Tales from the Garden

Some of this spring's harvest Being a lifelong gardener in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, and having had great success in my first 4 years of winter and spring vegetable gardening here in Arivaca, I really thought I could get the hang of growing a bounty of summer crops pretty quick.        However, the oh-so-humbling truth is that I have experienced an almost complete failure in my summer veggie garden!   The meager harvest from all my spring planting was as follows: 4 medium-size servings of green beans, 2 small squash, and 1 large tomato.   My only success has been a clump of chives and a clump of French Sorrel that I got from local veggie-growing experts Les and Jay, which have both continued to thrive, though neither has grown enough to harvest from.  Recently my friend Ralphie gave me a Chiltepin plant that was already bearing peppers, which I have managed to keep alive... so does that count too? Sigh.  The valiant Collards ...

There’s an old saying, “plain as the nose on your face”, that always reminds me how easy it is to be so busy looking ahead that I lose sight of what’s right in front of me. These days when so much about the weeks and months ahead is out of my control, focusing up close on what is right around me has brought me a lot of peace, and makes the rest of life look different too!       On August 23rd, I arrived in Arivaca after 2 months in the Pacific Northwest, and when I woke up the next morning, I decided to re-experience my garden by taking a sensory walk.     I knew the best time for doing this would be very early, before I started bustling around unpacking and doing chores, so I could experience it with all my senses before my mind woke up too much.   It was extra quiet at 5:30am when I walked slowly into my garden, trying to imagine that I was experiencing it for the very first time, or the way a wild creature would.     I began by focusi...

A small creek in the midwest When I was 7 years old, my family moved from a brick bungalow on the south side of Chicago to a ranch-style house in a suburban cul de sac in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Everything about our new neighborhood was very different than our old one (which I missed so much), except for one very special thing: our small Chicago house on a small urban lot was across the street from a giant easement of open meadow, wetland, and trees, with freight rail tracks running down the middle of it. All us kids called it "the prairie", and it was filled with the magical sights and sounds of dragonflies, songbirds, lightning bugs, and frogs.  How I longed to venture out there, but because it was also a place where teens and young adults met to hang out, build fires, and fight, it was off limits to me (but not to my big brothers).  However, the backyard of our new house had a "prairie" right behind it too, with hundreds of acres of farm fields and a tree-li...

Investigating egg-laying locations Soon after the ladybugs-and-aphids experience I wrote about last month, I was able to witness the entire life cycle of another interesting insect:   Gulf Fritillary butterflies!   Ever since moving to Arivaca, I’ve seen the adults of this species fluttering through my garden and feeding on many of the flowers there.   But because Uno and I have left Arivaca in May during previous years, I'd never gotten to see any of their eggs, caterpillars, or cocoons (aka chrysalis).   I had learned that these beautiful orange butterflies prefer to lay all their eggs on a Passion Vine so that their caterpillars can feed on its leaves, and in previous springs I had been happy to see Passion Vine starts popping up all around my studio porch… so after we decided to extend our stay in Arivaca this year into the summer months, I became excited about getting to see the result.   Sure enough, as soon as the Passion Vines got tall enough ...

Ladybugs bringing good luck to everyone! One of my favorite things about being a human being is the chance to experience how the web of life goes on around us every day, whether or not we participate, and whether we even notice.     A few weeks ago, that played out in a small but significant way in my perennial sunflower patch, and happily, I was there to notice and learn. Because I’ve spent all my other summers in the Pacific Northwest, I haven’t yet gotten to see my Arivaca garden's sunflower patch in bloom.  Nevertheless, I always enjoy how the sturdy green shoots pop up out of the soil each spring and head up towards the sun.    So on the day I started getting my drip irrigation up and running for the first time this year, I saw that the bright green sunflower leaves had popped up, and I headed over to check them out.    Our sunflower patch is planted in the bottom of the "Sombrero Pond", which we built to catch and temporarily hold the mo...

2012 Bats, Owls, Spiders, and Snakes class at Magnuson I've been growing gardens since the mid-1970's and teaching kids and adults about gardening and nature since the mid-1990's.  However, one of the best things I've learned along the way is that, no matter how much you already know, there is always much more to learn about these things! I love to learn as well as to teach, and I've already taken 4 hours of online classes this spring. In fact,  I'm taking an IslandWood class tomorrow afternoon, and planning to sign up for more! That's why I think now is a great time to take a garden class in the Pacific Northwest Savvy Gardener "Gardening on Slopes" class I'm serious! Whether you are starting a new project or looking for ideas to improve your existing garden areas, learning from garden experts is a great way to get inspired to jump start your spring.   The Puget Sound area is a fantastic place to take a garden cl...