Preparing for Fall Planting

Well it is getting to that time to start thinking about fall planting. I am enjoying the fact that, in Arizona, we have two growing seasons! =)

I have plenty of room in my garden for a bit more items so here is the list that I am currently contemplating on:

• Green Onions


• Chives


• Tarragon


• Parsley


• Basil (Sweet Genovese)


• Marigolds


• Nasturtiums (Planted some earlier this year and they didn’t last the summer so I am hoping that they will make it this next go around.)

I am doing my research on all the above so if anyone has any comments and or suggestions please feel to comment and suggest away.


Till next log,

Cheers!

Arizona Monthly Calendar

In doing some research on Gardening in Arizona... I stumbled upon what seems to be a great mini gardening checklist for those who live in this dry desert oasis that we call home. Check it out at About.com

What is really great is that I had discovered that Tomatoes and Peppers have two growing seasons here in the desert, that is if you can keep them alive long enough to do the necessary trimmage to 18 - inches in the month of September for re-growth and harvest in early December. =)

Check out the calendar, it not only covers Vegi Gardens but Grass (for those of you who do not know, we have two growing seasons for two different types of grasses here in the desert, Bermuda for summer and Perennial Rye for the winter), Trees and Shrubs, Flowers and a Monthly Does and or Don'ts Lists for the month.

Till Next Log...

Cheers!

Keeping your garden COOL in Arizona 05.31

Whoofta... we are experiencing some hot days here in AZ. By mid May I was noticing that all the plants in my garden were stressing out.

So I did a little research and stumbled upon an article from last year about "Helping tomato plants survive".

One of the recommendations was Shade... now who would've thought, shade in the summer? Well as it seems like a no brainer to most everyone who lives in the middle of the desert, I had then realized that the garden was getting over 5-6 hours of direct sunlight during the day and the last two hours were in the middle of the day around 1-2pm. OUCH! I was noticing some sun scalding on some of the leaves so I had to do something fast. And knowing that it isn't going to get any cooler, and that sun is going to get more intense as summer goes along, I decided to come up with a plan to protect my babies.

1. Need a shade cloth for the canopy of 50 to 70 percent shade.
2. Brainstormed with my husband (with whom is an Technical Engineer) on what we should make the frame out of. Wood... PVC... there were pros and cons to both. We initially decided to go with PVC.
3. Drew up the specs.
4. Then ventured off to Home Depot for the supplies.
   

As we were wondering around looking for materials we found three metal trellises that just happened to be the same width as the garden. Sweet! A lot less expensive and work than constructing something out of PVC.

Here are the results....

We cemented in the two trellises on the sides and used some string for support. Works great and the members of the garden couldn't be happier.

I would like to thank both my husband and my mom for assisting in this daunting task in putting this together... it was a bit of work, but very happy with the results in the end! Ya!

Till next log!
Michelle

Companion Planting 05.11

Companion Planting...

Received a comment from a long time friend Anna. Her and her husband used to be our old neighbors until they decided to move to New River. Glad to hear that they are doing well and have a few raised gardens themselves. I am tellin ya, Raised Gardening is the way to go!

They are growing potatoes, tomatoes, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, grapes, peas, lettuces, radish, carrots and several kinds of flowers and herbs.

One of her comments was in reference to Companion Planting. I found a online compatibility chart and it just so happens that one of the compatible plants that is on the list for tomatoes are that of the Nasturtium. Talk about luck! I didn’t know that when I had purchased it to plant in the tomato garden that it was compatible... I figured, that since the Nasturtium is a plant in which you could eat (on the back of the seed packet it states that "they are a Tasty, Peppery Addition to Salads and Vegetables") what a perfect addition to the garden... flowers that are edible.

Some of the other plants that are compatible are the Onion Family, Marigolds, Asparagus, Carrots, Parsley, Cucumbers and of course the Nasturtiums.

Companion planting is where you plant one or more of the same plant species in close proximity of one another. They can then take advantage of each other’s cultural benefits... pest control, pollination, higher yield etc. Take a look at the compatibility chart. Very interesting... I am definitely keeping this in my list of bookmarks. =)

Thanks Anna for the post!

Raised Bed Gardening

While my husband and I were building our new flower garden, my in-laws (Jack and Kay Conlon) were in town from South Dakota. They have just purchased a house out here in sunny Arizona at a wonderful place in Sun City called Corte Bella. They were constantly back and forth from our house to theirs, cleaning, finding furniture, working with the landscapers etc. Before they even realized it we had finished up our garden structure and was nearly ready to plant.

They went back home to SD and they had found an article in USA Weekend about raised bed gardening. "Four great reasons to give a raised-bed gardening a try" By Fran Sorin. My in-laws clipped out the article and sent it to us and said, "Looks like you two have the right idea".

Here were the 4 great reasons to give a raised-bed gardening a try:

1. The soil isn’t walked on or compacted, so it stays loose, allowing air and water to circulate through it easily. Having compacted soil can reduce a crop's yield by 50%. (WOW) Reason is that the water, air and roots have difficulty moving throughout the soil when compressed. (Makes sense to me.)
2. Raised beds can extend the gardening season because the higher soil heats up more quickly in the spring allowing you to plant earlier in the season.
3. Drip systems and other watering systems are easy to use and install.
4. And pest control is much more manageable.

Check out the full article on raised-bed gardening at http://www.FranSorin.com .

Until the next Log!

The Start of the Garden

This is my first ever post to a blog of any kind, so I thought the best way to get started was to create one and document my latest hobby... Gardening!

I started out with some Jiffy Professional Greenhouse peat pods that you can get at any Walmart, or Home depot store. I had a great success rate in terms of germination and didn't have any problems with them falling apart. (I have read some conflicting reviews, so I may have just gotten lucky.)

I decided to purchase the smaller trays that yielded 12 each. Purchased some tomato, and green pepper seeds and planted away. Within a few days I had already several pods with little plant lings in them. I was soo excited.



My husband and I built a 16x4 retaining wall garden to put them. It took us about 3 days to build... clearing the area, laying the sprinkler lines, making sure the wall blocks were level, cemented them in and together (we did two layers of wall blocks) and filled it with gardening soil.

We installed three sprinkler heads which are the Mini sprinkler on a Spike by DIG and provides coverage of up to 14' full circle.

I cant forget to mention that we wired up a few lights to go in there as well. My husband thought it would make for a nice accent at night.

Now that the new garden area was all finished the question came up as to when do we plant. I found myself by the end of the weekend with tomato plant information overload. From staking to making sure your pH level is correct to how deep you should plant it to spacing etc. But nothing really in terms of when. So knowing that both sets of grandparents had farmed, I decided to ask my Mom. And oddly enough she knew the answer, and the answer was "the Farmers Almanac". So I did a quick search and sure enough there it was.... The Farmers Almanac Website what days to plant and what days not to plant. Simply amazing... in talking with my mother she said that her parents lived by the Farmers Almanac.

So since it mentioned that March 21-22 is Favorable for planting crops bearing yield above the ground, that is just what I did. I planted my first set of 6 plants on the 21st.... they are looking good right now, it has been raining off and on all day today (I live in Arizona so as you can imagine it is a major event when it does rain here).

I will keep you all posted of the progress and my other findings in the next few days.