Gardening Group Meeting #2

We held our second gardening group meeting this past Saturday!

You can view a summary of what we covered HERE.

We detailed several popular crops and you can view the information on planting, nutritional needs, pollinating and watering of tomatoes, green onions, garlic, lettuce, kale, spinach, herbs and zucchini HERE.

And in case you need our desert planting calendar again, you can view that HERE.

Lilac Vine in Bloom & Sewing Seeds

I love my lilac vine. It's growing great on my south-facing wall near our eucalyptus tree. Low water, fast grower, winter blooms, evergreen, inexpensive.

My husband and I completed 2 additional garden beds (6 foot by 3 foot each) and I've been working in different materials to make up the soil (native soil, composted mulch, steer manure, potting mix I had, etc.) Below is one I get from A&P nursery that I like and I feel like it's a good amount for $6 a bag. Yesterday (Feb 8th) I planted canteloupe in 3 hills in one garden bed.

Today (Feb 9th), my little buddy Hyrum and I planted bell peppers, yellow tomatoes and cherry tomatoes in some little starter containers. I'm hoping that once they are ready to transplant into the garden that I will have harvested the celery to make room for them.

This Winter has been feeling like a perfect Spring the last several weeks. I'm hoping for a long Spring planting and growing season and high harvests!

Long Awaited

It's seems so long since I was a gardener. Pregnancy and my sweet children have topped my priority list for several seasons. I'm very excited to dive back into the dirt and grow some food for my family (and for sharing). 

I started a Garden Growers group for the families of my neighborhood, mostly those from church since I know them. I hope that others from the community are able to catch wind of it and be a part of sharing knowledge, providing support and sharing harvests. 

After each meeting we have with the garden group, I type up all the topics discussed and send out a informational document to all those who are interested. Those documents are now available for viewing and download on this blog. They are very informational for desert gardeners. 

My fall gardening season began with my husband and I shedding some sweat getting our garden area from weed-and-dirt status to fertile soil status. We added steer manure (purchased at Lowes for $1.09 a bag - 18 bags), removed the bricks from our past gardening layout, dug out the grass, removed as many roots as possible and roto-tilled. I also have a spot designated for composting so I can use that soil in the future to enhance my garden. 

A few weeks ago, my two-year-old and I planted four varieties of tomato seeds for later transplant into the garden area when the weather is less hostile.

In the next weeks, planting additional seeds in the garden area is on the agenda.

More to come!