleased to see sprouts (however few they may be) of chard, beets, iceberg lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, spinach, peas, radishes, carrots, garlic, chives, and parsley!  In fact, the only row that is empty is the one with the romaine lettuce and black seeded simpson lettuce.

The strawberries are starting to bloom, but they really do need a major haul-over. The rabbit in the snowstorm left a nice deep hole in the patch, and I haven't thinned the 5-year old strawberries ever, so there is a lot of density there, and we get hardly any strawberries from the little plants because of it. Also, I can't seem to get the grass out of this patch. I'm thinking I will transplant a few small strawberry starts in a new location, and say adios to that bed of weeds.

The lilac bush that I keep thinking is dead each year because it never grows, has blooms on it now and it actually looks like it's finally getting a little healthier. We've had it for four years and this is the best it has looked.

My neighbors are getting into the gardening spirit. Last week I saw them till up a little part of their property and plant some veggies (you can see it in the picture below to the left of the power pole). I love seeing a garden grow. You can totally tell where the property line ends because that's where the weeds begin on my side. It sure is a constant battle! My neighbors are lucky that they have access to a company backhoe that they can just take and scrape their land off from time to time and hardly have to lift a finger to decimate the weeds on their property. I wish that backhoe crossed onto our property every now and again!

Last week my girls made these birdfeeders, which are just pretzel rods rolled in peanut butter and birdseed and tied to the fence with some yarn. We love seeing the birds come into our yard!

And last but not least, we have the beautiful flowers are blooming in my front flower bed!

Spring is finally in full bloom here in the high mountain deserts of Utah.  All the vibrant petals everywhere are singing their warm salutations to us all.  Doesn't it just make you smile? 

And there are even flowers growing on the other side of my path that is waiting to get landscaped, not in the flower bed, but they still look gorgeous.

We've got lots of projects planned for the next coming weeks. We hope to get a sprinkler system in so we can finally get a lawn in the back, and some trees planted, as well as plant up our garden, weed, and maybe even haul in some rock to keep the weeds down. We plan to somewhat xeriscape the front. Landscaping costs a minor fortune, so we've been doing this frugally, DIY style, by baby steps. I hope to show a lot of progress in the coming weeks!

Sharing:

Tuesday Garden Party 
The Gathering Spot
Tuesdays with a Twist

Wildlife and Wild Weather

Spring in Our Wild West Garden

What's happened so far this April in our garden?  Think Wild.  We woke up and there was a new friendly foal across the street, only hours old, and shivering in the frosty temperatures.  Such an adorable little thing!

Speaking of frosty- the weather keeps doing it's wild thing- some beautifully warm days perfect for seed germination, and then comes a harsh snap of frost just in time to bite our seedlings.  I went out to take some photos of the frost before it was time for us to leave on our Spring Break vacation.

Chard got bit a touch.

 The volunteer garlic from last year did too, but it didn't really mind it.

 Spinach leaves were sprinkled with frost.

Our little rows of watermelon radish and champion radishes look cold.

The peas are pushing through the frost.

The beets.

 The chard.

 The wood was glistening in the sun from the frost.

 The frost painted the strawberry leaves.

After checking on the garden, I decided to check out the cute foal across the street.  He (or she?) was shivering, his hair still matted from his undoubtedly wet arrival into this world.

The birds were singing to him.

 His mother was keeping nearby.  Her little foal kept following around the other brown horse, and that horse must've been annoyed because he kept kicking the little newbie.  Is that normal?  I thought it was sad.

Then, we left on Spring Break, hoping the best for our frosted garden and this teeny foal.

We got back a few days ago, and all those little sprouts were gone.  All except the garlic and peas.  I thought the frost probably damaged them and then the sun probably crisped them when they weren't watered frequently enough (we were supposed to have rain, which never came.  Instead we got heavy wind and a pummeling of hail), and then the gale-force winds probably sandblasted them into oblivion.  But, since I was gone, there's no telling what exactly happened.  

Then, this morning, flurries began to fly.  Bye bye my one bud of sunshine.  The daffodil in the front flowerbed dropped her petals and stooped her head.

 I went to check on the garden, and look what I found.  Within the walls of our fence, Jack Rabbit had somehow found his way inside.  He dashed around, avoiding me and looking for a way out.

 And he eventually pushed his way under the gate and was free.  My garden bed got some good moisture.  I'm happy for that.  It's afternoon now, and the snow has all melted.  I wonder if I should plant more seeds or if there are still some under all that snow that will eventually germinate. 

 Just beyond the garden bed, I found a rabbit hole- dug right into my strawberry patch.  Good thing.  That patch needed some major thinning.

So, do you think my seedlings were eaten by Jack Rabbit or did the weather decimate them?  What shall we blame?

I planted peas on St. Patrick's day so that I could have good luck in my garden.  I'm still counting on that good luck to carry through and my garden to make a strong come back.  Look at those peas.  They are already brushing off the snow!

Sharing:
Tuesday Garden Party
The Gathering Spot
Tuesdays with a Twist

When to Move Perennials

photo: Gayle Fouts, Birdsandblooms.com

It's good to know that if you find out that you don't like the placement of your perennial, you can transplant it pretty much any time of the year.  I didn't know that.  I was told spring was best when the plant is young.  I guess you move less dirt moving your plants around in the spring, but I must say it's good to know that you can do it anytime!  Just be sure to use plenty of water before, and after you transplant.


Transplanting Perennials - Birds and Blooms