Spring is delighting us here in the Marana area with its beauty! There are flowers everywhere and we don’t even have to leave our yard to see them! The weather has also started heating up this past week, but the cacti seem to love the weather and are blooming like crazy.

This beavertail cactus is right in the middle of our inner back yard and we walk by it everyday. It is amazing to see the flowers that have just started opening then in the afternoon, the flowers have fully bloomed.

There is something about this picture I just love. It might be that it looks almost like a painting!

This bunny ear cactus is probably my favorite type that we have in the yard. It used to be right by the playground area and Josh didn’t want it there because the kids would be playing right by it. This would be a painful cactus to fall into! So he split up the cactus and now we have ten of them throughout the property. Most of them are now blooming!

For being such a prickly plant, cholla certainly have gorgeous flowers.

This cholla is right outside one of our living room windows. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to see its flowers from inside the house. We have to go outside into the front yard to see the flowers.

I went back to the beavertail cactus to take a few more pictures and caught this bee in flight. Josh eventually wants to put beehives on the property since we have so many flowers! We would love to have our own honey!

The chickens were needing shade in the afternoon and Josh had fenced off this area of the chicken run so their only shade was in the coop. Josh was growing grass for the chickens and wanted the grass to have a chance to root before the chickens get to it. With the heat, he decided to take down the fence and let them into the grassy area. They’ve been having a lot of fun on that side in the afternoons in the shade and love the grass.

Since we now live a new area, Josh is still figuring out how to grow a garden here. Sadly, his seedlings in his garden beds have mostly been eaten by bugs. That is what we are assuming anyway. The garden beds are in a fenced area that should keep out bunnies. All the arugula, the beans, and the radishes he planted are gone.

Josh is thinking of moving the garden beds to a different part of the yard, but now that it is too late in the year to plant, it will have to wait until closer to the fall.

Gardening in a new area involves a lot of experimentation to figure out what works. I’m sure Josh would appreciate any hints on growing a garden in a desert area without using chemicals or pesticides. He prefers to use natural ways of keeping bugs away if possible.

The plants on our back deck seem to be doing well and haven’t fallen to bugs. Hopefully, they will continue to be healthy.

One idea we have come up with so far is that Josh starts all seedlings in the greenhouse and lets them grow until they are big enough to handle being nibbled on by insects. That will mean repairing the greenhouse as soon as possible. It is still a metal frame right now.

We hope everyone enjoyed our pictures from around the homestead this past week and that you are enjoying spring (or fall!) where you are!

-Lynn

Join us for church today at Tucson Baptist Church if you are looking for a church service online!

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