Fall Means a Fresh Start in the Garden

There is a change in the air in Phoenix. The evenings and mornings are definitely cooler. The humidity is gone and so is the monsoon rain. The leaves on the Mulberry trees are starting to yellow slightly and drop.


This slight shift always has me feeling hopeful and excited for another planting and growing season. Time to clean out the garden beds, re-build the soil with my compost, rake it smooth and get the seeds planted. Time to make the row markers, set out a plan of what goes where, and start to think about the color that comes from flowers in the garden. Oh I almost forgot, I pick a new edible plant to grow each year – I wonder what it will be this year – Do you have a suggestion for me?

While I was watering yesterday, I noticed one of my artichoke plants is emerging from its summer rest. I have two – I hope the other one comes back!

I like to take a reasonably-paced approach to getting the gardens ready for a new season. I start with getting the garden cleared and soil amended one week. I like to let the compost and any other amendments sit in the ground for a week at least before I plant into it. Looks like I will be doing this on Sunday morning while it is cool. That also lets me take stock of my seeds and purchase anything I may still need. However – after the bounty I got at the American Community Gardening Association Conference I attended in August and the seeds I got at the Seed Swap last week I think I may be set this year!

I also have new seeds from Humble Seed for an herb garden – aptly called Uncle Herb’s Favorites – 10 different herbs in a great package that can be reused. What I love about this company is they are very particular about where they get seeds and the package them locally using the Marc Center.
So in a few weeks I will be planting out my new garden. I am excited about eating fresh lettuce, spinach and other greens, beets and peas – all in about 2 more months! The gap between will need to be supplemented by the farmers markets.



What are your plans for a fall garden? Please let me know if I can help. I am starting to book consultations now – just email me at gardengoddess@down2earthgardens.com or call 623-217-6038.

Happy Digging,
The Garden Goddess
http://www.down2earthgardens.com/

Time to get the Garden Ready for Fall

It may feel hot and muggy in these dog days of summer, but this is the time to get the garden beds ready for fall planting.  As I cut back last years wildflowers and saved the seeds I decided to keep the base of the plant in tact and left some leaves on it to see if it will come back in the spring.  The leaves were still green, so my guess is it will.  I love to see what plants naturalize in my garden.  Annuals to some areas of the country become perennials in my garden!

I decided to dig out the hollyhocks that somehow found there way into my vegetable garden.  They took up too much precious real estate.  Out came the wild amaranth and anything else that was not going to produce food for me this winter.

The sweet pepper plants are holding their own fairly well this summer so they were allowed to stay - one of them is now 18 months in the garden and still producing red sweet peppers! In fact, you will find that sweet peppers will bounced back in the fall and produce another crop!

The basil is doing well, too. There are 2 eggplants that have not produced any fruit yet, nor flowered, but I will leave them in for now and see if they come back once it cools down again.

I also started to amend the soil in another garden bed.  I used my own compost and mixed it in with the existing garden soil with a shovel and water it well with rain water from my rain barrels.  I do a section every few days and it makes the process seem like less work.

The seed nursery is also started - I am using the broccoli seed from my own plant.  I bought some peat pellets (they expand to almost 2 inches when wet) and placed a few seeds in each one last Saturday morning.  By Monday they had sprouted and they are now taller then the little hot house I created using a plastic lettuce container I got from the grocery store. 

These little hot houses work well because they keep the moisture in so the seed scan sprout.  I also use the clear plastic clam shells.

Another thing you can use to make your own small seed starting pots are the cardboard rolls from paper towels and toilet paper.  I just cut them to about 2 inches tall, put them in one of these little hot houses, fill them with potting spoil and plant the seeds.  Then when the seedlings get big enough the entire roll can be planted directly into your garden or a larger pot if the garden is not ready or you wish to give them to someone.

Paper rolls cut for pots

October 1st is the target date for planting seeds into my garden beds.  I may start a few more seeds before then, but mostly seeds in the ground this year.

What about you?  What are your plans for your edible garden this year??

Happy Digging,
The Garden Goddess
http://www.donw2earthgardens.com/

Fall Garden Planting Started

Fall Garden Planting Started

After my foot injury 2 weeks ago, I started getting worried that my garden planting wasn't happening on schedule. I still had 2 small beds to amend and many things I wanted to start by seed right in those beds. But I couldn't get around the garden very well and I certainly couldn't use a shovel and get up and down off my knees very well.

I called upon the help of my gardening friends and clients. Lo and behold last Sunday morning three wonderful, generous women came to my rescue. The really cool thing about it, is they all wanted to learn how to start a garden bed by seeds.

I coached and guided them and they did the work. Lucky for them we never needed to use more than a small garden shovel and trowel. But they planted many rows of seeds. The weather was perfect for gardening. We had a great time chatting and taking about gardening life and all the wonderful things growing your own food meant to each of us.

Now a week later I have tiny seedlings popping through the ground. In fact they could be seen as early as 4 days after planting!

Let me take you through a tour of my three newly planted garden beds:

The front yard is the newest of beds. This is where the grass was just a year ago! This lovely key-hole garden is now planted with:

Spinach

Chinese kale

Red leaf lettuce

Cilantro

Swiss chard (there are 2 chard plants left over from the summer that have doubled in size in a week since amending the soil!!)

The 2 back gardens are smaller. They were the first beds I used for food 2 years ago. Boy have I learned a lot since them.

The garden bed tucked in the farthest corner of the yard (about 2 ft x 3 ft) is now where I grow the plants that have a longer maturity or harvest date - onions, garlic, carrotts and beets. This year I threw my radishes in with all of this.

You can see the seedling coming up here as well. Notice the fancy plant marker - a plastic knife! Use a sharpie pen and they will hold up to all of the harsh AZ weather!

The third garden bed I call the salad bowl since I put my lettuces there. It is closest to the house and the back door. It has a vent from the crawl space which helps keep it warmer on cool winter evenings. Last year I had lettuce for almost 4 months for the same spot.

What is missing from all of this is the diversity of companion planting. That will come next week when I add the nasturtium and sweet alysum seeds and a few marigolds.

What did you plant this fall?

Happy Digging,

The Garden Goddess

Down 2 Earth Gardens,LLC

Seeing my Garden Through Another Person's Eyes

My business, Down 2 Earth Gardens, is being profiled in the August 27 edition of the Arizona Business Gazette, part of the Arizona Republic. I am very honored and flattered. I spoke to the reporter/writer by phone last week and today she stopped by to see what I was referring to when I mentioned I took out a bermuda lawn and put in an edible garden.

As I was waiting for her arrival I walked through my garden thinking about what I wanted to show her. Mid August in Phoenix is not when your garden looks it's best! Yet as I walked around the garden beds, I thought about what it looked like this time last year - dead grass.

I am pround of what I have created and I am critical about what I should have done differently. But the nice thing about a garden is that it is easy to redecorate the next season.

Now back to dreaming of a new garden this fall........

Happy Digging,

The Garden Goddess

www.down2earthgardens.com

Eating from the Garden - Red Amaranth

Amaranth – a new edible for me!

Last summer I got some Red Amaranth seeds from a friend. I just thought it would be fun to grow something I never had before. I grew them – they are such a deep red color and really tall– almost to my hip. The flower looks like a bunch of seeds, not petals like most flowers and that is what actually dries into the seeds. I collected the seeds and stored them.

This spring I came across those seeds and threw them (literally) into the garden bed. I just watered as usual and watched them mature.

Well I found out on Sunday from a few of my Master Gardener friends that the leaves are edible! They can be used like lettuce in a salad, in a frittata or stir fried with other veggies. They have a strong taste like a micro-green.

The seeds are also very nutritious. There’s a great article on how to grow, harvester and cook with Amaranth from Seeds of Change http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/forum/topics/harvesting-amaranth-seeds

But here’s what the article says about the nutritional value: “Nutritionally, amaranth is a very valuable food–higher in protein than the major cereal crops (13 to 18 percent as compared to 10 percent in corn and wheat) with a high level of the amino acid lysine, an essential amino acid that is usually deficient in plant protein. Amaranth is also a good source of calcium, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamin E, and B vitamins.”

I am excited to have another plant in my garden I can eat. I am going to start experimenting with everything in my garden. So many things that we consider ornamental or a flower are edible. I love foraging in my garden for food for my dinner. It is always an interesting mix of what is available.

What do you eat from your garden that is unusual?

Happy Digging,

Doreen aka The Garden Goddess
www.down2earthgardens.com