Anna's Hummingbird

Today we saw a unique hummingbird that was brown and made a different kind of noise more like a whirring sound, but we didn't get a photo or video of it. Later on a lovely Anna's Hummingbird visited and this is the little video we got of him! I'm always surprised at how much bigger they are than the Ruby Throated hummingbirds!

Yummy!!!

Looks Yummy!

Bought and planted a Green Bell Pepper too!

And a Honeydew Melon!

Also some Corn, Silver Queen, we put cut water bottles around them for now because the wind was really bad.

Strawberries Turning Red!!!

Yesterday I spotted that the strawberries were starting to turn red!!!

Front to back we have 6 Strawberries, 2 types of peppers, 2 types of tomatoes, and 2 types of squash.

Passiflora Actinia with 3 red poppies around it.

Gotta love it when stuff starts filling in!

Some Spring Roses for the First Day of Spring

Spring Roses

We couldn't resist buying this Yummy Yellow Tea Rose it's name is Gold Glow! It smells wonderfully too! I love how the color is a wonderful golden yellow and then fades to a soft yellow.

AND here you can see the roses already in our garden have got buds getting ready to bloom! I love spring! And I love the first roses of spring!

Gilia Field Videos

Sweet Smelling Gilia Field

The wonderful sweet smelling Gilia field right by the Rainbow Basin turn off road.

We spotted a white variety!

Some have softer colors.

Others are more vivid and contrasting.

The neat thing is seeing all the variations that come up some are larger...

...and others are smaller!

First Mini Rose Bloom!!!

Here is the raised veggie bed all ready to go! We got 2 tomatoes both determinate varieties...in the desert if you get indeterminate you'll have a looming menace of a tomato on your hands! LOL Yup they turn into large ever growing monsters that get out of control! We have such a long growing season that it's better to get determinate varieties so that they will produce and be done...then we can always plant another set later. One time we planted an indeterminate cherry tomato and the thing went wild and we would even find tomato plants growing like weeds!
OK we also planted a six pack of strawberries! YUM
We used some landscape fabric this time to see how it works out, we've never really used it before, we'll get some mulch to cover over it too.

WOO HOO first mini rose bloom!!! We love these Fairy Roses so much we had to get some for this garden too.

Here is an overall shot of it...it's little now...but it will grow and billow! And you can see Don Juan back there still hasn't budded out but all the other roses have...we are worried it's going to die. Anybody got any tips to try and save it other than...wait and see?

See here? Look closely and you can see a ROSE BUD!!!!! Yup, now I'm sure you understand why we are worried about Don Juan all the other roses are off and running!

Sweet Pea still going, it's SO my favorite I have a huge bouquet in the house from it all the time! The Bougainvillea behind it is budding out too and you can see the hollyhocks are starting their run!

I just thought that little Viola that popped up in "Cupid" a short variety of Sweet Pea was just so adorable! We love Cupid so much we are for sure going to plant it next winter in larger quantities.

Making a Veggie Bed and a Cute Surprise

What a happy little surprise! This little viola popped up on the grass side of the sidewalk!

Here is Madie inspecting Papa's work creating a Veggie Bed!

Gerard made the raised bed out of some recycled 4x4's and 2x4's he picked up out at the woodpile on-post.

Here's how it's looking this afternoon, we'll be adding soil next. The black hose sticking out is for a drip-irrigation which works really nicely for the desert (and everywhere else too). Saves water and is more efficient, and in summer heat it's nice to have a good drip system getting the water where it's needed.

Special Day

Nothing like having pretty blooms to enjoy on my B-day! I even saw the first Hummingbird we've seen for this season!!! What a wonderful Birthday gift, God is so awesome like that!

The Hollyhocks are starting the race to get tall!

Roses are leafing out! At the base is one of 3 new Fairy Roses that we just got in the mail and planted. They even have buds already!

Morning Glories and Moonflower Sprouts

YUP we are making a small raised bed so we can grow some veggies!!!

All Gerard's babies growing!

New Baby Glory Lily born on my B-day!!!

Here is the other Glory Lily getting it's leaves.

Passiflora Actinia getting bigger!

Outdoor babies getting bigger.