Jenny's Tasteful Garden - Southwest

April Fools Day

2010-04-01T12:32:00.001-07:00

I went out to the garden this morning to plant a bit more corn. It is supposed to rain later today.

These are straight out of the garden pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

These are my baby melons growing inside their wall-of-waters. Morgan helped me plant them and they are a bit thick. I'm going to try transplanting some of the seedlings into the big garden once it gets a bit warmer. Just my two raised beds on the side of my house. It smells amazing in here. There are oranges blooming along the wall and the alyssum and pansies smell fantastic. It is the most magical scent.

This is heading into the main garden. Hollyhocks have kind of taken over right in front of the gate but since they are setting buds I don't want to move them or pull them out. It is kind of difficult getting in there anymore...but I'm excited to see what color these bloom. Our new grapes that we bought from Tasteful Garden are starting to bud out. I am going to train them over the top of the side arbor. I had been planting gourds there but I think grapes will be a lot more fun! Shallots. They are huge. I don't know if I did them right because they aren't really setting onion-like bulbs but they are certainly delicious. Tomatoes.
Purple statice.
I have no idea what these tall plants are. They are looking like they are going to bloom so hopefully I can identify them then. Sweet peas. Fragrant and gorgeous! One of my favorites.
The roses are going crazy. It smells amazing in the rose garden because these are all fragrant varieties.

This is one rose! I found it toward the back of the bush and it is a bit past prime but I still wanted to show you how big it is. Wow!

Thanks for stopping by.

I hope you enjoyed this fragrant garden tour!

Oh, and quick!

You have a spider on your shoulder!!!!!

Oh yea.

April Fools Day.

Happy growing,
Jenny

Some garden pictures from March 2

2010-03-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

Happy March!

I have a lot of plants ordered from Tasteful Garden and I got notice they shipped yesterday...woo hoo! Exciting.

And this morning I just took some random shots of the garden so you can see what's happening here in the Southwest!

These first photos are just in my larger flower, vegetable garden. We've had a lot of rain lately so things are super green and lush right now.

You can see the roses coming back! They are really growing well right now. I had planned to put in a row of iris down the left side of this garden but I didn't. I think it might be a little late now but I need to check into it. Back in my little herb area...I've planted the front bed with dahlias but while I'm waiting for them to grow I put in pansies and allysum. This is just a bigger view of the little asparagus patch and the vegetable/flower garden. The rose bed is at the right on the corner of the shade-sail area. And these are the raised beds around the pool that have been viciously cut back. It will make no difference though because it in about a month this will be lush and green and splendid with shades or orange, yellow and red. And you can see the metal tree sculpture and windows clearly with everying cut back. A lovely son came over the weekend to fix the lighting in that area and put pink gel films over the lights so the window areas are cast in pink light at night. It is quite pretty. ...and that's the garden tour for the day.

Thanks for walking around with me.

Sorry you got your shoes all muddy!

Crazy Arizona weather

2010-01-22T18:14:00.001-08:00

It's cold and raining like crazy with flood warnings and even a tornado warning last night.

On Wednesday it was chilly but nice and my granddaughter and I went out around the gardens and I thought I'd share a few photos with you on this grey and dreary Friday night.

This first photo is just random oriental veggies, flowers, garlic and onions growing in the garden. You can see the drip lines all need taken out and realligned but we don't water out there this time of year at all. This is from the main producing tomato plant right now. We picked five small to medium ones on Wednesday which Morgan quickly ate. It seems like the statice is blooming early this year. I only have two plants because it normally doesn't do well but I think I might have been planting it too late in the season. Just a photo of one of the out of control herb garden. The other bed is cut back to the ground. It holds scented geraniums and pepper plants. Morgan and two oranges we picked from the neighbors tree overhanging our back wall. This is the wall where we moved the antique yellow rose to. Still haven't mounted the iron wheel on the wall. See the windows cut into the wall. I am most proud of this idea in our backyard. Our original yard was through these windows. When we bought the abandoned retention basin and turned it into a garden I wanted walls cut into the wall to visually connect the two areas. I think it turned out neat. Normally there are vines drooping down but my husband cuts things back pretty severely in the January. The very bare looking rose garden cut back for winter. The well in the center is drainage control for our cul de sac. We have flood irrigation in that part of the yard and that drain is flood control for the whole areas sewer drains. When the roses are not cut back you don't really see it. And this little door holds both the gas grill tank and the lopping and trimming saws. Our granddaughters wanted a bunny but our weiner dog, Oskar, would have made short work of a furry pet...so I painted them a chocolate bunny instead. Thanks for visiting my little January garden!

I hope you are cozy and warm where you are and dreaming of seed catalog orders!

Jenny

Picking onions for our dinner salad

2010-01-12T16:16:00.001-08:00

I went out to the garden a bit again to pull a few green onions for our dinner salad and I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

Some pea plants in bloom! My first attempt at growing garlic here. I planted the bulbs the first of November. The return of the dratted sunflowers that made my life so crazy last year. I am planning to rip them out more aggressively this year because they really impacted the amount of tomatoes we harvested last year. Salad onions - yum! Eggplants still producing. And last, a still producing tomato plant I got from Tasteful Garden. I would be happy to tell you what kind it was but our granddaughter, Morgan "helped" me and picked out all the tags. Silly child. And notice my second "pretty" compost bin to the left of the photo. Hope you're staying warm and cozy wherever you are!

Happy garden dreams!
Jenny

Happy New Gardening Year!

2010-01-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Every day the clock is ticking a bit closer to our hot season and many of the beds have not been prepared. Today my very sweet husband "volunteered" to help me get the beds ready for spring. It didn't take a whole lot of nagging and when he went and gathered some tools together I gave a little happy dance.
In Arizona we do two short seasons of gardening: cold plantings and heat tolerant plantings. In fall we plant our cold weather plantings and in January we start getting everything ready for the heat tolerant plantings. We don't plant them yet but it is a bit of a juggling act to decide what needs to go in when so it is ready to come out in time to plant summer seeds, etc.

I don't always juggle it perfectly and often things are overcrowded. Each and every year I vow to do better and this year, of course, is no exception.

First I'll tell you what's happening in my main garden. It has been sadly neglected although I did get quite a few seeds planted in October. The garden is soaked so this is the closest picture I could get for you today: Growing now in some stage or another are many varieties of flowers including sweet peas, poppies, larkspur and hollyhocks. I am planning to be brutal this year on pulling out sunflower starts because they greatly effected my tomato harvest last year. I also have some tough tomato survivors (bought from Tasteful Garden as always) and even some pepper and eggplants attempting to survive our cool nights. The hollyhocks are sending up seedlings all over the garden. The garlic and shallots have sprouted and are about 8 - 10 inches tall. And I can't remember what else is growing in there. Next week we'll do a better tour.

The main garden has become infested with slugs (icccckkk!) and although I tried the rolled up damp newspapers as a method of controlling them it is not enough so I finally broke down and spread some chemicals on. If find if I let the garden get away from me by not cleaning up all the dead growth I get infested especially with slugs.

Another project for today was cutting back the asparagus. I did order some crowns this past fall from Cindy at Tasteful Garden hoping to fill in some bare spots in that small bed. Asparagus does not survive here like it does in less violent climates.
After cutting back the tops we found a little snack that we shared before stopping to admire the almost finished bed. Almost because the bed needs top dressed still and then it is ready to rest and give us wonderful vegetables in a few more months.

And the last project for this morning was the rose beds. There are three gorgeous antique rose varieties, including Abraham Darby, in the raised beds around the pool but they never get enough sunlight so those needed moved.

In addition to those three roses the antique climber in the center of the rose bed has gotten totally out of control so that rose needed moved to a side wall where we will mount an iron cultivator wheel as a trellis. My husband did not enjoy this much...the ground against the wall was really hard required a pick-ax and a lot of slow soaking. The wheel will be mounted about two feet up from the ground and I think will have a neat look on that wall with the windows.
This time of year we cut the roses pretty much to the ground, top dress with with compost or topsoil and then let them rest. I always cut the last bouquets before my husband gets carried away hacking them off. Today he had to move the three roses into this bed so there was more hole digging and tussling with thorns but it finally got done and almost all top-dressed. I generally plant ranunculas on the south side of the rose bed but this year I decided I am going to continue the iris border all around so I'm going to order some today in different colors. The iris really seems to thrive in that bed and gives us a lot of cutting options for the house.

And since this post has gotten crazy long I'll just stop with a few quick photos of some other flowers in bloom on this early January day.

This is one of the hibscus blooms on an out of control bush our son Chris gave me for Mother's day several years ago. I keep wanting to move it because it overhangs the sidewalk so much but I hate to disturb its happy life. And this final picture is of one of my favorite plantings...ever...it is silver queen artemisia planted with heliotrope and lavender. If you don't know heliotrope as a flowering plant you need to check it out. The flowers are so fragrant and velvetty purple. They make smile every single time I see them. I know it might be cold and gray where you are reading this from but spring is coming soon. Check out those seed catalogs and the new website over at the Tasteful Garden.

Happy dreaming! Happy growing! And Happy New Year!

Good morning!

2009-10-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

It is beautiful here in hot, hot AZ this morning. Today is supposed to only be 71 degrees which is practically winter.

This weekend I planted seeds of: onion, broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, various lettuces, and spinach. I also planted shallots, more onions and three short rows of garlic from sets. (I have no idea what I'm going to do with all that garlic if it all grows!) Anxious to rip out the gourds so I can get my flowers planted but they are just so happy I am finding it difficult to pull the roots so they can start drying. AND I'm doing a fancy weed thing called solarizing in my asparagus patch getting ready to plant new crowns next month. Basically you just dampen your soil thoroughly so it is saturated about four inches down, cover with heavy plastic, put something on top of it and let the weeds and weed seeds bake. Solarizing certainly sounds more glamorous, though, doesn't it? I've also been reading about using corn gluten to control weeds as an effective, organic pre-emergent but haven't attempted that yet.

My compost bins are just working wonderfully and churning out wonderful dark, rich compost.

I am dreading tackling the blackberry canes. When I planted them I did not tie them up and they have gone every which way. I'm ashamed to show you how bad they look but...well, I'm definitely keeping it real by sharing this photo with you. And now I'm signing off from beautiful Arizona! Happy gardening (or dreaming of next years garden if you're up North somewhere!)

Oooh, oooh, ooooh

2009-09-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

Getting close to planting time.

Garlic! Check!
Sweet Peas! Check!
Vegetable seeds! Check!

Cool weather!

Ummmm....

Cool weather?

Ummmm....

My husband says it might be dropping below 100 and staying there for awhile soon!

And then I can say CHECK!

And put these little seed-people in the ground.

Just a few late September garden pictures!

2009-09-27T20:34:00.001-07:00

So you don't think I've sprayed everything with round-up or something.

Oh happy gardening day!

2009-09-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

I just got my beautiful asparagus crowns in the mail today from Tasteful Garden! Thx Cyndie! She recommended I store them in the fridge until the proper planting time (November here) so hopefully Steve will not eat them. ha!

I did get some new peppers planted as well as a row of green beans earlier in the week.

And I wanted to share with you the picture of two tomatoes I cut back to about one foot. One made it, one did not. I can never figure that out.

And show you some cooked compost.

I have two bins cooking away now and am going to stockpile coffee grounds in the corner of the garden and turn them.

Apparently I can use them as a replacement for bone meal AND they're free AND I can get a skinny latte every time I pick them up (OK, that's just a bonus - they will actually give me the grounds without even buying coffee...I just told my husband they won't so....shhhhh.... don't tell him any differently!)

I have all the rest of my seeds ready to go but I'm holding off for another week.

Happy harvesting.

To paraphrase Bob Dylan ...

2009-09-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

The Seeds, they are a'coming...

And, oh, I'm excited. Today I got broccoli, cauliflower, dill, beets, cilantro and something else that I'm too lazy to walk out into the kitchen to remember...

On the way are some cool sounding Sweet Peas, asparagus, some herb plants, and a garlic combo (five different garlics)

In the morning I'm gonna throw one last row of green beans in and do a small planting of some of the cool crop seeds.

I think it's still too hot for them although it is cooling down nicely at night now. I knew that for sure today when I attempted to swim and about had a heart attack. My granddaughter kept laughing at me.... "Gwamma, quit being a baby" she told me. Hmmm... I never liked that little kid anyway (just kiddin')

I'll take some pictures of the cut back tomato plants in the morning so you can see how they're taking off again.

Oh boy, I love planting!

Acid or alkaline

2009-09-06T03:23:00.000-07:00

I get quite a few questions regarding why I use coffee grounds on my garden. Coffee grounds add nitrogen, potassium and magnesium to the soil. And they have high acidity which lowers the PH of the soil. Something very good for much of our soil here in Arizona which tends to be alkaline.

Generally I put the grounds directly on my garden in the raw form and rototill or hoe them in. We maintain a fairly regular watering schedule and we have intense heat so they decompose in our garden fairly quickly. I do put them in my compost bins as well.

If you are unsure whether your soil is acid or alkaline and you don't want to get a soil analysis done there is a pretty simple test you can try at home with baking soda and vinegar.

Get two containers. Put some vinegar in one and a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part baking soda in the other.

To do a simple check on various areas of your garden or flowers beds simply walk around and pour some vinegar or baking soda water on the soil. The liquid that makes the soil form tiny bubbles or fizz will tell you what type of soil you have.

If your soil reacts to the baking soda and water it is acidic. If it reacts to the vinegar it is alkaline. If it reacts to neither it is probably PH neutral.

And just because I haven't bored you quite enough...

The pH of soil is measured on a scale of 0-14.
A pH of 7.0 is considered neutral.
The higher pH levels, the lower the acidity and vice versa.
Soil is considered “alkaline” if it has a high pH (greater than 7.5) and “acidic” if it has a low pH (less than 6.5).

I'm gonna simplify it down just a bit more cuz I always get confused by this.

Low acid - high PH - alkaline soil
High acid - low PH - acid soil

I'm not trying to create an acid soil - I am just trying to neutralize our PH levels. Totally confused yet?

And just to relax all that low creating high and high creating low confusion let's talk about coffee grounds for a totally different application. Did you know that they make a wonderful exfoliant scrub for your skin. Just pat on, rub gently and rinse off - voila! Super smooth, baby butt skin.

I also found a tip for using coffee grounds to help get rid of cellulite. I haven't tried this particular idea yet but I plan to. Heaven knows I need to. Let me know if you try it first, though, please.

Mix 1/4 cup warm, used coffee grounds and one tablespoon of olive oil. While standing over an old towel or newspaper, apply the mixture to your problem areas. Next, wrap the areas with shrink wrap and leave on for several minutes. Unwind the wrap, brush loose grounds off your skin and then shower with warm water. For best results, it is recommended to repeat this procedure twice a week.

Hey, consider this your full service coffee ground blog!

Signing off from my PH neutral AZ garden.

I thinking walking upright might be over-rated!

2009-09-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

OK, the alarm rang at 4:45. It was annoying, to say the least. My husband made a pot of coffee and then we started hauling all the manure, green bins, coffee grounds, etc. back to the garden.

He took off for Home Depot to rent a truck and rent the large size tiller and I stayed home and cleaned up sunflower debris, coiled up soaker hoses, put down composted manure, compost and coffee grounds.

Right when I was finishing spreading the last of it he got home.

We went as quickly as possible because the sky was pretty gray and there was a lot of lightening in the distance.

While he tilled I spread iron on our lawn and worked in the rosebeds.

Then we put a thin layer of straw over the garden and he rototilled that in again thoroughly.

Just got the last of the iron spread and the tiller loaded back in the truck and it started raining!

Hooray!

I'm going to get some seeds ordered this coming week and get my asparagus bed amended for the 2 year old crowns I ordered from Tasteful Garden!

AND it was in the 70's while we were working outside. Amazing! Wonderful!

We're both tired out! And neither one of us can stand upright from all the hauling and trying to get the tiller into the garden.

But it was soooo worth it.

Soon I can start planting my fall/early spring crops!

Woo hoo!

The alarm is set for 5 am...

2009-09-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

...and Steve is heading to Home Depot to rent one of the big rototillers to get half the garden ready for fall planting.

I have six bags of composted manure on the back porch along with four big bags of coffee grounds.

I'm going to stay home and spread all that and then we'll rototill everything in as soon as Steve gets back.

I know you're wondering if we're crazy.

OK, we probably are ... but if we do it at that time of the morning...

a) we may not have to be rushed by ambulance to the hospital for heat stroke
b) we will be able to rent a tiller for sure (the guy at the Depot thinks they will rent out pretty quick with the three day weekend)
and
c) there is a huge chance of rain coming in tomorrow afternoon and evening and it will be wonderful to get the amendments washed in.

OK, I'm off to bed. I'll take pictures.

Late night garden thoughts

2009-09-03T21:14:00.001-07:00

Today we got the last of the sunflowers ripped out. Some of the stalks were like small tree trunks - maybe 5 or more inches in diameter.

Had hoped to get some bags of manure tomorrow but I'm babysitting my three year old granddaughter so that may not happen.

We did get another load of coffee grounds today.

Here's all the veggies we can plant in our zone toward the middle to end of this month:

SEEDS

Snap Beans, Beets, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Collard Greens, Cucumbers, Endive, Kale, Kohlrabi, Lettuce (Head & Leaf), Leeks, Mustard, Green Onions, Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Turnips

TRANSPLANTS

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Chard, Lettuce (Head & Leaf)

The best guide for planting flowers in the low desert can be found at this link:

http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1100.pdf

And here's what I need to do to my roses this month:

• Prune roses lightly and remove old or dead canes.
• Use a slow-release fertilizer.
• Water slowly to a depth of 2 feet. Allow the soil to dry out between waterings,
but don’t allow the plant to become stressed.
• Remove spent blooms

Coffee grounds, asparagus and icky bugs

2009-09-01T18:29:00.001-07:00

It's so cool. A new coffee drivethrough opened up by our house AND no-one has been asking for their coffee grounds yet! Woo hoo! I am going tomorrow at shift change to pick up another big batch.

I usually get them at Starbucks but it's a chore cuz so many other people go there, too. You gotta be first in to grab 'em. But I should be able to fulfill my entire gardens coffee grounds needs in just a few days!

AND the beautiful, lovely, wonderful Cindy at Tasteful Garden e-mailed me today to tell me that, yes, she had some more asparagus to sell and I got my order in. Asparagus plants in less extreme climates can produce up to 20 years...here I seem to get four to five out of a set of crowns.

And all the icky bugs are gone. Presto! No pesticides! Just a nicely patient husband willing to grab the disgusting things!

So now I can get in the garden and finish ripping everything out getting ready for a nice little session with the rototiller.

I can only 'till up about half the garden since I have many, many gourds growing and I'm going to leave them alone to see how big they get!

Happy gardening!

Beetle update

2009-08-31T08:17:00.001-07:00

My very brave and very sweet husband has been hand-picking the beetles off the sunflowers and dropping them into a little pail with a bit of gasoline in the bottom. I read this is the best, pesticide free way of getting rid of the varmints.

He picks a few off, the rest fly around buzzing like crazy, I start screaming and waving my arms, he sighs.

And then we do it all over again.

We've been taking the huge sunflowers down to get ready to rototill (OK, OK, he's been taking them down) and I am surprised at how much sticky sap is coming out of the splits in the stems (although they really are more like small tree trunks in size)

STarted collecting coffee grounds to spread in the garden and need to go and get a few bags of manure as well.

Ewww, ewwww, ewwwwww!

2009-08-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Acccckkk! There are japanese beatles on steroids in my garden. These things are bigger then 1/2 my thumb. Ewwwwwwwwww! Gotta research how to get rid of them. Ewwwww. I feel them crawling in my hair! ick, ick, ick!

Yup, just call me the great outdoors-woman!

Sigh.

Hey, it's almost fall...

2009-08-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

Do you know how I can tell? Crisp nights? .... ummmm, no. The scent of autumn in the air? ... ummm.... no. Temperatures below 100? Ummmm.... no....

I can tell because it's time to rip out my garden, haul all kinds of collected coffee grounds (Thank you Starbucks) into it, spread some manure, spread some compost, rototill the heck out of the dirt and get ready to plant spring crops.

Yes, you heard me right.

We live in a weird gardening zone. We really have two full-on gardening seasons.

So I'm heading out there now to start cutting down sunflowers, trimming back tomatoes (I cut the vines back to about 1 foot long and can generally get a September crop of them) and looking at seed catalogs.

I'll let you know later what I'm planting.

It's already pushing 100 so I need to get out there and bask in the coming autumn.

Sigh....

2nd Compost bin started

2009-08-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

The first compost bin worked so well we finally made our second bin. It is a bit more of an experiment (I can never leave well enough alone) because we are trying a rolling trash bin to see if it is easier to handle. I meant to take a picture but when we moved the first compost bin the dirt under it was amazing. Almost loamy and black and rich looking. I am going to put moving that through the garden as part of my gardening schedule so that more areas of the soil can benefit from being the recipient of the run off.

My friend Mary in Florida advises that if you can't put the compost bin directly in your garden you find some method of capturing the run off to use as liquid compost as you water your garden.

Cantaloupes, gourds and a sweet little three year old

2009-08-14T10:41:00.001-07:00

Gourds and zinnias have taken over my garden. I am not planting anything right now but waiting until September to work up a big spot in the garden to plant spring crops.

But here's a quick trip out there this morning with my three year old granddaughter, Morgan.

A moment of silence please....

2009-08-06T06:39:00.001-07:00

...something, some evil, evil thing crept into my garden under the cover of my ridiculous 13 feet high sunflowers and with malicious intent RIPPED UP ALL MY PUMPKIN SEEDLINGS!

I am ticked off!

I am enraged!

I am.... am..... furious beyond belief!

It is too late to replant them for Halloween pumpkins now.

I thought about calling the police but I don't think they'll care.

I thought about calling my homeowners insurance policy guy but I don't think they'll care.

And you may not care either.

But I had to tell someone about this before my sorrow and rage consumed me.

Sad.

Dumb pumpkin hating plant destroyers.

Sigh...

What I picked today ! AND amazing compost

2009-08-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Over 100 already and humid. Ick.

So...I wandered out to my garden this morning and here's what I picked!

...and just in case you don't think composting is worth the effort...these tomatoes were picked from two roma classica plants. One plant is right next to the compost barrel and gets all the run-off from the holes on the bottom, the other plant is about five feet away.

...and speaking of tomatoes, now is the time we get ready to cut our plants back to about 1 foot and then we scramble to keep them alive through August. The ones that survive will set another crop of fruit for harvest in September and October. Cool, eh?

I have a date with a clotheline and some sheets and then an even better date with a swimming pool.

Stay cool!

Glad to get some glads out of the heat!

2009-07-30T07:37:00.001-07:00

I have another big round of glads to harvest ... if we leave them in the ground all summer they pretty much disintegrate so I dig mine each year in July and August. After I pull the glads I let them sit outside (out of direct sunlight) to dry for a few days.

Then I cut them 4 or 5 inches above the bulb into a brown paper bag. Accckkk! You are so observant. Yes, this is not a brown paper bag. It is a Macy's bag. Sadly because I have become so environmentally concious I only use fabric shopping bags and I have no large brown paper bags. I am going to get some when I go to the store this week and swap them. I think the Macy's bag will not work as well because it has a kind of "coating" inside that will not allow air to circulate. Please don't hate me because I am destroying trees by saying "paper" when they ask me at the store.

See these little bulblets? Last year I planted a long furrow of these and let them develop into glad bulbs which is why I have 14,607 glads to harvest this year. I will keep them but they may or may not get planted. Unless some of you have a lot of space and can plant them in your garden and want them. I'd be glad to send them to you.

And now they are hidden away in the dark closet in my laundry room in their inappropriately fine bag. They are feeling pretty spiffy at the moment.

And now, here's my garden as of yesterday, July 29th. The roses will not go dormant for some weird reason and the gourds and zinnias are taking over the backyard!

Hey!

2009-07-27T11:00:00.001-07:00

Would somebody please tell my garden that it is the end of July in Arizona and it is supposed to slow down a bit?

If you're not too busy I'd appreciate it very much.

SSSShhhh.... Here's a very steamy story for so early in the morning...

2009-07-20T08:23:00.001-07:00

OK.... gather close. Don't let anyone overhear. This is pretty hot and I don't want any old people or children getting too shocked. Are you ready?

OK....

I think I have heatstroke. I know. Shocking, right?

I was in my garden at 6:00 am to

plant my pumpkin seeds - which I did
pull some gladiola bulbs - which I did
turn the compost bin (doesn't that sound so much better then black-plastic garbage
can with holes drilled in it?) - which I did
pick tomatoes - which I did

And now I am dying. It is only 8:20 and I am ready to call it a day and go back to bed.

Because of the heat here I don't leave my glads in the ground all year. Each July I pull them carefully from the ground, tap off all excess dirt, and leave them outside in the shade for a day or two to dry out a bit. Then I cut the leaves off about 3 - 4" inches from the bulb, pack them into brown paper sacks and put them in my laundry room closet. I think I pulled close to 60 this morning with at least that many to pull tomorrow or Wednesday. Some of them are bigger then my fist. Granted, I have a small hand, but still...impressive glad bulbs.

I didn't take pictures because of the aforementioned heat-stroke thing-y, but I will tomorrow morning!

OK, off to throw myself directly on top of the air conditioning vent.

Sigh.

Compost and gourds

2009-07-16T08:11:00.000-07:00

I've been bad about showing you the compost! I have taken some out of it already and continue to add to it. The black plastic bin really bakes the materials and it seems to turn over about once a month. It is very rich looking and extremely friable.

I've been asked what my secret to growing in the desert is and it is lots and lots of compost and organic matter, mulching with straw like crazy and regular deep waterings with a soaker hose. Shade is a big factor as well and if you haven't let 1,000 sunflowers grow in your garden (this won't happen next year) you do need to use a 50% shadecloth when the heat ratchets up!

And here is what is growing on the ramada by the garden. Gourds! I got these seeds from a gourd growing friend in Taiwan who I met when I was attempting to grow a giant pumpkin several years ago.

Here's a link to my growers diary:
http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryView.asp?season=2008&grower=44212&action=L
and here's a link to some other pictures of the pumpking growing:
http://www.jennymatlock.com/07-08%20garden%20and%20baby%20cradle/main.htm

My sister past away mid-March of '08 (the year my husband and I were attempting this)and I just lost my momentum with the whole project and never repeated it.

We had to leave the end of June to drive to Ohio for her burial and before we left we cut up the pumpkins to weigh them. We did have one that was a little over 300 pounds. I think they would have gotten much larger cuz the leaves were still really vibrant when we cut them up!

It was a fun and crazy experiment and just gives you an idea you can grow just about anything in the desert.

Through my growers diary is how I met the grower in Taiwan and he was so sweet in sending seeds along.

Gardeners are a bunch of "good seeds" aren't they?

Harvesting in 110 degrees

2009-07-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

OK, it is hot here. Stinkin' hot. Really hot. Not like hot as in unpleasantly warm. Hot as is in underwear melting hot. Oops! Was that too much information? Well in any case I think you get the idea. This morning when I roused myself out of the A/C and into the garden around 8 am it was already well over a hundred and humid. We will be around 114/115 today. We are in the middle of the monsoon season which would be OK if it ever actually rained but since it refuses to be anything other then humid it's just well.... ummmm..... hot. OK, I'm probably repeating myself but here's what I picked this morning. It was difficult for me not to cut roses but around this time of year I don't pick roses at all and just let them go as dormant as they can. We maintain lots of water on them but I don't even fertilize now for several months because I don't want the plants to grow. Just want them to survive.

I did pick some green beans, too, but I left the basket on the ground for about 2.8 seconds which means my weiner dog ate them. Sigh.

And this melon? Wow! I picked three today and it was hard not to cut and eat the other two right afterwards. It was juicy and sweet and delicious!

I hang my head in shame...

2009-07-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

...since it has been a month since I've been here last. A month. I could make up some big lie explaining my laziness but all I can say is ... well.... ummm.... a gigantic spaceship came and took me off to the planet Gardenarium where I learned many, many secrets for growing amazing gardens and which I will share with you next planting season, I promise.

In the meantime here's what happened in my garden while I was off on the spaceship.

So, as you can see things have been growing like crazy while I was on my inter-galactic journey.

And now it's time to plant pumpkins but I'm not sure if I can find my machete or not to clear a spot.

And now, to paraphrase the way they say goodbye on the planet Gardenarium...

Grow in peace little seed...

Midgets and birds

2009-06-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

OK, I am sooo officially not a "little person" but these sunflowers make me look extremely short! I am actually 5'7"!

And...look at one of the colorful visitors from our garden. These are so fast. There is a little family of them but I wanted to show you at least one picture.

I have some compost!

2009-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00

It worked. It worked! OK, the sunflower stems are too woody and I won't put them in next time but it defininitely worked. I had my husband help me carry the bin right into the garden so the compost tea (that icky black stuff on the bottom) can run right into the ground by the plants.

I am going to buy another bin now that I see it actually makes compost and is sooooo simple to do!

A non-recipe garden recipe

2009-06-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

So.... when we got back from our vacation there was a hodge-podge of stuff ready to eat in the garden - a few summer squash, some onions, various peppers, a few green beans and some roma tomatoes. I sauteed the squash and the onions in some olive oil and then added the beans and cranked the heat up. After that cooked a few minutes I threw in the peppers followed by the tomatoes and some crushed garlic. A little salt and pepper to taste and it made a wonderful, wonderful side dish. I used both hot and sweet peppers so it had a nice little kick!

I'm baaaaaccckkk....

2009-06-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hi. I've been gone! I've been having a great time! I've been in Ohio where there is actual dirt everywhere and everything is green. It was amazing and beautiful.

After reading Karen's post my daughter and I started lusting after the Lilac Spoon plants only to discover we couldn't find them anywhere in AZ. Everytime we passed a garden center I made my husband stop AND I FINALLY FOUND THEM! I brought four home on the plane and they are so cool. Mine are blooming like crazy already. I hope they can withstand our ridiculous summer.

I realize I haven't shown the compost bin, finished telling how I plant tomatoes or anything. For the compost bin I have an excuse. We had a big birthday party here over the weekend and I went out to take a picture of the compost only to discover that it was filled to overflowing with birthday plates and napkins. Hmmmm....

The planting I will get to shortly.

But a few observations that I found funny and would like to share with you are:

Our son-in-law is from the West and when he saw all the great fields of grass and grass growing along the roads he wondered aloud "who plants all that?" I told him it just grows and he totally did not believe me.

My husband when encountering big green lawns asked "do you mow all this?" Our friend said "yes". My husband then asked "do you use all this?" My friend said "no" My husband then said "well why do you mow it then?" My friend said "we like the way it looks." My husband is still puzzling over that.

So different between the West and Ohio.

And it's so beautiful there right now.

It's only 105 here today. Just. Ick. Ick. Ick.

But the eggplants, gourds and beans sure love it.

Too bad I can't get as enthused.

Two weeks in the compost bin

2009-05-10T10:03:00.000-07:00

Now I haven't added anything to this bin except water. It was full to the brim two weeks ago. I am surprised how much this is cooking down. It is hard not to add stuff to it but I think if I do it will be hard to tell exactly what is happening.
Here is the picture from last Sunday...

And this one is from this morning...

Two months after the fact but here's blog 1 of 2 about how I plant tomatoes in the desert

2009-05-07T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is my method. Don't know if it's right but it is what works for me. I use three things when I plant: root stimulator, a banana peel and coffee grounds. Sounds scary doesn't it?

So first I dig a rectangular shallow trench in the dirt.

Next I fill the hole with water to which I have added root stimulator according to the package directions.

I let that water drain away entirely.

I lay the banana peel down in there toward the side of where the roots are going to go. Then I sprinkle a small handle of coffee grounds in the hole.

And then I get ready to put the tomato plant into it's fruity, caffeinated home.

Banana peels add potash and phosophorous to the soil. Coffee grounds add nitrogen. I often do not fertilize my tomatoes at all during the season but simply bury another rotten banana (or peel) and add another small handful of coffee grounds periodically. I buy packages of rotten bananas at the grocery store for around 25 cents for 7 or 8 of them. It's only my husband and I at home now and it's hard to eat enough banana for the garden.

Next time I'll show you how I actually plant.

Compost update

2009-05-04T07:23:00.001-07:00

This has cooked down from a jammed crammed bin in one week. I haven't been able to roll it very well because I need to go buy four bolts and drill holes through the lid and the lip of the bin. The bungee cord didn't work on the handles at all. There is no smell so far.

But there is this black-ish run off on the cement block under the bin. Ewwww....

So I thought I'd show you something prettier after that icky photo of black goop. And these are some of the berries on my brand new brazos blackberries. Yum.

Speaking of yum. My dog must like these Carmello tomatoes (one of my favorites from Tasteful Garden last year) There were four beautiful tomatoes on here yesterday. Sigh. I must have left the garden gates open.

And can you see my first teeny, weeny Zephyr (also from TG's)squash on here? There was a little one a few days ago but ummm, I ate it. Sorry. Although I did NOT eat the green tomatoes no matter what the dog tells you.

Cherry tomatoes and cream

2009-05-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this recipe? It is delicious! While you're waiting for fresh tomatoes you might want to give it a try. It's modified from a Paula Deen recipe.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pints cherry or grape tomatoes
1/2 cup heavy cream
Fresh basil if you like
Directions
In a heavy skillet, melt the butter with the sugar and salt. Add the tomatoes. Cook stirring until the tomato skins begin to split. At this point, add the cream. Stir gently. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve.

Bad, bad Blogger

2009-05-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Things have been crazy busy at our house. I have lots of pictures to share as well as my planting stuff to still show you. But just so you know I haven't round-uped the garden - ha! Here's some pictures to prove I'm still hard at work in it! I love it!

Cooking with green and brown

2009-04-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

It might be because I'm on a diet but whenever I read about composting and they talk about "cooking" it makes me hungry. And perhaps to divert my attention from eating I decided to make a new, easier to manage composting method. Composting has always felt a little like "too much" for me. If you don't have one of those handy-dandy rotating drum things and the composting "formula" correct will it work?

I read somewhere about using bales of straw and composting in the center of those. Adding the green and brown matter and removing a bale to go in and stir it up with a pitchfork on occasion. Part of the theory being the straw would disintegate as well over time and turn into compost so the whole compost pile would, in essence, bit an efficient compost-churning mechanism.

Ummm... not so much. Not only did I forget to stir it but all kinds of weeds and things grew out of the straw bales and it looked....well....decidedly not-efficient AND ugly on top of it. So I decided composting was going to be too difficult and abandoned the whole idea.

BUT then I read an article somewhere on an easier method of composting and cut it out and saved it somewhere safe so I could try composting again. Someone must have come into my house and stolen that valuable article (which is, of course, the only reason I couldn't find it to read the instructions) so I hope I'm remembering this right. Come along on this little experiment and we'll see what happens.

I conveniently found a $20 bill just laying around in my husbands wallet so I took it to Home Depot with me and bought a sturdy black trash-bin with a cover for 14 bucks. Woo hoo. Change left for Starbucks. I got a smaller one so that I can handle it easily by myself. If this works I will make several more.

Here's what I did. The first part is fun and involves power tools. Yee haw! Take your biggest drill bit and drill holes all over your trash can. Drill a few in the bottom and don't forget to drill holes in the lid too. You want good air circulation and some drainage.
Wow, look at all the holes. They look suspiciously like polka dots which are one of my favorite things in the world.

OK, now we need to use some brown stuff, some green stuff and some moisture. So I'm using some leaves.

And then some green stuff I thinned out of my garden. Cut up the woodier greens (such as sunflower stalks) to help break them down quicker. Don't throw weeds in there.

If you don't have a lot of dead leaves you can use shredded paper (which is made from trees and thus organic - but only use the black and white pages). I threw in some coffee grounds and some banana peels as well.

Put your little recycling project up on a cement block so it gets circulation all around.

Moisten the whole thing whenever you think about it. I am going to roll it around on the ground whenever I remember to mix everything up well.

I made this on April 25. I marked on my calendar to show you a picture again on May 2.

And yes, I truly might need to get a life.

I can't help it. I am a garden geek.

Oh, and if my husband asks you about the 20 bucks...it's our little secret.

And ... ta da... diverting the water into the raised beds.

2009-04-27T16:21:00.001-07:00

Here's the little pump we use.

Can you see the hose snaking through the roses? It will flood that raised bed as well.

Then we will divert it into the bigger garden.

Please don't hate me cuz there's more about irrigation

2009-04-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

A few people have questioned me about how fast the irrigation comes out so luckily we got water on Sunday at 8:30 in the morning for a change and I decided to enlighten them and anyone else reading this what it's like.

Here is getting ready to open the gate.

This is while the gate is opening.

This is after thirty seconds.

This is after two minutes.

I've got the beet, I've got the beet, I've got the beet...

2009-04-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

yeaaaah.
Lovely day, lovely gardening. Here's a few others pictures of my out of control flowers. I love them!

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

May the smile of your garden help the Earth laugh in flowers today. Happy Earth Day!

Yes, but it's a dry heat

2009-04-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

Which is doubly true for our poor little gardens here in Arizona. Water is a precious resource and we do try to use it wisely as possible. I wrote in my last blog about irrigation water and how we receive it.

When we receive our irrigation water my husband has a little pump attached to a very long hose that we use to flood the raised beds as well. There is no way to divert the actual irrigation water into the beds without the pump. It seems to be a pretty efficient way to effectively deep water those beds while taking advantage of this super cheap water source.

I use thick layers of mulch around almost everything I plant and try to plant for shade. Right now in my tomato area I have random sunflowers growing, my rose bed is shaded in the afternoon by some pine trees, my melon and asparagus patch is shaded by a big Arizona Ash tree and the herbs get shade in the afternoon from the side of the house.

Even using mulch and shade the beds get dry. For the past several years we have run continous drip lines from the hose bib there which has worked fairly well. The problems with that unilateral type of watering is that the basically water the whole garden or none at all. Certain types of plants need different water requirements and some, like potatoes, need no water at all after a certain time close to harvest.

Our son, Greg, very cleverly came up with a solution for me. He ran a length of copper pipe around the top of my retaining wall and hooked up individual hose connectors and shut off valves every two feet. With this unique set-up I can run the soakers at very low volume almost continuously to germinate seeds or shut off entire sections of the garden. It has made my watering issues so much easier.

Next time Id like to write a bit about soil along with a simple soil test you can do easily at home.

But for now I am signing off and wishing you Happy Gardening from my sunny Arizona garden.

Another flood of information

2009-04-17T01:23:00.000-07:00

Did you get that? Flood of information? About flood irrigation? OK, maybe it wasn't that clever.

I went and took some pictures of some other kind of interesting irrigation stuff for your perusal.This is one of the sign up access sheets for irrigation water. It isn't ours. Ours is in a long alley and I made my friend drive me to take a picture and it was too dusty for her black car. But ours looks just like this.
This is what's inside the little box.
And here are the irrigation rules. Do you know if you click on the picture it will show you a full-size version (don't do that with the earlier picture of my back view, though, or you might burn out your retinas) and it's interesting to read the rules. I never actually did it before now (but don't tell SRP on me, please)
And lastly here are a few pictures of the actual main irrigation canals. These are about 1/2 a mile from our house.

I think it's time to close the gates of information for the moment and let you absorb all this (just in case you missed it, another clever water statement - ha) but come back and check soon because next time I am going to tell you about soaker hoses. Try to be patient. I know you are excited about this subject, too.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

2009-04-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

Great song, but a definite rare occurrence where we live. Our average rainfall is 5 inches. No, that's not a typo. FIVE INCHES! This is a year. Which is pretty much zip, squat, nada, drrrrryyyy.

So where do we get our water from here? Much of it comes from municipal sources in the form of sprinklers and drip lines. But I am luck, luck, lucky here in the older part of Mesa where I live.

My primary garden areas are in what we call a flood irigation area. We have a cool little water gate that we open to get water "delivery" twice a month for about 8 months of the year. Yards are contoured with banks with retain the water.
The water usually takes about 24 hours to dissipate which gives us plenty of time to redirect (more on this next time) and to let Granddaughters play in it. This is the only picture I can find without my granddaughters playing in the water in their underwear. Sigh. So I have to show you my most unflattering view in the interest of being real about my garden. Gulp. I hope you don't have a queasy stomach.

The water comes from the snow melt and rivers and here's some info on it if you're interested. http://www.srpnet.com/water/irrigation/defined.aspx

Here's how it works ... at least from my standpoint. The technical stuff you need to read all on your own.

We "order" our water on a website or you can go into one of the alleys here and actually sign up on a print board. I should take a picture of that because it's cool. In fact, I'll try to do that later today along with a picture of a canal that is the water source. But you have to wait for that.

For now I'll just tell you that water delivery is often at some ridiculous time such as 3 am or 5:40 am.

You take your flashlight, curse the delivery time, go into the backyard and turn that little metal pipe thing (I don't think that's the technical term - sorry) Water gushes out. It is cold. It is freezing. You try not to drop your flashlight and try to control your language just in case someone overhears and thinks the irrigation schedule has beaten you again. The best way to handle this is to make your husband do it. At least that's what I try to do as often as possible. Sometimes you have to pretend you hurt your foot or something but it's well worth it to pass the job along to someone else. (but don't tell my husband....he thinks I'm just really, really clumsy and hasn't connected foot and leg injury to irrigation delivery times - ha)

We take 50 minutes of water. During that time you just kind of wait because you don't want to forget to turn your gate off. If you forget two things happen - your yard floods to the top of the banks and it goes all over your patio and makes a mess to clean up AND your neighbors get really, really ticked off (they call it stealing water and you definitely do not want to do this EVER)

We pay $80.00 per year for all that water. It is economical, efficient and does the deep watering so necessary in our desert environment. More on that later.

This is getting pretty long so next time I'll talk about redirecting our irrigation water and the supplemental watering method we use for our garden and I should have the photos of the sign up board and canal for you then, too.

Happy gardening!

Continuing with some current garden pictures

2009-04-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

See, I gave you a break so you didn't get burned out reading this already. I just wanted to finish showing you pictures of what is happening right now in my Mesa, AZ
garden. This is the gate leading into my herb garden. This is where I'm attempting to grow peppers this year because they do nothing in my regular garden. This is my last year of the experiment. But so far they look like they are coming along
This is also where I will plant some small gourds. I use these masonry ladders for them to trellis on.

OK, bye for now!

Well, Good morning!

2009-04-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

It's a lovely day here in Arizona. We had a bit of rain over the weekend which we always, always need. I want to show you the gardens I have and then catch-up on my tomato prep and planting information....so, let's go for a little walk. Grab your coffee and some crocs.
This is my crazy vegetable/flower garden. It is about 28 feet by 25 feet and contained in a 20" raised pony wall. This garden was built on a large retention area that had nothing but cement-packed dirt, scrub and lots and lots of weeds and ants. Before we began building the walls I had a guy with a tractor break up the caliche deposits (something that is the curse of all gardeners I know here in AZ) The soil was amended with lots of masonry sand, compost, top soil and native soil.

As you can see it is a wonderful area for growing. In fact, all the random sunflowers and even that huge hollyhock were volunteers again this year. I have giving up trying to make straight rows in my garden because I never have the heart to pull out all the valiant little seedlings that survived our scorching summer to bloom again.

This little sweetie is my youngest "garden helper", 2 1/2 year old Granddaughter, Morgan. She mostly just tramps on things since there are no peas to harvest at this time. She wanders around in there trying to find the peas no matter how many times I tell her they are done for the year.

This is my first year for trying dahlias and this is one of the first blooms. It isn't as big as the dinner plates but is still approximately 6 inches across.

I'll share some more photos later. Didn't want to overwhelm you too much right when we first meet - ha!

Let me introduce myself

2009-04-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm Jenny. I'm a garden-holic. I love to garden. I don't always love the weather I garden in, though.
I spent a lot of years gardening in Northeastern Ohio. Rich garden soil, 80 inches of rain a year, moderate heat, four distinct seasons.

Then I moved to Arizona where our garden soil is primarily decomposing granite, 5 inches of rain per year, triple digit heat for over 130 days a year and pretty much two seasons - hot and not so hot.

The first few years I lived here all I did was whine (and try not to die from heat stroke). I missed my friends. I missed my century old farmhouse. I missed my apple trees and vegetable garden and perennial flower beds.

But then I found out you can actually grow things here! Really! Lots and lots of things including tomatoes.

For the past five years I have been ordering tomatoes from The Tasteful Garden and I think I've finally gotten it right. Last year I think we harvested well over 200 pounds of tomatoes and it was amazing and wonderful!

I don't know if the way I do it is the "right" way but it is the way that works for me and works well with our climate and soil and short gardening seasons.

But I'll tell you more as we go along.

I have to warn you, though. My tomatoes have been in the ground since Mid-March so I'll have to catch you up which might involve lots of information. Here are the boxes that arrived on my door-step on March 10.

But first things first. Hi! I am Jenny. And I am a garden-holic.