Disaster Strikes..

They say bad things come in three's, and I can't say I disagree. After threatening possible future damage to my roof from the mesquite tree in the common area, my HOA decided to approve the bid to get it trimmed. And trim they did, I have to say I think this may be the tallest mesquite tree I have ever seen in my life!

During the process of trimming said tree, my garden took quite a beating. It is now fairly pathetic looking, not to mention how it took the HOA 3 weeks to approve the bid, therefore it went from being 80 degrees outside to 113 degrees. Now it's just me, but taking a garden that is constantly in the shade, to full sun for at least 4 hours in 113 degrees seems like a surefire killer to me.

All in all, I've lost the above Zucchini, and a Squash. My tomatoes were on their way out anyway, so I'm not including those in the tally. Next year I'm taking a different strategy with the tomatoes and starting them on the east side of the house where they will get full morning sun, and shade in the afternoon. I also think it will be a better watering schedule for them as they won't be lumped in with the rest of my garden. I only got 4 tomatoes total. Very disappointing! As far as the herbs go, my garden basil never got anywhere because of the shade situation, my mint is hardy and ok, and my oregano is eeking by, literally. The bright spot in all this is my eggplant, and my survivor basil.

These two little guys have beat the odds. The one two the left is the basil that was eaten up by bugs and was looking pretty bad. I decided not to put it in my garden because of the poor shape. Who knew that this would be my master performer. I like to think of it as my "comeback kid"!! The little guy to the right is also a survivor, it sprung up when I was harvesting seeds from my other durable reliable plant.

With these two small victories, I have hope that someday soon, I will find sucess with this process. Now I need to figure out when and what to start planting for fall. I know it's hot, but I'm trying to start thinking ahead. To recap: the first challenge I faced was the transition from shade to full sun and heat; the second was the beating from the landscapers, and the third happened the very same day.

I came home from work to discover that the irrigation was on and had been for quite some time.

I immediately turned my control box to off hoping that would fix the problem. It didn't, and for the next hour I wracked my brain on what to do, searched the internet frantically for a solution, and impatiently waited until my neighbors husband got home from work so he could help me.

Needless to say, the garden got flooded, which aided to the demise of my squash, zucchini, and sent any life that might have been left in my tomatoes to the grave.

LOL.. like I said there is so much emotion in having a garden that I liken it to having children. Hopefully all will turn out ok, but you just never know.

In summation, I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to Chef Stephanie Petersen for my beautiful new porch ornament that has my blog name on it! I love it!!!