Arizona Gardening - My Granny Rocks!

In the Garden, Day 21

It’s been another week of high winds and daily watering. One lonely green bean is growing, so I’m going to try soaking the seeds before putting them in the ground. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Not a single carrot sprout yet, so I’m going to replant using a different seed pack. Perhaps I bought a bad bag of seed? Other than that, not much happening, watching and waiting.

Spinach wk 3 — Spinach is growing nicely.

Tomato Plant wk 3 — Tomato plant is still handing on.

Onions and Radishes wk 3 — Onions and radishes

.
<br /> <br />

In the Garden, Day 15

Another week of waiting has passed. The above photo of lettuce shows the most successful plants thus far. When the lettuce is a little bit taller, I’ll need to thin it out. Radishes, spinach, onions and one lonely green bean have poked through. Still nothing has sprouted in the carrot patch so far. We’ve had some strong winds with advisories this week. Not surprisingly, the winds beat it up the tomato plant, so it’s hanging on.

Tomato Plant , Day 15, after high winds.

The photos were taken around noon before watering. Yes, it is extremely dry here.

Although hard to see through the cages, but the spinach and radishes are doing well. They broke through the soil last Tuesday.

I’m thinking I’ll give the carrots, zuchinni, yellow squash and green beans another week to see if anything will sprout. There’s always the possibility that I planted too deep. All new seed this year, so I’ll have to blame it on my planting depth.

Granpa has been working on another bed that’s about 36″ wide by 10′ long. It’s leveled and ready to start mixing compost, dirt, sand, peat moss and vermiculite. He used cinder blocks for the raised bed and is laying out other beds that will be watered by the landscape watering system. We’ll probably leave the beds unplanted until the fall planting season.

Spring is a great time to repot indoor houseplants, too. I’ve repotted a fern and bamboo plant so far.
<br /> <br />

In the Garden – Day 1

I woke up early yesterday; impatiently waiting for the sun to come up so I could get out in the garden. A few high clouds made for a beautiful sunrise. As I was waiting, I made cookies that I’ll post later this week.

I love playing in the dirt. I guess that’s the farm girl in me coming out. Fresh produce is so good. It seems wrong to pay over $2.50 for an 8 oz. bag of salad spinach. Salads are a summertime staple at my house. Who want’s to heat up the kitchen when it’s 100° in the shade?

Gardening in Arizona is somewhat a challenge. As I remember, Iowa gardening was so much easier. Till the ground; plant the seeds; pull weeds now and then; water if it doesn’t rain; then sit back and watch it grow. The soil was rich with nutrients. As my dad, a life long farmer, said about Arizona when he came to visit, “This ground ain’t good for nothing. Too rocky to grow anything.”

Garden's been tilled. — Garden’s been tilled.

Over the years, I’ve tried various methods with limited success, gardening in bags (soil got too hot and cooked the roots), gardening in tubs (had great tomato plants, but the fruit didn’t set), and rows (planted & replanted several times. Darn chipmunks and kangaroo mice kept digging up and stealing the seeds. If something did sprout, the rabbits got it.) Our backyard is enclosed by 3′ chain link, with chicken wire around it and overlapping the gates. The rabbits hop over the fence like it’s not even there. We put up blocks in one corner to help with the critters and the hot summer winds.

Chilly Lizard — First lizard of the season. It’s a bit chilly this morning, so he’s moving slow.

Well, a garden is possible – if you cage your area and enrich the soil by adding peat moss, compost, perlite, etc. into the ground. I have a small garden area and plant in a modified square foot format. Each year, we continue to add garden soil and compost. Eventually, I’ll get the soil where I want it.

Onion sets, radishes, carrots, green beans, spinach and romaine lettuce hit the dirt yesterday. Today, we’ll be expanding the garden a few more square feet on the left side of the wall for full sun. Zucchini and yellow squash have to been in full sun to avoid aphids and they don’t mind the high winds. Tomato plants, zucchini, yellow squash and cantaloupe are on today’s agenda.

I’ll provide weekly updates on my garden, perhaps more often after it starts to grow.