Hello any newcomers!  This blog has been in operation for several years and I am linking it to my  new blog Home Is Where The Heart Is  You will find articles on my gardening adventures here.

Update: Sadly, I have no garden at the moment.  In fact it's been two seasons without planting anything in my square foot gardens.  What with the early heat wave in 2010 and a perfectly lousy season last year I've decided just to go awhile 'til I can't stand it and then start anew. Reading other's gardening blogs helps to whet my appetite.  But, then again, yesterday's 118F temperature makes me think I made the right choice!  What can grow at these temperatures.?  Well, actually my cantaloupes did really well in this heat.  I grew them from seeds out of a cantaloupe I bought  at the store - and they were very tasty!  If you stop by, leave a comment.

I try to post daily or every other day on Home Is Where The Heart Is so come see me there!

burro prints

This is part of last year's garden. I decided not to garden through the hot summer months this year - except for my one little pepper plant. Any day now I'll start clearing out, adding new soil and amendments and get my fall crops in. Can't wait!

My New Preoccupation!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

Zazzle Has Me Bedazzled!

During these past three months of sizzling hot weather, and hence a lull in gardening, I've been on a whirlwind of activities setting up my Zazzle store: SunSuzi Designs by Lessandra at www.zazzle.com/lessandra* and joining Facebook and Twitter. And now, it's time to focus on our upcoming Third Annual Southwest Artisans Cooperatives' Art Marketplace. It's up to me to get the advertising out there - and to produce some more of my own artwork before the Marketplace starts!

Hotter Than Hot!

I can't believe it! Yesterday was 20-degrees hotter than Sunday and it's only April 21st - 105F! At noon time the tomato plants and pepper plants in the raised garden bed that gets the most sun were wilting. Even though the soil was still moist I gave them a generous watering and within minutes they were perked up again. I draped some shade cloth over that side of the bed, and draped shade cloth above the lettuce in bed #2 also. Hopefully it will cool down in a day or so because it is way too early to have temps in the 100's. Last Christmas my husband gave me an oven thermometer (even though I already had a good one). I read in a garden blog that these could be used in the garden to read the soil temperature. So I dug it out of the drawer and started testing the soil in all the SFGs and also all of the containers. In two of the beds that get about an hour of sun less than the bed #1 the temperature was around 79-80F. In bed #1 the temps were between 89-90F. I was shocked when I read the soil temperatures in the containers - 94-100F! Poor little flowers and herbs. Now I've got to think of what to do to keep them cooler. One of the things I will be doing is keeping the large watering can filled and stored in the kitchen - because when the temps stay in the high 90's and up the water in the ground stays very hot and I don't think that is going to help cool down the plants. Anyone have any good ideas for keeping cool in the hot desert sun?

Tomato Progress

Today was a hot day! 85F - At high noon I went outside to check on the garden and: wilt! wilt! The peppers and nasturtiums were really wilted, and the tomatoes were just starting to droop. Even though my moisture meter shows there is moisture in the raised beds it certainly isn't enough when the temp gets high and there is dry, hard blowing hot air. This is by far the hardest part of gardening for me - do they have enough water? am I overwatering? I think I've killed most of my marigolds because I insist on watering them along with everything else, and from what I've read they really need very little water. But, then again, since they are annuals maybe it's just the end of their life cycle. I will definitely have to continue reading up on this. Here are progress pixs of all the tomato plants: (The early girls are lagging because I grew them from seeds and all the others were store-bought plants).