Memorial Day Weekend

It was wonderfully cool this weekend and it rained at the start of it. Perfect for pulling weeds and fertilizing, which is what we did. We also put netting over the tomato planter to discourage birds. Birds have built a nest right over the tomatoes and right now the baby birds are learning to fly. If we get too close, the parents start dive-bombing us. They actually ran into Ralph, who was all bemused and not understanding what was happening. We can't get near the back gate to take out the trash! I think this period will be over in a couple of days.

I have bought a bunch of pots (14" terra cotta unglazed) at Ikea and planted some herbs in them under the big tree. I planted a Malabar spinach plant against the iron fence so it has something to climb. This is supposed to be a green veggie that can take the heat. I planted an akra, a borage plant and a bunch of vinca and lisanthus flowers.

Also, must note that after turning the irrigation off for a few days because of the rain, I set it for what I expect to be the summer setting. The only change I am making over the recommendation by the gardeners is that I am watering the raised planters and containers every day, three times a day. The total amount of water is being used but my goal is to keep it constantly a bit damp instead of soaking it and letting it dry out. The reason I made the change is that the veggies seem to thrive much better on constant moisture. I was already doing this with the containers and the veggies there are doing much better than in the raised planters. After all, it's not like these are desert plants.

Meanwhile the melons are getting huge, lots of flowers but not fruit set yet.

Cold, rainy and birds are eating all my tomatoes

When I got out of work today, my car thermometer said 66 degrees. And it is now raining. That's good because I need to fertilize the citrus and probably add fish emulsion to the raised beds. But what a change from 109 a few days ago. I'll have to adjust the irrigation tomorrow to compensate.

Meanwhile the birds are eating all my tomatoes. They started on the red ones, then ate the reddish ones and are now eating purely green ones. So far the cherry tomatoes are surviving. We're off to Baker's Nursery tomorrow for advice and probably netting. We'll need it for the figs too. By the way, the few tomatoes that I have managed to get when ripe but before birds were very good.

Actually I don't know for sure that it is birds. There are probably roof rats around. I only blame the birds because we see so many of them here. Roof rats are sort of invisible. Supposedly they eat citrus but our citrus has been fine. Citrus is so easy, I'm spoiled.

Fainting fig

It's very HOT - 109! It suddenly jumped up 20 degrees. The fig tree is very unhappy and I had to resuscitate it this afternoon.

Bird are eating the tomatoes! Big black birds. Maybe I need netting. It's too hot to work out there.

There are lots of tiny cucumbers. They are ugly and spiny just like the huge one but it is easy to rub off the spines and then they look normal.

We had zucchini and eggplant and peppers and tomatoes from the garden yesterday - sort of an impromptu ratatouille.

My artichokes died. Too crispy for them. However there were fresh Arizona artichokes at the farmers market last weekend. Also lots of delicious local apricots.

Eggplants, tomatoes, and an UGLY cucumber

Ate the first eggplant two days ago with the second tomato. The eggplant was great, the tomato OK, but not as good as hoped. I'm trying to leave the tomatoes on the vine longer to see if that helps. The cherry tomatoes (sweet 100's) are quite good. The basil is all flowering and must be harvested soon. I did kill one mint and one is struggling but the ones in the small pots are doing well since they are well watered from above with tiny sprinkler on the end of drip lines. The fig is suffering and I have added extra water with a hose which helped. The irrigation is still questionable, especially in the middle bed. I think the 'soil' is too raw, coarse and lean and I think the in-line drip is too deep. The water is not wicking up. For the plants (like tomatoes) that are planted deep, that works OK. The fine material that was added on top does not seem to be helping yet, in fact it almost seems waterproof!

Found a huge (9") ugly and very prickly cucumber hiding under the prickly cucumber leaves. Actually I think it was an overgrown gerkin that should have been picked small. It was turning yellow and tasted bitter though it smelled like a cucumber. Straight to the compost for that. I don't know much about cucumbers, having never grown any before. I planted three different varieties fairly close together and I cannot tell them apart. I guess I should have put in tomato cages for them to climb but I did not know they were vines! One actually said it was a bush cucumber but now I think it just means shorter vines! Apparently they stop producing cucumbers when you leave one on the vine to get ripe (yellow). We'll see. There are tiny 1 inch ones but nothing larger.

The summer pattypan type squashes are still producing nice flowers but are not very productive. I'm wondering if the bee shortage is causing problems. We do have zucchini. The melon plants are getting very large but still no evident fruits setting.

No rain for over two months and none expected until mid-July. It's starting to get hot finally. We did have an unusually long cool spring.

Purple Haze

Jacaranda trees are in bloom all over the valley. In some neighborhoods there are some many that for a distance you see a purple haze over the area. These trees are a little marginal here in the Valley because of our occasional hard freezes but this year they are doing particularly well. Whne we say "The Valley" we mean the Valley of the Sun, an old nickname for the Phoenix area. As in the old advertising slogan, "the Valley of the Sun where Summer comes to Winter". This is in a nearby yard.


The olallieberry's one berry was eaten by birds, as feared. In reaction, I plucked the only two aprium a bit early and ate them. They were not dead ripe, a bit crisp, but still sweet and tasty.

The citrus trees are doing their fruit drop. It's always sad to see the tiny citrus fruit on the ground but they could not possibly bear all the fruit that they set. It's time for citrus fertilizer application. I try to remember by the holiday - Valentine's Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

I changed the watering schedule once again. Instead of lots of water every few days, I am giving a little water three times a day, like the containers. I'm hoping to prevent more die off of zucchinis. After all the planters are just like big containers and I've read that for container vegetables, consistent even water and not too much is best.

I've pulled out most of the remaining winter vegetables - the kohlrabi, collards and so on. We had delicious white bean stew with greens and garlic. Lots of greens. The chard in the garden is still doing well so I left it in. I've never particularly liked Bright Lights Chard in the grocery store, it just looks strange to me, but in the garden the different colors really glow. And it tastes fine.

I just discovered that someone has added a Seasonal Desert Gardening Calendar to Google Calendar - Thanks! I was thinking of doing that myself. I can't see how to contact the calendar creator however so I can't send a message in thanks.


The ocotillo and chitalpa tree in the front yard are in bloom. The chitalpa blooms almost year round, except winter.

First red tomato!

One goal of building the new garden was to get outdoors more. When it's so hot in the middle of the day, I have a tendency to forget to go out early mornings and in the evenings, when it's often cool or pleasantly balmy. And then I sometimes am just in the habit of staying in, and forget to go out, even when it is lovely outdoors. But now I go out and inspect the garden twice a day and often go out to add to the compost heap. I'm loving it! I even stopped going to the gym in favor of longer dog walks. It's getting hot though, and I'll resume the gym visits next week.

Progress report:

The tomatoes are starting to ripen. Yesterday I noticed the first reddish tomato (above) and today it is redder and some of the cherry tomatoes are also turning reddish.

Eggplants - the first eggplants are now a few inches long and there are lots of flowers.



Pattypan squash - although these were the first summer veggies to appear, they are not doing well. The veggies wither and the new flowers are covered in aphids. I think that whole bed has suffered from water stress.

Zucchini - the first zucchini are ready to harvest, at about 3-4 inches. We lost about half the first crop - they turned yellow and withered. Water stress I think.


Beans - the bean plants have climbed to the tops of their cages but we only have a few bean pods formed so far.

Aprium - the fruit is turning yellow but still unripe. I noticed the first local peaches at the farmer's market on Saturday - they but a big sign up so we saw it as we drove by. Unfortunately we could not stop. Next week.

Berries - One ollallieberry, which has turned red. But they are almost black when ripe. I expect a bird will get it so I am watching it closely. The brazos blackberry has not grown much, it's still a few inches high. The olallieberry is at yeast a yard wide now.


Melons - all the remaining melon plants are very healthy. Except for the ones I put in last week, they are all huge and flowering, but no actual melons.

The cucumbers are extremely vigorous and prickly. They have lots of flowers and little cucumbers. I planted 3 different varieties but I don't know which is which and they are all tangled together. One is for cornichons, so they are to be picked small.

The coriander never thrived but it has shot up and flowered and I'm leaving it in place in hopes that it self-sows.

Peppers - small peppers are forming and lots of flowers promising more even though most of the pepper plants are quite stunted looking. One plant is large an healthy looking.

The artichokes wilt alarmingly in the afternoons but so far they recover. No chokes. The outer leaves get crispy and new one form.

Flowers - the pot of winter flowers is very healthy still. Some of the nasturtiums have flowered and others succumbed to overwatering in a pot that does not drain.


Fig - the fig tree is putting out tiny figs. This seems late. Others in the neighborhood are very large. I have a picture of a huge fig tree nearby, I stood under the tree and took the photo pointing straight up. It's a yellow fig and the owners say it ripens in June and we are welcome to pick as many as we want!

What to Do in the Garden in May

We walked down to the farmer's market at Vincent's this weekend (at Vincent's Restaurant at 40th and Camelback) and brought back dinner. It's a fun destination for us, especially when we bring our dog who is very popular there. Unfortunately I forgot that I meant to go to the class at the Downtown farmer's market on Saturday on what to do in the garden next month.

So here are some tips on what to do in May from the University of Arizona College of Agriculture Maricopa County Extension - I omitted the part on turf which is of no interest to me. There's also a lot of other helpful informaion and FAQ's on that website. Another site of interest on what to do in the garden here in the low desert is John Chapman's site.

To Do List . . .

Vegetables

Plant Seeds
Black eyed Peas, Melons (Cantaloupe, Muskmelon), Okra, Sunflowers

Plant Transplants
Jerusalem Artichokes, Sweet Potatoes

Place shade cloth over tomatoes.

Roses

Continue fertilizing established roses, liquid fertilizers can be added at 2 week intervals, follow the directions on the container.

Fruit and Nut Trees

Plant Citrus Trees - Young two to five year old trees transplant most successfully. Larger, older trees are more costly, harder to transplant without injury (to yourself and the tree), and suffer more from transplant shock. It will generally be three years after transplant before fruit production and that is the same whether you plant a 2 year old tree or a 10 year old tree. Go small!

Pick early-maturing deciduous fruit varieties, which are particularly prone to bird damage, before full maturity. Ripened at room temperature to lessen the bird peck loss.

Cover fruit trees to protect from birds

Give special attention to watering deciduous fruit trees, provide adequate soil moisture for fruit sizing in the late April and May period.

Apply nitrogen and zinc to pecan trees to produce normal size leaf growth and to enhance kernel development. Pecans also need more water than most other shade trees.

Landscape Plants

Increase water application as the weather warms.

Tree water use, desert types being the exception, increases rapidly during this period of leafing out and gradually higher air temperatures.

Apply mulch to the ground around heat sensitive plants keep the roots cooler and prevent evaporation. Be sure to keep the mulch several inches away from the trunk to prevent pest and disease problems.

Apply chelated iron to bottle brush, pyracantha, silk oak, and other plants with iron deficiency symptoms.

Prune palms when flower spathes show or delay pruning until after the palm has finished flowering to prevent infestation of Palm Flower caterpillars. If palms are pruned in the spring, leave the top five rows of peels so the caterpillars have a place to hide.

Don't List . . .

Do not prune citrus except to remove dead or damaged wood and branches obstructing pathways, views, or structures.

Do not use pre-emergent herbicides in an area in which you intend to plant seeds.