The Height of a Gardener’s Disappointment!

OK, this might not be the height, now that I think about worse things that my garden could succumb to, (leaf cuttter ants, grubs, mold, little white gnats, a digging dog, etc.) but still… this is pretty bad.  There is a flowerbed that surrounds a Queen Palm in the backyard that I was going to leave bare until late May.  I never got petunias in the ground this winter, only in my pots.  Down here in Phoenix, there is a distinct line drawn between winter and summer flowers.  And NONE cross the line.  Low and behold, the spot I was going to rest for a season was brimming with seeds from the previous year.  All these flowers came up on their own:  Lobelia, Sweet William, Marigolds, Petunias!  Sweet mercy!

Mixed in the beauties were these mystery plants that I couldn’t identify for the life of me.  There were four of them and they spouted the same time as all the others.  So I’ve been watering them and waiting impatiently to see what they are!  I suspected daisies.  Funny thing was, I visited my mother and she had the same little plants dug up from around her yard and was gingerly nursing them in two different pots.  She thought they were petunias, but no… I knew they weren’t because my petunias came up right next to them.  So we’ve been waiting for weeks for the healthy plants to reveal their flowery heads. 

Yesterday they opened.  Little white, fluffly, mini-dandelions.  They are weeds.  Really healthy weeds!  Weeds that I’ve been watering and actually weeding around.  Today I took this picture before I yanked them out of the rich soil, root and all.  My mother is visiting my sister in Washington, so I needed to let her know what she is growing in her pots!  HAHAHAHHA!  Not only have I been watering them at my house, but at my mother’s house as well!  I might save hers for her to see when she returns!

My Stellar Green Thumb

I just had to share my fabulous sunflowers from the backyard.  Why I think they’re so fabulous is because they are actually growing in the SUMMER in PHOENIX!  Only the strong and drought-resistant brave the hell-like temperatures here.  Behold, The Ochre Goddess tasting the morning light:

And her six inch tall sister, Sunny Delight:

Yellow is such a happy color.  Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to sunflowers.  Now, before you go on thinking I’m a stellar gardener…. I must confess to smoke and mirrors with my photography.  Here is the truth for all to see.  Not a blade of a bad weed is growing in my “flower bed” (term used loosely) under the palm tree.  Even the third flowerless sunflower plant is on the outside of the brick that borders the “flower bed.” These beauties seeded themselves and are growing in the rocky border of our yard. 

But hey, any flower is good in my books.  Please stop by in November when my real green thumb is a bit more evident. Oh, and here’s Lizzy, one of our family of lizards that eat the bugs in the yard.  She is hiding on the wall behind the oleander, but I spotted her.  Her scales are amazingly colorful… well, for a lizard in the Sonoran Desert.  Aren’t they supposed to blend in for safety?  There are teal scales above her arms and the yellow scales seem to be in perfect patterns like the horse moves in chess.  God is so cool.

Here are two other happy flower pictures from Bishop, California…. on our 15 hour drive to Tahoe.  The first, The Lone Giant. 

The second, A Bashful Hollyhock hiding from the afternoon Sun.

Garden Strong, my Friend.

www.LindaCrosby.com     www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com

Another FUN Saturday! Yippy!

I’m supposed to be cleaning my house.  We have a family of ten coming over tonight for dinner.  I’m drawn to things that don’t need to be done… and turn my head from those things calling me names.  Names like “Miss. Piggy” and “messy” and “bad housekeeper” and “disgraceful.”  That last one is ultra-applicable as my mother’s name is Grace and she’s a clean freak.  Sorry, Mom.

Why, oh why, did we choose horizontal dust-magnet blinds for every single blinkin’ window in this house?  It seems like they are always covered with a layer of fuzz… even the day after I clean them.  I need to market my phenomenal wonder of an idea…. flocked blinds.  They will be delivered to your door with a layer of decorative fuzziness already on them… and they’ll always look clean.  Can’t you just hear the sales pitch???  “And these flocked blinds NEVER need cleaning!”  It will be a QVC smashing hit.  I’m sure of it.

And baseboards.  It was a man who invented baseboards because he couldn’t cut straight lines in the sheet-rock to have it line up with the flooring…. creating yet another cleaning opportunity for the woman in his life.  Once upon a time, my baseboards were really and truly white.  Now they’re the color of almost chocolate milk… like when the Quick ran out too soon. 

The plethora of engaging items drawing my attention away from cleaning are unbelievable.  The weeds grew overnight.  They need to be pulled NOW.  I know our guests will already have assumptions about my housekeeping, but my yard could be my excuse if it is weeded.   But it’s 107 degrees and it’s not even noon.  Weeding will have to wait until wintertime.

The boys have built a blanket fort using 4 mattresses, Zaza’s purple canopy bed and all the sheets from the linen closet.  I asked them to put it all away before our guests arrive.  They looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my forehead.  “We built the fort to play in with THEM!”   Oh.  Well, I won’t have to vacuum that room.  Maybe I could throw the load of dirty sheets in there too… and eliminate one load of laundry.

Did I forget to mention that camp is in two days (Yes, I’m going to be “dorm staff” for screaming little girls for a week) and I just threw in load #1 of 8.  In my next house, I’m having a laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms, behind a secret door with a big screen tv in there, plush carpet with triple padding so it will feel like I want to go in there.  I can play the movie Miss Potter all the time, and dance with one of my husband’s dirty shirts to “Shall I teach you how to dance.”

Maybe I simply need to get some matching pink cleaning supplies.  Then I’ll want to clean the house. 

One can dream.

Checked-Off Check-Off Lists… These are a few of my favorite things

Rick was off work yesterday (and he didn’t even break the plane so he could stay home!) so I made a gigantic check-off list of tasks to be completed.  Next week is Spring break and we have house guests coming.  Our home and yard were crying out for attention.  Believe me, they got our full attention yesterday. 

I’m REALLY proficient at making check-off lists.  Some people are born check-offers.  I am a card-carrying, due-paying member of the Check-Off List Cadre.  I’m even the anal type that draws little boxes to be checked off.  Nothing bugs me more than a To-Do list with the items scribbled out so the memory of the task is gone and there is no long-lasting sense of accomplishment.  What’s the point of that?

In my “Save” file, I have a few crinkly, stained check-off lists of old.  My personal favorite is from our Yucca Street house when we decided to sell the 30+ year old home.  Oh my goodness.  That list still makes my head buzz.  We conquered more tasks on that house in six weeks, than we have in all our other houses added together.  Whew.  That’s why I saved it.  Some day when my grown, fully-trained, married and moved-on children call home to complain of a few house repairs, I can copy the list and send it to them.  No sympathy here, baby.  It could also be used as a boost in the caboose, as THEY did a lot of the jobs listed, even at their tender, young ages of 5,7 and 10.

I’m thrilled with Zaza’s room.  The buttery walls melt in your mouth… well maybe not, but I did have an urge to eat popcorn when we finished.  The chair rail is up.  We sank the nails, filled the holes, caulked the corners and repainted over the Spackle.  Oh, it looks GOOOOOOOOOD!  Then, the moment I’ve been waiting for for months… we put the purple bed together.   Makes my heart glad.  Sadly, I don’t have bedding, so I can’t put the picture on the blog yet.  Please stay tuned.

After our house finished crying-out for attention, my arms and legs took on the crying-out task, due to the meed after manual labor.  Good grief, weeding saps your strength! 

I need to go brush my teeth, but my legs hurt just imagining the climb up the stairs.  (Reminds me of my kids’ excuses!)