Don't EVER beat yourself up for NOT growing/harvesting last season and having to buy at the store!!!
NONE OF US here has figured out how to live off the grid foodwise.
We all have our challenges. My biggest challenge is NOT my knees, it is protecting any plants that I grow from my 5 cats inside during the winter bc they will find the pots and dig out the dirt.
The payback is that I never see a mouse in my house.
So...I have to find alternatives.
MANY people who only in apartments have figured out how to grow cool weather crops to eat by using 2 liter soda bottles and aquarium bubblers. They Don't have the land that You have.
Study up HERE and on the Internet.
It sounds like some of your crops, like tomatoes, are going to need to be in raised beds, where you put down cardboard, and cover it with imported soil bc you live in the desert. Worms will find and eat the cardboard and turn it into rich loan for you.
In the mid 19th Century everything west of the Mississippi River was called, "The Great American Desert."
Just a different kind of soil.
If you have a 3 or 5 gallon bucket, buy some potting soil and put a couple of those potatoes in your pantry that are starting to grow into it, put it by a south facing window and keep it watered. Potatoes take from 2 1/2-3 1/2 months to harvest. You could have new potatoes by Easter!
Think about herbs that you use a lot. You can grow those from seed, OR, some grocery stores sell the whole plants.
Study up on what conditions the herb likes and try to keep it alive.
So What if it fails?!? You can harvest the dry leaves and cook with them and throw the stem away. No loss.
I couldn't keep a basil alive during the winter, but my middle DD still has one in her basement going.
Go figure?!?
While you are on "walkies" during this winter, use your phone to take pictures of your garden areas. Save them and mark What time of day. When the seed packets tell you 6-8 hrs of sunlight/day they mean that many hours for the Entire growing season.
Right now we are in the dark time of the year and you expect this or better.
Maybe you will need to move some vegetables and change your plans about where to plant tomatoes.
These pictures are especially useful to see if you have any pooling during a rain.
Most vegetables/herbs do NOT like "getting their feet wet." They prefer drenching and draining.
I can think of only one Flower that likes it wet, and that is Forget Me Nots. I can't seem to grow them. They dry out and die on me.
Back to tomatoes. Last year was a dismal growing year HERE, where even worn out Illinois soil, with a few amendments can grow a lot of crops. SOMEHOW, my neighbors tomato plants didn't do well. I broke ALL OF THE RULES and planted mine in July. My September harvest was magnificent! I have saucer sized fruit from over 35 plants. Bear in mind that I am a BIG TIME CANNER and we have to cook with little/no salt for DH, so it's kind of an imperative. The average tomato grower doesn't need more than a dozen plants. Grow 15 next year and you can afford to lose a few of them.
ONE MORE THING about tomato plants--the entire stem has hairs which become roots when underground.
Don't plant them on their sides! You will be throwing water at them all season!!
I use a manual auger, although a good spade and elbow grease will do fine, and I dig them each18"-2 ft holes and bury each plant up to it's top leaves. They grow great and powerful roots and stay healthy.
ALSO, Everybody gets some blossom end rot. It doesn't mean your tomatoes aren't doing well. It has more to do with inconsistent moisture available.
Still, I water my tomatoes for a few weeks and then I don't. You might be a little bit drier than me, but you get the picture.
If you still have leaves, you can rake them up and/or pile them up on your garden areas.
Darwin's first book was on how he observed worms changing leaves left on rock into soil an inch at a time.
Leaves are the best and cheapest compost around.
I horses, so I put some dried manure into every one of my tomato plant holes before transplanting, but you could do the same with saved leaves.
THE BEST help you can get is to contact your local land grant University Extension Services for help.
They can recommend growing tips and vegetables that do better for YOU in your climate than they would for me.
YOUR taxes pay them, so use them.
, and I did get some nice cushaws but that was about the best I got this year. Last year I was trying to find ways of making meals with my peppers, tomatoes and zucchini. It was crazy good though.
