Anyone have a garden going this year?

My garden done except brussel sprouts, don't have large sprouts, might get cold too fast. Raking leaves for compost.

 

My garden is done for the year, also. Time to take all the dead plants to the compost pile and mix them with horse manure.

The earliest seedlings will get started in my mini-greenhouse in February. Next year I want to start the pepper varieties as early as possible. I did not have a great pepper harvest this past year. However, as usual, I was swimming in tomatoes, squash, okra, and dry beans.

 

Pruning the grape vines will start soon. The garden is resting in a silent state, except for the sounds of a few crows and dead leaves rustling in the breeze.

Back at the house, it is satisfying to be eating the dry beans, hot sauce, winter squash, sweet potatoes, and frozen produce harvested during the last season. Much of my "supply chain" is less than a tenth of a mile long.

 

I'm still wondering if I've got Tomatoes in the near future



I imagine I'm going to have to hunt down a few double pane windows if I want em'.

Things I love about living in the desert

 

Might try getting some floating row cover from Johnnies seed. Keeps plants down to about 25 if doubled.

 

With the late frosts this year in southern Arizona, I have a few tomato vines that keep wanting to come back. But, I also have a leaf hopper problem still lingering, also. So, I've decided to pull out all the vines and put them on the compost pile. If there a some good frosts later this month and into January, maybe the insect pests will die out. I want to get a fresh start in the Spring.

 

I think that the idea of insects dying out in the winter is wishful thinking.
As evidence of my reasoning... Have you all ever camped in the north? Mosquitoes are far worse than I've ever experienced in the south!

And... Take wasps, lady bugs and squash bugs... I've taken siding off the house in the winter.... Found bugs staying comfy....

Too cold here to keep tomatoes going through the winter... even though I still see tomato plants in the garden... no need to do anything, the frost will kill them in January, if not sooner.
What's still in the garden? I watched a mocking bird picking poke berries last weekend... that was neat... The cardinals enjoy the lambsquarter seed...

Recently planted turnips and carrots and kale... All but the carrots are up....

I'm adding collards to stew... when I cook.

 

Not wishful thinking in all cases. Integrated Pest Management specialists in my area can predict how quickly some field crop pests will get established in the Spring and early summer based upon how cold the winter was, particularly in areas that occasionally have very few killing frosts. Most insect populations have overwintering strategies, but the rate at which certain insect species take off following winter is partially affected by how cold the winter nights were.

I have observed this following especially warm winters in Arizona, and have received warnings from entomologists when white flies, aphids, and leaf hoppers are expected to cause problems early in the growing season. As an organic farmer who is not growing year-round frost sensitive crops like citrus, I always hope for some good hard freezes in the valley floor area where I live.

Also, I try to clean up the dead vegetation litter right after the growing season and get it actively composting by mixing it with manure. Just leaving piles of non-actively-composting litter around the garden can provide a much better overwintering harbor for insect pests from one season the the next. I had so many insects on my grape and tomato vines at the end of the last season that I had to wear a mask when doing the final harvests, so I am happy to work all those vines (covered with eggs and other stages of insect development) into a hot compost pile.

 

Have a few seeds in the ground, and early cauliflower and broccoli plants. Easter Sunday set down after diner, looked out later to see an inch of snow on the ground, never got plans covered, but they seem ok.

 

Thanks, always a challenge, but learning as we go. Soon be 71, but I don't feel, we have done bad for only a few years experience. Bugs and plant disease, we know little about. With help from friendly people on the forum, and inter net, hope to do better. anything we grow is a nice reward. Thanks again

 

I have some plants in the ground. This past snow storm does not seem to have bothered them too much. Though I have a lot of tree branches down a few bushes up rooted .And a few bushes that have been flatten to the ground. I will try to stack them up as soon as the snow melts in the next day or so.

Now if I can only keep the groundhog and the deer out of the raised beds I will be all set. I have a groundhog that likes to climb fences. And seems well practiced in it. And I can never get the 22 out fast enough to get him . And every time over the last few years that I have tried to trap it, I have gotten skunks instead .
( the secret to getting a skunk out of a cage trap with out getting sprayed . Is to cover the cage with a large towel or throw blanket. You can pick up the trap move it etc with out getting sprayed. And keep it covered as much as possible when you open the trap to let it out. A lot of times the skunk will take its time getting out of the cage. Don't try to rush it ! )

 

Try putting a electric fence around the top of your garden fence. That way, when the ground hog climbs it, he's well grounded and should get a good sap. Works for moose around the garden and bears around my bee hives;

 

I have so much pressure from hungry wildlife this time of the year in the desert, that I have no other option than complete wildlife exclusion for certain crops. A long time ago I built a 24 foot by 40 food garden area that I call the "exclosure". It is completely covered (sides and "roof") with 1/2 inch galvanized hardware screen that I bought on-line in big rolls. It ranges in height from 8 feet to 12 feet (at the peak), with the heavy 1/2 inch grid buried 18 inches deep around the perimeter. It turned out to be a good investment. 1/2 inch openings allow many pollinators to get inside, but excludes birds and rodents. So, I grow grapes, tomatoes, one fig tree, and my prized pepper varieties in there.

Then right next to that exclosure, I have a standard open garden (24' by 60') that's fenced around the perimeter with the same 1/2 hardware screen. I grow okra, asparagus, squash varieties, melons, herbs, and dry beans out there. The quail and other birds get in there, but I overseed that area. Usually by the time the rains come in July, I have enough foliage to stay ahead of the wildlife. Also, after the rains come, there are other sources of food in the desert.

It's all drip irrigated on an automatic timer, but I'm out there every day when the plants are young. Things are looking pretty good right now. Knock on wood.

 

Sounds like a good set up!

I'm going to try eggplant again. I may use chicken wire to keep the squirrels out

 

Me! Just a small one this year, about 3 acres, not including what hubby planted !

 

3 acres is a lot. I used to have to use a tractor for tilling and a truck for harvesting when I gardened at that scale. I also had to do a lot of wholesale marketing in the closest city.

Now, at the smaller scale, I mainly supply myself and family, taking the surplus to one local rural store or the food bank. By gardening more intensively, I've found that even at a small scale I can provide half of my yearly vegetables and all of my yearly need for dry beans used in burritos.

 

BiGuySW, I would love to grow more last year canning flats were about $.40 each. Then you could but a can of veggies for that, now that can has doubled in price. I may try the dried beans, just for storage reasons.

 

Yes, canning has a cost, and takes a lot of time. I don't have a lot of extra time, so here is what I do:

• Beans: I put the pods into used paper bags, dry them for several weeks next to a south-facing window in my house, and then winnow out the beans on windy day over a tarp outdoors. If the wind is not blowing, I use a fan. Then I store the dry beans in recycled plastic jars.
• Sweet potatoes: After harvest, I wash and dry them in the field, and then store them in a warm cabinet in my kitchen. In a dark warm cabinet, they cure better and store for a long time. The little ones that sprout are used as next year's seed crop.
• Winter squash: As the squash are developing in the field, I rotate them or put some cardboard under them to keep rot from forming where they contact the ground. After harvest, I store them in a lower cabinet in the kitchen so they stay cooler than the sweet potatoes. The ones that don't have skin perforations store for a long time. The other ones need to be eaten first. I also store onions in this cabinet.
• Tomatoes and peppers: I make hot sauce from peppers, cherry tomatoes, and onions that are roasted on a wood-fired grill. I store a lot of it in my freezer. I just use recycled plastic containers that stack well in my small freezer. I grow enough cilantro to add to the sauce. I also freeze some of the chili peppers and okra.
• Grapes: I make concentrated grape juice and store it in flat one-gallon plastic bags that seal well.
• Herbs: I dry them out and store them in plastic bags or recycled jars in my kitchen.

I eat a lot of burritos, with a vegetable on the side, so these stored items work out well for much of the winter. My hot sauce is unlike anything I have ever gotten from a store. Maybe some day I'll get into canning again, but it's so hot where I live that I might need to make a root cellar for storage of canned goods and winter squash.