How Does My Garden Grow?

Blossoms on the Roma tomato plant

So now that Simon and I are staying in one place for a while, we figured we would try our hand at growing some stuff in the little garden plots that had been growing nothing but weeds at our rental house.  Of course it was daunting from the get-go, and I haven't always had the best luck when it comes to keeping plants alive.  Dogs, on the other hand, I seem to have no problem with keeping alive.  Kinda strange when you think about it, but maybe you gardeners can sympathize with my plight of buying one of those basil plants from the grocery store, bringing it home, watering it, giving it sun, and having it die after a few short weeks of life.  Granted, I know that I should have repotted it, as every instruction that ever comes with any of those plants will tell you.  I just didn't want to go through the hassle of buying an entire bag of potting soil for the purpose of repotting one tiny little plant.  I thought maybe they could survive on good vibes and wishful thinking.  So I didn't repot them.  And they always died.  And I was always discouraged.  Even though I knew deep down that it was my fault entirely that the plant didn't survive.  Basil is ridiculous easy to grow if you give it enough soil to root, even here in Arizona.

Surprise ground cover vine that sprouted recently. The blooms open early in the morning and close up shortly after sunrise

Growing plants in Northern Arizona is very different from growing plants in Minnesota.  I think it's the elevation, the late freezes, and the dry air.  And the lack of rain.  And the brutal sunshine.  I guess there are a whole lot of factors going on around here that complicate the gardening process for someone so used to a completely different climate.  And given that I wasn't an accomplished gardener before, the challenges presented here in Arizona have been difficult to overcome.

Sphinx moth perusing one of our flowering bushes

When I owned my little house in Minnesota, the yard came with some day lilies and some hastas.  Having no clue whatsoever what either of these plants were when they started to sprout up in the spring, I sprayed them with Roundup thinking that they were weeds.  And I didn't just spray them, I doused them.  I drowned them in enough herbicide to probably wipe out a 40 acre field.  Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but I'm a little disturbed at how much herbicide I used that day.  And yet, they survived.  The weeds all died, but the hastas and day lilies remained.  It wasn't until a friend of mine came over and told me what was growing in my yard that I began to appreciate their beauty, their taking up of a spot that I didn't have to mow (I loathed mowing my lawn) and their hardiness.  I literally did nothing to those plants (outside of the Roundup) and they flourished.  A friend of mine gave me some leftover annuals from her garden, so I stuck them in the ground, gave them a little water, and they grew like crazy.  And that's how it is in Minnesota…things just seem to grow with minimal effort, at least that was my experience.  Perhaps I just had the luck of growing plants that are basically kill-proof.

One of the annual plants that survived

And then I moved to Arizona and got it into my head that if I could grow plants in Minnesota with minimal effort, then it stood to reason that I could also grow plants here in Flagstaff.  After spending over $100 on plants and potting compost, I figured it was a small price to pay in the event that it was a total bust and everything died.  And everything did almost die.  I had it in my head that perhaps the green-thumb I so envied in my Grandma Ellringer might possibly be genetic, and that maybe if I wished the plants well enough and gave them a little bit of water once a day, that they would just grow on their own.  Ha.  I ended up having to resort to Miracle Grow just to save the majority of them, and even after that there were two casualties.  Although, given that I started out with 3 tomato plants (cherry, san marzano, and roma), 1 jalapeño plant, 1 basil plant, 1 rosemary plant, 2 peonies, 1 bush, 5 ground cover vine things, and 12 individual annuals, two casualties doesn't really seem like that many.

Cherry tomatoes growing! They're going to be yellow and oval shaped when ripe.

Once I figured out that I needed to water them twice a day, and that I needed to water them a lot, they started to grow like crazy.  Well, some of them did.  The roma and cherry tomato plants are out of control.  Both of them have a bunch of little tomatoes on them.  I realize now that I planted them much too close together.  I've never grown tomatoes before, so I had no idea that they would get so massive.  They're literally blocking out the sun for the jalapeño and the san marzano plants.  The jalapeño plant has always been sickly looking.  It's got a bunch of blossoms on it, but it's still pretty much the same size as it was when I brought it home from the store, and the leaves are all brown along the edges.  Maybe that's just what they look like…I don't know.  I'm too lazy to do much research...and I wonder why my garden almost died…hahaha!

Another one of the annuals

The annuals are doing better.  They're so pretty.  I don't remember the name of them, but they're all different colors and on the days that I'm not sleeping all day to prepare for a night shift, I actually get to see them and enjoy them.  They add a nice pop of color to the yard. They close up nice and tight the minute any shade hits them though, so my viewing time is very limited.  The peonies are doing all right.  In the little bit of research that I did on peonies, I'm not expecting any blooms this year.  And it stands to reason that there might not be any blooms next year either.  But I hope there are.  Peonies remind me of my Grandma Ellringer, who I miss dearly, so I'm really hoping that the peonies produce some blooms for me.

Female humming bird on our feeder

The bushes and the ground cover…meh…they don't excite me much.  I just wanted something to fill in the space in the yard.  What our yard could really use is a big tree in the front, but I'm not about to take on the task of paying for and keeping alive a tree.  I could see that being a disaster.  Although, I was at Walmart the other day (I hate Walmart, but oddly enough, I couldn't find a watering can anywhere else in town), and they had Japanese Maple trees, which were growing all over the place in California when Simon and I were out there.  They're such beautiful trees, but I question their ability to actually grow here in Flagstaff, as I've never seen a single one here.  And given that they were selling them at Walmart, I highly doubt they put a whole lot of thought into what plants are regionally sound to grow in our climate.  I asked Simon if we could get one to have as an indoor plant.  He said no.  Typical…haha.  So no Japanese Maple for me.  We do have a bush that came with the house, and it's got these really pretty little purple flowers on it.  It's been a haven for honey bees during the day and sphinx moths during the evening.  It's so fun to watch the little buggers flit from blossom to blossom.  Our little pollinators.  :)

So yeah…all in all, the gardening is actually going quite well.  I haven't used the Miracle Grow in a few weeks, and the plants continue to get bigger and bigger, to get more and more blooms.  It's kinda cool to see results from a project that I knew little to nothing about before beginning.  I'm glad it's turned out as well as it has, and I'm really looking forward to eating some homegrown tomatoes in the next month or two!  Maybe next year I'll be a little more ambitious and actually do some research, and take on growing some different plants.

Cherry tomato blooms

    

        

Out With the Bad Air…In With the Good Air...

A buddy and I were recently airing our grievances about the time-suck machine that is Facebook.  We both agreed that we spend far too much time on it, and given that amount of time, we spend far too much of it irritated at what other people are posting.  Earlier this year, he went so far as to keep off Facebook for an entire month, and was quite pleased to see his productivity at work increase, he spent more time with his little ones in the evening, and he just felt better about life in general.  He's actually contemplating deleting his Facebook account entirely.  I'd be lying if I said the thought hadn't crossed my mind a time or two in the last month or so.

It's funny how communication has changed since Facebook, and admittedly, the internet in general.  I don't know that there's any social media site that has had the impact on our day-to-day lives that Facebook has.  Odds are pretty decent that if you can't reach someone by phone, text, or email, you can reach them on Facebook.  I don't know why this is.  Is there a disconnect?  Are people more comfortable conversing through the anonymity that Facebook provides, even if the person they are conversing with is a close friend or family member?  It's weird.  When you really stop to think about the number of people with whom you used to talk on a regular basis, whose friendship has now been transferred to the confines of Facebook, it gets a little sad.

What I've noticed in the last few years is how much stress Facebook has added to my life.  And it wasn't something that I was even aware of for a very long time.  In the last month or so, I've noticed how irritated I get when I go on Facebook.  Facebook used to be a place where I kept up with the goings on of my friends and family back home while I was on the road travel nursing.  It was great for that.  Even though I would be sad that I was missing out on a friend's BBQ or a camping trip, I still felt somewhat connected to them through photos and comments that they would post.  Through added features, I could follow some of my favorite musicians, intellectuals, artists, and stores.  I could "like" things, and they would show up on a list for me so I could go back and look at them later.  It was fun to see how much I could expand my world through a computer screen.  Until it wasn't.

Like anyone else, there are things that define me or things in which I take a personal interest.  I've been an atheist for years, but only recently have I been able to connect with other atheists…both in my personal circle and further out.  I had been following a few science intellectuals for a while, which I enjoyed.  But more often than not, I found that a lot of posts by fellow atheists didn't do much more than bash Christianity and organized religion as a whole.  It got tiring, it got irritating, it became maddening, seeing all these posts about clergy who had raped children, female circumcision, oppression, abuse, and murder all committed in the name of religion.  I would see these articles every day, and it made me angry.  It made me want to lash out at everyone who aligned themselves with any sort of organized religion.  Until I took a step back and realized that not every Christian is like that (of course, I already knew that, but it's hard to keep perspective when emotionally charged).  Admittedly, I posted some unkind things towards Christianity that were probably very hurtful to the majority of Christians I know, who also happen to be very good people.  And truly, that wasn't my intent.  I think there was a part of me that wanted to understand why people would take the Bible verbatim, why they would align themselves with a text that is brutal, violent, and very unkind to women.  I wanted to know how they got past the more disturbing tales in the Bible, yet still believed in it.  I don't think I'll ever understand it, and that's okay.  Live and let live.  I personally don't think I'm any more right or wrong than anyone else.  If you're okay with me being atheist, I'm okay with you being Christian, so long as it's not hurting anyone.  Although one's definition of what's hurtful or not is left wide open to interpretation.  I'm choosing to leave the conversation for the time being.

And then there is the political crap.  And I say crap intentionally because that's what it is.  One side is complaining about the liberal agenda, one side is complaining about the conservative agenda, when in fact, they both have an agenda…let's not kid ourselves about that one.  I've gotten suckered into many a conversation either defending my post or attacking another.  It's exhausting, and really, we're lucky if we know even 10% of what our government is actually doing, so what's the point in arguing about it?  I don't like seeing political posts, and for the most part, and they're all fluff and guesswork and fear-based diatribe.  It's like arguing about the existence of unicorns or sasquatches.  Nobody really knows, so they just pick a side and go with it.  And argue loudly about it.  I'm sick of posts that are hateful to our President.  As if any of these complainers could handle being in his shoes for an entire day.  If you really stop to think about it, being President of The United States has got to be one of the most thankless, yet still prestigious, jobs ever.  No matter what you do, what you wear, where you go, who you talk to, what you order at Chipotle, you're always pissing someone off.  You know what?  I like Obama.  I wouldn't mind meeting the man someday and shaking his hand.  Do I like everything about him?  Probably not, but I don't know him either.  He seems like a nice enough person, and seems to have good intentions.  Same with George W. Bush…he seemed nice enough.  I actually felt kind of bad for him being strapped to 9/11 so early on in his presidency.  I can't imagine having to deal with a situation like that.  The decisions he made in that instance, good, bad or otherwise, followed him throughout his entire time in office.  I thought that maybe he tried a little too hard to appeal to the least common denominator and maybe didn't make himself look too intelligent, but I think he actually is an intelligent person.  I don't think you can get to be President of the United States by being an idiot.  

I've come to the conclusion that Facebook has become, for some people, a platform to complain and start fights about anything and everything (myself included).  And that makes me sad, because I really used to enjoy coming on Facebook.  So, I'm doing something about it.  I'm unsubscribing from pages that get me emotionally charged.  I'm deleting or hiding friends and family members who post articles, videos, and comments that are offensive, unnecessary, or conspirational in nature.  And I will likewise hold myself to those same standards.  Maybe that's burying my head in the sand, but I just don't want to see it anymore.  I want Facebook to be fun for me again, not just a platform to attack people and spread negativity.  I saw a poster recently regarding conversation etiquette that advised people to consider three things before speaking: 1. Is is true? 2. Is it necessary? 3. Is it kind?  These three things can be applied to internet postings as well.  I find that a lot of negative and emotionally charged posts wouldn't make it past #1.  Even less would make it past #2.  And as for #3?  If you really feel the need to say something unkind to someone, don't be such a coward about it and say it to their face.  Don't hide behind your computer screen and attack them from your keyboard.

A friend of mine recently wondered aloud what Facebook would be like if we all just posted our own posts for one year…no reposting of articles, nothing taken from other peoples pages or sites…just pure originality.  I think it would be a very different Facebook.  I'm going to try that…for a month.  I can't commit to anything for a year, are you kidding me??        

I'm doing an experiment today.  I've gone on Facebook once this morning, and I'm going to stay off of it until tomorrow morning (well, outside of posting this on Facebook…hahaha!).  I know it's going to be hard, because when I honestly think about how often I go on there, how often that little red number shows up on my phone and I have a peek just to see what new notification I have (odds are it's one of those stupid game requests…stop sending me those!  I don't play games on Facebook! But it's all right if you do…).  Well, maybe hard isn't the right word, since checking Facebook has become almost as commonplace as going to the bathroom.  I even check Facebook sometimes when I'm in the bathroom…hahaha!  To be fair, I've read through all the bathroom readers that we have, so I'm currently lacking in reading material.  At least that's my current excuse.  I'm sure I could come up with others to rationalize my bathroom Facebooking.  But not today!!  Today, the phone will stay out of the bathroom.  I will set it aside on its little charger and just let it be.

I want to start blogging again (I have about 5 that are unfinished), to get back to my pile of scrapbooking mess that I've been turning a blind eye to for the last 8 months (years behind…years), to get outside and run around, to walk my little dog, to call a friend or two whom I haven't spoken to in months, to dig around in my garden (our tomatoes are growing!!), to get out on my bike.  Facebook, in one way or another, takes away from all those things.  Because I've allowed it to.  And I'm not going to anymore.  I feel better already.  :)

The Temperature is Rising...

"Wait for the monsoons," they said.  "It'll cool down," they said.  Well…I have.  And it didn't.  And here I sit, naked at my desk chair, sweating and angry.  I've been sweating since 8:30 since morning, and it's left me quite cranky.

Air conditioning isn't a thing here in Flagstaff.  I don't know why, but it isn't.  And it's hot here.  High 80's/low 90's is hot and I don't care if it's a "dry" heat…it's still hot.  I've been told to go spend a day in Phoenix, that upon my return to Flagstaff, I'll appreciate the weather here.  And yes, it's hot in Phoenix. But that doesn't mean that it's not hot here.  It's all relative to where you are.  If I could bottle up the Phoenix environment and bust it out every time I started getting hot and cranky in Flagstaff, then yes, I probably would appreciate 90 degrees as opposed to 110.  But I'm incapable of differentiating when I'm still sweating whilst lying in my skivvies in front of two fans running at high speed.

I'm a hot sleeper…alway have been, most likely always will be.  I'm one of those crazy people who sleeps with the windows open almost right up until the first snows hit the ground.  Even in the winter, I sleep with a light blanket, and sometimes just a sheet.  We keep our furnace set around 62 degrees in winter, mostly because we're cheap and know that putting on more clothes is free, but partly because I don't like feeling overheated, not even a little bit.  Simon is the opposite.  He sleeps swaddled under a blanket even in the summertime.  Most of the time, I can't even see his face because he covers up his head.  The funny thing is, for someone who feels so cold while sleeping, he dumps heat like a furnace.  I can't even sleep next to him most of the time.

I also have the misfortune of owning pugs…pugs who have less heat tolerance than I do, who pant at a constant starting at 60 degrees, and who can't stand to be more than 5 feet away from me at any given moment.  So, not only am I hot and sweaty, but I've got two dogs who are hot and sweaty, panting in my face, stinking up my air and driving me nuts with the noise.  Granted, I've made my bed with these dogs and so I have to lie in it, but the combination of my crankiness and their panting does not make for a good outcome.  I find myself moving from room to room to avoid them, only to have them frantically pace after me to see where I'm going.  Which just exacerbates the heavy breathing and the panting.

It's gotten to the point that I make up excuses to go places just so I can be in air conditioning.  Our trips to the movie theater increase in the summer, I find random reasons to go to Target, and my desire to cook at home is non-existent.  Well, I have very little desire to cook at home to begin with, but the idea of heating up the house by turning on the stove is repulsive.  I even look forward to going to work, knowing that for 12 straight hours, I get to be cold.

We have a running joke in our house…"Simon said no." That's my response to just about anything when Simon thinks that an idea I have isn't really all that great.  And 90% of the time, he's usually right.  I'm one of those people who thinks that there's got be a way to buy something to make inconvenient situations convenient.  Simon is one of those people who tries to make do with what he has until it has been proven otherwise.  So you can see the struggle we sometimes have when faced with adversity, whether it be a legit adversity or not.  I wanted an air conditioner in May.  Simon said no, that we have enough fans and that we can leave the windows open at night and close them up during the day to keep the house cool.  So that worked for May.  I wanted an air conditioner in June, Simon gave me the same response.  And for the most part, it worked.  It's now July, the rainy season is here, and it's not cooling down like everyone promised it would.  I remember going through this last year as well…the constant sweating, the crankiness, the inability to sleep…it's all so familiar.  However, I made the proclamation just a few minutes ago, that I am buying an air conditioner on Monday.  I don't yet know what kind, but it's happening.  For the sake of all involved, if I have to spend very many more days like this, it's going to get really ugly.

On the plus side, I figured out how to make my favorite iced coffee drink from my favorite coffee drink here in town.  I randomly asked them the other day if the iced mocha was made with milk or half and half, or a combination of the two, and was slightly disgusted to be informed that the drink is made with ONLY half and half.  And I've been drinking 16oz cups of these things, multiple times a week.  No wonder I can't lose an inch these days!  So with Simon's newest interest in cold brew, I found a way to make my favorite iced drink using milk…I can barely tell the difference.  And I'm happy again.  And I hear thunder…bring it!!