Blossoms

Canalilly

Angelita Daisy

Lisbon Lemon

Gold Kist Apricot

Bearss Lime

Tomatillo blossom in daylight

Mortgage Lifter tomato

Zucchini

Tomatillo blossom at evening

Apricot

The bare root apricot we planted was dead, so we found a potted tree at a local nursery and replaced it today. We could not get a Katy (sold out) which would have been our first choice, so we got a Gold Kist instead. This is the same variety as the 12-year old tree we have in the back. It has smaller fruit but the taste is excellent and the tree has done really well. We make jam and fruit leather from it every year.

Katy has larger fruit and that's why we wanted to try it, but no luck. There are other varieties that do well in the Phoenix area, but these are two of the best and have the lowest chill hour requirement. Remember that we get about 450 chill hours a year here on average, which is why many fruit trees aren't grown here - they need more cold weather to set fruit the next season.

Gold Kist Apricot

Garden Update

A few new pictures taken in the garden today. The tomato plants look really happy (except for the ones the birds broke in half...) and we are anxiously looking forward to harvest season. We put fertilizer in the drip system about once a week to help the plants get big quickly and cover what will be very hot dirt between the rows come summer time. We've also spread mulch from pruning the trees and bamboo between the rows.

Tomato rows are filling in 3.1.2015

Tomatillo forming blossoms

Tomato blossoms

Zucchini blooming

Apricot Tree

Following the advice on the label, we planted a Blenheim Royal apricot tree about four years ago. It had bitter fruit every year, and more of it each year. This week we pulled the tree out of the ground and replaced it with a Gold Kist apricot which is one of the two highly recommended varieties for our climate in the Salt River Valley. It was hard to find, and perhaps that is why we trusted the label instead of our research when we planted the Blenheim, but it cost us four years of effort. Let that be a lesson. Fruit trees take time to grow and one needs to be sure they are planting the correct variety in the correct spot in the yard.

Garden Progress

We transplanted into the garden on February 8. Photos today show that so far everything looks great!

Tomatillo

Early Girl Tomato

Emmy Tomato

Seedling Photo

Here is a picture of the tomato and tomatillo seedlings. Tomatoes were started the week after Christmas, and tomatillos about a week later. These really started growing quickly once they got some direct sun outside starting two weeks ago. The tomatoes are easily four inches tall. We moved the lights a bit higher after taking the picture.

New Seedlings for 2015

We are giving the tomato crop one more try this year, and have started two trays of early girl (with some gurney girl mixed in), as well as six each of another dozen varieties, some we have tried before and really like and others we just want to try. Emmy is one we really liked, as were the cream sausage and pink brandywine varieties. We always want to  try more varieties than we have room for. Yellow pear is another we have really enjoyed with salads. Tomatillos in the photo, as well as onion, watermelon, and cucumber. This photo is a couple of weeks old, and the tomato plants are 3 to 4 inches tall now.