Garden is IN!

After planting the tomato seedlings, we started seeds under grow lights in the shed. We planted beans, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet corn, and lettuce. With temperatures still around 105 they germinated in only two days and were large enough to set out into the garden 9 days after we planted the seeds. We set them out on Labor Day and every seedling has survived except a few that birds have eaten. today we set out the lettuce starts, which grow more slowly and every drip line emitter in the yard now has something growing next to it.

The tomato plants are getting to be round and large, and they are blooming although it's probably too hot for any fruit to set at this point. We are excited for a fall harvest several weeks from now.

Tomatoes

The nursery ordered in six-packs of tomato seedlings for me last week for 50 cents/plant. They were big, strong, healthy plants and we put 84 of them in the ground the next day (Saturday evening). So far it  has been a perfect experience, with light rain every day since. One of the plants wilted temporarily because it was too far from it's drip line but that was quickly remedied. This may be the first time we haven't lost plants to shock (because I am too impatient to get the plants used to full sun before transplanting).

We are very hopeful that this will prove to be an excellent fall harvest. My only misgiving is that one year we had multiple rainstorms which brought a fungus that killed the seedlings, or at least turned them black and they stopped growing. Hopefully not this year! The plants look great so far! The plan is to do a lot of canning this fall and we still have onions, garlic, and peppers to make our own pizza sauce with once the tomatoes are on.

Garden Preparation

Today is our day for garden preparation. We will be tilling to loosen the soil, which has been baking with no water for several weeks. The last couple of days we put the drip lines on and moistened the soil so it will be ready for tilling today. The nursery's are starting to carry fall tomato seedlings, and the Maricopa County planting calendar says now is the time to get those in the ground although the nursery person told me it is still too hot. So we will till the soil today and incorporate all the material in the mulch pile.

Harvest Season

It is an early harvest this year. Today we picked our second bowl of tomatoes, which is something that usually doesn't happen until mid to late May. The yellow tomatoes are volunteers.

Out with the old...

The peas have succumbed to warm weather and age, but the beans we sprouted in the shed and then set in the garden yielded their first harvest for Sunday dinner this past weekend. One of the joys of gardening is learning to take advantage of what is currently available, while looking forward to things that will come again next year.

Cucumbers

We sprouted cucumbers in the shed, and took photos nearly every day until we set them out into the garden:

So far, so good. They are growing outside now.

Bush Beans

These are the bush beans. We've had so much trouble in past years with birds picking the seeds out of the ground that we tried sprouting the seeds inside this year. It took about two weeks and thus far only one plant was damaged by birds after we set them out.

We also sprouted a batch of pole beans in the shed and (Purple Pod) and set those out yesterday:

Guatemalan Blue Squash

Here is the Guatemalan Blue squash. The seeds are very thick and orange in color. The first two leaves are large - must be from the same squash family as pumpkin. At least one of these survived the birds plucking....

Stupid Birds

I have nothing against birds... until they decide to rip three-inch tall plants out of the ground and leave them there to desiccate in the sun. We found two nice, healthy Guatemalan blue squash seedlings laying on the ground today, and one of the bush beans is missing. All in all not a bad season but I wish the birds would leave the garden alone. After all, we provide nesting materials for every bird in the neighborhood when we mulch the yard waste after pruning each season. They should be grateful.

We set out purple pod pole beans today and created a custom ladder to heaven for them to climb on. Photos tomorrow....

Garden Update

The plants we set out a couple of weeks ago have all done well. Every last one of them is healthy and growing except for one bush bean that had germinated but wasn't out of the soil in its cell yet. It never came up and I can only assume it rotted in the ground, or there was a reason it was so far behind all the other seeds. The pepper plants have lots of buds forming, and the tomatoes are blooming. We are so excited for a bountiful garden!

Today we started a few more seeds. Watermelon, pole beans, and Sahuaro chili peppers. These will be the last we have room for, especially if the peppers grow. If I can find a suitable space we'll also plant a few more peas and carrots, although both of these would be more experimental because right when they mature is when we get 100-degree weather that kills them or at least makes them tough. We have had trouble in the past germinating peppers and once ever resorted to the sprinkling seeds on a damp napkin in an egg carton trick. Once they sprout we transfer them to cell trays with potting soil using tweezers or chopsticks. We didn't go to that measure this year, and its getting a bit late to try.

We have daily photos of the seedlings coming. Stay tuned...

Rain in the Forecast

Given the rain forecast for this weekend, along with temperatures about ten degrees cooler, we put out all the seedlings that were growing in the shed. In the past timing like this has made for an easy transition from the shed to the garden without overstressing the plants. So we now have Guatemalan blue squash, Armenian cucumbers, and acorn squash growing. Additionally, we set out the Ukraine black romas, emmy, blonde cherry, and black cherry tomatoes. These are all varieties I am looking forward to trying. Sometimes its a total flop to spend the time growing something to try (like the Hubbard squash we didn't like). You never know till you try it and this year seems to be a great one for the garden so I am hopeful we will enjoy all the varieties we have planted.

Peas

This has been a record year for peas. The plants we started last fall are now over six feet tall. Yes, those are pea blossoms just over my head and shoulders. We use sections of wire fence to keep them from falling over.

Dormancy

It has been so warm. The almond tree is in full bloom and the apricot tree started blooming a couple of days ago. The new blackberry plants are slowly breaking dormancy, and we noticed today that there are small leaves coming out on the pomegranates. Some of the grape vines never went completely dormant and now have open buds. That's a first in 11 years at this location. Now the question is will this exceptionally warm winter season turn into a short spring with record summer heat.

Seedling update

The birds have not bothered any of the seedlings, and all are doing well. The beans are stretching out their leaves as are the zucchini. The tomatoes are getting thicker and stronger and they are blooming. This should be a great year.

Grapes

The grapes were pruned today. They are growing because of the warm weather this year. Some have open buds already. Last year was not a good one for our vines. We had several suddenly die. If this year proves no better we'll probably encourage other things to grow - like the Rosborough blackberries we planted a few weeks ago. If we can't have grapes, blackberries would be a good substitute. I can imagine the fresh smoothies and jam already....

Plant your seedlings

This week we have been setting out seedlings. As an experiment, we started zucchini, peas, and bush beans in trays under a grow light about two weeks ago. When the beans and zucchini had spread their first two leaves they had roots to the bottom of the cells and transplanted just fine. We had set the trays out in full sun for five days so they didn't seem to notice being transplanted into the garden.

The tomatoes we purchased were also kept out in full sun and have transplanted without incident. Now all we need to do is weed, water, and wait.

Citrus season

The grapefruit is ripe and I pick a bag full every week to take to work. Two fruit a day for breakfast from now until April when we will harvest whatever is left and bottle the juice. Citrus is one of the great advantages to Arizona gardening. The trees are evergreen, require very little care, and produce large amounts of fruit. Water deeply and fertilize four times a year and you'll be successful. No pruning required except to keep them from leaning over the fence. Compare fresh citrus juice to the frozen stuff from the store and you might have a hard time enjoying anything but fresh from the garden ever again.

We moved a 10-year old Tangelo tree last year from the side yard to better spot where it gets more sun. This was a feat, taking four people to get it out of the hole and then slide it across the yard and roll into the new hole. We trimmed the top severely so the roots would have less to support and prayed over it, watered it nearly every day all summer, and are so excited that it made it through the first hot summer and even ripened a few fruit that escaped the pruning. We are hoping this year it grows new branches and solidifies it's presence in the yard (my wife's favorite citrus). If you are going to plant a tree, it might as well be something that will produce fruit.

The perfect season

This has been the perfect season for a winter garden. Twice a week the zucchini are ready to be picked, and broccoli is every other day with secondary growth starting  to mature on the ones we first picked. Tomatoes have been less speedy to ripen, probably because they like warmer weather to really get their metabolism going. We do have several ripe early girl tomatoes, but discovered that they are rock hard compared to summer season fruit - something we never anticipated. Flavor is strongly acidic and not as sweet but they are nearly as hard as a ripe apple. Still, a wonderful addition to dinner.

Seedlings

The stores have vegetable plants in stock now. If you want to save a few dollars go to a nursery where they have 6-packs of tomato plants, which run about 60 cents each (instead of the $3+ per plant at the big box stores). It is a bit early to be setting out tender plants like tomatoes - we could still see a frost this spring in spite of how warm its been lately. Sadly, the tomato seedlings we had raised since December met an untimely death so we bought some Roma and Early Girl tomato's from a local nursery, along with some peppers.
Onion starts are also in stock and if you use onions and haven't grown them before, give them a try. We found out these are so easy to grow and have so much enjoyed having fresh onions whenever, right there in the back  yard.

Broccoli

We have had such a wonderful winter for cool weather crops this season. The broccoli and peas are flourishing. Normally we have to wait another month or so to harvest large broccoli heads, but not this season. With weather in the mid-70's for a few weeks since Christmas the peas have been blooming and setting pods and the broccoli has been quietly growing larger. Pictured below is the largest broccoli head and a few zucchini picked today.

Heaven in January

We have preserved the tomatoes and zucchini through frost thus far this winter (fingers crossed that we can continue this luck through mid-February). Last Sunday we enjoyed braised cherry tomatoes and fried zucchini. That one meal made the entire winter garden effort worthwhile!

This is going to be a record year for peas. Our edible-pod peas are now waist high and blooming, which means we have another three months of growth. There has only been one other year we had this kind of pea crop in the last 22 years - that year they climbed over a 4-foot trellis, fell to the ground and grew back up over the trellis again. We picked our largest mixing bowl full of peas every week for about a month. The kids still talk about that year. Isn't it great to create happy memories with a garden!?

The broccoli has heads about the size of my fist, one of them about twice that, so we will soon enjoy wonderfully fresh, sweet broccoli from the garden. We love winter gardens!