Guava has fruit! It isn't even in a greenhouse.

I love that dual use compost bin lazy. Good thinking.

We're in clean-up mode too but we're not moving. Need rake out all the 'mulch' under the lady banks hedge so we can spray it down with beneficial nematodes (BN) and hopefully get rid of the ticks and grasshopper breeding ground. Hard work that.

Got garlic? To the left of the garlic is a row of shallots that are doing well and the rest of the bed is onions, too small to see well in this pic. There's also some onions in the cinder blocks. There *was* tansy planted but the birds seem to have grabbed it all. Dang birds. I recently added a few strawberries plugs in some of the cinder blocks.

Anemone popped over the weekend.

LOL, copycat!

Love seeing the happy tomatoes, herbs, onions and plants, and yes, the anemone for sure. Thanks for posting fun updates!

Lots of the basics look great in my garden: aloes, geraniums, petunias, and wildflower seedlings. I'm harvesting 20-30 oranges and 40-60 lemons each week from my citrus trees. I'm juicing the oranges each morning, and using the lemons for all sorts of recipes, plus taking extra lemons to work where they're eagerly accepted, thanks goodness, hah!

Here's a few pics from this weekend. Keep the updates coming. Happy gardening!

Citrus from just this weekend:

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Aloe cryptopoda which always blooms each Jan/February and needs no protection summer/winter (full hot sun all year for this one, unlike many aloes that like a little shade).

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And then this thing. What is it? I bought a six pack at a nursery this autumn and I don't have the label. I know it's somewhat related to bok choy, and I plan to eat it in an Asian recipe, but if you know for sure please chime in, LOL.

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Happy gardening!
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, so far!, Feb 2014

Grant. What variety of oranges and lemons are the pictures of? Beautiful fruit.

Thanks, DocHollywood. The oranges are 'Arizona Sweets' from a small tree I planted 5 years ago, and the lemons are mostly 'Meyer Improved' with just a couple 'Lisbon' mixed in.

And if anyone knows what my leafy vegetable is, please let me know, LOL. I'm eating it either way, hah!

Here's a quick pic of a flower on an Oenothera biennis that has had at least one, and often fifty, flowers every single day since last APRIL. Talk about a performer! (Yes, I know it's a weed in many parts of the world, LOL).

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Plus a quick-pic of some 'Rhythm & Blues' petunias which have been blooming since autumn. That's one of my favorite prickly pears, Opuntia quimilo, at left, standing about 5-6 feet tall.

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Happy gardening all and keep the updates, pics or no, coming!

Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, Feb 2014

Grant,

That looks like the Napa cabbage that I have growing. If I get some time I can get a few pictures of what mine look like.

Grant.
I thought they looked familiar. I have a Lisbon (expecting the first crop next year. Only one lemon this year. Has been in the ground for 1 year). My orange tree is about 2 years in the ground and has about 2 dozen fruit this year. It is a Trovita. Is that an Arizona Sweet?

Things are looking good, I primarily stay on the amaryllis forum but I like to see whats happening over here. Anyways heres what I've got right now.

Grant - yes, Napa cabbage ;)

Also looking good: Valencia oranges, Meyer lemons, arugula, Reddina lettuce, Stupice tomatoes, Thai chiles...

Fun updates and pics, all, thanks for posting them! Love the amaryllis/Hippeastrum bloom, Devonfawn, thanks for posting it! What's the variety name? So pretty!

Neat about your citrus, Doc, they're actually bearing pretty young. I just harvested 40 oranges from my AZ sweet orange tree today--such awesome, amazing juice! Yes, Trovita is one of the Arizona sweet types and a very good one too. My tree was five years old before it started really bearing. I've got a tangerine, blood orange, and navel orange that are still too young to bear. My 'Ruby Red' grapefruit was purchased as a 2 foot tall, hah, grafted sapling and that one has taken five years to bear a modest crop of three fruit this year, lol, but they're delicious for sure! Keep us posted on yours!

Thanks for the help with the Napa cabbage, Lynne! How long will you let yours go before you harvest? Will it have the blocky upright shape like the ones at the store is it/ours a different type? I love how happy and vigorous mine are too. So fun! Love your harvest and harvest basket too. Charming! I'm still getting cherry tomatoes from plants that made it through the winter so far, and lots and lots of really wonderful leaf lettuce. So great!

My "cape cowslips" (Lachenalia) are still blooming away on the east side of the house. Fun bulbs for winter blooms. They go dormant for summer and really need zero water or care during those long hot months.

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My first butterfly bush in Arizona (Buddleia) which survived last summer without any irrigation believe it or not, is starting to bloom. It's absolutely covered in flower buds so I'm really looking forward to the show. It wilts most summer afternoons, but perks right up after sunset. It survived me going to Hawaii for ten days, plus a few work trips that were a week or longer just fine. Interesting!

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Finally, the first bloom on just one of many, MANY nasturtiums all over the garden. Such easy, fun plants for winter/spring blooms here. This one is tucked in with some bright yellow violas too. What a nice, citrusy, sunny combination, plus it smells great!

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Happy gardening all! Keep the updates coming!
Grant

Enjoying this mild winter. Plants that normally are frozen to the ground: Mexican flame vine (Senecio confusus).{{gwi:395257}}
Purple lantana.{{gwi:395258}}

Update mid-month ...

The leafy green are big enough for small harvests, but I regret not planting them in October.

Scarlet runner beans have sprouted
Some purchased chilis and tomatoes have been planted. Planted two Romas in the compost bin. They are twice the size of the ones planted in dirt.

Tomato seedlings have been planted
Tomatillo seedlings have been planted
Herb seedlings have been planted

I'm trying a different approach: setting them out as sproutlings, not waiting for the true leaves. So far, in their little topless mini-cloches made of plastic cups, they are surviving and true leaves are appearing. The quail have not discovered them.

And a whole HERD of penstemons have volunteered in the xeriscape jungle section.

Grant, I love that pic of violas and nasties. Very nice.

Jon, the Mexican flame vine is stupendous.

Lazy, I've sowed LOTS of penstemon seed but not a single sprout. Wonder what I'm doing wrong?

This is a Black Krim tomato that was planted LAST March. It struggled through the summer and this warm, mild winter has it producing nice, juicy fruit. I like to grill them in thick slices.

Turned in lots of compost, including vermi-compost, and got this bed planted yesterday. Two tomatillo's, one Super Sioux tomato, some 'walking' onions....and several olla's. Malabar red spinach will twine up the trellis. Two more beds to go.

Lazy, I've sowed LOTS of penstemon seed but not a single sprout. Wonder what I'm doing wrong?

I have no idea. I collected the seeds from one plant along the road and scattered them, and a few years later I have them. It's Penstemon parryii (the hot pink low desert one) growing where it gets some afternoon shade and not much else.

They take a while to decide to sprout, and it often takes a really wet winter. And they don't usually bloom the first year ... learn to recognize the leaves so you don't weed them out.

The scarlet runner beans have sprouted and so far not been devoured by quail ... so have the Armenian cucumbers. And some sunchokes that had been in the refrigerator for months survived and are sprouting.

Awesome updates everyone. So fun to see. Like several posters mentioned, my tomato plants (and basil!) survived this winter just fine and are producing quite nicely again. Leaf lettuce is just making an amazing crop so I can have several salads a week (the earliest sowings from October have started bolting/flowering so I'm ripping those out and replacing with new youngsters). What a mild winter this has been!

Jon, does your Senecio usually survive the winter or do you re-start it from cuttings? I grew it at my last Scottsdale garden and always took cuttings as insurance, but after selling that place I have no idea if it got torched in a freeze or what.

I love your beds, Mary, especially the neat trellis on the last pic--so neat!

I've got aloe blooms, and lemon fruit coming out my eyeballs, lol.

Here's a quick pic of my covered patio yesterday, just for fun (Wilson the tennis ball discreetly placed to show relative size, hah).

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Agave parryi and Euphorbia rigida in the front garden this morning:

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A fun "mutt" "mongrel" or "hybrid" (depending on who you ask and what their mood is, LOL) aloe, which clearly has mostly Aloe striata in its ancestry, blooming away (tennis ball to show size).

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Happy gardening everyone, enjoy this fabulous weather!
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics from my garden, Feb 2014

Grant, the Senecio confusus froze to the ground last winter. It grew back from the roots when it warmed up. It is blooming like madness now.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/25oa6znzi7b6kxz/MRxi0J8bEL

Spinach Harvest

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/zk3tico7gxlrz8t/tWng8SnLuB

Here is how big my spinach has gotten. Giant Noble is a success here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/pzggajzmzb3j1l0/P1HjTiAamr

Grant here is what my Napa Cabbage looks like now.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/rjv9qe6jjpckutm/qlB9Dtcuy2

My full shade garden is doing great

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/6eywhunx6xmiwwh/tkclGAVe6b

Here is the other half of the full shade garden. The chard is growing big now. Definitely slower than the full sun with afternoon shade garden.

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/qva92gy09lat7ym/RaeRndFSvr

Here is the full sun garden. This is after the spinach harvest above. This is already my second spinach harvest. Hopefully I can get one more before they bolt.

Love all of the new pics and updates, all. Great pic of your flame vine, Jon. I may have to plant one in this garden too. So easy from cuttings that I may take some in autumn just as insurance, although it sounds like yours has proven nice and hardy. What's it climbing on, by the way?

Happy gardening all,
Grant

The flame vine is growing up a 7' x 4' sheet of concrete remesh, which is 1/8" steel wire welded on a 6" grid, available at Lowes and HD. The remesh is stapled to a frame of cheap landscape timbers.
The vine is companion planted with Passiflora arida.