From My Garden to You

How to grow the perfect onion in the AZ low Desert ( or so we hope!) I have had so many people ask me about how to grow onions successfully here in the Low Desert, that I thought I had better write a few destructions - oops sorry - instructions !! Anyway, here goes......... You can start onions here either from seed or onion starts. Onions are a cool season crop and actually pretty easy to grow here. They like relatively good soil, but don't seem to mind clay soil too much ( unlike carrots, which hate clay soil). Avoid using soil sulfur as a soil amendment: this affects the onion flavor, making them incredibly pungent. Trust me on this one, as someone who inadvertently did this once, my poor watering eyes suffered terribly when cooking with them, never to be repeated ! I digress..... You can start onions from seed in late September, either directly sowing the packet into the ground (making sure to keep the soil moist for good germination - not always that...

Gardening Class on Tomatoes I am teaching a class this Saturday , December 9th 2017, at the Fountain Hills Community Centre from 1.30pm to 3.30 pm. The Class is "How to grow the perfect tomato in the AZ Low Desert". It is free to Fountain Hills Community Garden members and $5.00 for non members below is the link on their face book page https://www.facebook.com/events/369928800132734/

Upcoming Class at DBG I am teaching a class on Pollinator Gardening at Desert Botanical Gardens. Monday November 13th 6.30pm - 8.30pm Here's the link :- https://learn.dbg.org/mainstore.asp?cid=1265

Final Post on the Corn So you will probably be glad to know this is the final corn post !! I harvested all the ears last week as various "creatures" had discovered it and were having a very happy time munching away.   My - how those stalks have grown, taller than me now !     Corn Harvest     Lovely ear of corn     "Munched Ear of Corn"   Time now to look for some corn recipes !!   Happy Gardening      

How the corn has grown in a month !! So yesterday I visited the garden plot at SCGC ( Scottsdale Community Garden Club) to see how the corn had grown during my 3 week trip to Europe. As you can see below, it has come on along quite a bit ! The ears are forming nicely.    Probably another week and it will be ready - yum !      The good thing about planting corn in late summer for fall harvesting, is that it does not seem to get the "worms" so much, that often plague spring corn. The "worms" are the larval stage of the Corn Borer - " Helicoverpa zea" - a moth that lays it eggs on the young  plants.   I wonder if this time of planting does not tie in so much with the life cycle of the moth. Anyway, it does seem to not get as many worms - which works for me !!   Another update and harvest time in a week - I hope !   Happy Gardening

Update on my corn This corn was planted about a month ago and has finally decided to start to grow a bit. Might have to do with the fact that I finally got the irrigation sorted out properly !! Anyway, if it keeps up this rate of growth we should have corn ( hopefully) by the end of October. It was planted in the brand new plot - if you look at the earlier blog posts you will see how I started with bare cracked earth (July 2nd) and gradually brought the soil back to life.     It is now about one foot tall. I will let you know how it progresses.   Happy Gardening !!  

Hello Fellow Gardeners, I have been busy this last couple of months making a new gardening video. Water Wise Fall Desert Vegetable Gardening Check it out and let me know what you think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8OKhMSvb94&feature=youtu.be   Happy Gardening !!

August update from the garden - Black Eyed Peas are ready !! If you remember, I planted my Black Eyed Peas at the end of May. Well, they not only survived the summer but have been growing so rapidly that I am now having to cut them back just so I can get along the pathways. It's a jungle out there in my garden at the moment !!   They are now producing pods like crazy, which is fantastic. I am growing them for the dried "peas" and if you also remember, the variety I am growing is an Heirloom - Bisbee Red, bought from Native Seed Search based in Tucson. http://www.nativeseeds.org/ For how to grow Black Eyed Peas, please refer to my earlier post form June 2017.   Anyway, here are the pods in all their glory.       Note smaller green pod in background, with larger "mature" dried pod in foreground.   Harvested dried pods.     Bisbee Black Eyed Peas     Some will be saved for next year'...

New Blog information   Hello blog readers, Some new information for you. As many of you will have ready, this blog is only a few months old, so not without the occasional hiccup ! Anyway, I have discovered that my followers are not getting an email when I post anything new, which is what is supposed to happen. So.....after consulting tech support ( my daughter), this problem has hopefully been rectified. Here's what you have to do -   There should now be an option for people to follow me by email, but you must click on a link to sign up. Just click the search at the top (the little magnifying glass) and you will get the option to sign up for email as well. That way when I post anything new, you will get an email notification of the new posts.   Hope this works for everyone. And as always, Happy Gardening !!   (picture above is a new watercolor of mine - an Agave)

Garden Plot update - Third and final part ! So as you saw yesterday, we have just had a lot of lovely rain. I have also just finished the final part of the soil renewal at the garden plot. Luckily for me, I did it before the rain on Sunday (July 23rd 2017) AND I planted some corn, so now I am very hopeful of good and delicious things to come ! Anyway, back to the soil. Here are some photos documenting the third and final stage of the plot renewal and soil improvement. Please bear in mind that it takes 7 years, on average, to make good garden soil. So while this is a good start, it is going to be a continuous process as I go through the seasons. You saw in the previous post about this subject that I had already soaked the soil so that was ready to receive amendments. I amended the soil with steer manure and coffee grounds. You can purchase bags of manure, but at the community garden we get it in bulk. I also added some mushroom compost that I had purchased. This is fa...

Rain, Rain and more lovely rain ! Just had to write about the lovely rain we have had this past week. Those who live in Seattle may think I am slightly mad getting excited about the rain, but us desert dwellers know exactly what I am talking about. We got an inch today and another inch last week, 2" in a week folks - fantastic !!! This is a big deal when our yearly average is only 8". Anyway, the plants are very happy and I am very happy too - both for that sweet rainwater and also because I don't have to go and water anything now for a couple of days. The rain has also stimulated some of the cacti to bloom too. Here's a couple of photos.   Pink Echinopsis Cactus   I have also just planted some cactus seeds. I will keep you posted on what happens with them. This is a new thing for me, never grown cactus from seed before. I am very hopeful !!   Finally, I did go out yesterday and planted some corn. This is the absolute perfect time to g...

Tepary Bean - "The bean that laughs in the face of our desert summers" Tepary Beans are one of the most heat and drought tolerant crops in the world. They are an ancient bean ( Phaeseolus acutifolius) and very tolerant of our alkali soils and our desert heat. So I thought - got to have a go at these ! I got my seeds from Native Seed Search in Tucson and planted them last week as the monsoon season was getting underway. We then had that lovely (rather scary) thunderstorm a few days ago and my garden got an inch of rain - fantastic !! History They are a very ancient bean, having been grown  in the Sonoran Desert for thousands of years. A native bean , which is one of the most nutritious desert plants and some wild varieties still do actually exist in some parts on the Sonoran Desert. It was a prehistoric food crop and was used as a dry bean. Nutritional value They are very high in protein and help control diabetes and cholesterol due to their soluble fibre....

Desert Botanical Gardens Classes I am teaching - Fall 2017 These are the descriptions on their website: Fall Vegetables Tuesday / Oct. 3 / 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Carol Stuttard teaches you how to grow your own healthy, organic fall vegetable garden, including planning, soil preparation, varieties to plant and, most importantly, the right time to plant! Limit 30.   Introduction to Permaculture Tuesday / Oct. 17 / 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Discuss the principles of permaculture-simulating the patterns and characteristics of natural ecosystems-and how they can be applied to desert living. Topics include broad-scale site design, pattern recognition, structures, rainwater harvesting, and urban and community strategies. Instructed by Carol Stuttard. Limit 30   Pollinator Gardens Monday / Nov. 13 / 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. Attracting pollinators to your garden is both enchanting and beneficial. Disco...

Fall Desert Gardening Classes As you will have seen on my profile, I am a Maricopa County Master Gardener. Here are some upcoming Desert Institute of Gardening (DIG) Public classes that may be of interest. https://extension.arizona.edu/maricopamg Thursday Sept. 7 Introduction to Vegetable Gardening Maricopa County Cooperative Extension, 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix, Maricopa County, AZ,  $20    6 - 8 pm Thursday Sept. 14 Fall Vegetable Gardening Maricopa County Cooperative Extension, 4341 E. Broadway Road, Phoenix, Maricopa County, AZ, $20    6 - 8 pm        

Garden Soil renewal - Part 2 The first post about this subject was July 2nd. So here we are now on July 12th, 10 days later and I wanted to update you on further soil improvements and amendments. One of the things that the community garden provides for gardeners are wood chips. I use these for pathways and to keep the weeds down on the garden perimeters. I do not use them around my plants, however, i.e. in my vegetable beds. The reason for this, is they contain a lot of carbon and as the chips rot down , the bacteria that cause the decomposition pull the nitrogen out of the soil to help in the carbon decomposition. Thus robbing the soil of nitrogen, which is not good. Hence, I just use them on the pathways. I have, however, found a long term benefit to using the woodchips on my paths. I have been doing this for about 8 years now and consequently when I dig down under the top layers of woodchips in the pathways and investigate the soil underneath ( about 2" down), it is loose,...