It didn't make for the prettiest pictures, but I photographed our meager garden in full afternoon sun to give you a feel for how the sun glares down on us here. Then I felt bad and darkened most of the pictures so you wouldn't be blinded. Next time, I'll leave them be and let you don sunglasses.
The tomatoes that we moved from the old house to this one have not fared particularly well. The move itself stressed them and it was very windy the day after they were relocated. They have slowly faded, although a few are producing tomatoes. The other problem is that these heirlooms don't particularly like to be grown in containers.
Several tomatoes were planted in the ground a couple of weeks ago. They seem to be doing pretty well and putting on a bit of new growth. With the heat now, they are not likely to produce much fruit, but if we can get them to hang in until fall, we'll likely get a crop then.
Near the tomatoes are a few asparagus that we got as starts from the CSA. The rabbits are completely ignoring them for now. Will they be so disinterested when they put up the spears in a couple of years?
The peppers from last year made it through the winter. In fact, they never really quit producing. It's time for me to pick a bunch of peppers again already!
The blackberries we bought last year put on a lot of growth once we moved out here. Come fall, we plan to put them in the ground somewhere near the wash. We'll see how the wash flows and water runs across the property during the summer monsoons first.
I jumped right on an ad listed on craigslist for raspberries and a boysenberry recently. If all of these transplant well, we'll have some tasty berries around here.
The same person was also selling strawberries so I picked up a few of those. Behind them are some of the herbs and more peppers we moved from the old house.
I figured as long as I was buying fruit-bearing plants off craigslist, I might as well take a chance on a young banana tree...
...and two young avocados.
The welded cover and chicken wire is the only thing protecting these okra youngsters from the quail and rabbits. The first batch was wiped out before more chicken wire was added. As it is, I've got to keep an eye on the garden patch. On Wednesday morning, a quail dug under the side and was panicking about being stuck. I was nice and let her out, only realizing later that the dogs would have enjoyed quail for dinner.
My sweetie's native American garden (aka "the three sisters" aka corn/beans/squash) had to be enclosed after the birds got a bit too enthusiastic about the seedlings popping up. He still needs to put a "skirt" around the bottom edge to keep bunnies from burrowing under the bottom. They don't just like the plants; they also like to make a little depression in the cool damp dirt and hang out during the heat of the day.
From a craigslist ad, I got a bunch of hardwood shavings and sawdust from a cabinet maker. This will be great for the compost pile once I get the big three-bin system put together.
8 comments:
That's quite a list you've got going there, girl. My summer garden is just about where yours is and I'm hoping the birdies will just stay the heck away --or, I may have to hire my neighbor's cat!...ah, the joys of home ownership...one step at a time...
I'm amazed, you'll do better when you get as much mulch and compost into that desert ground. We're dry here and it's taken me years to improve the soil but my ground is still not fertile enough for food crops yet and i'm growing in pots which require daily watering.
Sharlene - it's a start. By next year, there should be a whole lot more going on out there.
Frugal Life UK - our soil is actually pretty good here. We're in an alluvial plain which helps a lot. Hopefully I'll get some hay picked up this next week to mulch what we have so far. Future garden beds will get a lot more compost than these initial ones, too. As soon as I can get the compost area built up for large quantity composting, too, I'll talk to some of the neighbors about getting their animal manure to really crank out some good compost.
It's interesting to read about gardening in a climate so different from ours - the Atlantic Coast of Canada which is cold, wet and windy for (too) much of the year. My garden is suffering from lack of heat and our fine, sandy soil dries out in one day. I mulch and water on dry days and pray for heat and sun on the cool wet days! Critters are a problem here too - bunnies and skunks and birds and raccoons, mainly, plus the usual assortment of garden devouring insects.
Hello Chile - I have a question for you. Because our seasons are so short (Canada) we have to start our tomatoes indoors in March or April and they can be planted out around the end of May. I've wondered for awhile - can you plant the seeds right in the ground in warmer climates or do you still start them inside?
Olivia - yeah, you have an entirely different set of problems than we do! :)
Liz - my sweetie started these inside back in March. The catch here is avoiding the late freezes but getting the tomatoes going before the temps soar. Once it gets too hot, the fruit won't set. We try to get an early summer crop and then nurse the plants through the hot summer and hope for a second fall crop.
Here's some information from my CSA's late Jaunary 2009 newsletter, though, about direct-seeding tomatoes in the Phoenix area:
Crooked Sky Farms has recently begun direct-seeding tomato plants in the field and Farmer Frank described to us his approach to growing tomatoes and the practice of direct-seeding compared to planting starts germinated in the greenhouse. Frank has used both, but with the average last-frost date of February 7th (at the Phoenix field where he grows our tomatoes) fast approaching, now is the time to begin putting the seeds in the ground.
Direct-seeded tomato plants, Frank explained, are stronger. Indeed, Frank believes that as a general rule any plant that can be direct-seeded will perform better. They develop a better root system, and the plants are tougher and more disease resistant. It’s particularly important in organic farming to have a plant that is disease-resistant because chemical means of fighting plant diseases are, of course, not available. There also can be additional delay in harvesting when greenhouse-germinated starts are used, because when seedlings started in the greenhouse are planted in the field they pause for awhile, perhaps a couple weeks, before they resume growing.
This example illustrates how organic farming depends on, and benefits from, a specialized body of knowledge. It’s probably obvious that a good non-organic farmer is not necessarily a good organic farmer, but this is one more illustration of that concept in practice."
Our farmer has been farming in the desert for years. I cannot confirm if his information is pertinent to other regions.
Chile,
You could direct seed if you used wall o waters! I use them here to protect against cold nights.
Here's what I just posted on FB, seems appropriate for this post:
Did a mess of harvesting in the gardens today: Several pounds of English peas (3 varieties), lettuce, spinach, turnip greens, kale, radishes, dill, parsley, garlic scapes, green onions and a small bowl of strawberries-- Happy Solstice!
DC - we could also make cold frames with the glass refrigerator shelves I salvaged. :)
ALl your plantings sound great!
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