Horny Toad Horticulture

06/23/2025

Zinnia are some of the best and most beautiful heat and drought tolerant flowers for bouquets! I'll grow these from spring to winter and cut them and they bloom again and again!

So pretty!!!!

Another great thing about zinnia is that not a lot of wildlife eat it, although I have caught my bunnies grazing on it a little lately.

06/22/2025

The last artichoke to blooming, blossomed hanging upside down! Artichoke season is coming to an end but these plant are perennial and will remain dormant in the soil till things cool down a bit in winter. They bloom all spring and you can only harvest seeds kf you don't eat the heads.

06/22/2025

Black eyed Susan's!

06/22/2025

Baby bunnies hopping all over my yard this morning and they are so fast! I finally caught a little pic of one. So cute, they don't eat much! Hahaha

06/21/2025

Spotted another narrow mouthed toad today in the gardens. They are so cute!!!!

06/19/2025

It's supposed to be 114 degrees in Tucson today. Be like a sunflower and drink lots of water!

I actually love the heat, and Tucson is the coldest place I've ever lived, it's also the hottest! These days have me gardening morning and evening but I stay inside during the midday tyranny.

I will be taking a break from the nursery and seed business for a few weeks. I've stored everything away and am keeping alive the well established plants and only doing what I need to. I'll continue harvesting seeds and flowers and food but I will not do a single new planting until monsoon.

When monsoons come ill be back at the markets, I'll have a ton of new seeds and a new seed mix im making just to plant for monsoon season. Summer is a time of rest in the desert and we should all try to embrace that as much as possible.

See ya around Tucson!

Be back soon!

06/13/2025

06/12/2025

The artichokes are almost all done blooming and its been an incredible season! If you want to eat the chokes you gotta sacrifice the seeds!

Today I'll be at the with bouquets, seeds and some food! Come visit us booth! I'll be there 5pm to 630! The market is open from 430 to 730 at the at the MSA annex!

06/09/2025

I found a baby walking stick on my front porch last night. These are some of my favorite insects ever!

Some species mate and some species are parthenogenic which means the female can make eggs without a male. These insects that hatch from paryhenogenic mothers are all female and are exact replicas of the mother.

Pretty cool!!!!!!

05/26/2025

I took today off, a sabbath, and found some gorgeous wildflowers to adore right before one of my favorite weddings ever!

05/21/2025

The artichokes are all blooming now, and hopefully, we'll start seeing more bees! I usually see tons of native bees on these neon purple flowers. These artichokes are all about 2-4 years old. I have been told they can live 7-9 years. The start going dormant in the heat and come back in the winter and spring!

I want to do as much edible landscaping as possible and this is one of my favorite plants in the world! If you haven't grown artichokes, you should start this year! They last forever and get bigger and more beautiful every time they spring back!

05/21/2025

I am propagating roses all day over here and there's something about red! Adding pops of red flowers to your garden is bold and beautiful. I have pink roses, red roses and a beautiful miniature painted redand white rose I picked up from Trader Joe's. Soon, I will have a lot to share!