Matrix Crystal Hunters and Gardening

I love gardening and planting things in pots that bloom and growing tomatoes are two of my favorite things.

So is taking photos of blooms as you can see from the following pictures.

Climbing Jasmine from the arch over my gate

Bush type snapdragon

Aztec Lilly

I live in the country in a almond orchard. The blooms are amazing. Here’s some photos taken early in March.

Bees boxes and some blooms

Almond blooms against the sunset and clouds

Almond blooms against the sunset

A row of almond trees in bloom (and one of my walking areas)

I have two sets of advice for gardening. If you have problems with your back or hands, don’t let it stop you from gardening. You can always plant your garden in pots. Flowers do amazing in pots, so do tomatoes and a lot of other veggies.

The second piece of advice is if you have a heirloom verity tomato you want to save or another one that you favor, there is a easy way to save the seed. Squeeze out some of the seed out on a napkin, smear it out flat and allow it to dry, then store in a zip lock (or similar) bag or a jar. When you’re ready to plant, tear off the seed and plant it into a peat pot or small pot. Water and watch it grow.

My last tomato from my potted garden. Picked in December.

I also mention flowers in one of my books, Matrix Crystal Hunters.

Team Alpha Three’s spaceship is out of power after fighting a wormhole, and parked on the primitive world of Zenevieva. With half the team sick from radiation poisoning, the team commander entrust geologist, Maya Gladstone, to find enough matrix crystals to power up their spacecraft, so they can go home to Earth.
Vach Namaste of the powerful Clan Namaste, a native of the planet, has desire the lovely Maya since she stepped off the spaceship on that astonishing day a year ago. He’s hounded her every step since. As Hymeneal Night approaches, he makes plans to take her as his bride… willing or not.

Garden excerpt:

They walked through another gate which led to an orchard. “What do you think of Vach?”
Maya smiled. “That’s a loaded question.”
“Is it?” The old woman looked at her.
“Yes. He’s persistent, stubborn, smart-mouthed and arrogant.”
“Yet you say all that with a smile on your face,” the old woman said, giving Maya a shrewd look.
“Yeah, well, he can be awfully charming too.” Maya gave a little laugh.
The old woman chuckled. “Yes, my grandson does have a way about him.”
“Yes, he does.” She looked at the older woman. “About the matrix crystals—”
“Let me ask you a question instead.” Grandmother pointed out a field filled with huge, bright red blossoms. “These are treacle flowers. We collect the nectar, then allow it to dry so we can use it as a sweetener. You enjoyed that in your tea today.”
Maya admired the flowers. “I’ve heard of treacle flowers before.”
“Have   you   heard    of    the    treacle   flower’s pollinator?”
She shook her head. “Uh, no, I haven’t.”
“There’s a type of lizard that pollinates the flowers. They lick up the nectar, but they receive spots of pollen right here.” She touched the middle of Maya’s forehead. “If we allow the lizards to pollinate the flowers, they’ll lap up all the nectar and we’ll have none. But if we ring off the field with sulfur crystals, they don’t come near the flowers and we get the nectar.”
Maya looked for the ditch and sulfur crystals, and soon spotted them. “How do you pollinate the flowers then?”
“We don’t. We use the seeds from another field that we allowed to be pollinated.”
Maya frowned. “How is this connected to the matrix crystals?”
“I’ll think about it.” The canny old woman turned to enter the house.

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Matrix Crystal Hunters is available:

US Kindle

UK Kindle

Nook

Smashwords