First Spring

One of many roses around my front door.

Having lived in Southern Arizona for the last 9 years, it was quite a change to move to a climate that experiences seasons. Enduring years of only summer and winter, it has been a wonderful change to finally soak up a spring. The flowers here are incredibly beautiful and the cool mornings and nights are just fantastic - perfect for both walking and gardening.

A cucumber melon plant.

 Since planting my two little plots, my tomatoes have grown quite a bit. With the fact that we have not rented in many years, I was surprised to discover that our home will be inspected soon. What will the property inspectors say about the row of tomatoes in the front yard? Hopefully, they will not worry too much about it, since I had to tear up a bed of weeds to put them in!

A few more flower from the front yard

 

A Celebrity tomato plant with some disease on it.

I am starting to get a few tomatoes growing on my Celebrity, San Marzano and a Rutgers plants and my Little Leaf cucumber is doing well. Given the poor condition of the soil I planted them in, the tomatoes are doing quite well. With the winter and spring rains, the roses around the tomato plants are also thriving. Though the roses are beautiful, mine suffer from some kind of bacterial infection, which has spread to the tomato plants. Alas, my unfortunate experiences with bad bacteria persist, howbeit nowhere near as bad as in my hot, humid garden back in Tucson.

Arkansas Little Leaf Cucumber plant.

San Marzano tomatoes.



Some volunteer flowers.

The cucumber-melons in the backyard are doing alright. After suffering several near-disasters and false starts due to slugs mowing down my seedlings, I have finally amassed sufficient number of plants to do well with this summer. Though I still love going out to see how my long dark Armenian cucumbers are growing, it seems as if my plants are growing in slow-motion in comparison to my Tucson garden. Alas, the moderate-intensity sunlight in Northern California cannot compare with the intense burning heat of southern Arizona sun.