This little iris is pretty .
I just researched the globe mallow and learned that the leaves, the flowers and the seeds are edible. Guess I'll be doing some munching. Right now the 3'x3' bushes are full of the meaty little seed pods and still quite a few flowers . They say they are good in salads although not commonly used. 
The mallow has bloomed and now these little seed pods are coming on. While the stems are still malable ( sorry, had to use that) I am trimming off the branches and cutting them into 1" - 3" strips. I want to use them as mulch. Right now they are full of seed heads and since mallow is in the hybiscus family and most mallow is edible, I gave a seed head a try. They are actually quite meaty and not bad. I felt I could make a meal of them easily but since I'm not totally sure they are edible I decided to eat one and wait. I took the trimmings into the chicken pen and will let the chickens scratch and eat what they want then I will rake them up and put them on the garden. 
The blooms up close. I think they are the most exotic flowers. The bushes are interspersed with the desert marigold I have seeded up the driveway. 
Up along the driveway I have many of these desert bird of paradise in bloom. There is a wonderful fragrance when I walk down the driveway. 
This picture is just tooo cute not to post. I found it on the internet. It's exactly how I feel about my fruiting trees. 
Remember last year I posted a picture of an apple tree I planted and asked the question. I wonder what this tree will look like in a year? It's covered with little apples. 
This almond I planted this Spring about a month and a half ago. It has 5 or 6 very large almonds all ready. 
This almond I planted last Spring. I think I will have to thin out some of the nuts they are so close.
Quite a few of my fig trees have nice big figs on them.
Lots of plums coming on my three year old tree.
My three year old apricot is just loaded with fruit, every branch is full.
I took back some dead trees to Home Depot this past week and got store credits. For those store credits I got plants and trees. Here is a little pink gratefruit that I'm going to leave on my porch for now in a big pot.
When My family was out my sister-in-law asked me if I was ever going to stop planting more trees. I just looked at her but then lately I started wondering just how many trees I've planted. After counting them up there are 80 trees and more than 50% of those are fruit and nut trees. I still have plans for more trees. I want more mesquites and palo verdes in certain areas and I would like to plant more pomegranates and nuts for a cash crop. I'm thinking about almonds since they seem to be available here at Home Depot and Wallmart with the year guarantee. I like almonds almost better than any kind of nut so I'm thinking maybe 10 - 20 trees for a cash crop. I'll list the trees in a later blog. 
It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday and I spent a good part of the day working outdoors. I did lots of weed chopping and planting all those trees I bought and traded last week on the windy days. Notice how different the terrain looks this year. Spring rains brings forth grass and wild flowers. This is a picture of my elderberry bush I planted last fall. In front of it is a blooming globe mallow. You can see the big new house built this year in the right hand upper corner. I love it when the globe mallow grows with the desert marigold as the bright yellow flowers with the beautiful apricot of the globe mallow really compliment each other. I have encouraged both to grow all over my property. Yesterdays warmth brought out the blooms. This is a young globe mallow but some of the bushes are three to four feet high and bush way out. I'm thinking that when they are done blooming I'm going to cut the stems and use them for mulch, lots of bio mass. 
This little iris was blooming but I accidently broke it off when I was watering. Nice colors.
I have been wanting to get out and do more planting but the last two days the winds have been fierce. There is a bit of a chill but it's bearable. I just don't feel like being out in it for very long. Yesterday, I figured if I couldn't work outside I'd go to the local nursery and see what was available there. Of course I never come home empty handed. I got trees for the empty spots up my driveway. Palo Verde and shoestring acacia and a couple other shrubs to fill in with. Later in the day I decided to drive over the hill to Home Depot to return three trees that had died during the year and get a refund. I save all my plant receipts in a monthly check file. That is working very well. I came out with $66.00 worth of credit. Of course that means MORE trees! One is a dwarf lime that I'm going to pot and keep on my back porch. I have a planter there that I got at a thrift store that has a fake plant in it. Now I have some beautiful greenery to put in that spot that is alive and may produce, limes.
The drive over the hill was just beautiful. The flowers were out in force. The desert marigold along the road was lush and colorful along with the mallow and crackle bush. The beautiful yellow of the desert marigold and the apricot of the globe mallow is always breathtaking to me. I just love the combination of color. Among these gorgeous shows of color were the bluebonnets. The purple blue spikes enhance the lovely apricot and yellows. Over the hill it was much less windy and the weather was just perfect. It felt like Spring.
This morning the wind is going on in full force and even though I have been out for a bit, chopping weeds for the chickens, I want so much to get out and plant. I can only take so much wind and some tasks are not easy when the wind is pushing on you , whipping everything around.
I had a nice meal of some of my young spinach and fresh eggs this week. I've been putting arugula in my salads and I have some lettuce in the row that looks big enough to start taking some outer leaves. I've also been enjoying radishes from the garden. I always feel amazed when seeds come up and produce, as I am amazed how much fruit is coming on my young fruit trees. I will be posting some pictures of the fruit in the coming weeks. I'm making progress with my paradise, my garden of eatin. 
I love the aloe when it blooms. Lots of weeds this year because of the Spring rains but I work at it everyday. I got a couple aloe plants from someones grandma at the swap meet for 5o cents a piece. Now I have several beds of them here and there. You can see my trees in the background getting bigger. The little yellow flower is a baby desert marigold coming up. I'm getting lots of those here and there. 
Chicks hatched this week, Monday. Two moma hens and 5 chicks. There were originally 12 eggs, 6 under each . Once the first 5 were hatched the hens left the eggs and it looks like they are going to share the chicks. There is another hen setting in another place and they should hatch in about a week. There may be more of a chance of 100% hatch with her because she has made her nest on the ground. With these chicks once some chicks are out of the nest and on the ground the hens leave the nests and stay on the ground with the chicks. The eggs were all ready cold when I realized the chicks had hatched. I was expecting them on Wednesday. Too late. This is the inside of the long hen house. I'm bringing the chicks and hens ground up scratch two or three times a day. I grind it in my coffee mill . 
When I go out hiking I have plucked the heads off the desert marigold, a wild flower that grows here. When I come home I scatter the seeds where I would like some plants. Here is one that has grown from those seedings. This is by my front gate. I'm getting more flowers all the way up the driveway and in other areas. I love their bright colorful splash of color. They are cut and come again too. If you dead head them and water they continue to bloom. 
I'm going to try this again. I posted yesterday but it didn't take. This picture was taken in my nieces church where she plays in the band. Those are her drums in the background. My brother, sister-in-law, niece and the wonderful young woman who allowed us to stay in her beautiful new home in Flagstaff. This young woman is a singer with a beautiful voice. My niece is a Park Ranger at the Grand Canyon.
We started Easter Sunday with a very nice breakfast at my nieces church put on by the youth of the church. After there was a very lively and inspiring church service with lots of great music. They really rock!
After church we kind of settled in at the house and visited with each other and my nieces friends. We had lots of food headed up b y my sister-in-law. We just took over the house and kitchen and were so kindly treated by my nieces friends. Later we watched a movie and had popcorn and old family tradition on Sunday evening.
Monday we had breakfast then all headed out to shop a bit in old town Flagstaff. Some beautiful little shops. I was able to get some more native seeds in one shop and later at the museum where we toured I picked up a few more native seeds. After the museum we went and had lunch in a great little restaurant right across from Flagstaff town square and it was really good food. After we shopped a bit more and then had a ColdSprings ice cream before going back to the house. Later we headed out to a thrift store where we all found a few things. I got mostly for the grand kids and a couple loose fitting dresses for warmer weather.
Tuesday we left after breakfast and cleaning up with good byes to my niece and her friends and headed for Golden Valley. At Seligman we took old route 66 for the rest of the way. We stopped at the Keepers of the Wild animal preserve and had lunch but didn't go in. At my house they made a quick change of vehicles and my b rother, sister and sister-in-law were on their way to Las Vegas to catch the plane.
During their stay in Golden Valley at my house we did a great hike in the Hualapai's with my great grands and grands , we had some good meals out in Chineses and Mexican restaurants. We did a tour of old town Kingman and went through a few antique stores. We had some nice homecooked breakfasts and they all got to take a tour of my place. My niece drove from Flagstaff and joined us on Friday and we all left on Saturday for Flagstaff. It was really good to get together with family and to meet such wonderful people.
You know Spring has sprung when the first iris blooms. Unlike last year everything is green this year. Lots of pasture for Cheriki and Sage so I'm not buying hay for awhile. I'm spending the money stockpiling chicken scratch and grain just in case prices go up and it becomes difficult to feed them. I'm also planting and growing lots of chicken feed. Right now the chickens are in their pen and I have three little hens setting. This morning was fun as one of the hens was out of her little cubby hole and I had to keep all the other nosey hens from bothering her eggs. Finally she rejoined her eggs and I could rest. I'm cutting weeds and taking a big garbage barrel full of weeds for the chickens to scratch in to their pen. They really look forward to it and do a good job of cleaning up the greens.
I can hardly believe how much fruit is coming on my trees. Lots of figs now forming. My oldest apricot tree is loaded as is the oldest plum. The peach that came up from one of the plum roots has fruit on it and the plum is just now blooming. I have lots of little almonds on the almond trees and even some little apples forming. I'm going to get some kind of bird protection up soon so I may actually get to eat some of the fruit. Spring is such a wonderful time. 
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