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Update from the garden
Overall, year 3 in the Farmer House has been an improvement over our gardening attempts during years 1 and 2. There are so many factors at play that it's hard to say just what has made the biggest difference. I think the general soil amendment efforts during years one and two have contributed. But another important factor has been timing.
We had two big frosts this winter, one in December and one in January. The frosts killed off some pretty hearty tomato plants, and most of our eggplants, which was quite frustrating. Plus all of the basil. The cold weather also made it difficult to start things from seed, though we put in some good efforts at that. The plasticated greenhouse really helped us get a jump on the season, and it wasn't very difficult to construct. All it took was a few pieces of PVC pipe, some sheets of plastic, and some fenceposts that we reclaimed after the last election cycle ended. Oh, and a bit of clothesline wire. By now, a lot of the plastic is doing what plastic does best - it's shredding into smaller and smaller fragments. So the plasticated greenhouse approach isn't a good long-term solution. But given my expectation of leaving at the end of the summer, it worked in the short-term, and showed us what a greenhouse could do. By now, we don't need the greenhouse-ness too much, though it has helped retain enough humidity to keep the plants happy.
We also went and bought a bunch of seedlings from the local plant nursery at just the right time. I think that was back sometime in early February. Things had just gotten warm enough to put stuff in the ground without much concern. I have been getting kind of mad at the plant salespeople at the Phoenix Farmer's Market, because most of them have been selling plants too late in the spring. I fell for that trick, before, last year and the year before that. Not anymore. I think they do it because that's when the most people come looking for seedlings. But the people who come looking for seedlings have usually moved to Arizona from somewhere else, so they haven't realized that summer isn't a growing season, here. Most of those seedlings will be stuck in the ground and will grow for about a month, but then it will get too hot and the plants will stress out and die. It's possible to keep some established plants alive through the summer (my year-old broccoli bush is HUGE!), but they have to get started early enough to develop good root systems. Herbs can generally manage, but that's about it.
I think I've learned more about what to plant when, just from watching stuff in previous years, and from making mental note of when we get different fruits and vegetables from our CSA. If I make a mental note, I can backtrack to appropriate planting times.
Anyway, enough of the musings. Time for some pretty garden pictures.
We had two big frosts this winter, one in December and one in January. The frosts killed off some pretty hearty tomato plants, and most of our eggplants, which was quite frustrating. Plus all of the basil. The cold weather also made it difficult to start things from seed, though we put in some good efforts at that. The plasticated greenhouse really helped us get a jump on the season, and it wasn't very difficult to construct. All it took was a few pieces of PVC pipe, some sheets of plastic, and some fenceposts that we reclaimed after the last election cycle ended. Oh, and a bit of clothesline wire. By now, a lot of the plastic is doing what plastic does best - it's shredding into smaller and smaller fragments. So the plasticated greenhouse approach isn't a good long-term solution. But given my expectation of leaving at the end of the summer, it worked in the short-term, and showed us what a greenhouse could do. By now, we don't need the greenhouse-ness too much, though it has helped retain enough humidity to keep the plants happy.
We also went and bought a bunch of seedlings from the local plant nursery at just the right time. I think that was back sometime in early February. Things had just gotten warm enough to put stuff in the ground without much concern. I have been getting kind of mad at the plant salespeople at the Phoenix Farmer's Market, because most of them have been selling plants too late in the spring. I fell for that trick, before, last year and the year before that. Not anymore. I think they do it because that's when the most people come looking for seedlings. But the people who come looking for seedlings have usually moved to Arizona from somewhere else, so they haven't realized that summer isn't a growing season, here. Most of those seedlings will be stuck in the ground and will grow for about a month, but then it will get too hot and the plants will stress out and die. It's possible to keep some established plants alive through the summer (my year-old broccoli bush is HUGE!), but they have to get started early enough to develop good root systems. Herbs can generally manage, but that's about it.
I think I've learned more about what to plant when, just from watching stuff in previous years, and from making mental note of when we get different fruits and vegetables from our CSA. If I make a mental note, I can backtrack to appropriate planting times.
Anyway, enough of the musings. Time for some pretty garden pictures.
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Freshly-baked chocolate macarons Okay, so the garden pictures will start after this one. But I had to show you what one must do when one has left-over egg whites from making pistachio ice cream (not pictured). |
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Arrrrtichoke harvest! I'm amazed by the variety of shapes. |
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Eggplant box invasion A butternut squash plant has taken over the eggplant box. The eggplants are still tucked in there, somewhere. There's another volunteer vine and some volunteer tomatoes tucked in there as well. The butternut is quite viney, so I am sending it along the fence and around the edges of the greenhouse. |
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Butternut baby I have forgiven the butternut squash for its invasion, because it is making me a baby butternut, and they are delicious. |
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Some of the plants in the greenhouse have grown a little too tall... Here's one of the volunteer sunflowers - they come back every year. Usually they aren't quite this tall. This one is around 7 feet tall already. |
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Zucchini baby The zucchini plant has mostly produced "duds." I think this is the real reason my mom always gets two zucchini plants - so they can fertilize each other. At least one zucchini has taken, which leads me to declare this year's zucchini experiment a rousing success over previous years' zucchini experiments. Most of the previous ones were planted too late in the year, and didn't get enough sun early on. |
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Baby summer squashes I hope they grow up to be big and tasty. |
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First tomatoes of the year They look and smell like the real thing! Amazing! |