Multitasking Meltdown

Less than a week ago, I posted my grand plans here for how to multitask in the garden. I was going to keep the summer garden firing on all cylinders while simultaneously getting things kick-started on the fall garden. I was totally going to nail this short-season Arizona gardening thing.

Well, I'm guessing you can tell from the title of this post how that is going.

I can't help but be reminded of one of my daughter's picture books. It's called Crafty Chloe and it's fabulous. (Do-it-yourself types will just love reading it to their kids.) There's one picture in there (that is only marginally related to the plot) that really hits home for me. Chloe's mom is trying to multitask, and as a result, ends up  sticking a thermometer in the poor kid's eye:

That's a pretty good metaphor for my attempts at multitasking in the garden. Trying to do more things than are really possible (if I'm going to be really honest with myself) is leading to some unfortunate results. The summer garden is still going strong, but check out some of these seedlings that I'm trying to jump start indoors. The spinach is so desperately trying to stretch up to the grow light that it's turned into some sort of elasti-spinach mutant:

The broccoli ain't doing much better:

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that planting those spindly little things isn't going to give me much of a jump start on anything. It would probably be a matter of hours (not days) before those little things flopped over and died, putting me right back at square one.

So now I'm looking for a plan B that somehow lets me get the fall garden started while the summer garden is still in. There are a lot of reasons to try to make this happen. Officially, I'll say it's because getting a jump start on the fall garden means I'll get more yields from the plants.

But the real reason I need to find a way to get a new round of vegis started? Because it helps me fool myself into thinking that autumn is just around the corner. The alternative is admitting that this Arizona summer is still in full swing and will be for a while. And I really don't think I can do that.

Oh Baby!

This is looking promising. Corn silks are developing on the stalks. I'm already thinking of recipes!

Multitasking Madness

One of the quirks of Arizona gardening is short seasons (except for summer, which feels like FOREVER). Every Arizona garden book I've read talks about getting short season varieties of seeds and generally finding ways to make more time out of less so that your plants will have enough time to develop and produce. So along those lines, I've been thinking that it's time to get a jump start on my fall garden, even though it's still about a million degrees outside.

Here's the problem though: Just about all my garden space is already taken up with summer vegis in full production. My okra and melons, in particular, are just now really getting into full swing. So my best shot at keeping the summer and fall gardens going at the same time is indoor starts:

That's a bunch of plastic cups under inside grow lights. (From top left to bottom right I've got spinach, brocolli, green beans, and peas.) I figure I can keep 'em inside that way for at least a few weeks. (It should also keep the birds from eating up all my little seedlings.) Maybe by then, some of my summer plants will be ready to come out. That, or I'm going to have to find some really big pots for the patio!

What's Going On In My Summer Garden

This year's summer garden went sooooooo much better than last year's. The key (among other things) appears to be to plant what works well here, not what used to work well in California. (The books told me that some of those California vegis could make it here. My garden seemed to disagree.) Now that I'm on track with more heat-loving plants, I've got some nice success stories. 

The melons are going crazy. Yum! I already picked one earlier this week, I've got two more big ones waiting in the wings, and lots of teeny tiny ones getting ready to take off. 

I've got two grape plants. I'm relieved to say that they seem to be not only surviving through the Arizona summer, but actually growing. I'd say that they were thriving, but something's eating the grape leaves, so "thriving" might be pushing it. Still, despite being some critter's lunch, they still seem to be happy. 

This is my 4' x 6' raised bed with sweet potatoes. My mom jokes that the vines will reach inside the house any day now. I suspect the whole harvest will come at once later this fall. Good thing sweet potatoes store well! Looks like we'll have a lot of them.

One of my lovely okra plants. They really are beautiful when they're thriving and in bloom.

Today's okra haul. Not bad! Gumbo tonight? 

Teeny tiny pomegranates have started growing on my pomegranate bush. According to my internet sources, I should expect it to take 6 months for this baby to reach full size. Although I've also heard that when a pomegranate plant is young (under 5 years old), the fruits will fall off before reaching maturity. (La! La! La! I can't hear you internet sources who tell me such things!)

Based on a tip from the Arizona Victory Garden, I dug in for the corn this year (instead of creating a raised bed). It's doing well so far! This is one of the sunniest spots in the garden. Previously, I had an itty bitty raised bed here (2.5 'x 2.5'). I think the combination of lots of sun and little soil to insulate it just cooked pretty much all the plants that I put in this spot before. A sunken bed seems to do a better job of protecting the plants from the heat now.

It's hard to see in the pic, but those are itty bitty green bean shoots underneath the corn. (I tried pumpkins too--three sisters style--but the Arizona weather got the best of them.) 

Those are this summer's beauties. Others didn't do so well. I tried tomatoes (a heart breaker) and only got a few before they got totally cooked by 100+ weather. But I'm not ready to give up on them yet. They're just too yummy. I've got schemes for how to do better next year. Surprisingly, the zucchini never took off this year either. Basil did well enough for a while to get me a few good batches of pesto to store in the freezer, but the plants didn't survive the Arizona summer long. My green pepper plants never did much either. Still, I'm so much happier with this summer's vegis than last summers. And I can hardly wait for fall! Arizona is a wonderful place to garden during the fall!

Garden Fairy

My little garden fairy decided to help in the garden by waving her magic wand at the plants. It's working pretty well! Here she is casting a spell on the sweet potatoes: 

And more coy as she casts a spell on the okra:

Nice to have a little help in the middle of an Arizona summer!

OMG! I'm So Excited!

I just went to the Arizona Victory Garden website today--one of my very favorite Arizona gardening sites--and saw a link to my blog on there. OMG. Soooo cool. He's got me listed under Arizona Agrarians. I'm an agrarian! As my friend likes to say "I have arrived." Thanks for making my day, Justin.