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.

 

Sun as lifegiver, Sun as murderer

The Arizona sun is apparently too hot for just about any plant to grow. A bunch of our stuff is dying off or flatlining.

We water in the early morning typically and have started to shade a couple of plants individually (I’ll show you pictures later, yikes) but it seems a fool’s errand.

I’ll be testing a plan to add shades to each bed with some 2×4′s and such. We’ll keep you posted as we build!

Thanks for visiting and PLEASE, if you’re a master gardener or have experience gardening in Arizona, help us out! Send us an email, comment, twitter message, anything! This year looks like the year we experiment.

 

Saturday Morning Update

Good Morning! It’s nice out right now (about 85 or so) but it’ll get hot, quickly (about 105ish!). Here’s how some of the plants are doing:

Yellow Squash sprouting

 

Flowering and sprouting

Hello All! We’re starting to see some flowering and sprouting finally!

Strawberries, yum!

Strawberries, banana peppers, buds on the squash, etc. A couple of the spinach are getting taller but apparently they need more shade than we can have available right now. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be trying to devise a plan for something like shade cages/covers for some of the plants. Check out the pics below:

 

 

Materials Handling

We’ve had a few questions about what we’re using to build these and how sturdy they are. Well, they’re quite sturdy (and not overly heavy). You can make them in any shape/combination that you’d like. For our purposes, two deep fits in most places up against houses, walls, etc. We followed, for the most part, the instructions in the All New Square Foot Gardening $11.99  http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240860392&sr=8-1

 

Second set done!

After a long weekend of buying, building, and planting the second set of beds they are done! Here are pictures below:

 

20 square feet of raised garden beds

 

 

First one done!

Here are the pictures after the first bed is planted (12 square feet):

First Garden bed

First Garden bed

 

 

Preparing the soil

We prepared soil according to instructions in the Square Foot Gardening book. It’s reallly easy. Here’s the mix:  1/3 Peat Moss, 1/3 Vermiculite, 1/3 Compost mix. That’s it! He suggests that you mix a number of different composts together to get the best results.

Vermiculite, organic peat moss, and a few organic composts.

 

Herb Garden

Last weekend Daniel and I found our new favorite place, Summerwinds Nursery. We purchased several herbs and got the supplies for our raised bed.  We are planning on heading back next weekend to get the plants to start our vegetable garden.  I planted garlic chives, onion chives, flat leaf parsley, sweet basil, lemon balm, and lavendar.  Here is our herb garden after I finished planting everything:

 

Herb Garden