Family/Gardening Blog Revived!! 2014 Las Vegas Desert Gardening

My mind is always zigzagging in a million different directions! I have passion for so many things, but gardening + healthy living is a big one. From the moment I first stepped foot into our weed and rock covered Las Vegas backyard in the summer of 2011, I said that one day, the whole yard would be as edible as possible! I tried really hard the first year (2012), but I really had no idea what I was doing. Things grew - things failed. 2013 - I got busy - I just let the yard do whatever it wanted. The beginning of this year (2014) I really decided I wanted to try hard to make the yard grow. I have focused so far on things that I would eat the most rather than just growing for fun. Everything took a while to germinate, but they all seem to be moving along just fine.

I'm so excited to see how things mature in the years to come, especially the fruit trees. I pretty much screwed those up this year. I WAY over pruned them, probably cutting off most of the fruit bearing branches, boooo! But its ok. just gives everything more time to mature (including my gardening brain). I'm hoping to fill up both garden beds with veggies and herbs. This year I picked up 2 cubic yards of The Tomato Lady Soil! I've heard so many good things about her so I eventually want a bunch of that nice black dirt in my yard! 

Below are some BEFORE PICTURES......and then under that, are pictures of this years progression. Nothin perfect, but I'm tryin!

2011! Just moved in!

CURRENT 2014!

Apricot Tree! Trying to shape it. I kinda messed it up while pruning. I hope fruiting next year goes better! 

Garlic along with butterfly and humming bird flowers planted under each tree. I heard garlic is a good companion plant for fruit trees!

Peach tree! Growing good with a beautiful shape, BUT once again, pruned incorrectly taking off the fruiting branches! OOPS!!! Next year should be better :-) 

Pink Lady Apple tree. Nothing yet!

SUPPOSE TO BE green seedless grapes......Last year, they showed up tiny purple seeded grapes! BOO!!! I'm at least trying to care for them in a way that they will grow bigger. 

Second set of grapes! Lets see how these turn out!

Raspberry bush! Just got this one! Interested to see how well it does! Need to keep it away from my turtle!

Blueberry bush! I know that these generally do not grow well in the desert, but I have a game plan! I will keep you posted!

MINT! if you want something that smells yummy and wont die even if you wanted it to, try mint! This thing has been transplanted soooo  many times and it just keeps on growing!

2 different Texas Sage bushes! Love these when they flower!! So pretty!!

Garden bed #1. Its pretty bare compared to the number of seeds I put in, but its coming along! My second garden bed has been left empty for the time being. 

Romaine! so many aphids on these! Just sprayed down with some diluted castile soap today so I'm hoping that takes care of the problem...

Cilantro!! So happy to have this growing again! With a large Mexican family and taco dinners happening regularly, it will be nice to have this fresh!

Spinach! Love spinach in my salads and green smoothies!! Happy to have these growing!

3 different kids of onions! Purple, green and yellow! 

Carrots!! Love me some carrots!

Aloe! From a friends house! Always good to have some aloe around!

Cats Claw! I literally cut this entire thing back a month ago!! I thought it needed a fresh start! I was nervous to do it, but once this thing started growing again, it took off!!!! I cant wait to have it covering my patio. Just need to be careful because its not nice to stucco! 

Forgot what this is called. Just a random plant that I brought out from inside. Hoping it'll start doing better!

That's all folks!! I will try to update this more than ever 2 years :-)

Home and Garden Update!

Sometimes I feel like I say everything that's on my mind on facebook so I never blog! but I think I'll still try to post stuff about the house and about my garden on here :-)
Here's a few new pictures of things in the garden and around the yard. I've tried to do organic seeds this time, just to see how it goes. I will try to give descriptions under the pictures.

Our Cats Claw vine! We have heard that it is extremely invasive and that we have to really keep our eye on it because it will start to creep under window panels and doors and that it will start to grow all over the floor of our balcony if we don't keep it trimmed! Kinda looking forward to all that!!

Our Cats Claw's claws, haha. Its so cute to me how it has these little claws that help it climb up the wall!

Our Chamomile! I'm very excited about this! It smells so good. I harvested a bowl of it today and I'm going to try to make a tea out of it later...we'll see. Not a big fan of tea, but maybe if I make it myself, I'll like it more.

Mmmmm Yellow Squash! Lots of little blooms all over this little square foot! Excited to see what it brings this summer and fall!

Parsley! This is doing great! Some flowers were sneakin up on me, but thankfully I snipped them off before they went to seed. Once they go to seed, the leaves turn yellow. Thats what happened to my Cilantro and I ended up pulling it up.

Thyme!! Its growing a ton! This Thyme originally started from one little clipping off of someone else's garden. It took a while to mature, but now its doing fantastic! Its so good in some Italian recipes!

Pumpkins!! I really dont know a whole lot about pumpkins but as soon as I get some growth, I will flop them over the side of the garden bed and give them room to grow! I'm hoping to at least have a few to carve this Fall!

YUMMY Zucchini! I LOVE zucchini! Especially when its freshly harvested. I cant always tell the difference in flavor from things at the farmers market, but zucchini is one thing that I believe tastes significantly better. I barely have to cook it and I love it!

Crisp Cucumbers! This is growing so rapidly!! I LOVE cucumbers not only in salad, but also as a delicious tangy and spicy snack! fresh squeezed lemons or limes on top sprinkled with salt and chili powder or Pico Pica! YUM!

Lettuce! I have a few different kids of lettuce growing. Mixed, romaine and good old iceberg! It did well the last time I bought it about 4 inches tall already developed a little bit, this time I did it from seed! Excited to see how it goes! hopefully my neighbors trees and the tall cucumbers in front of it will protect it from the hot summer sun!

Juicy Watermelon! I CANT NOT WAIT for this to grow! I'm really hoping that by mid August while its still hot, I can harvest and chop it up during a summer BBQ!

SWEET CORN!! Oh this is growing so fast!! I cant believe it!! My research shows that I should be able to harvest some of this by July! Again, CANT WAIT to eat these during a warm summer BBQ!

Onions, Oh onions! Why do you make me cry! Literally! I don't know whats going on with them. I think they were a bit crowded so I thinned them out in hopes that they have more room to expand and turn it to yummy round ones!! The ones I thinned were actually looking pretty good! They are in my fridge ready to get chopped up!

Carrots! This one is the tallest so far. I had to plant more seeds this time because the previous batch just didn't want to germinate!! BOOO! Lets see how these do! We eat A LOT of carrots in our house some I'm hoping to master these little stubborn brats :-)

MINT! Holy smokes mint! You are a champion!! Today I tried to make some mint iced tea....not sure how much I liked it. going to try and perfect that. If anyone has any ideas about what to do with this or if you love mint and want some, please let me know!!

MORE PUMPKINS! I wanted to plant a few things in different sunlight so that I can see what the best results are for next time!

Heirloom Tomatoes! I am PRAYING that these will figure out how to grow! they're taking their time, but I LOVE these kind of tomatoes and I am really wanting to make salsas and sauces for canning! Wish them luck!

Peaches! My peach tree is so dinky for now but it has a little handful of peaches on it! Looking forward to standing out here on a warm day eating fresh peaches! ALSO preserving them in jars like my grandma does! OH they are so good! We don't even like normal canned peaches anymore because we've had the real deal! Andrew said..."Thanks a lot grandma for ruining all the other peaches for me! I'm too spoiled now to eat anything else!" hahaha. Excited to make fresh cobbler and peach pie as well!

Apricots! Cant wait til these are overflowing too! We'll throw some in the dehydrator, can some make some jam and whatever else we can! Oh and of course we will enjoy eating them straight off the tree!

Itty bitty little cherry tomato growth! Again, these little guys are taking their sweet time, hopefully getting nice and sweet.

My lonesome little pomegranate! It is the first and only thing we have planted in the front yard. It was given to my by a friend at church. I think he actually got a branch from his own tree growing in a pot! He gave it to us during the winter and I left it in the pot on a sunny part of my house until a few leaves were sprouting from it. As soon as spring came I planted it and its doing fantastic! I'm sure by next year, we'll have some awesome growth!

Homemade compost bin! Below you will see a few detailed pictures. I found this food grade 50 gallon drum on craigslist for $20. The rest of the supplies cost close to $40 because we hardly had any of them. It cost way more than I thought it would, but it was a fun project (not sure Andrew would agree, lol). The boys go out and roll it all the time. Its getting quite heavy. Every once and a while, we add some left over soil to it and we add all of our fruit and veggie skins, pits, leftovers and garden clippings (NO WEEDS)

Fun little solar powered lantern hung from the patio! they are so cute!! I'll take a nighttime picture soon too!

A couple different views of my new and improved kitchen! Over the Memorial Day weekend, Andrew and I busted out about 10 hours of taping, painting and touch ups! It was long and daunting, but SOOO worth it! I'm in love!! The windows in the kitchen will also be spiced up with some funky yellow and white damask curtains (once I can buy the fabric!)

So this tall connecting wall looks kinda funny right now but soon I will put a tall vase with tall iris' in the corner of the cabinets on top and it will more softly separate that paint. Then on top of this wall will be a couple long narrow rectangle pots where I will have vines and flowers growing and lanterns of different shapes and sizes will hang from the ceiling. Its all in my head for now :-) Pictures to come later on!