Lessons Learned on the Fall/Winter Garden

Posted on March 14, 2014 by JonesGardenBlog

–          Early purple sprouting broccoli – is not for me.  It’s perfect, it even rhymes.

–          Cauliflower needs to be covered otherwise it get yellow and no bueno.

–          Sunchokes seem to work good in containers… so far.

–          We don’t eat a lot of kale.  Kale grows really good.  All varieties.  Kale chips are great.  No body can eat THAT MANY kale chips.

–          Peas should have a taller trellis.  They are currently on our three foot Buddy fence.  They could use a couple more feet.  Easily.

–          Did I mention the EPS broccoli?

–          Chinese cabbage – why?  When you could have the real deal!  No offense, this one just grew really big and bolted really quick without actually heading.  No issues with the real deal.

–          Bok Choi is not necessary.  Collards, chard, and spinach do just as well with less hassle.

So based on these lessons and on trying to observe the things that we actually EAT on a regular basis, this is my garden list for Fall (I know, I know I know… just trying to get it down while it’s fresh, PEOPLE!).  Will somebody please remind me that this is the list and it should be… short.

–          Peas : shelling and sugar snap.  Everything we grew this year was great, just better trellising.

–          Romaine : red and green

–          Lettuce : Bib (in small amounts), iceberg, and butter head

–          Cabbage : this is kind of like cowbell.  I NEED MORE CABBAGE!  I’ve got a fever and the only cure is MORE CABBAGE!  (okay that was a little weird, if you haven’t seen the SNL skit, click here.)

–          Broccoli (no not THAT!): The good kind.  The sprouting kind.  Maybe even a different variety than we have been growing because the heads are really small.

–          Carrots.  Love the carrots.

–          Celery

–          Leeks

–          Onions

–          Potatoes

–          Cauliflower

–          Collards

–          Dill

–          Cilantro

–          Chard

–          Spinach

Ah, I feel better now.  Revisit in August.

Posted in fall garden | 10 Comments

The Late, Not-so-purple, Non-sprouting, Shouldn’t be Grown in My Area Broccoli Plant

Posted on March 13, 2014 by JonesGardenBlog

I love it when I try something new and different and it works out.  That’s awesome!  Who doesn’t love that?

This isn’t one of those stories.

When reading through descriptions on seed packets, in catalogs, and in comments on-line it is easy to get sucked into phrases like, “tastiest most vigorous broccoli in early spring”, “very sweet and tender.”, and “very flavorful”.  Those are all great.  But you have to pay attention to other phrases like, “This variety needs to overwinter”, if in fact you live in a place where sometimes… there is no winter.

Evidently our non-winter, did not qualify for “overwintering”.

So instead of the beautiful broccoli that I see here.  I have this:

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Actually these pictures are a little old.  It is actually much bigger now.  I would say at least three feet tall and a trunk (yes, trunk is the right word) at least two inches thick.

The good thing is that the chickens will love it.  It’s time to plant for spring and I just don’t have the space to keep this resource hog around if it isn’t going to produce.

Lesson learned.  If you live in the desert, where “winter” still affords you the opportunity to wear sandals and shorts, you probably want to avoid plants that need to “overwinter”.

Posted in desert garden, early purple sprouting broccoli, fall garden | 6 Comments

Seedlings and the Spring Planting List

Posted on March 12, 2014 by JonesGardenBlog

I only have a couple of seedling pictures to share.  Except for maybe 1 of the poblano peppers, all of the seedlings are doing great, and even that 1 looks better this morning than it did yesterday morning.

This is what I am growing in the garden this spring:

Peppers: poblanos, anaheim, jalepeno, emerald giant, california wonder, and quadrato d’asti rosso.

Tomatoes: cherry (in pots), Paul Robeson, delicious, atkinson, rutgers, and a sauce tomato

Potatoes : a couple of different kinds, one red, one white.  I got starts from Depot.  First time trying this and so far so good.  These will come out at the beginning of summer (May – June).

Jerusalem Artichokes (already started and growing very well in pots… lots of them)

Melons: watermelons (Desert King, Charleston Gray, Orange Flesh Tender Sweet), Old Time Tennessee, green machine, crane, apple, banana, and Jenny Lind. Lots of experimenting here.

Squash: butternut, yellow scallop, yellow straight neck, and zucchini

Beans: Missouri wonder pole, Roma II bush, Blue Lake bush, Dragon tongue bush, Red-Seeded Asparagus pole

Tomatillos

cucumbers: salad and pickling

japanese eggplant (still debating these)

basil

nasturtium

marigolds

artichokes (second plant will go in near the end of summer)

sweet potatoes

and heaven help me… corn  (sigh… must make this work…)

Several things are just going in the ground, obviously the tomatoes and peppers have already been started.  I even saw a flower bud on one of my plants this morning.  Need to get these babies in the ground!

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Posted in peppers, spring garden, tomatoes | 7 Comments

The Good, the Bad, and the Carrot Butt

Posted on March 10, 2014 by JonesGardenBlog

Last year when I went to harvest my carrots I was very disappointed that I had not thinned out the carrot seeds that my sons had helped me plant.  Several of them were no more than carrot tooth picks.  A few good ones, but for the most part, a lot of green, but very little orange.

last year's carrots

 

So this year the kids still helped me, but we were much more careful on our spacing.  We have also not harvested them all at once, but rather a few at a time as we need them.  Fortunately I have a carrot loving, vegetable harvesting, goofball who loves to pull carrots up.  So he helped me with a few beautiful ones.

Behold, the good.

GB and carrots 2 washed carrots

 

I waited too long to transplant some of my blocks.  I’ve just had too much going on.  Thankfully there have not been any casualties of my neglect… yet… but it’s kind of surprising.  I have also not been running any kind of fan on these so the fact that they are so tall without wind stress makes for a little weaker stems.  I’m hoping… HOPING… this doesn’t bite me in the butt.

I mean, come on, these basils are monsters and instead of being “air pruned” by the nature of the blocks, the roots expanded to the blocks next to them because they were too close together.  Hmmm…  Behold what NOT to do.  Waiting too long on seedlings, aka the bad.

basil seed blocks

 

I’m still not done, I’ve got another 20 or so pepper plants to get transplanted.  One of the beds (bed #3, the old broccoli bed), is almost ready to get spring planted.  I will try and at least capture pictures as I put the ollas in and build the trellises for the tomatoes and cucumbers.  Lots of work to do and of course, a lot of experimenting.  It’s a learning experience.

Now of course, even though I had some pretty carrots… they tend to have a mind of their own.  Their is no way to supervise the subterranean wanderings of the carrot root.  So sometimes, they come out a little strange.  The short stubby one at the top of the picture was dubbed, “the carrot butt”, by some dinner guests.  Nice.

carrot butt

 

Our non-winter continues and at this point I think I can start spring planting without risk.  I will go ahead and start and will end up staggering the plantings anyway, just because of the volume of work.

Either way, it’s a great time in the garden.  Any time I can get my hands into the dirt is a good day!

Posted in Arizona Garden, basil, carrots, soil blocks, Starting Seeds | 8 Comments

Epic Rain

Posted on March 3, 2014 by JonesGardenBlog

I know, it is shocking to hear, but we had rain this weekend.  Control your awe and wonder.  January and February are normally decent rain months, but this year NOPE.  I just checked and we officially got 1.26 inches of rain.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it had been 70 days since we had had measurable rainfall.  So 1.26 inches, sounds pretty good!  It also meant all of the run off retention basins around the city are full.  It gives the drive to work a different feel.  Kinda nice.  And no offense to anyone else, but you can’t beat the smell of the Arizona desert after rain.  Nothing quite like it.

The best part is that I don’t have to water my garden for a couple of days.  I even left my seedlings out since the temperature didn’t drop too much and there is just something about rainwater that makes plants grow.  It’s amazing.

Here’s a couple of the latest pics.

This one is a Morris Heading Collard.  It’s a first for us.  The family has been enjoying all of the collards this year, especially when sauteed in garlic and olive oil.  Oh yah…
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Waiting for this cabbage to get nice and big.  It’s only got a couple of weeks left, but it should put on some decent girth in that time.  I can taste the corned beef and a good Irish beer now…Image

Cauliflower.  Another first this year.  It’s pretty yellow right now.  I’m thinking it will lighten up as it gets bigger.  Either way, it’s looking good.  You can see a little bermuda growing at the bottom.  The grass is already turning into a menace and popping up everywhere.  It is just crazy.  So I pull it and wait, then pull it again, and again, and again…

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I need to pot up some more seedlings tonight.  You know you’ve let them go too long when you can’t raise your grow lights anymore and you’re starting to burn your plants on the bulbs.  Some of them are getting really ridiculous.  I’ve only got a few of the 1 gallon pots left.  A new shipment from greenhousemegastore.com should be here tomorrow.  My order includes some rabbit repellent.  I’m holding out some hope of saving the remnants of my little artichoke plant.

I hope you’re having a blessed day!

Posted in Arizona Garden, cabbage, cauliflower, collards | 18 Comments