I got this from Rita the other day – am very excited for her :) I wanted to share with you because most of us in Arizona struggle to grow a garden due to the
Here’s a pic of my organic garden — it has grown so much since this pic. I have cucumber ,red, yellow bell, tons of tomato, squash, zuccinni, egg plant and watermelon and lets see oh yah jalapeno and cilantro, and way in the back u see my avocado tree I’m super excited I’m getting another avocado tree its best if you have two an a and b pollenator tree to grow good fruit.
:) my first garden ever and everything is growing great I cant wait to chomp away :)
Some of us save on produce by going to the Ranch Market……(such as me!) While some of us price match at Walmart (which I do too!) Some of you elect to grow a garden!
For those of you who are garden growers with a green thumb, please feel free to share what helps here in the hot desert heat – I will admit to having a lack of a green thumb myself – hopefully any tips you can give will help those who have wanted to give it a shot.
Thanks Rita!
You can make a raised bed and put plastic lining underneath it to help keep the moisture in the plant bed rather than running into the super dry ground. We also water ours later in the day so the sun doesn’t cause all the moisture to evaporate. A big part of having a garden here is making sure you have enough shade for plants that shouldn’t be in direct sunlight all the time. Unfortunately we’re moving after having planted our garden but it’s growing like crazy. I’ve also seen people make gardens in hay bales but I’m not the expert in that department. :) It also helps keep costs down if you harvest the seeds from the veggies you already have. Celery and green onions grow from just the very base so if you already have some stick them in there. You can do that with carrots but I have yet to try that. Save seeds from tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, etc to plant next year.
I’ve planted in straw bales and I’ve found it hard to keep it fertilized well enough for the plants to grow big and healthy. So we’ve gone the raised bed route and plan on using the straw as a good base of compost. And I also start my seeds in Feb.
Picking hot weather full sun drought resistant plants is a good way to grow a garden in the summer in the desert. I also grow plants on a shelf inside the window.
This year I have planted:pumpkin, cantelope, cucumber, zuchinni, brussel sprouts, strawberry bush, potatoes: golden and idaho, onions, kohl rabi, garlic, sunflowers, corn: supersweet, watermelon,jalapeno Peppers, tomatos sweet grapelike variety (i have found the beefstakes do better late summer/fall) and several varieties of full sun flowers.
I have a 5×5 foot raised bed garden with a shade structure on the east side of my house. Got bags of soil when I first started it and now just add some new around August/Sept.
I am really happy with my fall gardening that starts around October I planted chard, beans, small tomatoes, broccoli, string beans, celery and lots of herbs. My celery tasted awful though…eek. My winter into spring garden looks pretty beat right now! I have tomatoes, garlic (planted from a clove of supermarket garlic) and some peppers. I only snip off the top of the garlic and use it like chives. Honestly I let my garden go dormant in the summer. I don’t know how to keep stuff alive when it is 115f. I do know other people grow squash and melons but haven’t tried that.
I am from the east coast so gardening here is ridiculous…you plant stuff opposite of when you think you should!
I use this web site for my planting guide: http://www.urbanfarm.org/Planting_Calendar.pdf
if you have a small raised bed, you can cover it with some shade cloth,
they sell stuff like that at Lowe’s and Home Depot. It brings the
temperature down 15 or more degrees so your veggies don’t fry in the
summe
Hi Jill, im trying to picture the garlic you are talking about did you plant the entire cloves from the supermarket or how did you do that and chives are you talking about the top of the garlic or are you just mincing the cloves? :? please share thanks. , My brpther is in portland he is growing garlic and lots of herbs even wheat grass! im so jeally! herbs are next on my list :)
Thanks everybody for your gardening knowledge and tips! I have my first Arizona garden growing right now: tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, basil. I’m still really new at this, but I have been able to make my own pesto pasta sauce, and we’ve had a few really nice spinach salads with our produce. :)
Hey all Gardeners out there, you can score cheap,cheap garden soil,steer manure and such at HOMEDEPOT- Look for the pallets that are wrap in cellophane plastic and painted orange- they usually sell the whole pallet of 8-10 bags(opened /ripped bags) for 8.99 or lower. It’s hit and miss but worth checking.
Thanks Sheryl ! My friend Keely just text me and said you posted my garden pic up here and im so excited to hear other gardening ideas. From the time I sent you that picture you would be amazed at how fast it has grown, its almost like things double in size overnight! I started mine with soaking the ground for a week and after the rain we had we broke ground using a back hoe tractor our neighbor helped us at no cost and then we tilled the dirt, then I mixed several bags of vegan no manure veggie compost and soil which usually run about 7/8 bucks a bag at home depo and happy to say caught the lady at bashas putting the entire stand on clearance at ,99 cents each saying they were no longer doing business with them so that was a big savings for me cause I was eyeballing it at home depo but couldnt bring myself to pay 8 bucks for just a bag when I knew I needed about 20 bags lol… I also water every night and if needed early am but I do allow drying time between watering if needed just as the nursery advised me and so far things are doing sooo great! Hope to hear more fellow gardener tips on here soon! More pics are on the way …… thanks again :)
Try blackberries! they grow great in the Valley. I can’t wait to try them here up north. So jealous tho right now! It is still in the 40’s at night so we can’t plant for another couple of weeks. Oh- do look up the “three sisters” planting style of the sonoran native americans. It saves tons of water and weeding and grows amazing corn, peas or beans and squash.
We have a very small “garden” on our tiny apartment porch- the tomato plant is growing like crazy, have garlic chives, sweet mint, a dwarf lemon tree, a dwarf lime tree, and some flowers. My poor sugar snap peas decided to get fried. I’d like to get started on some leaf lettuce…. has anyone grown lettuce in small containers?
I have grown lettuce in my garden and i believe it will grow just as well in small containers i grew sever heads of romaine lettuce and let me tell you it stays fresh and crispy for a long time after you cut it, I put it in the fridge in a zip lock and i was impressed!
Did you grow it from seed or get it from a nursery? Last year I tried to start stuff from seed, but it all got fried (it doesn’t help that it was August… LOL!!!) so this year I went to the nursery and got some seedlings months ago.
The Lettuce I bought was from Home Depo it was tiny seedlings they were super small just sprouted and I planted them and they made huge heads of lettuce crispy and fresh :)
Check this out:
http://www.instructables.com/id/A-garden-in-a-sack/
Has anyone tried a community garden? I know there’s one at the library in Avondale…I’d be interested in checking it out! Maybe someone there can teach me as I tend to kill everything!
I have never tried one but I hear dobson ranch in mesa has one and hear it is a great looking garden