Frost Warning

Frost warning this week, especially for tomorrow night. In our experience, those who live in outlying areas experience temperatures up to several degrees cooler than predicted for downtown so be prepared. We will likely not see any fruit from tomatoes (heavily set with green tomatoes), corn (still silky), or zucchini (blooming). The rest of the garden (broccoli, onions, garlic, peas, sage) will be just fine.

Fall Gardening

This is another first attempt - Brussels sprouts.

We picked one red cherry tomato yesterday. That's a first and a very welcome addition to the Phoenix gardening experience! There are lots of others coming along so we should enjoy fresh tomato salads this fall until it freezes. Our weather is still in the 50's to 80's so the plants are happy. They have completely overgrown the wire cages shown in the October post.

Zucchini plants are finally up. As you may recall from earlier posts, we had trouble with birds picking the sprouting seedlings out of the ground, followed by trouble with germination, followed by placement of a net over the area which we left until the plants were finally big enough that the birds would ignore them. They look healthy and will soon blossom, but need to hurry or the first frost may rob us of zucchini. You can also see the broccoli off to the right of the picture (Brussels sprouts in the middle, garlic in the foreground). We also have peas about six inches tall in another part of the yard. I love all the different colors of green in the garden, the miracle of how things grow and the anticipation of eating fresh food from our very own back yard. And of course the broccoli, brussels sprouts, and peas will all continue to grow through the winter even with our occasional frosts, and then when the weather warms in spring we will have sweet prolific vegetables to eat.

Tomato Update

The tomatoes are really doing well. Today we found a few blossoms have set, the vines are growing rapidly, and there are many open blossoms. We put wire cages around each plant to keep them better contained and possibly to help be able to cover them when the weather gets cooler and extend the harvest. Notice that we cage them by using bits of wire fencing cut and bent into circles. This is far cheaper than purchasing tomato cages, and they last many years. We also use these same cages for pepper plants to keep them from falling over as they can get so heavy with peppers that branches break off or the plant bends to one side and touches the ground. Growing Anaheim peppers is on our list for next summer.

You can also see the bird netting we made to keep the zucchini plants safe in the background.

Zucchini are Up!

Finally, after several tries and those accursed birds, we have zucchini sprouting. It is likely too late to expect much from them, but we might get to pick a few before frost takes them out. Truthfully, I had given up until today I was out weeding and noticed five sets of leaves pushing their way through the soil. Hallelujah!

Tomato Update

Each of the three tomato plans we set out in September have at least doubled in size and are beginning to bloom. This is very encouraging for a gardener who has never grown fall tomatoes in Arizona. We usually plant enough that we can bottle what we need for the rest of the year, but this season we decided it would be nice to have fresh tomatoes for barbecued  hamburgers, salads, and braised with slices of zucchini in olive oil. There is a long way to go yet, especially with the zucchini which I just put additional seeds out that we sprouted indoors (see prior stories about birds). Tomatoes still need to set, grow, and ripen. For those in cooler climates, we can pretty much guarantee another 10 weeks before frost is a concern. In fact, I recall a year when our kids used the wading pool on Thanksgiving. It can be that warm that late in the year.

Garlic Update

All of the garlic is up - except the nodules from the elephant garlic. We planted a few cloves from last year to be certain we end up with some of this variety, but are still hopeful the little nodes will come to life. Given that they had such a rock-hard shell I'm not surprised they would take longer to start growing, but will feel better to see some signs of life. The store-bought variety sprouted quickest of all and is 2-3 inches tall already.

Fall and Winter Flowers

We have an open house coming up in January, and preparations are already underway. After consulting the Flower and Bedding Guide mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to plant pansies, petunias, and snapdragons. So far all are doing well, especially the petunias we found last weekend which have rich variegated colors (last year we planted the deep purple velvet ones). The snapdragons didn't like the last week of 100-degree weather, but are doing better now that it is cooler. We have only found bright yellow so far, but have an eye out for other colors, especially lilac blue since that is one of the wedding colors.

Last year we planted snapdragons and petunias, and they grew and flowered all winter long. By spring they were very large and beautiful and then the heat came and that was that. So we learned that it is possible to have wonderful flowers all winter here in the low desert of Arizona. In the collage above, Vinca flowers are on the left in white, red, and pink. These will freeze and die, but if kept next to the house on a southern exposure can survive some winters and grow quite large. They will also re-seed and grow again the next season. On the right are the petunias, which will suffice for the lilac blue wedding color as I can't locate anything else this time of year. They will grow in a large circle about 2-3 feet in diameter by spring, and last longer in the heat than snapdragons.