Oops, wrong season..

Well, I feel a bit better about my plants dying. Apparently we didn’t research enough and for the region we live in (region 2, Chandler is at 1200 ft elevation above sea level) we planted most of our stuff waaaaaaay out of season. The few things that still are going are barely going, producing really small fruit, or dead.

I hereby dub this year Infrastructure Year as I’ll be getting all the beds ready, irrigation in place (I’ll discuss in a future post), and shade as needed. Here is a link to the guide that we will hence forth use to schedule our plantings:

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/guide.html

 

Shade in the making..

So. While I think these (to be finished) will help us in the future, I fear it’s too late to most of the current crop. We still have a few tomatoes popping up here and there and a couple of small small peas that produced but not even enough for a snack.

It’s been so busy around here with work, Crystal about to start Dental Assisting, her parents coming out next week, the house being a mess, etc. that we haven’t had a chance (or the money) to be as attentive to the garden as we’d like. We’ll make a better effort. Pictures to follow…

 

In AZ, shade is most important

I’d put up pictures of the plants, but they’ve not been faring well. I’m in the process of building shade canopies for each of the raised beds.

I haven’t really nailed down a preferred design yet, but I’m getting an idea of what I DON’T want.

The thing to keep in mind is this: The simpler the solution, the more effective it is. Try to get too fancy, and it’ll cost you more money and time (and plants) in the long run.