Are Summer Gardens a Sustainable Option in Phoenix?

Are Summer Gardens a Sustainable Option in Phoenix?


I am beginning to re-think growing my own food – in the middle of the summer in Phoenix! Today was the 5th day in a row over 110 degrees, it has been 75 days since the last rain fall and the low temps are still in the 90’s. Every morning I get up to check on the plants, water them, and hope for the best.

I practice safe gardening – I mulch the soil, shade the plants and deep water. Yet when it is this hot and dry (did I mention no humidity?) the plants get stressed. Seems like the only thing I can do is add more water. I need to water more frequently as the soil seems to dry out more quickly, especially when the wind picks up even ever so slightly. My water usage is double what it was last month and no one is visiting me use the household water – it is all going into the vegetable garden.

I get so much more from my garden than just food, but it is usually when I am puttering in the garden beds. This time of year who even wants to be outside? My morning routine is consumed with jumping out of bed and dashing outside to check the garden before it gets too hot for me or them. Walking the dog takes a back seat to the garden. Seeing those sad puppy-dog eyes is hard, but the plants need me too!

Yet I can’t just stop watering either now that they are growing. It would be akin to killing them! I couldn’t even kill the one-legged grasshopper I found in my bedroom today (thanks to the cat). He seemed half dead, so I pout him in the kitchen compost pail. I will et him die naturally while nibbling on the vegetable scraps! But I digress.

It’s all in the planning – time make a note in the calendar of the garden journal for next year to remind myself to get the summer plants in early enough so they provide a harvest earlier in the summer and I can put the garden bed to sleep for the summer. Then I can take some time to get out of the heat!!

How is your garden handling this AZ summer heat?

Stay Cool,
The garden Goddess
http://www.down2earthgardens.com/

Garden Dissapointment

Garden Dissapointment

Maybe I should be de-throwned - take away my goddess-hood - my garden looks awful!  This is the time of year - as we lead into summer - when plants begin to slow down, tomatoes stop flowering and the garden looks sad - pitiful.

I also have a few dead Bachelor Button plants in the garden becuase they are shading the peppers and cucumbers. And I laid down alfalfa hay as a mulch - so it's just not as pretty as the winter/spring garden.

It is also the fact that I have a hard time pulling anything out of the garden.  I let the hollyhocks, bachelors buttons, and mexican hats grow full term and go to seed - (ALMOST - I pulled them earlier this year so they wouldn't re-seed this time) that I do not have room for the next season's plants or seeds early enough in the year.

So I PROMISE that I will become better at planning on paper and with a calendar so I can grow more food and keep the flowers to their own space so I may keep the honorary title of Garden Goddess and I will be equally PROUD of my summer garden as I am of my wionter garden!

What are you growoing in your garden this summer and how are you protecting it from the sun?

Safe Sunning!
The Garden Goddess

http://www.down2earthgardens.com/ - a NEWLY redesigned websiute - please visit!

Update on Who Stole the Compost

Update on Who Stole the Compost

Thanks to my friend Vinnie the Gardener for solving the mystery of the missing compost. Here's what he has to say:
"Means you have 'high' bugs as I call them; all the visible critters (pill bugs, roaches, beetles). Had the same issue myself when we began renovating our garden. Started my pitchfork plugging (stab, wiggle), and kept piling on the nature. It took about three years when I noticed the 'dirt' became 'soil' in the top 4-6"inches or so. That's when I noticed more of the 'low' bugs; worms, grubs, micro-critters, mostly below the ground. Since then, all my debris clean-up goes directly onto the garden - not into the compost pile. The major green stuff (kitchen & mowing & pruning) goes into compost. All of the general plant litter gets layered in the garden (along with coffee grounds). "


WOW - I love his idea of making it easy to build the soil. Now that some of my trees are loosing their leaves (the mulberry especially) - and right by this garden, I will just layer them on the soil, almost like a mulch and let the critters in the soil munch on them. I just hope it doesn't take 3 years for me!!

Look there's one now just waiting to be eaten!! Sort of blends in with the dirt. I hope the bugs see it.


So folks - this fall do not back up your leaves and throw them away - put them on your garden! Or at the very least put them in your compost bin or even better yet - leave them where they fall and let them provide nourishment to soil below the tree!

Now that's MY kind of gardening!!