From My Garden to You

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....

What to do in your garden in July (apart from hoping for rain!) July is hopefully the month when we get some monsoon rains - yay ! The humidity is rising and this actually gives the plants a little bit of relief from the heat, even if it is a lot more uncomfortable outside for you and me. So what should you be doing this month ? July Checklist Watering Check for irrigation leaks. Continue watering schedule as per June, unless it we get a good monsoon soaking. Deep and less frequently is always preferred over shallow and often. Find a wonderful person to water for you if you go on vacation and if you have a battery operated irrigation timer attached to a hose bib, make sure to get them to check if the battery is working. ( I speak from experience here. There is nothing more soul destroying then coming back from vacation to a dead garden, because the battery on your timer decided that this was the week it was going to fail !). Trees This is the ti...

How to start a garden from bare cracked earth like this ! So... I am starting a new vegetable plot and thought I would share with you all how I am going to do this. Hopefully it will be ready for planting in the Fall when it is cooler (ha ha). I get asked this question a lot when I teach classes about soil, so I thought where better to actually show the process, than on my blog. That way you can follow what I am doing and see how the soil is slowly brought back to life during the next couple of months. I am going to show a few different way of doing this as well. Here's what I am starting with -   Garden Plot abandoned by previous gardener at the Community Garden where I garden. Weeds are mostly dead but still have to be removed.   One of the first things to do is just water the soil, I know that sounds a bit crazy, but there is no way you can dig bone dry cracked earth. The soil must be watered even before you lay anything on top.   A...

Black Eyes Peas - the veggies, not the group ! My Black Eyed Peas have really started to grow like crazy the last week or so. They love the heat here ( unlike us gardeners !) and are really easy to grow. Not only that, they are good for the soil - they fix nitrogen, provide shade for other plants AND you can eat them too ! So...if you would like to know more about them - read on.   Black Eyed Peas growing in my garden - Photo taken June 27th 2017 Black Eyed Peas are also called Cow Peas. They originate from Africa and are grown in many areas around the world. Their name comes from the so-called small black 'eye' where the bean joins to the pod within the shell. Here in the Low Desert, unlike the traditional peas that are planted in the Fall, black-eyed peas are a warm season crop. They do tolerate poor soil much better than most legumes. Planting guides may say plant in March for a crop in early June, however, I have found you...

Hot, Hot, Hot !!! What's a Gardener to do ? Over the next few days, we are going to experience some dangerously high temperatures here in the low desert of Arizona. As I write, it is 109 degrees Fahrenheit outside with 4% humidity. Below is a weather link if you are interested in more details. https://www.google.com/search?q=weather+phoenix&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&gws_rd=ssl Tuesday, it is supposed to be 121 degrees Fahrenheit ! Neither I,nor my plants, have experienced anything like this sort of heat before. I am not sure what it is going to do to the tomatoes, but I will definitely let you know.  Watch this space later in the week. In the meantime, watering and any gardening will be done early in the morning, when it is cool(ish), if 80 degrees Fahrenheit can be called cool. In fact it is not necessarily the daytime heat that will kill the plants, but rather the fact that it does not cool off enough at night that ...

Desert Gardening in June So......it is going to be nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit here soon. Excessive heat warnings abound. What's a gardener to do ? And more importantly, what about your poor plants ??!! Well, apart from trying to stay cool and hydrated, h ere are a few tips to help your garden over the next week or so (and beyond ) ~ Temps are so high and the air so dry that plants simply cannot take up available water fast enough. PM shade helps alleviate this problem. If you have not already done so, use shade cloth to cover fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers. Wilting is a sign of heat stress.     May not be pretty, but does the job.     ~ Most cacti and succulents benefit from afternoon shade too ( don't we all ). Either cover with shade cloth or if possible, move to a shady or partially shady spot.     Container grown cacti in the shade     ~ Now is not the time to pull out any dead or dying p...