Full Bloom

Spring is by far my favorite season here in Arizona. The weather is gorgeous and dry, the neighborhood farm animals are having babies, the flowers are in bloom, the hens are laying up a storm, and we spend every waking minute outdoors. I fully realize that this all sounds ridiculously cheese ball but it's true (back me up here fellow desert friends). If you are quietly cursing me now, remember that I will be cursing you in just a couple of months when the crazy desert heat settles in. At least we have the haboobs to look forward to, right?

I don't think I've shared any gardening or chicken pictures in a while so here's the latest and greatest of what we've been doing outside.

We added a second raised bed a couple of months back so we now have room for a small cutting garden. Fresh flowers in the house every day? Yes, please.

(Update: someone asked on Pinterest if the rebar over the bed in these pictures is a sprinkler system. That would rock but it's not. We have a watering system snaking through the actual bed which works very well. The rebar above the garden is to hold the netting in place to keep the birds and chickens out. We also use it to hang our sun shade in the summer and freeze cloth in the winter.)

Even the girls are enjoying the beautiful weather. I think they know that summer is fast approaching so they're taking advantage of this while they can. They are not big fans of the triple digits and really, who can blame them?

Jason and I were looking at the garden this afternoon and he lifted the net for a split second. In the blink of an eye, Francie was up there looking to snag a treat. If you don't watch it with these young pullets, they'll gouge out your eyeball to try and steal your food. They are crazy. We had a picnic under the trees last week and poor Finley lost his quesadilla to Minnie before he knew what hit him.

All of our trees are starting to produce this upcoming season's fruit. The boys are checking out the apple trees (their favorite and mine too) with Old Lady. Her name is Addie but for some reason, Oliver has called her his Old Lady since he started talking. Sadly, we think that Old Lady's days are numbered so we're getting in some good quality time with her.

And kind of related but kind of not...My sister, the AZ Plant Lady, had a film crew over from SheKnows.com today to film several "how to" segments on gardening for their website. She is a gardening genius (especially for the desert) and I know these videos will be incredible. I'll be sure to share when they're available.

Wherever you are, I hope you're outdoors and enjoying spring (at least on this side of the hemisphere).

Clinging to Spring

My fellow desert dwellers totally know what I'm talking about when I say that I'm clinging to spring. In just a few short weeks, it will be scorching and barely inhabitable (maybe I'm being a bit dramatic) here so we are spending all of our waking hours outdoors. While hanging outside with the boys yesterday, I took some pictures to give you all an update on our garden.

Isn't she gorgeous!? We have an abundance of goodies crammed into there including several different varieties of lettuce, spinach, herbs, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and I'm sure a ton of other stuff that I'm leaving out. For full disclosure, I'm not responsible for any of this organic goodness - credit goes to my mom and my husband. I'm a lousy gardener which is why I tend to the chickens.

Each night before dinner, we go outside and pick whatever we'd like to make a fresh salad. So amazingly delicious. Since we are obviously running out of room, we're going to add another raised bed in the next few weeks.

In addition to the veggies and fruits in the garden, our apple, peach, plum, and almond trees are just about ripe for the picking. My Sodapop can't get enough of the apples. She picks them right off and helps herself.

And I had to share this cute little hummer. It's not the best picture but we have a ton of these guys in our yard every spring and they are freakishly friendly. They love to hover around and check out what we are doing.

I tried to get the boys to pretend that they were "working" in the garden so I could snap a shot of them but even jelly bean bribery didn't work this time. They decided they'd rather stab each other with their new swords. Actually it's just one sword - Oliver is using the sheath but he doesn't know it ;)

A Garden Party for the Girls

Our fall/winter vegetable garden has pretty much gone to seed so it's time to start preparing the soil for our spring garden. We thought we'd enlist the help of our girls and let them have a little garden party while doing some work for us at the same time.

We normally keep the chickens out of the garden with some netting so they were hesitant at first but quickly jumped in and went to town! We will let them work the soil for us for a few weeks with their pecking, scratching, and pooping. After they've had some time to nibble on them, we'll pull the old plants to make room for our spring plants.

Our baby chicks will be arriving in a few weeks so we figure this could be one last hurrah for the girls before they have to be nice and responsible again.

Preparing for our fall garden

Although it is still crazy hot here in Arizona, the temperatures have dropped enough (to a cool 100 degrees), that it's time for us to start working on our fall garden. A while back we tested our soil and found that our levels were way off so we tore everything out of our gorgeous garden and added some magically wonderful, organic compost from Singh Farms (if you're in the Phoenix area, you have to visit Singh Farms - coolest place ever).

My mom has been busy preparing some precious little seedlings and will transfer them to the garden when they're ready. We'll be growing a variety of lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, leeks, radish, garlic, parsley, and basil among others.

The boys and the chickens loved having our company outside while we worked. Isn't Flo getting huge?? She is such a gorgeous hen.

Now that the weather is cooler, I had no excuse not to clean out the coop over the weekend. We shoveled every last speck of chicken bedding and put it in our compost pile (chicken poop is like gold for the garden!). We then hosed out the entire coop and laid down diatomaceous earth and fresh bedding. This was a dusty, stinky, messy job but it will keep our chickens happy and mite free. I was especially thankful for the Wellies I got for Christmas. It definitely looks like they've been broken in.

How about you all? What are you doing to prepare for a fall harvest?

It's Irrigation Day

As a California transplant living in the desert of Arizona, there are a few things that really trip me out and one of them is flood irrigation. Every two weeks in the summer and once a month in the fall, winter, and spring months, we irrigate our yard with a "flood."

Very few homes in Arizona actually have this type of irrigation. It's usually found in older neighborhoods and neighborhoods zoned for agricultural use. My sister, who is an expert on all things garden/desert/plants blogged about flood irrigation here and explained that the water sinks deeply into the soil which makes for deep roots for both grass and trees.  It also helps to flush out salts that accumulate in the soil.

Best seat in the house on a hot summer day

Snow melt and rain water is accumulated throughout the year in a system  of reservoirs and canals. One of these canals runs right behind our backyard. We sign up to irrigate through our local utility company. We are allowed up to 3 hours of constant flood irrigation but we usually sign up for just an hour and a half to two hours. The utility company then sends out a schedule with our irrigation time (which lately has been in the middle of the night!). When it's our time, I drive to the end of the street to open the flood gates and turn on the valve that you can see above to get the water flowing.

Although it looks wasteful, if done properly, flood irrigation is a very efficient way to water. Because of the heat where we leave, a lot of the water from daily sprinkler use evaporates before it has a chance to soak in. A once a month deep water is much better for plants in the desert than a daily, light sprinkle. The key is to figure out just how much water you need and order the right amount. It's also important that your yard is nice and even or a little hill or slope will send that water right into the street. Sadly, I have seen some neighbors water their driveways on occasion.

Our first irrigation -we hadn't figured out how much water we needed and obviously ordered too much.

My dog Sodapop goes crazy over the irrigation. As soon as she sees the water flowing, she runs up to the valve and lays right next to it. The boys love it too. They think it's a blast to take a pair of my flip flops and have "boat" races. I love the irrigation because it brings a ton of fun critters to the backyard - ducks, snakes, toads, and all kinds of cool shore birds. 

Today is irrigation day and we are fortunate that it wasn't scheduled for the middle of the night. It is scheduled for late afternoon which is the hottest time of day. The boys are stoked!

We've been irrigating this way for over a year now and I still think it's kind of bizarre (although we have the happiest fruit trees ever). Almost as bizarre (but not as scary) as the scorpions out here - which I'll never get used to. But that's an entirely different post.

Our New Garden

I mentioned to my mom that I'd love a little succulent garden in a white ceramic bowl for our dining room table. My mom is a fabulous gardener with a love for succulents and she created this gorgeous garden for us.

Now I just need a teeny tiny gnome to place inside.

What's Growing in our Garden

One of the bright sides to summer in the desert is that our vegetable garden and our fruit trees are absolutely thriving! I can't take credit for the success of the plants as my husband and mom do most of the gardening (although I do water from time to time ;). Currently in our garden we're growing corn, peppers, various herbs, watermelon, zucchini, tomatoes, and peppers.

One of my fabulous garden markers from Monkeys Always Look

Watermelon

Zucchini 

We hung up these CD's to keep the birds from eating the veggies. It seems to work well as we haven't had any problems since they've been hung.

Almonds on our almond tree

Peaches

Apples

Plums

In addition to the delicious fruits and veggies, we should have fresh eggs very soon! My girls have been spending a lot of time in their nesting boxes lately and they are about the age to start laying. I can't wait! We are totally on egg watch over here. I'm hoping that the summer heat won't decrease their production too much. To keep them comfortable during our hot afternoons, we turn on a little portable mister for them and they hang out under it for hours. We spoil our girls in the hopes that they'll spoil us in return.

And I have to include a recent shot of my favorite chicken, Effie. Her fluffy cheeks have filled out to a full on beard. She is totally awkward but definitely affectionate and loving.

Even though my boys aren't crazy about the veggies we grow, they are crazy about their popsicles.

Never say never

I spent the first 30 of my 30-something years growing up in Southern California - just north of L.A. I loved growing up in California, especially so close to such a fabulous, diverse city. In fact, just a few short years ago, my husband and I were scouring downtown L.A. looking for the perfect loft to buy. If you had told me at that time that I would soon be living in Arizona, raising chickens, growing veggies, etc., I'd have laughed you right out of town.

My how things have changed!

Somewhere along the line (about the time we decided to start a family), my husband and I had a major and sudden shift in priorities. We packed up and headed east to Arizona to live closer to family, increase our quality of life, and just slow down the pace of our hectic lives.

We purchased some horse property with my mom and it has been a blast! In just the past year, we've managed to start a killer vegetable garden:

Build our own gardening shed - or "fort" as the boys like to think of it:

And most exciting of all, we have chickens! (I told you I like to talk about them a lot.)

Here is the lovely Flo:

We also keep busy with the numerous trees on our little "farm." We have apples, orange, kumquat, lemon, lime, grapefruit, almond, plum, and peach trees. Hoping to plant some pecan trees in the future.

Our next project will be a pair of goats. We're taking our time prepping and researching so we don't expect to have them for several months. And be forewarned, if you think I talk about my chickens a lot, I will likely talk about the goats a whole lot more. Seriously, how could you not want to show off goats as cute as these (image from theage.com.au):

We are loving this new chapter in our lives and have named our little hobby farm "Double S Farms." This past year has seriously taught me a lot - most importantly to "never say never."