Midgets and birds

OK, I am sooo officially not a "little person" but these sunflowers make me look extremely short! I am actually 5'7"!



And...look at one of the colorful visitors from our garden. These are so fast. There is a little family of them but I wanted to show you at least one picture.

I have some compost!

It worked. It worked! OK, the sunflower stems are too woody and I won't put them in next time but it defininitely worked. I had my husband help me carry the bin right into the garden so the compost tea (that icky black stuff on the bottom) can run right into the ground by the plants.

I am going to buy another bin now that I see it actually makes compost and is sooooo simple to do!

A non-recipe garden recipe

So.... when we got back from our vacation there was a hodge-podge of stuff ready to eat in the garden - a few summer squash, some onions, various peppers, a few green beans and some roma tomatoes. I sauteed the squash and the onions in some olive oil and then added the beans and cranked the heat up. After that cooked a few minutes I threw in the peppers followed by the tomatoes and some crushed garlic. A little salt and pepper to taste and it made a wonderful, wonderful side dish. I used both hot and sweet peppers so it had a nice little kick!

I'm baaaaaccckkk....

Hi. I've been gone! I've been having a great time! I've been in Ohio where there is actual dirt everywhere and everything is green. It was amazing and beautiful.

After reading Karen's post my daughter and I started lusting after the Lilac Spoon plants only to discover we couldn't find them anywhere in AZ. Everytime we passed a garden center I made my husband stop AND I FINALLY FOUND THEM! I brought four home on the plane and they are so cool. Mine are blooming like crazy already. I hope they can withstand our ridiculous summer.

I realize I haven't shown the compost bin, finished telling how I plant tomatoes or anything. For the compost bin I have an excuse. We had a big birthday party here over the weekend and I went out to take a picture of the compost only to discover that it was filled to overflowing with birthday plates and napkins. Hmmmm....

The planting I will get to shortly.

But a few observations that I found funny and would like to share with you are:

Our son-in-law is from the West and when he saw all the great fields of grass and grass growing along the roads he wondered aloud "who plants all that?" I told him it just grows and he totally did not believe me.

My husband when encountering big green lawns asked "do you mow all this?" Our friend said "yes". My husband then asked "do you use all this?" My friend said "no" My husband then said "well why do you mow it then?" My friend said "we like the way it looks." My husband is still puzzling over that.

So different between the West and Ohio.

And it's so beautiful there right now.

It's only 105 here today. Just. Ick. Ick. Ick.

But the eggplants, gourds and beans sure love it.

Too bad I can't get as enthused.