Gardening Update

[FeliciaLee]

When we last heard from our heroine (harhar), she was suffering in Arizona with an average temp about ten degrees above normal. Everything was dying. The garden looked bare. All was thought lost...

"I have lost a lot of things over the past month. Sorry I haven't been updating.

The gypsy peppers came back hard and strong. One of my tomato cuttings got blown off of my garden cart during a freak storm, flipped completely over, and broke the main stem off. This, after months of babying the poor thing. Another cutting is thriving, though, and the original tomato plant keeps producing, even though it has been attacked by aphids and now some kind of caterpillar, grr.

The berries look just horrible. Sick, sick, sick. I had been warned that blackberries and raspberries don't do well here, and I believe it. I should have made them indoor/outdoor plants.

The sweet potatoes are taking off like gangbusters. Even the non-budding trash we planted on a whim instead of putting in the compost bin is thriving. I am starting to believe, more and more, that root plants will do very well here, since they aren't as subject to the crazy winds.

I nursed some low-water usage cantaloupe and watermelon (persian cantaloupe, desert king watermelon) seeds and got them sprouted. I hardened them off, then planted them in a bare, southern area of the garden with lots of room to spread. So far, only one canteloupe and one watermelon has really taken off. The rest either died, or didn't sprout in the first place.

I am starting several plants indoors now and not even contemplating ever taking them out permanently. They are either cool weather crops (baby sweet lettuce) or tender crops. I have black cherry tomatoes, currant tomatoes, red cherry peppers, Italian basil, blue bush beans, little finger carrots, and two varieties of blueberries.

Glenn brought the gardening cart/greenhouse inside, put it directly in a south facing window, and we took the solar shades off to allow more sunlight in. So far, so good.

We inquired about a wind turbine, and even got permission from town, but then we ran into bad news. Although the wind is very strong here, it is erratic, as I had suspected. So the overall, average windspeed is only 6 mph. Horrible for a turbine, really, due to the patterns making maintenance a nightmare (one minute it will be dead still, the next, it will be blowing 75 mph), and the unreliability of providing usable energy for us. Oh, well!

Glenn finally got the solar oven working again. It still needs lots of work, but we are hoping to build a more permanent, cob structure around the oven, to keep it protected from the crazy wind."
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I did not give up on the garden. We killed the caterpillers and haven't had a problem with them since. Spider mites are another story, lol.

The squash stopped producing. Rather than letting it continue to suck up valuable water, I simply dug it up and composted it. C'est la vie.

The cherry tomatoes are still good. I was unsuccessful in starting black cherry tomatoes and currant tomatoes. I'll try again late this winter.

None of the berries made it. Blackberries, raspberries and strawberries are all dead. One blueberry plant (indoors) is surviving. Oy vey.

The sweet potato plants still look great. It's been about 110 days, so I dug one up. Only one potato, and it was tiny, maybe the size of a white, icicle radish! I still had Glenn cook it up anyway. I'll check another in about a week or so.

We got one Desert King watermelon. It was about the size of a cantaloupe, then split open. Luckily it was just about ripe, and edible. It tasted delicious, although it doesn't taste like a regular, red watermelon (it is yellow).

Some of the Persian cantaloupe were pollinated, then died anyway. Go figure. The plant is thriving, vines everywhere, so we are hoping for a second wind. This time I'm not pollinating them myself, but letting the few, stray bees in this area (they are rare) do it for me. I figure if I wasn't able to do it myself successfully, maybe they will succeed where I failed.

The indoor garden was a failure, even though I had a large, south facing window with a lot of heat and sun. I guess veggies really do need to be outdoors, regardless of how harsh the sun and wind is.

I am starting a fall garden now (I have heard that in Arizona this can be the most successful gardening season). Leftovers from spring/summer include:

Gypsy Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Mediterranean Bush Bean
Olive Tree
Sweet Potatoes
Thompson Grape Vine

Fall Gardening Projects:

Little Fingers Carrots
Green Bunching Onions
Early French Radishes
Caesar Salad Romaine Lettuce
Gourmet Greens (lettuce)
Baby Butter Lettuce

All in progress. Not yet in progress are:

Beets
Turnips
Garlic
Horseradish
Peas

So that is it for me. How is everyone else doing? I know Ray is a big winna, but how bout the rest of youse?

Felicia [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]