My winter gardening post

I am now into cactus, so there isn't much to do for cactus in the winter.

I let the poor things rest. I DON'T water them. They grow very slowly if at all in the winter. I have a few blooms still but not too many. The rains of winter provide all the water they need. It kills me not to water them, but they don't need it. I have a terrible habit of watering my plants. That is sad part of winter, no blooms, or watering, or feeding, or trimming. Spring will be here soon. Check out some of my blooms this year. Click Here

So, with little to do, I clean the yard, and wait til spring.... whimper. I do have a few plants that I bring inside. I have a plumeria that doens't like cold. I will bring it in soon. Until then I Tweet, on Twitter about spring.

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Favorite Recipes

OK, it is recipe time. I know, it doesn't make sense on a gardening page. But, gardeners get hungry too!

My Favorite Recipe of all time.

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs.

3 ingredients

3-4 TSBP Smokey Mesquite Seasoning. (I prefer Weber brand)
1 pork rib section. (10-15 ribs)
1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce

On a large ovensafe brownie, cookie sheet lay the ribs meaty side up.
Generously cover entire top of ribs with mesquite seasoning.
Flip over to boney side, repeat seasoning. Leave boney side of rib rack facing up.

Heat oven to 375 degrees
Place ribs in oven for 30 minutes.
Take ribs out of oven and flip rib rack to meaty side up.
Roast in oven 15-20 minutes longer.
Remove from oven.
With great care, (the ribs will be very hot and slipery) separate/cut ribs into 2 rib segments and place them into a slow cooker set on high.

Pour entire bottle of BBQ sauce over ribs. Add a little water to the slow cooker. This helps the ribs stay moist.

Let cook for 4 hours or until you can't stand it one second more.
Your house will smell awesome.
Serve with tons of napkins.
If you try this recipe, please leave a comment.

August 31st is here.. yeah! well, we can only hope the monsoons will come back. They have come and gone and come back a few times. Somehow, it hasn't rained much at my house. Everywhere but my house has had a good monsoon. I will keep my fingers crossed. I have big plans for fall for my garden. It would help tremendously not to have to replace any existing plants do to drought. I have lost a few plants, but not too many. I have to water even though it is monsoon season. Sad, but true. I will upload more photos this weekend.

I have tons of maintenence work to do in my garden, when it gets cooler. This includes painting and relocation of some plants. I am looking forward to October. I seem to like April and October for planting. October is fun, cool and far away at the moment. September is still hot, and dry. October is cool, and rains come back. I need to write down my ideas for my fall garden. Cactus and vines. I love vines. Does anyone know good vines to grow in Tucson Arizona? I grow cats claw easy.

Take care and Happy Gardening.

Monsoons are Nonsoons.. yikes

August, if I survive it, is almost over. My garden needs water. Monsoons have skipped my house so far. There is still some time, but, it has been a huge disapointment. I still have to water in the mornings. Most years I don't water at all because of the monsoons.

It is spring  so here is my photo collection so far!



I will add to it daily. Enjoy!

Hey, iti's been a great day.  I had a friend stop by and take me out on an adverture.  We drove all around the Tucson Mountains and saw all the wildflowers blooming.  It was a shocker.  Lots of houses where I didn't remember houses.  I grew up in the area, but it was not built up then.

Anyway, I ran into an old friend that I hadn't seen in many many years.  It was great talking about old times.
She has chihuahuas too!  Her chi was named Skosh!  what a great name.  I kept calling it Squirt~  very funny.  Adorable... I saw another chi there too.  It's name was Bubby.   Both were ADORABLE!  My dogs were not happy when I got home!!!!

More later

Yah! it's Sunday

Well, it is spring in Tucson and I am on my way to my garden.
I think gardening is the best.  I makes my happy. 
Everytime something blooms I am so excited. 

Yesterday I did so much of the hard stuff, today I can chill.

I have some soft jazz on the stereo, and coffee in my  cup.

It seems that life has calmed back down.  I am grateful for this.  It got way crazy and I don't like craziness.
I am just going to take it easy today and get a balance in my life. Finally the cold has left, or at least most of it. I don't have a thing I need to do today.  I will just play with my dogs and putter in my garden.

I will catch up on some podcasts, study spanish and pray.  All good things.

Hugs world... take care..

Life just went crazy, but oh well, ROLL WITH IT!

#1 Since my last post, life has gone crazy.  My life that use to be very controled, and predictable, isn't.
My job had pay cuts of 10%!  This is not good.  I have all other expenses rising and spring planting on its way.  YIkes.  My budget was stretched before he cutback.   Well, at least I still have a job.  This recession is getting old. Obama please do something...more on my polictical views on a different page of this blog coming later.

A girlfriend at work decided it was time to leave an impossible marriagel  So she moved in last night.  Just a short stay.  But, still stressful.

On top of all that a friend of mine died.  Her name was Irene.  I need to go to Green Valley and hang out with her friends today.  No gardening.. Just grieving.

Sometimes life just goes crazy.. and you just have to roll with it.

ok, I came home sick from work. I slept a few hours and felt better. 
I felt well enough to pull weeds. Not for too long though.  Today was a beautiful, but  windy day.
I started for feel bad quickly.  I did get all the weeds in the front yard taken out.  There is so much work to be done.

I should get the following stuff done this weekend.

Saturday
1.  Go to the Tohono Chul plant sale.
2.  Rake the front yard. and trim plants
3. Move the rocks from the front yard to the back yard.
4. repair and check the entire irrigation system in front. 

Sunday
1.Decorat newly planted cactus garden with rocks.and other items
2. Get new water timer for irrigation system and install
3. Check irrigation all over yard.
4. Plant more cactus.around yard.
5. Trim California pepper tree.

Yikes, I hope I get to see friends at some point. 
I should do more, but I should warm up to the gardening .. not just right in.

Oh yeah I forgot to write about last weekends big gardening adventure.
I planted all the cactus I had in pots all over the yard.  I made paths and hills.
I think I will save a ton on my water bill, pl.us this garden is so much prettier than the dead grass I had.
I won't waste water either.  I didn't realize I had so many cactus.  They probably won't bloom this year.
i am glad I did this while the weather was still cool.  I is easier for the cactus to establish themselves in cooler weather.  I wonder if they will be ok.  Cactus is tough though.

More planning to be done for the garden!   I have planted cilantro about  2 weeks ago. Salsa here we come! I see the first starts comming up.  I just love to be a gardener because I feel wonderful when I see the  beautiful living things grow. I don't have to deal with the crazy world when I garden.  No problems, danger, things to worry about.  I get to be in the outdoors, and be one with nature.  I can completly loose myself.  My dogs help me garden too.  They dig holes but not in the right places. I let them think they are helping.  They too enjoy the outdoors, fresh airs and hanging out with nature and me. 

So, spring is almost here.  I will get up earlier, say 5 am and start gardening for an hour or so, then get ready for work.  Weekends will be filled with planning, planting and watering.  I will try to get most of the big stuff done early, before the weather starts to get hot. Mornings start to get warm around May, and it gets hot in June.  Plants do better if you don't transplant them in the heat.  So I have tons to do!

Every morning I will check for new blooms  If  something blooms I will photograph it and put it up here for all of you to see.  I have hundreds of photos on flickr.com from previous years. (Click on the photos above to be take to flickr.com to see the entire set) 

My bedroom is designed to look like a garden.  The top half of the room is sky blue, and the bottom is brown.  It looks like the sky and the ground.  All around the room are large framed posters of my favorite photos from the garden.  I will make more this year and swap them out as needed. Life is too shart not to enjoy yourself.  There is pleny of time to be serious at work.  Live it up!

More tomorrow..

Hear we go.
Spring is almost here. I have a list of items to get done.

1. Get weeds under control. The rains have been great but the weeds are coming back.

2. Plan my garden. I took out the grass last weekend. New area is ready to plant! I will draw it out. I will also cultivate from existing plants to save money.

3. Trim back whatever has frozen this year. This is not too bad this year. My bouganvilla froze and died, but that leaves a great spot for a large cactus. I will have to write it into the plan.

4. Clean out the fountain. It's a mess, and needs a good scrubing.

Hey World

It has been a long time since I have blogged. Sorry. Anyway, it had been so long that I forgot my password and had to fight the mighty powers to get a new one.

It is raining in Tucson.... we need it so badly. Yeah... but I was going to take the grass out of my back yard today. RATS.. oh well. Weeds love rain. Maybe the will grow and kill my grass. I got tired of trying to keep grass green. I costs way too much in dollars and my time.

I got a new laptop and fell in love with Twitter. I am glad about both. Twitter knows me as @tucsonchica Follow me on twitter.

Hey the rain seems to be subsiding... yeah!!! The sun may try to peep out soon. Maybe the grass pulling out process is on!

More later

OK I am back!

What I wanted to say was I recovered completely from the toe fungus. I am so glad I have attacked it and got it under control. I have heard of people who have fungus in their toenails for years.

All I do now is continue scrubbing the toes, all of them and keep my feet off the floor.
I wear shoes. I do put moisturizer on my feet every day. So, I hope the events I have written about has helped others. Thats what blogs are suppose to do for everyone. Help each other.

So, Spring is almost hear. I have so many things to get started in my garden.