Dorothy's Garden May 2011

This has been a wonderful spring for a very productive garden here in Phoenix. It is now June 10th and I'm harvesting peaches, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic and onions. Still picking a handful of stringbeans almost every day, but the snow peas have been done in by the heat and sun. The new squash patch has been so productive we've had to give a lot away as well as freeze grated zucchini for future bread making. Found a delicious recipe that includes orange zest and cloves and it really makes a delicious loaf. Had a crop of about 25 artichokes this year - most we've ever had.

The fruit trees came through the frost OK as far as the peaches are concerned but we got only four apricots. The smaller citrus trees didn't fare as well with the frost, but fortunately our two older trees did very well. We enjoyed fresh oranges for several months. Planted some new citrus trees along our front driveway by trimming back the Texas Sage plants. As the trees grow the sage will be cut back more. Decided we couldn't eat the sage. Also planted an almond tree. Have a fair pomegranate crop and four apples this year. High hopes for 2012.

Tom has everything on automatic sprinklers or drip so that has made it a lot easier for me to keep everything watered. Love Mel's mix. It has served me well for three years now just by adding compost when I replant. I do give the tomatoes and some other plants extra fertilizer.

Double click on any picture, enlarge the picture and view the slide show.

Haven't had time to post to my blog for a long time. We've been enjoying the vegetables from the garden for the past couple of months (carrots, onions, chard, asparagus, snow peas, lettuce, chives, and kohlrabe). There are a lot of pictures of flowers in my garden that I hope you will also enjoy. Last falls slide show has been moved to the side. Just click on any picture to see the garden in larger pictures with captions. You might have to set the interval to a longer time. The very cold spell we had in Arizona in February was hard on my garden. Lost some plants that had carried over the winter. My very prolific ichiban eggplant and a tomato vine that had tomatoes ready to ripen. I've replanted the eggplant and tomatoes and added squash, snow peas, beans, onions, garlic, bell and hot peppers. Added cilantro this year, also. Found a tire dealer that gave me two tires, so I just planted my potato starts in them for fun. Our navel oranges were so good and sweet this year that we have added more citrus trees out in the front yard. The fig tree is loaded with the first crop of the season (which is the biggest and best compared to the fall crop). Now just have to keep the birds out of the tree as they ripen. Our apricot and plum trees did not set fruit but five out of the six peach trees are in various stages. We should have peaches from late May through July. Really did a lot of thinning of the peaches. It will be worth it as they will be larger. One apple tree is setting fruit and the pomegranate tree is loaded with blossoms. I've been more careful about trimming and fertilizing the trees this year. Plan to keep every tree under six feet tall. The artichoke plants are huge but not producing, don't know what I did wrong. Haven't tried melons this year. I keep planting root crops such as: carrots, beets and radishes, as the heat doesn't seem to bother them. May not save much money, but the fresh vegetables taste so much better fresh from the garden. Enjoy your gardens!!!

Be sure to double click on any photo to enlarge the pictures and see the captions.

Arizona summer 2010 was not a complete bust. Have added a few slideshow pictures to show what we have been enjoying. The ichiban eggplant and swiss chard are on their second year and still producing. I have started harvesting my sweet potatoes (yams? whichever) and have really been pleased with the quality and quantity. View the slide show to see the 15 inch 3 pound 13 ounce sweet potato. Been pleased with the Asian cucumbers, they are still producing about one a week.

Lost all my strawberry plants again this summer so I may not try to plant them again.

I'm planning to start planting seeds by the end of September. We've missed the fresh lettuce.

Be sure to double click on any picture to see larger view, then select full screen for a slide show..

Had a beautiful May in Phoenix. Perfect for gardening. Here are 11 pictures out of 50 or more that I took this month. My fruit orchard is doing well. Spring was the time to cut the fruit tree back by half. That was hard to do, but the results are rewarding as the trees are now putting out new growth. That new growth will be cut back by half again in the fall. We've enjoyed 6 apricots and some of the peaches. The fig tree has grown 4 figs so far (don't expect more this year). The watermelon patch that we grew on a small hill is doing great. Will pick our first melon this week (6 large ones and several more small ones are developing).

Been using my Sun Oven more this year. Today I baked a loaf of bread and have a pot of vegetable soup in the oven for dinner. So far I've baked cookies, potatoes, a whole chicken , stew and boiled some eggs. I wrapped beets in foil and put them in a covered pan and they cooked in their own steam. Lots of great recipes on the internet.

I do water everyday for 10 to 15 minutes so the soil stays moist. Also have a lot of flowers, squash and other veggies in pots that I have to watch closely. Been harvesting russet (new small ones) and red potatoes so far. The sweet potatoes aren't ready yet. I'm about ready to bag the grapes so the birds don't eat them all. Didn't try corn this year as our yard is small.

Otherwise, let's hear it for gardening in Phoenix!!!

Just wanted to share the beautiful roses that grow in and around my garden. Everythingis growing well so far, especially the potatoes. Have been enjoying sugar peas, beets, carrots, lettuce, chard, spinach and green onions. Lots of little squash are forming. No ripe tomatoes yet. Moved the March slideshow to the side bar. To view the current slideshow, double click on any picture and it will take you to Picasa.

The weather has been beautiful. Planted lettuce, carrots, spinich, bush beans , beets, sugar peas and kohlrabi by seed last month and they are all coming up. It's now too late to grow from seed so I have been planting transplants of several kinds of squash, cukes, pole beans, regular eggplant, watermelon, and some small tomato plants. Also purchased potato and rhubarb starts from Summer Winds nursery. Love color in the garden so I have planted flowers wherever I could find room. Had to plant new strawberries as I lost last years plants due to the heat. They didn't get enough water from the soaker hoses so Tom changed their watering to sprinklers. Same problem with the asparagus and potato patches so now they have sprinklers also. (The sprinkler spacing is one for every four squares)
NOTE: Double click on any photo in the slideshow and it will take you to Picasa. Then click on "slideshow" in the upper left of the screen and it will bring the photos up in full screen with captions. To get out of Picasa just select the back arrow two times.

Dorothy's garden when we returned from vacation Oct 15, 2009

Moved the "summer in Phoenix" slideshow to the side and added a new slide show as of 15 Oct 2009. Double click on any slide and it will take you to Picasa where you can see the picctures larger and read the captions..

We're back after almost six weeks of being in and out of town. The garden was on automatic watering and we came back to some things still growing. Have cleaned out the beds and have started to plant a winter garden (carrots, spanich, chard, bok choy, lettuce, onions, sugar peas, beets and radishes so far). Plan to go to the nursery and get some transplants (broccoli, maybe a tomato or two and whatever else looks good.

Picked our last watermelon last Saturday. It wieghed 15 lbs. Lots of seeds but tasty. Picked our first sweet potato (delicious) and had beets and potato for dinner on the 19th. Still have carrots and several varieties of peppers growing.

Went to the "Urban Farm" open house last Saturday, again, mainly to see how his trees that were planted last Feburary were growing and to order some more fruit trees. Ordered four different peach trees and two apple that he recommended grow well here in the valley. Peaches are so much better when picked ripe off the tree.

Dorothy's Garden - Summer in Phoenix

Just have a few pictures to share to date. It is just no fun to work outside in the heat. The hottest July in Phoenix since they startedkeeping records. All I do each day is hand water the pots of herbs and baskets of flowers and keep the bird bath clean and full of fresh water. The rest of the garden is watered automatically each day. Double click on any picture then choose full screen or slideshow to read captions. Enjoy!!!

Finally got around to blogging some of my 74 pictures since 6-12. Have added captions to 33 pictures in the slideshow and a description of what has been going on in the garden. It has turned into a very hot July after a wonderful long spring. Double click on any picture and it will take you to Picasa where you can choose a full screen slideshow with captions. (Typing captions is not user friendly so there are a few typos that I didn't go back and correct - please excuse the mistakes).
Hope you too are having success with your gardens.

Dorothy's Garden May 27 to Jun 8

I moved the previous slide show to the side. Double click on any picture to view the new slide show in Picasa. Choose how you want to view it. If you choose slide show you can change the time interval at the bottom. Enjoy!

Been enjoying the veggies all month. Moved the last slide show to the side bar and have added one entitled Dorothy's Garden May 12-25 2009. Be sure to double click on any picture and then choose slide show to read the captions. You can change the time interval at the bottom. When done viewing, simply exit out of picasa. Showed some harvest on 5-12 and 5-24&25, but we also had veggies all during that time. Have to go out daily to pick tomatoes they are ripening so fast.

New pictures as of May 7-8, 2009

Been trying to take videos with my new Flip but haven't been able to up load videos, so I took these photos and made a new slideshow. Be sure to double click on any photo, it will take you to picasa. Then click on slideshow in the upper left and you will get a full screen with captions. You can change the speed of the slide show at the bottom of the picture. When youv'e seen all you want then click on exit and back you way out of picasa. Thanks for viewing my garden!!!

The Garden has flourished

I think I have a handle on how to get my slideshows into my blog. I will put the one for April here and then move it to the side when I want to add another slideshow at the end of April.

We have really been working hard to get the garden in top notch shape so we can enjoy and share the fruits of our labors with family and friends. I still have some empty squares but those are saved to do sequential planting of crops so everything doesn't come ripe at the same time. For instance I have four squares of baby carrots in different stages of growth.

The tomato vines have been loaded with blossoms and now lots of fruit has been set (have 15 plants). I've counted about 75 tomatoes in various stages so far. The strawberries are ripening at a rapid rate and we pick a few every day. I put a 3" collar around each plant (cut from plastic cartons) to hold the berries up off the ground to avoid rotting the berries when I water, also makes them easier to pick

All the trees planted last month seem to be thriving and many of the blossoms are still on the citrus . The bird feeders are now back out and we've seen several birds that haven't been around for awhile (a white winged dove and a ringed neck turtle dove, and also a yellow finch). Because we have so many birds around they have gone after some of the small seedlings, in particular, the onions and corn spears. It was the last straw when they pulled up a small asparagus spear. We have covered the beds with bird netting where we have PVC domes and Tom has built me several open frames (2x2 ft by 6" and 1x2ft by 6" and 12") which I have covered with bird netting. They are light weight and easy to move around to new areas where little seedlings are trying to survive.

Tom is in the process of adding automatic sprinkling or soaker hoses to the beds, and a drip system to all the trees. Since it rained hard last night and more today, we won't have to use them for a few days.

Garden through the end of March

I've moved the slide shows to the side so you can see them anytime. There are six so far.
1. A Walk thru my garden
2. Potatoes growing
3. Asparagus growing
4. Removed useless tree
5. New orchard
6. Adding color to my garden
Click on any photo and it takes you to my Picasa site where you can read a description of each slide show and view an enlarged slide show or just run your mouse over each photo to read the captions. Enjoy
I'll be adding a new slideshow of my garden which is pictures taken since 1 April 2009

MARCH WAS A BUSY MONTH

I finally learned how to add a slide show to my blog. To see the captions for each photo and read the description of each album, DOUBLE CLICK on any photo of the slideshow and then CLICK on VIEW ALL. Run the mouse over each photo to read the whole caption.

Catching up on February Gardening

Been so busy working in the yard and other family activities that I haven't blogged for awhile. Matt came home from his mission in Germany the end of February and then Nancy and Troy came to visit for several days. Played and had lots of family fun! Now have to get to work.

My hanging tomatoes didn't do well last fall, so I'm trying again. Filled and planted the unused box in the shade with some broccoli transplants. Planted a few bulbs last fall and a few came up in the strawberry bed. Love the color it adds.

It was time to add more boxes to the garden, so we continued to move toward the middle of the yard. Had a big space and wanted to make it interesting, so we moved the bird bath toward the patio, leveled the ground and added a 4 by 4 box, a 2 by 8 box along side and then a 2 by 8 box behind the lemon tree. You can see the final layout in the last two photos.

These are the current citrus trees that we have in the backyard. Enlarged all the watering basins and fertilized and watered each well. Found some nice citrus at Costco. Bought more orange (3), lime, myer lemon, mandarin and grapefruit (seven tree is all). Will plant them next month after we are sure there will be no frost.

It became harder and harder to move the Mel's mix around so we invested in a dump cart. As you can see we went from a box to a full fledged dump cart, that can also be used as a wagon with or without the insert and removeable sides. At first we thought it was too big, but as you will see in the post for March, we love it.

Know some of the pictures are in strange positions but did this in a hurry. More soon for March gardening.

The New Year 2009

In early January, Tom opened his Christmas present and put together our new gas generator. He mounted it on the wheel base and checked out all the parts, then took it out of the garage to prep it with the oil and gas. It worked!!! See the light in the photo.














My Christmas present was assembled in December, then we left it sitting on the patio until last week when we gave it a home along the back wall behind the grape arbor. This way it will get some shade from the hot summer sun when the grape vines are in full bloom.




Forgot to rotate the picture before I uploaded to the blog. Anyway I am doing my usual January chore of cutting the grape vines and the roses back. Did this last week on beautiful winter day with a little cloud cover so I didn't get sunburned.

Tom is great about gathering up all the mess I make with the trimming. He doesn't just stuff it in the barrel, but cuts the branches into little pieces. Amazing what he can get in. The next photo shows the trimming all done.

This is some ofthe end product of last year's labors. Picked all of the Arizona sweet oranges and lots of lettuce. The tomatoes are from the vines I pulled after the frost last year and have been ripening them in a box in the kitchen. Not a tasty as vine ripened but still good. We've enjoyed lots of salads and some stir fried vegetables for the past two months. The beets still haven't matured enough to pick and the carrots are very small.

Went out yesterday and did some clean up and then decided to plant some more carrots, radishes and bok choy just to see how they would do before it gets too hot. Found some really good looking citrus trees at Costco last week, will probably wait until after the last frost to plant them. Also bought some hearty tomato plants when we went to the Home and Garden show a week ago, but have them in an area that is protected from the cold nights.

Went to an Urban Farms tree cutting demo last Saturday and learned a lot about keeping trees in reasonable size for a small yard. We even did some of the pruning. This Saturday, Tom and I are going to tour Greg Peterson's (of Urban Farms) home garden to learn more about compact planting and also solar water heating.

Let's finally hear it for the broccoli plants!!! They have about taken over the square they were planted in because the plants got so big. Picked several heads last Saturday and enjoyed them for Sunday dinner. The last two photos show another small head and several more small buds growing after I cut the main head. These won't get as large. Lots to do to get ready for spring planting.

End of the year status

Surgery the day after Thanksgiving, to have my appendix out, slowed me down for a few weeks.

Tom did set up my Christmas present early. The composter shown is the photo below. It is called the Earthmaker and completely self contained. Right now it is sitting on our patio as we have not yet decided on a permanent location.


Before we left for Utah I started to compost.
I had been saving some kitchen scraps for awhile and decided to go ahead and start loading the top section. Got some grass cutting from my neighbor to cover the food.



Also added some shredded paper and leaves. Didn't add any water as we were going out of town and I just wanted to let it sit.

This is how it looks today. Yesterday I had added a lot of scraps , leaves and the remains of the plants that got zapped by the frost we had late last week. Also added moisture which should help everything to start to decompose faster.

These two photos show how we tried to protect the trees and garden from the frosts on December 26th through the 28th. The trees came through fine but some of the plants were hit too hard to survive. Pulled out all the tomato plants and saved the larger tomatoes. Maybe I'll make some green tomato salsa. All the squash plants bit the dust. What I really wanted to protect was the strawberry patch. Looks good so far, as do all the root vegetables.

You know it was cold when the bird bath freezes over.

Happy New Year!

Box added

Went to my favorite nursery Tuesday the 18th as they had a big sale going on. Bought seeds for spring planting, some herbs and a tray of swiss chard transplants. Took the netting off the boxes to make it easier to water and tend the garden.

These next few photos show the empty square where all the radishes were harvested. I loosened the soil, added two trowels of mixed compost, then worked it into the soil.

Next I planted the chard and then put some shade over it as we were still having very warm weather. Today, Nov. 26th, is cold and rain started this morning.

We had this nice open area by the orange tree, and I thought this would make a nice herb garden, so Tom built me a new box that is 2 by 4 feet which fit the space perfectly.

Here he is measuring and leveling, then filling and putting gravel over the weed barrier that was laid under the box. Read more about growing herbs and have decided to plant them in pots instead, so this box will remain empty until spring planting.

Finally got around to finishing the path along side the strawberry patch. The strawberries are growing nicely. Had a berry turning red, but a bird got to before I did so I have covered the other plant that has a few berries on it.

Finally, a couple of cherry tomatoes are forming on the plant in the hanging basket. The plants don't seem to like hanging as they are trying to grow upward. Next time I'll plant indeterminate tomatoes in the basket as they will hang down.

Won't be here for a couple of weeks, so Kristy will be watering and harvesting anything that is ripe. So far, we've had lots of lettuce and several batches of chard, radishes, bell peppers, bok choy, and chives. Lots of tomatoes have set but none are ripe yet.

P.S. Harvested 8 pea pods, some bok choy and our first reasonably sized summer squash and used them in a stir fry for dinner tonight. Really fresh and tasty.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!