Official Arizona Thread! Veggies in the Valley?

[DesertGrown]

Hi Galo del Cielo, I think we've "talked" before on BYC. I love your coop and run with the grapes!! I think my mango bit the dust with the last frost that we just had. It was just a baby tree; a 'Manila' Mango. Oh well. There is a tropical nursery up in the Phoenix area called "TropicaMango" that I may visit to get their expert advice on growing them down here. They have some dwarf varieties that maybe can be protected better from our freezes.

Let's see...I have Santa Rosa Plums, Silver Lode Nectarine, a Dwarf Southern Rose Peach, and a Dwarf Southern Belle Nectarine. I got lots of peaches this year, but the squirrels beat me to them; one day I noticed that they were all gone So far no fruit on the nectarines, but they are young trees. I expect them to fruit this spring/summer. I suspect the Southern Belle will do better than the Silver Lode.

I also have a 'Wonderful" Pomegranate, and a 'Hass' Avocado (on the patio in a big pot).

Your cubic meter sunken garden sounds wonderful. Maybe someday I'll put on my 'Superwoman' cape and go for it!!

I'm visiting Tohono Chul Garden this week to get more ideas on gardening.

I'm also thinking about getting a few more apple trees to espalier on the back wall of the yard. Where do you buy your trees from? I usually go to Mesquite Valley Growers because they're close to my house.

What are you planning on growing in your new greenhouse?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Thanks for the compliments on the coop! I just pruned most of the vines today. I went to buy sod to lay down in the run and there was none to be had at Home Depot.

I've heard about TropicalMango! I keep wanting to visit there when I'm in Phoenix, but it's just never worked out. Mangos would be so great if you could keep them alive here. Oh, I love them!

Do you like all the varieties of fruit trees you have that are producing (e.g. the Santa Rosa and the peach)? Do you wish you had something else in place of any of them? We're definitely getting a Santa Rosa Plum because I keep hearing about how well they do here in AZ and the Nectarines you have listed are also on our short list. I so want to do an espalier apple too! I just don't have a great spot for it. I get most of my plants from Mesquite Valley Growers. I just love that place. We try to go at least once a month if only to walk around and see what's new.

Were putting in the greenhouse to primarily moderate temperatures on an aquaponics system. We'll raise tilapia and then decide what grows best in the beds with that system. In the winter I'll be keen on growing lettuces, assorted greens and broccoli inside where they'll be protected from the caterpillars. For most of the year I'll be very excited to grow tomatoes. I discovered a great variety at Mesquite Valley last year (San Diego) that does very well here and produces soft-ball to base-ball sized fruits. We grew about 300 lbs. last summer with just four plants. The wild birds were a huge problem though. Our harvest would have been much larger if only I could have kept them at bay and kept the plants alive through Aug and into the fall. The new hoop house should do that.

Do you know about the BYC AZ Seed Box? A couple of us from Tucson purged our seed collections last fall and put them all into a large tub (I added a couple hundred packages of seeds myself). Most of the initial seeds were those that do well in our southwest climate, a lot coming from Native Seed Search. Then we passed the tub around from member to member, with each person taking what they wanted and adding what they thought might be useful. I think it's up in Phoenix right now but I'm hoping to get it back to Tucson in the next couple months and see what's been added to it. You are more than welcome to it too if you're interested. Seems only right that the AZ TEG people should also have access to it! Just let me know.

 

[DesertGrown]

I love the Santa Rosa plums... lots of fruit and super sweet. In fact I planted a second tree that I plan on keeping smaller so I can protect the fruit from the birds better. Much easier to put bird netting on a smaller tree I've been pretty happy with the varieties that I have right now; none that I wouldn't plant again.

Oh yes...I know all about those caterpillars. I had cabbage loopers last year on my cauliflower. I'm going try row covers this year to see if I can keep those little boogers out. Aaaaah...tomatoes year round. Yummy. I'll be on the lookout for that variety of tomato 'San Diego', since I was very disappointed with the heirlooms I planted this past spring.

I'd love to be a part of the BYC AZ Seed Box!! That sounds so cool. Yes, please let me know when it returns from Scum Devil Land!!

Do you take part in that chicken coop tour that they have every year? There's some organic market downtown that sponsors the tour (sorry, I'm drawing a blank on the market).

 

[rebbetzin]

I put in a new veggie bed this last year. Here is the post on the progression of the new bed.

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=295270#p295270

This year I may just not attempt to grow any summer vegetables.
I'll keep my herbs and perennials alive and see if it helps lower the water bills.

 

[AZBootsie]

Hello AZ People!

BYC is down, so thought I would log on here and look for motivation. Garden is looking sad and bleak today. Although I did find some cheerful blooms on a pineapple sage hidden behind a rose bush.

Galo- The seed tub is in Wittman. I was planning on picking it up from Bob's Henhouse tomorrow afternoon. However, his phone number is on a PM and the site is down. Hopefully, it will come back up before I leave for Phoenix. My sis is putting me up for the night and I wanted to pass the seeds to someone Thursday morning before I head back to Congress. As of last night, no one had expressed an interest. If tomorrow fails, I am in Phoenix almost every week. Then we just need to find someone heading in your direction. How big is this tub?? If it is a manageable size, I can probably mail it.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi AZBootsie! Bad timing on BYC being down. Do you have pastrymama's contact info? I don't, but she likely has Bob's info. I saw yesterday that Nifty posted he thought it would be back online by this afternoon, so I'll bet it will be by tomorrow morning. I'm not entirely sure how big the box is now. When I passed it off to the first person, it didn't all fit into the largest priority mail flat-rate box. People added to it right away and the last I saw, it was in a relatively large rubbermaid tub. That's probably too big to economically ship at this point. That's o.k. though, I'm sure we'll find someone moving between Phoenix and Tucson soon. I make my way up there every couple months so if someone else doesn't get it, I can. Hopefully you can find some seeds in there that will inspire you and work well here in the hot desert southwest as well.

rebbetzin, I love the new garden beds! You have a way with green things and the camera. I know what you mean about giving up on trying to grow things in the worst of the summer. I'm think I'm only going to keep eggplant and okra through July and Aug. next year.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I just realized that I should formally extend the invitation to the BYC AZ seed tub to everyone over here. I started it with about a couple hundred packages of seeds from my own collection and also from things that I collect and grow regularly. It was mostly seeds adapted to our environment, but a lot of other heirloom stuff too. It has since passed from member to member and anyone can take what they want and add anything if they have extras. We're especially interested in seeds of plants that you like and do especially well here. You also don't have to add anything at all. The only thing is that you have to make sure that you pass it on to the next member. The principle goal is to get folks doing more gardening and to promote interactions between BYC members--and TEG members now too.

 

[johnandlynds]

Hello all! We just signed up to the board and still catching up on reading this thread. My wife and I just bought our first house out in Surprise and looking to start our first garden. My wife knows more about what we (she) are/is going to grow, but we're getting excited about it. Going to build our enclosure in the next couple weeks when work allows me to get some work done, but I'm sure we'll have tons of questions. I posted this in another thread, but thought I could get some input from locals as well who know more about this stuff than I do

My wife and I just bought our first house in the Phoenix area and we're looking to start our first garden. We have two dogs, and they love food. So we're planning on enclosing the area with a wood frame and chicken wire. The area we have to work with is 20'x7'

Any suggestions on how to set up the garden? I believe she is looking to grow some broccoli, tomatoes, kale, strawberries (or any berry that will grow in Phoenix), bell peppers and some herbs. Not sure how much room will be needed for all of that. Do you think the space provided will be enough? Any suggestions are welcome, we're both pretty new to this. I know how to design the area and do the manual labor, and that's about where my knowledge is exhausted. I am definately not a green thumb.

Thanks in advance for all the help!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

johnandlynds, I'm not an expert gardener by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll try to point you in some good directions. I've been container gardening in Tucson for the past 15 years and this is my fifth year of gardening in the ground here, so I have a little bit of experience in desert gardening. Of course our environment provides exceptional challenges and great rewards to gardening. Our soil is so poor, with a pH of about 8.0 (most plants would prefer a value closer to 7.0 and under) and very little organic content. I would first start with composting. The more you can amend the soil with compost, the better off you'll be. It will help moderate the pH, add organic material to the soil and help with moisture retention. Here is a great book that explains composting and the importance of organic material in soil: The Complete Compost Gardening Guide . My local library carries it and I'll bet yours does too. Our climate allows us to garden year-round, but we have to plan carefully for season and timing of planting is important. In general, we grow leafy vegetables and root vegetables in winter and all other things in spring/summer. Here are two excellent planting guides for your location: Maricopa Co. Cooperative extension and Low Desert Planting Guide . The second link is excellent. Personally, I'm about to give up on August, with the exception of eggplants and tomato starts.

The size of your garden and the plants you'd like are perfectly fine. Strawberries do well here. We're in the middle of our broccoli season and we'll be harvesting that until May. It does very well here in the winter. Tomatoes do very well too, producing for most of the year except for late July and into Sept. For most varieties the heat is too much for them and they don't set fruit during that time--the plants usually do survive though. Some wild-type and local heirloom varieties of tomatoes will produce through the heat, but they are all cherry type tomatoes. I hope this was useful. It's not much, but a place to start. Good luck!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Hello everyone, I can't seem to get an answer( at least a good one) as to why my apple tree doesn't blossom, so I decided to bug everyone here in hopes that someone in the same climate would have some good pointers. I have a dorsette golden apple tree that i would guess is 5+ years old. It never loses all of it's leaves and so it never gets blossoms in the spring. Last year we purposely stripped the tree of every leaf and ended up with a dozen or so blossoms, this year its getting new leaves right along side the old leaves. What am I doing wrong? I'm at my wits end.