In November

In November, my Chitalpa Tree bloomed the first time (planted March 2016)...

Eggplants bloomed, set fruit and are growing beautifully...

Several delicious strawberries were enjoyed...

Two dinners of green beans were harvested from my 4 remaining pole bean plants, as well as green onions...

Our slow-poke pumpkin had to be harvested prematurely since the vine was overtaken by white flies and my attempt to kill them with soapy water killed the vine...

A beautiful tortoise-banquet grows, complete with dandelions, allysum, dichondra, lettuce varieties, ruellia, weeds and grass. But of course the tortoises have been underground and are not getting to enjoy it.

The garden is doing well. I don't have adequate time to blog about it, but I will try to post more about December progress soon. The weather has been nice and has prolonged the season for some of my plants. I love what I have going on in my garden!

Corn Harvest and Planting Garlic

I forgot to mention in my last post that I planted 3 cloves of garlic in the little planters next to my garden beds. I have researched how to grow garlic and am excited to give it a try. 

On Sunday, after church I went out to give my garden a late watering and noticed that several ears of corn on the stalks were falling off and looked very dry. I started pulling them off and realized that while many had dried kernels, several ears were ready to be harvested. The corn was miniature, the longest only about 6 inches long and some only 2-3 inches long. I could tell that those ears that I pollinated by hand filled in nicely, even though the corn over-all was very deformed and strange. I was a little nervous to eat it, but we cooked up all the ears that looked good and the kids and I enjoyed trying it. It was more chewy than is desirable, which may be because I was a few days late in picking it. But, it was good overall. The ears of corn that were not pollinated completely or dried out became props in many backyard games with my kids.

Today, I pulled out most of the corn plants, leaving those that the green bean plants are using for support. I learned a lot this year about growing corn and I look forward to trying it again with better soil that is not contaminated with herbicide chemicals.

The entire corn harvest

I Love Mystery Plants

I have had many compost piles, and I often have plants growing from them because I discard seeds and my composting areas have never been hot enough to kill the seeds. I actually have always enjoyed the surprises that pop up in my garden. This season, after I planted eggplant seeds for the first time, I observed the seedlings in that area of the garden bed popping up, much more than the amount of eggplant seeds I planted and they didn't all look the same. Once they grew bigger I was able to identify which ones were eggplant seedlings (thanks to Google images!) and that left me wondering about the others with very unique leaves. I searched the internet trying to identify the plants while trying to think about the different foods I frequently toss into the compost, but was unable to identify them on my own. I pulled many of them out of the garden, but left the two largest to continue growing since they were unique and weren't crowding anything at the time. It seemed to be growing a trunk like a tree, but mostly I just thought they were a unique weed. 

Mystery Seedling Sept 24 2016

Leaf detail, Sept 29 2016

I discovered a website that I could submit a plant identification question with pictures and it would be answered by volunteers and students from a University. I submitted my question (including the fact that this soil used to be where my compost was located) and photos of the plants at about 1 foot tall. 

I received this helpful response a few days later:

"Any chance you tossed some papaya seeds in the pile some time ago? If so, you could have a batch of seedlings. (If not, please let me know.)

And if that's so, you'll need frost-free conditions to bring them to mature fruiting plants. If you want to try, here’s an informative site: http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-papaya.html

And this site says “Papayas thrive in USDA hardiness zones 9-11, which corresponds to minimum winter temperatures of 19℉ to 40ºF (-7℃ to 4ºC). They may be damaged or die if exposed to prolonged frost, and prefer climates that are warm throughout most of the year.”http://www.wikihow.com/Grow-Papaya."

I had purchased one papaya many months ago, and a quick google search confirmed that Papaya trees are what I have growing in along with my eggplants!

I was so excited to know what these plants are and to realize that they are something awesome like a tree that can grow to 15-20 feet in a very short amount of time and possibly provide us with fruit if I can care for it right. I very cautiously relocated the two papaya trees to an area with more space to grow yesterday (Oct 24, 2016). Not disturbing their roots was impossible since they were growing so close to the eggplants and in the garden bed, but I had better luck with the first one I moved and it seems to have less transplant shock than the other. We will see if they continue to grow at their fast pace. The best time to plant papayas here is in the Spring, since they are very frost tender, so I will need to baby them once the cold hits. Then, once they flower, I will know if they are female, male or hermaphrodite plants, which will determine if we will be getting fruit from them. It should be a fun adventure with 2 free, surprise plants.

Right after transplant, Oct 24 2016

The other tree with less transplant shock, Oct 24 2016

Both young Papaya trees Oct 24 2016, each just over a foot tall.

October Plants Growing!

October is a great growing month in Mesa. The weather has cooled just enough to allow the plants some relief and more rapid growth before the cold comes later in the year.
I wish I had more time to record things I am learning and observing, but I will try to sum up a few of the most important progress that has been happening.

Pumpkins: I have two beautiful pumpkin plants that survived (some didn't grow fast enough so I plucked them out to make room for the others and one got attacked by white flies.) The two survivors have sprawled themselves out and provide a lot of green to my garden area. I have been watching as the male flowers came, followed by the female flowers and then I pollinated female flowers in the early morning when they opened. The first several flowers that I pollinated shriveled and fell off, but then I stopped using a small paint brush to get the male pollen to the female flower and started removing the male flowers, pulling off the yellow petals and placing the male stamens into the female flower directly, which has had success. Although we won't have our pumpkins by Halloween like I was hoping, we have 2-3 pumpkins from one plant that are growing currently. I will plan to try again with pumpkins earlier next year. June/July are the best times to plant them from seed and I was a little late.

male pumpkin flower

Female pumpkin flower barely opened

Pumpkin growing several days after pollination, mid-Oct

Corn: My corn grew very short this season, which I learned that it is normal for fall corn to be shorter than spring corn. But, my corn is definitely shorter and less developed than it should be and I have blamed that on the poor soil (herbicides in our backyard dirt from an application before we purchased the home). Many of the corn stalks grew in a twisted way that would cause the leaves to trap the new growth and tassels until I broke it free. Basically, the growth was either stunted or deformed in most of the corn. Although a decent crop of corn looks unlikely, I have still done my best helping the pollen from the tassels reach the silks on the developing corn. It will be interesting to see in the next few weeks what has grown.

Early October 2016

Pole Green Beans: Shortly after my green bean plants sprouted, I discovered that my Russian tortoises like to eat the leaves and entire plants. I opted for a free way to keep them away by using firewood we had in our shed to create a garden barrier. The tortoises still manage to get into this area when they are especially hungry, so most of my green bean plants perished, but I still have several, one of which has grown very large. My grand plan of using my corn stalks to support my pole beans didn't work out as expected since my corn stalks stopped growing at about 3-4 feet tall. I found some bamboo support sticks that go up to 6 feet and are supporting 2 of the larger pole green bean plants. One plant has gotten so large that it is using 2 stalks of corn, the pole and is now reaching up to neighbor's tree nearby the garden for further support. The white flowers on the green bean plant are so beautiful and delicate and the bees are very active on them. Next year I would like to plant beans again because they are so easy to grow and I love how they look. I also like that, as legumes, they fix the balance of nitrogen in the soil for the surrounding plants.

Green Bean flower, growing up corn

Celery: I live on the same street as a local farmer (Brother Garcia). He has given me a lot of advice on gardening and he came by with many celery starts last week, so I planted as many as I could make room for in my garden bed by the carrots and sweet peas and also in a large pot and then shared some with a gardening friend. He says they will be ready for harvest in January and that they are heavy feeders once the roots are visibly established, and no blanching is needed for this variety.

Eggplant: My eggplant bushes have really taken off in the last week. They are beautiful and gaining strength to support fruit soon. I hope they are able to produce before the cold hits.

I also have cilantro, spinach, lettuce varieties, carrots, sweet peas all growing from seeds and have not harvested yet.
The basil plant has been flowering and very attractive to the bees and I have been sharing basil with anyone who will take some. I am going to try and dry some basil leaves before the cold of the winter. Then, I will attempt to keep the beautiful plant alive during the winter, but have been told by another gardener that basil will not live through the winter.

My marigolds are looking beautiful and hopefully helping reduce the garden bugs.
I was having an ant problem in my garden beds a few weeks ago, so I tried creating a borax/sugar ant bait and it seemed to reduce/eliminate the problem in the bed that I placed it in. I used a grape tomato container since it had perfect holes for them to access the bait. I learned how to make it from this youtube video.

July, August, September Progress & Failures

What would gardening be like with no failures? I seem to have a lot of them lately, but I won't let it get me down. A few lessons I have learned recently are 1. Don't store seeds in a hot garage. 2. My dirt in my yard has residue of herbicides.

The first lesson was an easy one to correct, although many of the seeds I planted did nothing and I will blame the hot storage location for most of that. What I am discovering about the dirt in my yard is less than ideal and I have little information about what it was sprayed with and how long I can expect to see deformed and stunted growth in my plants. From my research, when a harsh chemical is used to prevent weed growth (which I assume was completed before we moved in about a year ago), it can take a while, depending on weather and conditions, for it to no longer affect plant growth. Small deformed leaves are visible on my chaste tree, orange tree and corn stalks while I haven't been able to get a tomato plant to grow here after several different attempts. At this point, I am trying to improve the soil by adding organic materials and watering deeply to hopefully recover and improve soil quality. 

Corn seeds planted July 25th and soon after we had a large monsoon storm that had them under water for a few hours, very few germinated. (Half of what I planted were older seeds that had been stored in the garage, non of which germinated.)

Corn seeds planted Aug 8th, Aug 13th, Aug 16th (battling the birds who wanted to peck out each little seedling. Covered the area with netting, several reinforcements as birds would still get in, hung up CD's and flashing tape to deter them.

I planted seeds (all old) of bush green beans, cabbage, green onions, carrots, eggplant, squash, kohlrabi, tomatoes, cucumber and pumpkin all on August 15th. Of those plantings, the pumpkin, eggplant, corn and one squash plant are still living. 

Sept 1st, corn seedlings protected by netting

Sept 1st, Basil plant from Spring

Sept 1st, Marigold seedlings

Sept 1st, Pumpkin and sunflower seedlings protected from birds by netting, held up with paint stirring sticks.

 The photos below were taken today, Sept 13th. The corn looked normal when it was small, but as it has grown it has started twisting and curling, some stalks even pointing to the side instead of upward. I will watch and wait to see what it does and how it produces. 

I got an idea from an online gardener to plant pole green beans alongside the corn since legumes are nitrogen fixing and corn supplies a growing support for the beans. The green bean seeds were planted on Sept 3rd and are growing great. 

I have enhanced the soil with worm castings and a balanced granular fertilizer.
I pulled out the cantaloupe vines I had kept alive all summer since they were not producing any fruit. I appreciated the green and yellow they supplied for the summer months.

Sept 13th, Corn stalk, deformed and curly tips. Green bean on left.

Sept 13th, Green Bean planted by corn

Sept 13th, Pumpkin and sunflower

Sept 13th, Strawberries planted back in May, hoping they will start flowering now. I pinched off it's flowers all summer.

Last week I sewed cilantro and today I sewed lettuce (a variety) and spinach in the garden bed with my beautiful basil. 

My Yard before Summer

Chaste Tree/Vitex, planted April 2016 15 gal

Arizona Rosewood, planted March 2016 5 gal

Zinnias and Snapdragons before summer heat

Nasturtium before the summer heat killed all of it. Leaves have a strong flavor similar to a radish or pepper.

Garden bed June 2016 before the real summer heat hit. 

Topsy Turvy tomato plant, cantaloupe and potato plant below

Texas Olive planted April 2016 (5 gal)

My New Mesa Garden

Russian Desert Tortoise, Tana, below our newly planted red hibiscus

We moved in August of 2015, so we said goodbye to our growing plants at our old Mesa house and have begun to make our new land more beautiful with new life and the future plans of more gardens, both flowers, desert and vegetable/fruits. 

When we moved in, we had the following plants in the backyard; 2 African Sumac trees (removed Oct 2015), 1 Eucalyptus tree (trimmed Nov 2015), small cactus (removed Aug 2015) and a dark pink bougainvillea bush.

And in the front yard; honeysuckle bush, 2 lantana (orange and yellow), 2 aloe vera patches (1 removed), 2 sick sage bushes (trimmed back and recovering), 3 oleandar bushes (1 dead removed and 1 sick) and 1 beautiful evergreen bush near the front door that I haven't identified yet.

Our first addition to our backyard at the beginning of February was a retaining wall to maximize the usability of the land and correct the water flow of the yard. It was a big job and had to be done before any other plans could move forward. 

On February 13th 2016 we planted a 5 year-old Tarocco blood orange tree (purchased from Greenfield Citrus Nursery for $85) in a location where it will receive much of the rain water flow and will create a nice privacy screen many years from now. I wish it could just grow up faster!!! 

Tarocco Blood Orange Tree planting

 Since my garden space wasn't ready yet, my first vegetable planted was a roma tomato plant in a topsy-turvey planter given to us for Christmas. It has probably tripled in size since I planted it on Feb 15th 2016.

In the front yard, I added some low-water plants (1 gallon size, white lantana, morning glory, red yucca, agave, purple fountain grass, muhly grass, a 15 gal Chitalpa tree and a 15 gal Leatherleaf Acacia that I plan to prune into a small tree over many years).

agave, white lantana, morning glory and purple fountain grass

muhly grass, white lantana and red yucca

15 gal Pink Dawn Chitalpa Tree from Tree Land Nursery, planted March 11, 2016

15 gal Leatherleaf Acacia Tree from Treeland Nursery, planted March 11 2016

In the backyard, over the past several weeks, I have transplanted the following plants; 2 green hop bushes for privacy screening, sturts cassia bush for screening, red hibiscus bush, ruellia, white rain lilly grass, ice plant, 2 jojoba and elephant food cuttings.

2 green hop bushes

sturts cassia (senna)

hardy iceplant in bloom

red hibiscus

I also planted the seeds of poppies, zinnias and snapdragons in a large flower bed on February 19th after mixing in some aged horse manure into the native soil. They are growing slowly but steadily.

I planted nasturtium and alyssum (carpet of snow) seeds in various areas around for our tortoises. The tortoises have eaten each nasturtium leaf that has sprouted, so I'll have to cover them or plant again in a pot or garden box to let them get started. They devoured 5 purple heart cuttings I planted a few weeks back as well.

As for my vegetable garden, I decided to try something new and build garden boxes instead of planting at ground level like I have in the past. The benefits for me are to keep my kids (and their friends) from trampling newly planted seeds, to keep my tortoises out, to avoid needing to till into the current soil and amend it as well as to define my garden space.

My husband and I worked together to make two 3'x6' garden beds from 12 cedar picket fence boards and some scrap 2x4's. I painted them and we placed them in the higher tier of our yard where they get full sun. Since I got a late start for the Spring season and the weather has been very warm, I decided to just sew some carrots, green onion (both from seed and from store-purchased onion roots) and basil. My kids also planted marigolds and carrots in their own garden boxes made from hollow-centered cement blocks. 

The 2nd garden box is currently being used as my compost pile with a mixture of aged horse manure, wood and leaves from a landscaper's chipper, kitchen scraps including egg shells, a small amount of wood ashes and native soil. 

I'm excited to expand the garden space with more raised garden beds in future seasons as well as some in-ground garden space for large growers like corn. I also hope to get a permanent composting solution for our yard.

I am learning patience as I wait for all my little plants to grow and for my yard to be more beautiful and producing. I will try to record what I learn now that I am back into my Mesa Gardening again!