Tomatoes

Tomatoes are in the nursery (Summer Winds on Chandler Boulevard). They arrived this morning and look very healthy. We'll be watching the weather for another week or so and if there isn't another cold spell in the long-term forecast we'll set the plants in the garden. In the meantime, they will be out during the day and in the shed at night.

New Background

Today we updated the site background with a photo of the garden from May 2012. This is our typical garden, which takes up half the back yard (about 12 feet by 45 feet). Grapes, bamboo, lima beans, tomatoes, zucchini, watermelon, indian corn, broccoli, peas, beets, carrots, bell peppers, anaheim peppers, leeks, onions, garlic, sage, cilantro, lemons, grapefruit, pomegranates, apricots, and more.... The actual vegetable garden is 12x45 but every tree in our yard grows something edible, and the block walls are lined with grapevines, and we have herbs, onions, and garlic growing amongst the roses and iris's.

One of my favorite things to do is photograph all the different shades of green in the garden, and the flowers and fruit, and the bees, and the hummingbirds. Witnesses will testify that the hummingbirds like to stand on the grape trellis wires and watch me work.

Lemons

Picked "some" of the lemons last weekend. Two buckets held about 400 and we just grabbed the quick and easy low hanging fruit. The tree is laden this year, and probably won't have any lemons next year due to the cold weather we are having. It doesn't hurt the tree much but it does kill the fruit buds on new growth.

The first 200 lemons yielded 20 quarts of lemon juice, which we froze in bottling jars. In past years we have frozen the juice in plastic bags, bottled it in mason  jars, and made lemon jam. All of the bottling experiments turned brown from oxidation within a few months and those with added sugar went more quickly (so much for instant lemonade concentrate...). Freezing is definately the best option although doing it in plastic bags can make for a sticky mess. Thus we tried bottles this year for the first time. Oh - and one more thing. We screen off the seeds in a collander, then run the juice through a sieve to get the pulp out and we save this pulp. It is GREAT in recipes calling for fresh lemon. Our favorite use is to make cheesecake - the unbaked version.

Yes - those are onions and garlic growing in the background and the recent 20-degree temperatures did not bother them at all.

Pruning

Thus far we have pruned the Pomegranate and Pecan trees. We've also pruned the roses and pulled all the brown plant material out of the Iris and Asparagus beds. The branches and leaves all go through the chipper to reduce it to a nice mulch, which then goes around the roses and along walking paths into the garden. The birds love it - which is the one drawback to making our own mulch. They seem to come from all over to find the perfect twigs for their nests, and remember to come back when the Apricots and Grapes are getting ripe.

In the next month or so we'll prune the grapes and the frost-bitten citrus trees, and perhaps thin out the bamboo to keep it under control.

Garden Preparation

Today, if I can overcome the cold, the garden will be tilled and the pile of grass clippings and the mulch pile will be mixed into the soil. We've had an old bit of wire fencing tied in a circle holding a very large pile of grass clippings since October (from when we dethatched the lawn) which is now ready to go into the soil. In past years we made the mistake of putting this directly into the garden - not a good idea because the grass will grow.

Cold!

These few days of cold weather will likely burn some ficus trees and freeze the buds on lemon trees. This is the third or fourth time in 10 years that it has been cold enough to damage our Lisbon Lemon tree. We'll prune it back and have a year of nearly no lemons (as opposed to this year when we have a few hundred). These cold spells don't bother our grapefruit tree, perhaps because it grows in more of an umbrella shape that holds in heat better.

After spending several years nurturing a plant to maturity and losing it to one night of cold I surrendered and put in something better suited to our climate. We can't cover our lemon tree because it is so large, but it gets along fine.

One thing we will cover is our backflow assembly on the irrigation line. We've had that freeze before and it was no fun buying a replacement - since thousands of people in the southwest had the same problem and the stores were out of stock. So there is a painting cloth over our water pipes for the next few days.

Getting Ready...

It's time to get planting areas ready for vegetables. For those who are interested in flowers the big box stores (Lowes) just got in their flower bulbs. We put in some Gladiolus this year.

Vegetables are not really available yet. Bear in mind I say that because we are looking for 6-packs of tomato plants. We took a hiatus from planting tomatoes from seed this year so are really hoping to see the seedlings show up in nursery's soon. I did start some seeds yesterday as a backup plan and to keep my anxiety level down...

Bare root fruit trees should be arriving in stores this month if you are looking for apricots, pomegranates or the like.

Now is the time to plan what you want to plant and where, and get the soil ready. We usually till the garden and add a bit of fertilizer a couple weeks before setting out anything. The weather should be warm enough in about 4-5 weeks to set out tomato seedlings.