What's Growing Now?

The high today was only 90 with occasional rain.  It was a wonderful day to putter around, pull weeds and inspect my little plant minions.  I am looking forward to cooler days...in about 4 weeks or so.

Here's my red bird of paradise, the desert type, not the tropical type.  I love this plant because it loves full sun and not much water and provides shade.  I have tomatoes in the pots.  I was supposed to transplant them somewhere but I have enough tomato plants and I don't know where I would plant them.  The bougainvillea, to the left, can take lots of abuse including having its leaves chewed off twice by some unknown assailant.

These are (were) the geraniums I bought myself for my birthday because I thought they would be easy to grow.  I should have bought Mexican petunias instead.  Maybe it is just being in pots that they hate.  It is awfully hot to be in a hanging pot.

My little watermelon plant is climbing the fence.  I didn't realize they climbed.  I should have planted this months ago.  No baby watermelons yet.  I don't think there is enough time for a watermelon to ripen even if one appeared.  I must remember to plant them sooner next year.

My moringa tree is finally planted in the ground.  Planting the seeds in the ground did not work since my dogs dug them up.  Planting them in pots first and transplanting has been successful so far.  It is sensitive to frost so I will have to protect it or let it die back this winter.  The gourds were planted late.  They still have 3 more months to make gourds.  We shall see if anything appears.

This is a bit hard to see but I planted some Hopi Red Dye Amaranth.  The leaves and seeds are edible.  I hope to plant more next year so that I have more seeds.  I have read they can be popped like popcorn or ground in to flour.

This is my baby plant nursery.  I have 3 desert willow trees and 3 red bird of paradise.  Maybe I can trade them at the next plant exchange.

The pomegranates are looking good but I had to take some off because the poor tree was leaning.  They still need 6 or 8 weeks to ripen.

Another moringa tree in my big pot.  I planted purslane around it.

And this is the wild patch of purslane in my yard.  I learned from the gardening group that it is edible and nutritious but I still haven't done anything with it other than nibble on the leaves.  I really should align my eating habits with the food that is cheap and available like purslane.  I'll put that on my to-do list: Find recipes for weeds in yard.

This is my newest patch of garden.  The pole beans are climbing the fence and the squash is blooming.  The squash planted in the spring didn't produce at all.  I know people joke about planting too much zucchini but I don't have that problem.  I would be thrilled with any zucchini at this point.

My favorite sunflower in a pot of horse purslane.  I learned the difference between purslane and horse purslane this summer.  Horse purslane has round leaves, the other has oval leaves.  Turns out I have both in my yard.  The quail like the horse purslane so it is good for something.  Plus, I like the look of it.  Anything that is green without thorns or thorny seeds is welcome in the yard even if it is a weed to many people.

The sweet potatoes are taking over.  I ate sweet potato leaves 3 times and now I am sick of them.  I desperately need new recipes for them.  What's the point of growing vegetables if I won't eat them?

Only 2 tepary beans remain.  I had dreams of boiling my tepary harvest but now I will be lucky if I get enough beans to plant next year.

The tomato jungle is still going strong.  Pruning tomatoes is optional in the desert.  Many people don't prune to give the plant some built in shade.  I am reluctant to prune because I know the tomato worms will find me soon and will do the pruning for me.  That's the lazy way.  Why prune and pluck worms when I can do nothing and those 2 chores will cancel each other out?  

And lastly, another popular weed that I have learned about from the garden group.  This is a green variety of amaranth.  Once I found out what it looked like I just wandered around the yard until I found it.  More free greens to eat.  I really need to attend a 'how to cook with local weeds, I mean, plants' class.  All this free food going to waste.