STRIKE ONE!

Posted on August 6, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

For the seed block recipe that is.

Typically seed block recipes utilize peat and vermiculite, two things I don’t normally use and I can’t say I’m that fond of incorporating into my garden experiment at this point.  I would rather use coconut coir from the perspective of pH, cost, and sustainability.  Unfortunately they are not a one to one substitute when it comes to seed blocks.  Mainly because peat is more… sticky.  But I’m still hopeful it can be done.

I started experimenting last night.  Equal parts coir and compost, with some greensand as a mineral additive.

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They didn’t look too bad (sorry I know it’s pretty dark in the picture).  However, there seems to be a fundamental flaw with multiple possible causes.

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I should have sifted the compost to make it finer and eliminate the big pieces.  I had hypothesized that these would help as a replacement for the vermiculite… I know a bit of a stretch… but they just make it too crumbly.  That’s when wet, I don’t think that will get better as it dries.  The big chunks also keep it from getting a good form.  The blocks should be pretty much a solid square and this is more of a marshmallow cube; kind of rounded on the corners.

I went ahead and put some seeds in a few of these to see how they handle a plant growing in them, but I think most will be scrapped.

I think for the next swing I’ll try sifting the compost.  I don’t like to throw too many variables in at once, so I’ll avoid making any other changes, but in the meantime, we’ll see how these go.

Posted in seed blocks, Starting Seeds | 5 Comments

The Old is Gone

Posted on August 5, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

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No, I haven’t been binge drinking.  These are the wine bottle ollas that are done for the season.  I’ll clean them up and put them away for next spring.

Ever get into one of those kicks where you just start asking yourself why you’re hanging on to some old dying plants that aren’t going to produce and are just sucking up nutrients and space?

I had one of those this weekend and this morning.

So the last of the squash vines came out.

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and the tomatillos…

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We’re down to just the peppers (bell, jalepeno, and New Mexico), the watermelon of course (which are LOVING their unhindered environment), and the sweet potatoes who have laid claim to an entire corner of the garden and are trying to escape up the wall.  The tired, dead looking tomato plant in the picture used to be part of a tomato jungle, but as you can see the sweet potatoes have made their claim to the whole area.  For a first time experiment, they’re looking pretty good!

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On the surface anyway, we’ll see what the tubers look like in another month or two.

All that demo has me in the mood for… some planting.  I think I need to work out my seed block recipe and get going on that tonight.  🙂

Always something to do in the garden.

Posted in Arizona Garden, Desert King Watermelon, peppers, sqash, Starting Seeds, tomatillos, wine bottle ollas | 22 Comments

Grass

Posted on August 1, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

What do you call 10 tons of decomposed granite?

My front yard.  😦

I like grass.  I know.  I probably live in the wrong state.  When I was a kid and lived in Texas for a couple of years, my brothers and I would mow lawns for money.  It was great.  When we moved to AZ we thought we might try the same thing… then we realized none of our neighbors actually HAD grass to mow.  That could be a problem.

The most common landscaping in AZ is actually decomposed or crushed granite.  You buy it by the ton, you convince all of your friends that this is the last time you are going to move and if enough of them show up it will only take a couple of hours.  Then you buy pizza and you all take breaks every ten minutes to towel off as you move wheel barrow after wheel barrow onto the yard.

When you’re all done it looks… like an idealized desert scene… sort of.  Then it rains and you have weeds and grass and all kinds of nasty things pop up.

That’s my front yard.  I don’t spend a lot of time out there.  I hate it.

So… for my backyard I went with grass.  A few years ago I put in an underground drip system.  It was revolutionary.  It watered JUST the area I wanted and was a major pain in the rear to install (just ask the buddy that helped me lay a trench every 20 inches).  But it worked great, until…

There was a chemical that had to go into the line that was an anti-rooting agent so that the grass didn’t grow into the line.  It was bad stuff.  It always made me nervous.  Then a regulator broke.  I fixed it, but when I did I busted a pipe… then the electrical line during excavation.  So there it all sat, waiting for the weather to cool down.

It cooled down a lot, in fact it froze, and destroyed my vacuum breaker.  So it sat longer… a lot longer.  Thankfully my wife is blessed with great patience.

By the time I went to fix anything the old system was done.  Roots had grown into the lines by now… before the grass completely died of course.

So recently I dug trenches for a new sprinkler system.  Not as efficient as the old system but no chemicals.  I like that.  I got out there with a pick ax and a shovel and busted through a couple hundred feet of caliche.  I was not diligent in this procedure.  Our yard had open trenches for months.  The kids didn’t mind they swung like Indiana Jones on the ropes over them.  I imagined compound fractures and major reconstructive surgeries.  Ugh…

But… I knuckled down in the worst part of June and July and got it done.  Even planted the grass on July 3rd.  Straight up grass seed (bermuda: Blackjack) is not easy to find by the way.  Most of the seed is coated in fertilizers/antifungal/cellulose material to minimize the amount of seed per pound that they sell you.

It isn’t fully grown in and some of the old grass started growing again, but here it is:

yard 1 yard 2

Posted in grass | 9 Comments

Harvest for July

Posted on July 31, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

I’m jumping the gun by a day because… I didn’t get anything out of the garden this morning.  I’m going to estimate the eggs for the day, which won’t effect things too much.  July production in general has fallen off a little.  This is why some AZ gardeners take July and August off.  I can’t bring myself to do that because you can still be growing some good things if you put in a little extra effort.  Here are the totals for July:

eggs – 72  (this was effected by the heat, also from losing one layer at the beginning of the month and two short vacations where we partially compensate our chicken-sitter with eggs :))

yellow squash – 6.5 lbs

zucchini – 12.5 lbs (a good haul but some significant disfigurement)

tomatoes – 3.75 lbs

jalepenos – .25 lbs

bell peppers – 7

cucumbers – 5 lbs

watermelons – 7 melons totaling 71 lbs!  (yeah, this throws the production by weight off a little bit)

It was a good month!  Obviously the watermelons helped out a lot and continue to produce.  I have at least 4 more on the vine right now.  Peppers are also continuing to do good and the sweet potato vines have come into their own and are growing like crazy.  I can’t wait to see if we actually get some sweet potatoes.  Temps have backed off a little, but it will be back up to 108 today.  Cooler the rest of the week though with some possible monsoons.  A little muggy (humidity over 80% at times), but a lot better than the 110+ we had for DAYS at the beginning of the month.

Posted in Arizona Garden, Chickens, cucumbers, Desert King Watermelon, Harvest, intensive gardening, monthly harvest total, peppers, sqash, tomatoes, zucchini | 11 Comments

Implements of Doom

Posted on July 30, 2013 by JonesGardenBlog

I used to go to the garden in the morning, water the plants, watch the bees, harvest some squash, zucchini, and tomatoes.  It was nice.  But it’s almost August and things have changed.

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This used to be my morning attire for harvesting all kinds of goodness.  Now they are my implements of doom and death.

When the squash bug infestation started I grabbed whole plants and pulled them out (carefully) and put them in the yard, then stomped each and every bug to death with my boots.  Leave no bug standing.

But they persisted.

There weren’t as many, but they were still there, so I would put my gloves on and pinched their little guts out… SQUISH!  Yuck!

Now they are pretty few and far between and I have gotten a little… okay, twisted in my methods.  Now it’s my garden pruners that do the work.  I’m quick and deadly accurate.  One swift movement and instead of one squash bug, you have two distinct pieces.  Mwahahahaha!

There are very few squash plants left, and even fewer bugs or eggs (I cut those out of the leaves and pound them).

I really need to get the garden expansion in and start planting for fall so I have something more… productive to do when I wake up.  Still…

There’s nothing like the smell of decapitated squash bugs in the morning!

Posted in sqash, squash bugs, zucchini | 8 Comments