Thursday, June 25, 2009

Monsoons on the Way


I am sure my plants are enjoying the humidity along with the clouds more than I am. Well, the clouds are OK, but it is no longer a 'dry heat' in Phoenix. I know, I shouldn't be complaining with the high heat and humidity in Chicago (sorry Sis!) but I moved here for the dry heat. We went from Spring to Monsoon summer in less than a week.

Ok enough of the weather report. Let's talk garden. My vegetable plants are doing just OK this year. I bought and planted several heirloom s for the firdst time and I am just not that impressed with them. My chocolate pepper plant died after one puny pepper. One of the tomato plants is still pretty small - got a few cherry tomatoes off of it. But they were 'earth brown' and it was hard to tell when they were ripe. And when they said mini peppers boy they weren't kidding. They were smaller than a cherry tomato! Kind of hard to do much with them but nibble them off the stem!

But those Armenian cucumbers - another story. The latest is 18 inches long. They are hiding under all the vines and I didn't catch them until they are gigantic! Good thing they still keep their flavor. Now the vines are taking over the rest of the garden. YUMMM I can eat them fresh from the garden every day!!

Since this is the first summer in my new garden, I didn't plant a lot of veggies. I just didn't know how it would do - but I did plant lots of flowers and they are doing great. The sunflowers are popping up everywhere and attracting the finches and bees. In fact I have 4 plants standing sentry at the entrance to the garden from the street side.



The zinnia's make great cutting flowers for little bud vases. I keep one on my desk every day. See the garden gnome? He's almost invisible. I also planted a few seedballs made with corn, bush beans and I thought squash. The corn is about 10 inches tall, the beans not far behind, but no sign of the squash. That's called a Three Sisters Garden. The Native American's planted them together at the start of the monsoons and let the summer rains grow the crops. I'll post more about that next week.

It's fun to experiment in the garden and see what works and what doesn't. Now keeping track of all the results - a whole other blog post for sure!


Until then,


Happy Digging, The Garden Goddess


http://www.down2earthgardens.com/















0 comments:

Labels

AZ vegetable gardens (12) arizona gardening (12) compost (10) Garden Goddess (9) Down 2 Earth Gardens (8) Phoenix (7) permaculture (6) vegetable Gardens (6) AZ (5) bermuda grass removal (5) community garden consultant (5) edible gardens (5) gardens (5) monsoon rains (5) Garden planning (4) seed saving (4) Community Gardens (3) Companion planting (3) Garden design (3) Soil (3) apple trees (3) beets (3) computer garden design tools (3) desert (3) fall planting (3) herbs (3) low desert gardening (3) low desert winter gardens (3) mosquitoes (3) mulching (3) rain harvesting (3) Garden Maintenance (2) Gardening tips (2) Master Gardeners (2) Rain barrels (2) Squash Bugs (2) Swiss Chard (2) Three sisters garden (2) amending soil (2) apple (2) basil (2) bats (2) citrus (2) design (2) earth day (2) edible (2) flowers (2) gardening (2) green peppers (2) mint (2) nematodes (2) pruning (2) rain guage (2) rosemary (2) soil secrets (2) sustainable gardens (2) tomatoes (2) tree (2) "Bill McDorman" (1) ARMLS (1) African marigolds (1) Blossom End Rot (1) Christmas Cactus (1) Clay (1) Coirn (1) Companion planting. (1) Contest (1) Cornville (1) Corriander seed (1) Deswrt gardening (1) Doreen Pollack (1) Double digging (1) Fall garden clean up (1) Fall gardens (1) Gambusia (1) Garden Tools (1) Garden books (1) Garden workshops (1) Grden Journals (1) Healing Gardens (1) Heirloom seeds (1) Home Staging (1) Humus (1) Japanese beetles (1) Johnny Jump-ups (1) Kohlrabi (1) Loam (1) Mesquite Flour (1) Microorganisms (1) Phoeniz (1) Pole Beans (1) Red amaranth (1) Sand (1) Sierra Club (1) Slow Food Phoenix (1) Soil Food Web (1) Squash (1) Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes (1) Toby Hemenway (1) Tree Pruning (1) Wildlife habitats (1) amaranth (1) artichoke seeds (1) bachelor button (1) bermudal grass removal (1) bird netting (1) bok choy (1) broccoli rabe (1) brussel sprouts (1) bugs (1) cilantro (1) compost. bugs (1) corn cups (1) cutworms (1) dandelion greens (1) digging (1) dirt (1) earthworks (1) eating from the garden (1) edible cactus (1) edible container garden (1) feeding fruit trees (1) fertilizer (1) fleas (1) flies (1) flower gardens (1) food (1) frost (1) fruit trees (1) garden (1) garden bed preparation (1) garden coaching (1) garden disease control (1) garden journal (1) gardening quiz (1) grass (1) green (1) green beans (1) green features (1) green gift giving (1) grren beans (1) harvesting (1) heirloom (1) holloyhocks (1) home selling (1) how much to plant (1) infections (1) injury in the garden (1) ladybird (1) ladybud (1) lavender (1) leafy greens (1) leaves (1) lettuce (1) mosquities (1) mosquito control (1) mycorrhizae (1) native foods (1) native seeds (1) natural mosquito repellant (1) natural mosquitoe repellant (1) new garden (1) olive trees (1) on-line garden club (1) oregano (1) palo verd tree (1) pansies (1) peach (1) peach trees (1) peaches (1) permaculture design (1) permaculture design course (1) pest control (1) pesticides (1) plastic (1) poor drainage (1) praying mantis (1) prickly pear (1) professional gardener (1) protecting fruit trees from birds (1) radicchio (1) radishes (1) rain water (1) rain water harvesting (1) ratoons (1) recycle (1) root rot (1) second crop (1) soil building (1) soil secrets. nitrogen (1) soil testing (1) southwest vegetable gardens (1) spinach (1) squash vines (1) stock (1) summer (1) sunflower (1) sunflowers (1) surface water (1) sustainability (1) sweet peppers (1) tilling (1) tomato (1) transplant (1) trash (1) trees (1) vegetable (1) vegetablvegetable Gardens (1) violas (1) water use (1) waterharvesting (1) watering a garden (1) weather (1) wildflowers (1) wind (1) xeriscape plant (1) year-round gardening (1)