Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
March: What to plant in Phoenix right now
Somehow I completely skipped over planting in February.
If you look at my garden right now — you’d see that I’ve forgotten about planting pretty much altogether. My daikons have bolted, my peas are in a sad state of affairs, my soaker hoses have holes and yet my weeds are running over.
March is going to be a warmer — and perhaps, a time of garden renewal.
If I do decide to get my act together and get planting, here’s what I’d start with:
- Snap beans
- Melons
- Pumpkins
- Squash
- Sunflowers
January: What to plant in Phoenix now
Winter is supposed to be a good time to plant in the desert, but truth be told, it feels too cold to plant right now! According to my planting calendar, however, it’s actually a great time for lettuce-type veggies and root vegetables. I started some beets, radishes and carrots about a month ago — along with some lettuce in my salad table, but plan on adding some more seeds.
Salad table.
Beginning beets.
Here’s a list of some things to plant in January:
- Basil
- Beets
- Bok Choy (as a transplant)
- Carrot
- Cilantro
- Collards
- Eggplant
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Peas
- Radish
- Scallions
- Spinach
- Tomato
- Turnip
Yes peas!
So I’ve been a little late on my winter planting schedule. My fall seed test was a bust.
Last year at this time I had carrots, radishes, beets and brussel sprouts, and spinach all growing away in the garden. Currently, I have a few radish sprouts — and a lot of barren garden awaiting some veggies.
While I prefer to grow from seed, I picked up a few snap peas at Baker’s Nursery the other day so I’d have something.
I consulted a planting calendar, and there’s still have time to plant carrots, beets, turnips and a few greens.
Hopefully it won’t be a sad, sad, veggie-less spring.
Tour de Coops 2010
I went a saw some real-life chicken habitats at this year’s Tour de Coops and wrote about it in Chow Bella. Take a look!
Sweet potato success
About 4 months ago I took a sprouting sweet potato and buried it in the ground — which is the wrong way to plant a sweet potato — but crazily enough, it started sprouting a giant plant.
I’d read online that when the plant died, the potatoes were ready to dig up.
So I waited.
The plant thrived.
A friend suggested that instead of potatoes, maybe the top of the plant was all that was growing. Possibly.
I waited some more.
Then over the weekend, the plant froze and I dug it up and found….
A lot of potatoes.
Digging them up was like a treasure hunt. Some looked frightening, some looked delicious, but regardless — I’d say my sweet potato planting was a success!
Upside-down tomato: Part 2
A couple of months ago, I planted an upside-down tomato plant.
The plant was small, and the prognosis for lots of giant tomatoes — well, it was questionable. But now, several months later, I have one giant tomato, and several more on the way. Plus, the top is filled with cilantro.
I think I can officially call project upside-down tomato — a success!
The magical watermelon
It’s been about 2 months since I stumbled upon the mystery melon in my garden, which I figured was plenty of time to mature and ripen.
Sure enough, upon slicing, it was red — and tasted pretty good.
Hooray for the mystery melon!
There are still 2 more in the garden. Here’s to hoping they are also edible.
When is my watermelon going to be ready?
I looked on eHow about harvesting watermelon and the first suggestion, “Check out the description on your watermelon’s seed packet.”
My watermelon spontaneously generated. That advice won’t help me.
Another tip: look at curly tendrils around the stem. Green tendrils mean it’s still ripening. Brown and dry equals a done melon. I don’t seem to have any tendrils.
Next tests: The thumbnail test (if your thumb fails to indent the skin, it’s ready) and the underbelly test (warm, yellow hue equals ripe melon).
Anyone know when a watermelon is ready?
Fall planting time is here
My garden is still full of watermelons and black-eyed peas, but that isn’t preventing me from planting a few things for fall.
This season, I’m trying something different: planting seeds in small containers and transplanting them into the garden once they’ve sprouted. To start, I mixed compost (from Whole Foods, I’m still having compost issues), potting soil, peet moss and humate and then filled a bunch of plastic squares you get from the nursery.
So far, I’ve planted:
Coming up:
We’ll see how this garden test goes.
Garden hijack
I recently celebrated a birthday and my friends got me the coolest garden sculpture ever.
