Spring garden art

 
Here is a Panorama pic I took in my garden, of various neighboring plants.
I think it's a beautiful image- It's how I always wanted to paint, but just couldn't get it out!
:-)
Anyhow, enjoy the eye candy, of fruit and veggie plants: (in order from left to right) nectarine blossoms, carrots, artichoke, plum and fennel. Buon appetito!

Bountiful desert garden

How can I tell that it is fall in Tucson? Our Pomegranate bush is filled with HUGE ripe fruits. I like them- always feel like I am "doing something good for my body" when I eat them. My 10 year old son LOVES them, and can devour an entire Pom in 10 minutes. I think that is why he has such amazing eyelashes...:-)

a Garden behind the house

Guido and Cosmo a few years ago with some peaches from one of our trees. YUM!

Just recently I've come to realize that I've become a gardener. I mean, I've always loved to be outside and dig in the soil- have had aspirations of living off the land...but didn't think about it becoming reality until lately. Actually, my husband (Guido) is the real gardener: I simply waltz in and do a bit of weeding watering and harvesting. (I have an excuse, not really able to do much because of my injured neck)

Me and Daisy in our back yard- the garden is behind me
and it's looking appropriately shaggy for monsoon season.

 

I'm one of those people who really enjoy raking and pruning and digging. In fact- my current injured status was in part due to a "freak gardening accident" where I over did it one day, making the garden look nice for an up coming Open Studio...and ended up stressing my bulging discs in my neck so much by the vibrations of the weed whacker that my discs decided to pack up and move out of alignment with my spine. oh, and just for fun pinch the hell out of my nerve on their way out.

anyways... we garden.
W live in Tucson, so we are a bit limited to what we can grow. Currently we are harvesting tomatoes daily, our Nectarines are just finished and our zucchini is on it's way out. We have at least 10-15 cantaloupe in the near future (break out the Prosciutto!) and delicious watermelons close after. Also our pomegranate has about 50-70 fruits ready in late August. I'd say we do pretty good for a mini urban veggie patch.  You just don't want our water bills- trust me. (it is truly worth it)

My sister is the one with the great soil- in Hood River OR. I think they have about 30 acres- mostly fruit orchard. and those cherries I've been talking about lately? like nothing you have ever tasted before.
Magnificent!

How about you? do you have a garden? (ps- I believe potted plants indoors counts as a garden too! I know what it's like to have no yard as an apartment dweller. It's one of the reasons why we live here, instead of Florence Italy, where the family home is smack in the center of the city and NO balcony, let alone a yard. I just can't do that right now. I NEED DIRT PEOPLE!! LOL, mini rant, over and out)
Tell me about your garden- do you have a favorite crop? (don't incriminate yourself of course)
I'd love to hear your garden stories!

Summer Pomegranate

Summer Pomegranate
Originally uploaded by cosmosmoonjewelry

every summer my clothesline gets invaded by a huge Pomegranate bush. we have hundreds of pomegranates at the end of summer.
Does anyone know a good trick for juicing these things? we usually just end up with a big mess:-P

Locavore ring

We maintain a home garden on our 1/4 acre lot in midtown Tucson. (although I'll admit it looks pretty shaggy right now due to the heat and the monsoon season's storms...) This current garden is now 3 years old and we have got it to be tuned to producing some sort of food crop year round.

That's right- year round!We are still doing fine tuning- figuring out what crops to grow when and what we need to add to this sandy desert soil. (thanks to the winter rains the peaches were AMAZING this year)

There is always tons of gardening to do- mostly weeding and mending irrigation lines- but we all enjoy the work- and feel that it is important to note how much work it takes to produce a single tomato. that knowledge humbles us- makes us feel our solidarity with the land and those who make their living off the land.

We are moderate locavores- meaning we make a conscious effort to  choose locally grown foods when possible. Locally grown food is fresher, and it uses less fossil fuels to get from the earth to the market.
Plus, if you shop at the local farmer's markets you get to know the people who are growing your food (raising the chicken/beef). Some of the ranchers are quite handsome too...;-)

on that note- Here's another "Textie" ring-  

(the pic is of my hand, harvesting a few of our amazing artichokes this spring)

Celebrate your commitment to the Locavore movement with this 

cool handmade mixed metals text ring!
Sterling and copper ring custom made to your size specifications. (sizes 4-9)

May 21 2010 rad #89 little carciofo 1

May 21 2010 rad #89 little carciofo 1
Originally uploaded by cosmosmoonjewelry

I was picking through my garden today, pulling weeds, checking on my plants- I was sad to see my little artichoke plant that was in front of my studio had given up for the year (it's shrunk down to a little meager plant..)

However, I did finally see that it had made an effort...and grew me a teeny weeny flower.

Good job plant! you gave me my ring of the day inspiration:-)
I paired the tiny Carciofo with one of my many Poppy seed pods from my spring wildflowers. the structure of the ring is pewter wire (wrapped in a loose "vine" ring.)

I like the gesture of the swooping wire- up to the "maraca" poppy pod.

It's very festive :-) A celebration of garden seasons! While most of the country is getting going on their gardens, here in Southern Arizona we are in our dry season. Which pretty much means it is unbearably hot and dry outside- what we call "driving with oven mitts weather"...because your car has turned into an oven.

In about a month or so we start monsoon season- when the desert sky becomes magnificent with dark rumbling clouds and flashy displays of lightning. We only hope that rain comes too...

Ok- that's my little ditty about AZ- Here's to Northern Raindrops making their way south!

ciao- MBZ

ps- Carciofo = Artichoke (singular)in Italian. it's pronounced Car- choff- oh.

seriously busy

Yes, I'm seriously busy these days...
holidays, kids stuff, events and general hubbub
too busy to really sit and express my thoughts in print..
I will be writing something brilliant and interesting soon.... <:-)

in the meantime, I thought I'd share this cool image I took the other day
of some flower petals wrapped in plastic-
(it was from a shipment I was sending to a friend in a colder part of the US...
I thought I'd send her a taste of the warm AZ winters)

If I didn't love metals so much I would be seriously pursuing photography...
now it's just super fun!
ciao-M

zucchini like cord wood

zucchini like cord wood
Originally uploaded by cosmosmoonjewelry

In the past week I have made 6 loaves of zucchini bread......
This pic shows 1/4 of the crop so far..(from 3 plants!)
I think we got the soil amended properly this year, because out tomatoes are yielding a bumper crop as well...
If only I could plant a chocolate tree......then my garden would be complete!

Cosmo really struggled under the weight of these babies!>>>