Friday, May 31, 2013

Garden Glamour Shots

I'm crazy excited about what's happening in the garden right now. Things have really taken off in the last week or so! I just have to show off a bit.

The sunflowers are going nuts. I should start measuring them in the mornings, because I swear they're bigger every day when I come outside:


The grape plants are getting so big, they don't fit on their trellis anymore. And the little squash seedlings at the base that we planted to shade the roots are taking off:


Ears of corn are popping up everywhere:


Green beans are sprouting up at the base of all the corn plants:



The pumpkin plant is going through a major growth spurt:



And look at this gorgeous honeydew:


Say what you want about Arizona summers, if you pick the right plants, they really seem to love that heat. Happy gardening everyone!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Irrigation, Soaker Hoses, and Mulch (Oh My!)

In my last post, I talked about the advantages of drip irrigation and how to maintain it. It was some pretty exciting stuff. (Ha!) OK, so irrigation isn't the most interesting part of gardening, but it is important, particularly during our blistering Arizona summers.

Unless you're growing nothing but cactii in your Arizona garden, you're going to need to water your plants. Chances are, you don't want to be out in the heat doing it with a hose. I've already talked about using drip irrigation for permanent plants, like trees and shrubs, but what about your vegetable garden?



Sure they're low maintenance, but how do they taste on a sandwhich?

For me, using drip irrigation on my vegis just never seemed right. For one thing, changing out my irrigation lines and emitters every season when I planted a new batch of vegis just seemed daunting. Plus, I only have one drip irrigation system, which means I'd have to put the vegis on the same watering schedule as the shrubs. If I did that, I'd end up overwatering my shrubs or underwatering my vegis. Hmm. Since I never could figure out the magic formula for making my drip irrigation work for all my plants, I've been shlepping around with a hose for two years to water my vegis.

Recently, I finally figured out how to easily install a second irrigation system to my garden faucet. (It's about time!) This one is dedicated just to my vegis. Here's what I did:

Step 1: Connected a regular garden hose to my outside faucet.
I had to get a hose long enough to reach from faucet to my vegi beds. In my case, I needed a 100 foot hose. Hopefully, you planned better than me and put your vegi garden closer to your faucet.

Step 2: Connected some soaker hose to the garden hose.
I used connectors to attach the garden hose to some soaker hose. I used snip-n-drip, which was ridiculously quick and easy. If you're handier than me, you could probably figure out how to do this cheaper using parts from your local hardware store. 

Step 3: Placed the soaker hose where I needed it. 

I snaked the soaker hose (also called weeper hose) throughout the bed, making sure it reached each plant. Unless you're placing the soaker hose over caliche, you can easily secure it using landscape staples. It takes half a second to push a landscape staple in by hand.
    Snaking soaker hose around the plants
Step 4: Timed it.
After I put down all the soaker hose, I turned on the faucet and timed how long it takes to properly water the vegis. (Just push a finger down in the soil to figure out how deep the water is getting. When it reaches past the plants' roots, you have probably watered enough.) In my case, since my soil is pretty loose, it only took about 3 minutes to get enough water to the plants.

Step 5: Mulched it.
Once I had everything the way I wanted it, I threw a bunch of mulch on top to help hold in the moisture. Mulch is great because it allows you to water less. If you get the right mulch, it also improves your soil. Bonus! (In my case, I used alfalfa hay from Cactus Feeds.)

Cozy little setup for the plants
Easy!

Next up, I need to put the whole thing on a timer. (I already have one, I just haven't hooked it up yet.) For now, this step isn't critical for me. I can easily go outside and turn on the hose for 3 minutes. But when the heat gets really bad, and me and the family decide to get out of Dodge for a week or so, I want to make sure my vegis don't die while we're away. Having a timer around will be great then.

I'm pretty excited about the system. Besides being really easy to install, it's also easy to customize from season to season. If I've got a garden bed that's tightly planted one season and sparse the next, I can easily just extend or shorten the length of soaker hose as needed. I've also heard that vegis much prefer being watered at the roots (as opposed to sprinkled from above, like I was doing before), so I have high hopes for a more productive garden now too!

12/1/13 Update: I recently "discovered" The Scientific Gardener, a blogger who operates out of Tucson. Man, this guy is awesome. Anyway, he also has a blog about irrigation that I think is really useful. I definitely recommend it:  Simple Watering Systems. Happy watering!


Friday, May 24, 2013

Don’t Forget the Routine Maintenance

If you live in Arizona, there’s a good chance you have drip irrigation in at least part of your yard. It’s a great idea. It delivers water to your trees and plants and nowhere else, which is a great way to save water. Also, it delivers the water slowly, which means it really has a chance to soak in and get to the roots. Another bonus. And perhaps best of all, you can put it on a timer and forget it so you don’t need to go slogging around with a hose all the time. As my daughter says, “Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!”

Except, it’s not quite that easy.

First, you have to remember to change the timer a few times a year. Turn it up in the summer, down in the winter, and maybe once or twice in between. Maybe pencil it in on your calendar, or computer, or cell phone, or whatever, so you’ll remember to actually do it. (I’m not even going to try to advise you beyond that, because I’m no pro. Luckily, the AZ Plant Lady is a pro, and she’s got some great tips for you: Too Much Water Equals More Pruning, a Backache and More $ Spent in the Garden.)  

Next up, you need to periodically check for leaks in your drip lines and repair as required. I don’t know how often you should do this, (once a year? once a season?) but I know I don’t do it enough. Well, I finally got off my lazy patootey this week (that’s right, I said patootey!) and got to work. Luckily, it’s not nearly as hard as I thought to fix leaks in a drip line, because I had a lot of them to fix!  
Step One: Investigate
This is easy. Get a pen and paper, turn on your drip irrigation, and start walking around your yard looking for leaks. You may find some big leaks (I had some major gushers where I think the drip emitter got cut clean off, probably during some overly diligent weed whacking) and some much smaller leaks (holes in the main pipe, loose fittings between the main line and the little runner lines that go directly to the plants). If you’ve got a lot of leaks (like me!) write down the location of each so you remember where to go once the water is turned off.


Just one of the many, many leaks I found in my system
Step Two: Patch ‘Em Up
I found that the hardest part of patching these things is digging out the dirt around the leaky line, since my lines are buried. Once I gave myself a little room to work though, patching the lines was easy.

For big leaks, I used couplers I found at Lowes for about two bucks a piece. The only other tool I needed was a pair of scissors. Here’s a 35 second video that shows how to do it. 35 seconds! Yes, it’s that easy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGzhiGsi2hc

For smaller leaks, I was able to use goof plugs. This is even easier (and cheaper!), as seen in this 6 second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwMA7nBjcY8 


Coupler in the middle, oops plugs to the top and bottom, and lots of dried mud left over from when it was leaking!

Probably the most time-consuming leaks to fix were the ones where the little runner lines (I’m sure that’s not the right term) that came off the main line had come loose. Still, this was easy too. I just pulled out the loose line (no tools required), patched it up with a coupler or oops plug (as described above), and punched a new hole in the main line where I could reinsert the runner line. I couldn’t find a YouTube video of this procedure, but let’s say it takes about 2 minutes and doesn’t require a lot of fancy tools. Not too bad, right?

Step 3: Rinse and Repeat

Here’s the kicker. Once you’ve repaired all your leaks, check your work! I went out this morning and found that I had forgotten to patch one or two holes, and some of my patches didn’t quite work. For instance, here’s a pic of a leak I “fixed” with a goof plug. Clearly, it needs a coupler (which is more sturdy) instead.




If at first you don't succeed, try, try again

Keep fixing and inspecting until you’re sure you’ve got ‘em all fixed.

That’s it. Now that I’ve worked through the worst of it, I’m not sure why it took me so long to do it. As far as maintenance goes, it really wasn’t bad at all.

In my next post, I’ll talk about using soaker hoses instead of drip irrigation to more easily customize your system for ever-changing vegetable gardens. 
Update (May 30, 2013):

I forgot one very important step in this post! In addition to checking for leaks, you should also check for clogged emitters. As with everything else described here, this is easy. Just turn on your drip irrigation system, walk around to all your emitters, and make sure they're actually spurting out some water. If not, replace the existing emitter with a shiny new one. Voila! That wasn't so bad, was it? :)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

One of my most loyal readers, a.k.a, my mom, sent me an email yesterday asking me to post pictures of how the garden is coming along. (Hi Mom! Happy Mother's Day!) I am happy to oblige. There are a lot of extreme closeups in here, since almost everything is either a little seedling right now, or still in the planning stages, but you get the idea.

I am trying again with corn this year, and so far, it's coming along well. (I've figured out that last year's corn problem was lack of proper pollination. There are lots of videos out there on how to painstakingly pollinate corn when the time comes, but the azplantlady suggests simply giving the stalk a good shake to help with pollination. That, I can handle.)

I've decided to try a "three sisters" technique, where I interplant the corn with beans and squash. (Well, actually, beans and pumpkins, but same idea.) Here's a pic of the corn and beans getting started. The pumpkins are too small for a good picture yet.


I have very fond memories of my mom growing corn and pumpkins when I was a kid, so I definitely want to make it work for my little munchkin if I can. If I remember correctly (which is not a guarantee at all), I think my sister and I would play in my mom's corn patch in the back yard. It probably made her crazy that we were stomping all over her garden. I definitely remember the excitement of pumpkins--searching for them like prizes on the vine and watching them turn orange. I don't know why pumpkins in particular were so darn exciting as a kid, but they were.

Next up, we have okra. Loyal readers know that I am pretty much obsessed with okra. Mostly, I'm obsessed because the only store I've found it in around here that sells okra is half an hour away. Which means, if I want to eat it, I pretty much have to grow it. Plus, it's one of those rare plants that actually like Arizona summers. Here's a little okra seedling nestled up to a little sunflower seedling:


I don't have as much okra as I planned yet. So far, I only have about half a dozen seedlings. I'm not sure why more seedlings aren't popping up, but I've ordered another pack of seeds from Native Seeds and plan to see if they are more successful.

I'm not 100% sure where I'll put them though, since I have some volunteers in the place where I planned okra. I'm pretty sure they are volunteer honeydews, but time will tell. Here's my favorite garden model (and my most loyal reader's granddaughter), showing off the volunteer plants (i.e., the ones with the yellow flowers):



Next up, grapes. I think I planted these guys about a year and half ago? Maybe two? I can't really remember. But they are finally starting to develop fruit, which is very exciting. When they get bigger, I plan to cover them with brown paper lunch bags to protect them from hungry birds--a tip I learned in my Desert Gardening book. I also plan to pick up some squash seeds this weekend--probably zuchinni and butternut squash--to plant at the base of the grapes. I'm hoping they will shade the roots and help them survive the summer heat.


This weekend, I'm planting a lot of new plants in the garden as well. The munchkin gave me some plants as a gift earlier this week, and I also managed to buy a few for myself. Yesterday, I found some thornless blackberries. I'll be planting these in my unused side yard.



The munchkin got me some beautiful flowers, which I'm also planting. Yesterday, I planted a pentsimmon. I put it in a corner where it will get afternoon shade. I'm hoping that will help it with the Arizona heat.



The kiddo also got me a vinca, which is supposed to do really well in Arizona, and a purple flowering bush. (I can't remember the name of the bush right now. Maybe I'm just not getting too attached, since I'm skeptical it will survive the summer.)


So there's lots of planting going on today for Mother's Day, which sounds like a great day to me. Here's hoping the rest of you have a wonderful Mother's Day too!

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Calling in the Cavalry

Yesterday, Noelle of azplantlady.com fame came to my house for a garden consultation. I have a few spots around the garden that have been vexing me, so I thought I’d get some help. I am so glad I did! I asked her questions about my front yard, back yard, side yard… you name it. She had great ideas for all!

Front yard

My husband and I have been thinking for a long time of replacing the trees in our front yard. They look like big, messy mops, need to be pruned a LOT, and don’t provide much shade. Epic fail. I had gotten my heart set on a Chilean Mesquite to replace at least one of the trees, and just thought I’d ask Noelle about placement.

Save #1 from Noelle! Apparently, of all the trees you see around this valley, Chilean Mesquites blow down the most often during our storm seasons. They also require a lot of pruning, which I’m probably too lazy for. So as beautiful as they are, Chilean Mesquites are out. Now I’m looking at a Vitex or Desert Musuem Palo Verde, which are also beautiful and much lower maintenance. Ah, that’s more like it.



Desert Museum Palo Verde or Vitex? How to Choose?

While she was at it, Noelle also gave me some great tips on good plants to fill out my landscape, how to save money getting the old trees removed, and finding an inexpensive, high-quality plants and trees.

Side yard

I have this big expanse of unused space in my side yard that grows nothing but weeds. It just gnaws at me that there’s nothing pretty or useful there. Save #2 from Noelle! I’ve been thinking of blackberries for quite a while now, and she says that’s a good spot for them. I should be able to fit a lot of them in and can even get thornless ones for pain-free picking. Sold!


Mmm. I can almost taste ‘em now

Back yard

Here’s where the real magic happened. Noelle helped me with lots of things, but most exciting of all, she helped me find room for another raised bed for vegetables. Be still my heart! (Guess what the hubby will be making me for Mother’s Day this year.) Expect to see pictures soon!

Noelle also gave me some great companion planting tips:
  • Apple trees—Plant garlic around them to prevent borers.
  • Grapes—Plant squash around them in the summer to shade the roots.
  • Vegi beds—Plant thyme and basil throughout the beds in the summer to stave off bugs, marigolds and nasturtiums in the fall. Also, plant vines along the cinder block wall near the raised beds to prevent reflective heat from burning the vegis.
She also gave me some great ideas for creating special flower beds just for the kiddo, inexpensive and effective ways to fertilize and mulch the vegis, installing an irrigation system dedicated to the vegis, using organic ingredients for weed control… the list goes on and on.
Pretty awesome, right?

Update (May 24, 2013):

We mentioned to the kiddo last night that we were thinking of replacing the trees in the front yard, and she burst out into tears. Apparently, she loves those trees. How can I cut them down now? So instead of new trees, we're buying a new hedge trimmer to keep up with the maintenance on the old ones. C'est la vie!