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.

 

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.

 

A Place for Peas and Pole Beans

Peas and Beans box

We’ve got some space along the back wall that looks like a tree, or something, used to be there. We’ve also got some trellises that are bored and have nothing to do but look pretty. Crystal thought it would be a great place for sugar snap peas and green pole beans to grow. Sounds great! I love eating peas and beans straight off the vine, you can ask my Mom how many times she used to yell at me for that. Love you Mom! The bed, like all the ones we’ve made are treated with food-grade mineral oil or vegetable oil. Here are some pictures of the skinny bed that I built to house the plants:

 

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

 

 

Raised SFG (Square Foot Garden) bed finished!

While Crystal was at work, I finished the first (of many) raised garden bed(s). Took awhile to get it together and about another hour or so router-ing and sanding the edges off, but I think it will serve our purposes well. 

They’ll most likely look better as I make more. Here’s a picture:

 

Raised bed vegetable garden

 See the post “Materials Handling” for a list of what I used. Thanks!