The Gambler.
Posted: April 17, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Flowers, Landscaping | Tags: community, Cowtown, Gadzuki, honeysuckle, Jesse Amoroso, Monrovia, nature, Peonies, plants, roxie amoroso Leave a commentWhat a project!
You might remember a couple of days ago when I posted “Heart of Gold”, that I was just beginning our shade garden on the NW side of the house. Today my little partner in crime played hooky from school (its preschool, relax) and joined me at the nursery for our second round of planting.
Gadzuki
I filled a whole red wagon with 5 gallon Peter Pan Agapanthis (no small feat with a 3 year old in tow!), taking it all up to the register and ultimately putting it all back. I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 14 years and thought that the gambling bug must have escaped me… but when I saw those big, giant Peony plants out of the corner of my eye I realized I truly was a gambler after all.
Like any young lady, coming of age in the 1990’s I LOVE Peonies… its no wonder they were the most popular wedding flower of the mid 2000’s (along with the ultimate desert-hating plant; Hydrangea). Something about those solid stems, humongous double blossoms, rich colors and sturdy construction just speaks to me in a way that roses never could.
Only I never thought I could grow them in Vegas. $200 later I decided to take a gamble… I ended up filling TWO red wagons with Peonies, Vinca Major and my favorite ground cover “baby tears”.
These are the varieties I chose:
Inspecteur Lavergne Peony
Raspberry Sundae Peony
Kansas Double Peony
Bowl of Cream Double Peony
Now I’m crossing my fingers. Because as we know… Just because the guy at the nursery said they’d grow well, doesn’t always mean its so. Also, if you’ve had any success growing these flowers in the desert, please, please, please send me your tips and tricks. My Mom suggested depositing left over ice from summer bbq’s on them to help them stay cool. Which works well for us because, well, we party A LOT!
For before photos visit my first post here.
Below are the after shots.
Peonies in the shade
More Peonies in the shade
Shade Garden... So far.
Roses are red…
Posted: April 13, 2012 Filed under: garden, Growing Flowers, Uncategorized Leave a commentThis time of year at Bob Baskin Park is especially fun. The weather is perfect, the water features are off so Gadzuki stays dry and the roses are all in full bloom!
Heart of gold.
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Flowers, Landscaping, Uncategorized | Tags: baby tears, Black eyed susan, Cowtown Guitars, Desert, Hearts of Gold, Jesse Amoroso, Las Vegas, Neil Young, Periwinkle, Plant World, roxie amoroso, Shade Garden 1 Comment
The Shade Garden
Like Neil Young himself, I too was searching for a heart of gold. Well… I knew where to find one, it was the financier I was looking for. Found it!
I was rewarded for all of my hard work at the shop with a nice little budget to start re-planting the shade gardens on the NW side of our house. You might remember last year as I tried all kinds of things that ultimately failed (radishes, carrots, spinach) all from seed, all failures. Turned out all we needed was some reliable irrigation and that came in the form of my new gardener Hermino. He’s terrific. Like the little baby jesus delivered me an Angel of Horticulture… but more on Hermino later.
Today, Gadzuki & I went to Plant World to get some things that would be suitable for a partially shady area, wouldn’t mind the encroaching oleanders and could stair step down in 3 tiers. Oh yeah, and it would have to be considerate of the last thing my husband said to me before he left for work… “Don’t cover up the lights.”
Two toddler sized shoes in the turtle pond later, we had what we had come for. The same kid that helped us out to the car with our vegetables yesterday loaded us up and as I was fastening my kid in the carseat I heard him say “Have a great day, Beautiful”. WHAT? I’m almost positive I looked around for another person in the parking lot that he might have been talking to. Now normally I would just take this as a compliment, say if it came from the 60 year old man that had just run my debit card… but for some reason, out of the mouth of a twenty something kid, I’m inclined to roll my eyes and laugh. I know I should just be gracious and go on my merry way… but for what ever reason I can’t. Twenty year old boys are silly, and the idea that this one thought he could flirt with me is some how offensive… I mean, doesn’t he know who my husband is? Ha! (I JOKE!!) Really, they should be used to dealing with celebrities… Nick Cage was there yesterday when we arrived. (Still Joking!! Not about the Nick Cage thing, he was really there… I’m joking about my poor husbands celebrity status.)
Anyway…
Here’s what we got:
1. A Hearts of Gold Redbud tree. (I’ve been pining over this tree for over a year)
2. 2 Blushing Susie Black-Eyed Susan Vines (because they remind me of my mothers garden)
3. 6 Vinca Major (periwinkle)
4. 1 flat of “baby tears” (ground cover)
And here are some before and afters:
Before
After
As you can see… this section of the yard needs a lot of work still, but its nice to know one small chunk is done.
“I’m not really a career person. I’m a gardener, basically.”
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Flowers, Growing Vegetables, Landscaping | Tags: Basil, Cowtown Guitars, cucumber, daisies, delphinium, Desert Gardening, Gnomes, Grapes, Herbs, Hollyhock, Jesse Amoroso, lettuce, marigolds, Moxie, peppers, Roses, roxie amoroso, Squash, Teacup Roses, Tomatoes, tulips, zinnias, zucchini Leave a comment
Roses
And with that I’m back home, in the place I love the most. My garden. 1 month (almost to the day) later… Our guitar shop http://www.cowtownguitars.com has successfully relocated to the Arts District, we’ve hired an employee and my days are free again to play in the dirt. Our grand opening party was last First Friday (you can check out photos here, courtesy of http://www.onethirtyeight.org) and other than a few more indoor plants to re-pot and some raised beds to assemble in the back yard… my work there is done. Mostly…
I’ll just leave you with some photos of my gardens over the last month and pick up where I left off last month, in the next few days.
The Gnomeo Garden
Bougainvillea and Lettuce
Herbs, Lettuce, Zucchini, Squash, Eggplants, Artichoke, Onion
Lettuce, Tomatoes and Basil
Zinnias, Iris, Iceplant and Tybalt
Front flower garden
Another front flower garden
Mama, the baby bee keeper.
Posted: February 29, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
The Kids
Some days I garden to spend time with my family, and some days I garden because my husband still hasn’t built the “Roxie sized sound proof box” that I asked for. I’m sure its coming… He has a way of getting me everything my heart desires. Until then, I’ll consider our yard my sound proof zone. And truth be told, he did buy the yard for me. It was a consolation prize that came with our dream house 2 years ago.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids. Like, borderline obsessive love them. But sometimes and I’m sure all of you parents can relate… something inside me catches fire and I swear to the little 8 lb baby jesus that if I hear one more “doooooooooon’t!!!!!!!!!!” in a high pitched voice, the rage will consume me and I’ll burst into flame. Literally. I now know how spontaneous combustion happens now. And when I feel the burn I’m lucky enough to have my garden. I quickly exit stage left and grab the first spade I see. The funny thing about it is even on days like this, when I’ve survived the day and after I’ve gotten them all showered, bathed, fed and put to bed… I find my self downstairs on the computer in silence looking at childhood photos of them. Or staring at the little one while he sleeps.
Science is a strange and magical thing. The same mother that brings the bee’s to the blossoms each year is also the mother that designed us so that we can handle so very much and still want to pollinate and carry on our own species… crazy, man. Just crazy.
Thats it for today… I’m going to pick up some free pavers from the neighborhood next to mine for a raised garden!
A surprise gift from a friend.
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Tomatoes, Personal, Thoughts on gardening, Uncategorized | Tags: Garden Alive, Gardening, Gifts, Jesse Amoroso, roxie amoroso, Stephanie Henderson, Tomatoes Alive, Veggies Leave a comment
A Gift
This morning I stumbled to the door bleary eyed and still searching for my lost cup of coffee, to find a gift on my doorstep! My gardening guru and dear friend Stephanie Henderson had left for me, 6 tomato seedlings and a container of her tried and true secret weapon. Butter? No, that was merely the vessel by which the magic traveled.
You dear reader, chose the right day to read my blog. I’m about to share with you the secret for planting your tomatoes early and helping them develop a strong root system (even when the weather is still hovering dangerously close to freezing at night.) Tomatoes Alive! From the website http://www.gardensalive.com is the stuff. According to their web site: “For more than 20 years, gardeners across the country have raved about Tomatoes Alive! Our all-natural fertilizer is a backyard celebrity, famous for producing vigorous plants, big crops and luscious flavor. For Tomatoes Alive! Plus, we’ve added theimportant minerals calcium and magnesium. Tomatoes Alive! Plus is recommended not just for tomatoes but also for peppers and eggplants, which require similar nutrients. Its blend of fast- and slow-release ingredients provides the nourishment your plants need for steady, healthy growth and bountiful crops. With just two feedings a season, your plants will produce more blossoms and set more and larger fruit.”
Stephanie suggests sprinkling Tomatoes Alive in the bottom of the hole before you place the plant. I’ve always just used a little bone meal in the past, so I’m excited to see the difference. If my friend’s Tomatoes are any indication of the success this magic dust can bring to the garden then I’M A BELIEVER!!!!
GOOD LUCK, Gardeners!!
A year in the sh*t!
Posted: February 27, 2012 Filed under: Compost, diy garden, garden, Growing Vegetables, Thoughts on gardening, Uncategorized | Tags: added effort, compost bin, couple weekends, Cowtown Guitars, good soil, Hippies, Jesse Amoroso, kids co, Kids Co-op, Kids Coop, roxie amoroso Leave a commentSo its almost been a year since my brilliant kid helped me turn an old desk on its side and we announced to the family that we would begin collecting their trash for the garden. All in all its been an easy adjustment and well worth the added effort. It helps a lot that we were broke as a joke in the beginning and my gardening habit (see: need for good soil) was costing my husband a small fortune. Its pretty easy to get someone on board with something, even if it goes against their inner most constitution when it saves them money. My husband is not a hippy. Not now, not ever. To him, collecting ones trash and growing your own food in it later, quickly gets thrown in the “Hippy” category and left there for all of eternity. But like I said, we were poor… and composted mulch I was buying at the store was about 3 bucks a bag. And I was buying ten at a time. Our house sits on a large lot and having been a foreclosure when we bought it, well… there was a lot of soil to amend.
From the beginning every member of the family was on board. It was Juniors great idea, Tony always delivered the scraps from the kitchen to the bin after dinner and Gadzuki eats his weight in apples each month… so the cores really did add up. Here was the first post about our compost.
Soon after we got started, Gadzuki’s pre-school The Kids Co-op got a compost bin. Again, Jesse… tolerating my “Hippy” tendencies and being the all around great Dad that he is, volunteered to take the morning off work and put it together. Big Fun! 3.5 hours later the Co-op started its composting program and I’m happy to report that I just recently mulched the gardens with their 2nd round of complete compost! (I am the one lady Kids Co-op Gardening committee).
With Spring rearing its head a little early this year, our family has spent the last couple weekends gardening. While it feels so good to get back into the swing of things mentally (my body would have to disagree), I was a little disappointed with my compost. While the one I started mid summer #9 (and damn near forgot about) was completely magical and ready to go, the one that was started just going into fall (#10) was a little lackluster. I’m resisting the urge to put chemicals in it to fire it back up, so here’s what we did:
HOW TO FIRE BACK UP YOUR COMPOST AFTER WINTER!
Turning the Compost
We started by completely cleaning out the finished (and might I add, beautiful) compost – bin number #9. I added it all around the garden and any I had left we put in a planter I know will have veggies soon enough.
Compost Bin
After that we split the contents of the left side of the bin (compost #10), I think my mistake was adding a large portion of the Christmas Tree to it back in December… Live and Learn, right?
I raked up some leaves (brown)…
The Browns
And Junior mowed the lawn (greens)…
The Greens
We combined them with a little soil and made a delicious compost “Lasagna” as the experts call it.
The Lasagna
Water was added and then it was covered. From here on out we will only add to the Right side of the bin, thus turning it into compost #11!
Its hard to believe that in less than a year (only by a few days) we have successfully completed and used 10 rounds of compost in the garden. This is really exciting stuff. I’ve learned a few things along the way I thought I might share… #1. Avocado seeds and skin are not worth the wait. #2. You really can keep the smell down considerably by omitting Dairy, Oil and Meat, #3. Kids love worms and #4. Composting your own rubbish really will save you time, energy and money.
Have I told you before? I LOVE Dirt!!!
THIS WEEK – The weather has dipped back down into the low 60’s and high 30’s at night around here… I’m not sure how much gardening I’ll be doing, but check back for some exciting posts on motherhood in the garden and some other personal anacdotes!
Is that a bulb in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
Posted: February 26, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Vegetables, Landscaping, Personal, Uncategorized | Tags: Bulbs, Desert, Forced Bulbs, Gadzuki, Gardening, Jesse Amoroso, Las Vegas, roxie amoroso Leave a commentWith Spring having sprung a little early here (in Las Vegas) we still have quite a few pots of flowers around our house from forced bulbs (i.e bulbs tricked into thinking its spring so that they will flower in winter.) The following is a post that began back in January and is being finished now with a spectacular “AFTER” photo. Enjoy!
January 5th, 2012 – Being the lazy animal that I was all of Fall, we’re only now getting our onion bulbs in the ground. I think they’ll be okay as we line the outside of the garden that we used last season for tomatoes. I had some green onions last year that grew well out of the direct sunlight, shield by our mountain of egg plants.
HOW TO PLANT BULBS FOR SPRING!
Step one – Clear the bed.
This happened the other day when Gadzuki and I tore through a bush of dried and died tomato plants. You can see that we’ve left the basil behind because (as its not perennial) we let it go to flower last year so that it would drop seeds and come back in spring.
Step two – Dig a hole.
The typical distance that the bulb should be planted is 6 inches. Im not much for “exacts” (which is why if you find me in the kitchen baking ANYTHING not out of a box, its usually against my will.) So we just use the distance of the spade on a typical hand held garden trowel.
STEP TWO
Step three – Place the bulb
Now this is important… especially when your helpers are of the “under 15 set”. Place the bulb POINTY side up, i know no better way to describe this. Its pointy… like a little gnome hat.
STEP THREE
Step four – Cover
Fill the hole up with dirt. Only instead of using the same dirt we dug out, I like to replace it with some of our premium composted mulch!
STEP FOUR
Step five – Lather, Rinse, Repeat
Step six – Water the ground and kiss your kids (it also helps to take them somewhere fun.)
You’re going to want to keep the troops happy, so that they keep helping with the manual labor.
STEP SIX
Now wait and wait and wait and wait. Oh and try to remember where you’ve planted the bulbs so that you don’t dig them up later when adding to the garden. Some people like to plant a small annual flower on top to mark its spot… but I’m just going to remember that they are lining our bed and plant the tomatoes dead center when the time comes.
UPDATE – February 25th 2012
Here are some bulbs growing up out of the soil.
Growing from Bulbs
NEXT UP! A Year in the Sh*T! An updated blog about the trials and tribulations of my first year composting. Look for that tomorrow February 27, 2012.
Saturdays spent schlepping…
Posted: February 25, 2012 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Flowers, Growing Vegetables, Landscaping | Tags: asparagus fern, destructive side, planting flowers, six packs, veggie garden, yellow lab puppy Leave a commentThis morning I asked my husband to leave me his Jeep so that I could go to the store. He knew I wasn’t after groceries and simply said “don’t spend $200 on flowers!” before leaving the house. I smiled and knew I would find his keys waiting for me downstairs with what I interpreted as his blessing to spend as much as $199.99 on flowers. Lucky for him I’m thrifty and didn’t take advantage of his good will.
Kids shopping
So I slammed a cup of coffee and called out cheerfully… “Come on guys! We’re gonna do some gardening today”. Knowing full well that what they actually heard was more like “Turn the video games off and do some yard work”. But whatever, Tomato, Tomato! The kids and I laced up our gardening shoes and got to work. You see, on top of our dreadfully neglected winterized backyard we also have a 3 month old Yellow Lab puppy named Duane. He’s a little on the destructive side, so before we could get to the good stuff, I.E clearing beds and planting flowers… we needed to undo some of the damage that only a bored, teething canine can do.
THE CANINE
Tony swept the patio, JR threw away any chewed up plastic plant six packs, frisbees & Gadzuki toys he could find, and I set out to “Dog Proof” my veggie garden. The little varmint has been trampling the lettuce and eggplants that I put in last week so we installed a new fence. Hopefully that does the trick. When the chores were done I went up to the nursery.
The Veggie Garden
I didn’t plant anything spectacular today… Just some Daisies, Asparagus fern, Lavender and Jasmine. As you probably guessed I’m trying to attract bee’s. Here are some photos.
The Planter
TOMMORROW We’ll talk Bulbs! Mine are already starting to come up!
One time… a car drove through my flower garden and parked in my living room.
Posted: December 28, 2011 Filed under: diy garden, garden, Growing Flowers, Growing Vegetables, Landscaping, Opinion, Personal, Thoughts on gardening, Uncategorized | Tags: accident, allergies, australian fern, car chase, Cowtown Guitars, cucumber, DIY, dumpster dive, flower garden, Gadzuki, Gardening, honey dos, husband, Jesse Amoroso, landscaping, Las Vegas, lattice, Metro, peppers, Plant World, potted plants, recycle, repurposing, reuse, roxie amoroso, Seven Magazine, spray paint, Squash, trailer park, Vintage Guitars, yard work, zucchini 2 Comments
I’ll preface this by saying I’m trying to make this sound more like a story than an excuse… but its kind of hard.
The fact is, it is an excuse. If I were a different kind of person I might have kept gardening after a car drove through my flower garden, and into the living room… but the fact is I gave up. On June 4th, 2011 a couple of drunk teenagers with a BB guns, joy riding in their parents Chevy Malibu were chased by the cops into our neighborhood… it ended in our living room. The driver was arrested, but we were left with a massive hole in the side of our home and I guess now that I’m actually taking time to write about it… our hearts too.
The car parked in my living room.
The car parked on my garden.
We were very lucky that no one was hurt. The big boys were at their Grandma’s house and none of the neighborhood kids happened to be playing on the corner (a RARE day!) Our incredible friends and neighbors came over immediately and spent hours helping us clean. We weren’t the only ones amazed when the house was livable at the end of the night. Here is a clip from the news if you want to see it.
After the former wall was removed and our house was successfully boarded up I did spend a couple days transferring the plants from my demolished garden into the backyard. Here’s a photo:
the Salvage Garden.
The new spot in the backyard is now called “the salvage garden”, it made it through the summer heat and is now thriving. But after seeing my little flower garden, my first attempt at gardening in our new home, my baby really… completely demolished and subsequently stomped on day after day by “constructors” (as Gadzuki called them). I really did lose my steam. I quit.
The Contractors.
I continued doing the bare minimum and managed to keep the gardens in the backyard alive through the long summer, but didn’t touch the front. After 3 months of construction, buying a new business with my husband and the kids back in school I was finally able to look at that little space again without feeling sad. I’m no psychologist but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the superficial loss of my flower garden that was the problem. Maybe it was what all of those dead flowers represented. The truth is It could have been me, more easily could have been my husband (who was sitting in the living room when the car hit) and the worst thing of all… The most horrible thing a mother could ever think of; it could have been my baby. Gadzuki. Who was sleeping on the couch, under that window, just minutes before THOSE kids, drove THAT car across my lawn, through my garden and into my living room.
Gib
We had veggies all summer.
In the end I guess it helped me put things in perspective… I was spending 8 hours a day gardening and blogging before the accident. Afterwards my priorities shifted and all I wanted to do was spend time with my family. I needed to keep Jesse & Gadzuki where I could see them, and as luck would have it I was able to all summer!
2 weeks after construction started we bought a guitar shop, http://www.cowtownguitars.com for those interested. In a funny twist of fate I was able to keep them by my side and in my line of sight all summer long as we worked together in our new shop.
Gadzuki & I at Cowtown over the summer.
So as we get ready to welcome 2012, I’d just like to say that I’m back (and I’ve got the leaves and dirt in my hair to prove it). Today I turned composts #’s 7 & 8, tore out tomatoes/eggplants and added some brown matter to the old beds. The next couple weeks we’ll be busy getting three new raised beds installed before spring and before long we’ll be starting seeds in the garage! Thanks for reading and I can’t wait to share with you all of my trails and tribulations of the next growing season here at the Hotel Amoroso!
Happy New Year!
The House: AFTER
Next time: we’ll revisit the old compost pile and hopefully teach (and document) a friend as she starts her own!!
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