The garden

Well Fall is here, and it seems like it showed up overnight.  The temps have fallen to "absolutely perfect", the monsoon rains have ended, and the humidity is approximately 0%.  The summer certainly was eventful, especially in the garden.

  Some plants had a rough start in the spring because the winds were just nonstop.  The cukes never really did get going too well, but I still managed to make 3 jars of pickles, and two plants look like they might revive a bit for Fall.  At first I thought the beans wouldn't be able to recover from the wind damage, but by late spring and early summer they were going strong and I've harvested more beans than ever before.

  We blanched a whole bunch of them last month, and will probably be able to do a second batch in a few weeks.  I only got a few beets, and the onions (planted nearby) didn't fare so well either- many of them have been rotten.  The monsoons were absolutely intense this year and one half of the garden (where the beets, cukes, and onions are planted) got flooded more than once even though the garden is higher than the surrounding area and has great drainage.  Then there was the hail with the one storm which tore up most of the leaves on the Butternut squash, zucchini, and yellow squash.

  It looks like we'll still have a pretty good harvest of Butternut squash though since the hail came after most of the veggies were big enough to handle it.

  We got a good crop of the zucchini and summer squash earlier in the season and were able to blanch and freeze enough of those to take us through winter.

 By the middle to end of the season though, the plants had just gotten too much water and the roots were rotting.  And of course the squash bugs took advantage of the weakened plants and further damaged them.  A few weeks ago I pulled up the ones that were too far gone, leaving just a few that may recover enough to give us at least a few more veggies.  Luckily tomatoes like rain and can handle some pretty tough conditions.  All the varieties we planted (yellow, pink, and 2 varieties of cherry) have done well, although they are ripening more slowly as the nights turn colder.

 The Bell peppers and mini Bell peppers are doing really well, as are the carrots, so I should be able to make at least one more big batch of my garden fresh pasta sauce (I basically throw in all the fresh veggies and herbs I can harvest and cook it low and slow all day long).

 The Japanese eggplants have just recently started producing, but they seem to be doing well.  I made a mouthwatering eggplant Parmesan the other night ;) 

The herbs and salad garden have fared quite well and I've had fresh salad every night for months now, along with plenty of fresh basil (made tons of pesto!), parsley, chives, scallions, oregano, and rosemary.

 Oh, and for the first time I got several REALLY good cantaloupe.

  Although the season is coming to a close we should have another couple of months before the first frost, so I imagine I'll be harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salad, Swiss chard, carrots, and herbs at least until Thanksgiving.  This was my first year gardening in Arizona (I'm originally from Ohio) and while it has it's own unique challenges, I love this place and this was the most successful garden I've had.  Of course I've been saving seeds from everything I can (flowers included), so I won't even have to buy seeds next year.  Right now I'm planning on what to plant in the greenhouse.  I put the garlic in last week and some of it has already sprouted.  It takes hard work, dedication, and lots of sweat (especially when it's 115 degrees!), but nothing beats fresh herbs and veggies, grown organically and nurtured by your own hand. =)

~Michelle of CreativeCritters

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gardening

Well, it's another lovely spring day in NE Ohio-NOT! It's cold, drizzly, and generally miserable. However, my poor peppers and eggplants are getting too big for their containers and really need to spread their roots, so I figured I'd better get them planted in the garden. Actually, when I first went outside the sun was shining and it was almost comfortable. Halfway through planting the clouds moved in and the rain started. I've lived here long enough to be used to it though, and I know how to protect my newly planted veggies from the vagaries of our unpredictable weather. I use Wall 'O Waters for my tomatoes and cover everything else with milk jugs with the bottoms cut off. Both methods have proved quite successful.
I start all my plants from seed indoors under fluorescent lights. For one thing seeds are a lot cheaper than plants, plus you can find a much larger variety of seeds than you can plants at the nursery. Clean containers and good seed starting mix are very important for successful germination and disease free growth of the seedlings. This year I'm planting tomatoes (cherry, Roma, and yellow), sweet bell peppers (mixed colors), eggplant, yellow bush beans, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, basil, cucumbers, cantaloupe, garlic, chives, and oregano. I make some delicious spaghetti sauce with all my fresh veggies. Plus you can freeze extra tomatoes for use later in the year. Last year I got a food dehydrator very cheap at a garage sale, so I was able to dry my herbs and some of my veggies. I also grow catnip for my fuzzies (and the neighborhood cats as well). Cats go nuts for fresh catnip!
I've been slowly but surely hardening off my veggies to get them used to the changes in temperature, wind, and light that they'll have to deal with outside. I start off putting them in a sheltered location for an hour or so the first few days, then gradually increase their time outdoors, and their exposure to sun and wind. It also makes the plants much stronger. Sometimes I'll have a fan blowing on them when they're indoors. This helps to strengthen their stems. Believe me, it works, especially with tomatoes. So far I've got my basil, peppers, beans, and eggplants planted in the garden. Tomorrow I'll plant my tomatoes. I'll probably wait a few more days to plant my cukes, cantaloupe, and summer squash. They like warmer weather. Plus they've still got a little more room in their current containers, so they'll be OK. It's supposed to get much warmer by the end of the week anyway.
Well, that's my gardening tale for the day. Now I'm off to do some cooking for Gramma. She really appreciates my garden as well. She's always had fresh veggies with her meals. I'll try to keep you all updated on my gardening progress. Hopefully I'll have a good season. Last year wasn't so hot. Bad weather (3 separate hail storms!) and critters (voles and deer mostly) really took a toll on my harvest.