Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Backyard garden




In addition to the area out front where I planted sunflowers, African daisies, and California poppies, I also have an area out back where I planted sunflowers, sweet peas, poppies, daisies, and a couple of other flowers. We have two large dogs~a German Shepherd and Ripley, our little black lab. Ripley was FREE at the mountain swap meet! Hubby and I went there one Saturday and there were 4 ADORABLE puppies in a large container, two shepherd-look alikes, and two black labs. One black lab was the runt of the litter, so I picked up Ripley. A little boy ran over and away with the smallest one, so I hung onto Ripley! Our daughter had always wanted a black lab, and Ripley would have been perfect for Jennifer. Unfortunately, Jennifer decided she didn't want a puppy after all (she was still living in her tiny apartment), so we kept Ripley. Ripley turned out to be QUIET ENTHUSASTIC around the yard (she digs a lot), so hubby decided to put up a 6 foot chain link fence across 1/3 of the yard. Ripley also turned out to be quite an escape artist (I found her out front three times!) and this has prevented her..um..."adventures". I had never had a decent spot for a garden out back, partly because the trees constantly shade it. But, when hubby installed the fence, I suddenly had a 100 foot fence on which to plant sweet peas and other climbing seeds. My grandfather had the most GORGEOUS sweet peas and he only had 6 feet of fence! I have 100 feet! So, I immediately planted my sweet peas, leftover sunflower seeds, poppies and daisies, and hollyhocks. They are all growing (thanks, partly, to keeping Ripley away from them!) I also bought a flowering peach tree up in the mountains, to accompany my flowering plum. I decided a little COLOR in the back yard would be welcome! So, here are some pics of the flowers and peach tree out back! And, GUESS who gets to mow all that lawn? Yup, yours truly! Hubby and son have "allergies", although the son can mow his own lawn, but apparently our yard is just too big for him to handle! So, I borrow his lawnmower and away I go! If I don't do it, it just doesn't get DONE!!!

4 comments:

Linda said...

I love to look at your garden pics. We have a lab, too--those paws can do damage quickly--they're like shovels. Wow--I can't believe you mow the lawn!!!

Carol............. said...

Sounds like that puppy is keeping you quite busy!

The gelding's gray color is beautiful.

Cactus Jack Splash said...

Nice to be able to have a garden in your yard.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow! You're so lucky to have so much green and a pretty garden, too. I love sweet peas. What fun!

What kind folks you were to adopt Ripley. I've worked in dog rescue. Black labs are the least adoptable dogs. And labs are notorius for being hyper and destructive....at least for the first few years. Then they mellow down and are amazing family dogs.

How about some photos of your dogs?

~Lisa