Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Our Chard garden

Since coming here to the desert i had one major goal in mind... other than recuperation from life's stormy gales:
To Grow a salad garden... YEAH!

One would think things would grow well with the endless sunshine we have here in the desert... and since we are along the Colorado river and there is a large agricultural community along the banks, i sort of hoped growing veggies would be a done deal.

 Too soon i came to understand that this desert sun can be a 'bit' intense for tender seedlings and though we did get a small crop of heat resistant tomato's the Sun soon beat down my hopes for anything more abundant....
....At least at the time.
The supposedly heat tolerant lettuce i grew was scraggly from the get go but we did have some with sandwiches... we made the best of it......The Chard only reached about 1 inch tall but after weathering the heat... IT and a tiny lettuce are still alive after six months and getting some color even! How Funny is this?
But we are elated!
...... kind of like Eeyore when he received the empty 'hunny jar' and popped balloon from his friends on his birthday... Anyone remember that story? i've always appreciated how much those mangled gifts meant to that sad little guy... that's the way i felt about our 1st desert experiment... they may not have reached their full potential but boy what fun it was just playing with the dirt, picking out plants, watering, sitting in the sun and watching something peek out from the soil.

Though the sun my have Charred our hopes earlier in the year.... we didn't give up ...
 No! ...can't do that!
Sweetie B. built us a Better planter... We waited for the weather to cool ...planted a new crop on October 11th... we have had to cover it already as the temps have been low ... but...
The sun has not Charred our Chard this time!
YaY!

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.~ Maori Proverb

4 comments:

  1. Hey Kare! It pays not to give up! The second little crop looks wonderful. Hope you're having a great week. It's cold here in Florida today.
    Hugs from mamabug!

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  2. Thank You Mama-bug ... This is so much Fun! We're all turned around on these growing seasons now. So we're just going for it...
    We might be having Salad for Christmas!
    Blessings & Hugs for Your week Too!
    *kare

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  3. Good luck with that garden! I'm still rather challenged with gardening, but i keep trying. One of these days i'll get it right! :) You can be my hero/mentor/the person i aspire to be. :)

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  4. Wow Kathryn, Thanks for the wishes and vote of confidence! Let's dive in and have fun with our 'challenged' gardens..You Will get it right..just don't give up!
    Don't forget to plant something you like:))
    I hope you are feeling much better!
    Hugs & buzz's
    *kare

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