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...

Date for Tomato Sale   Hello Gardeners, Here's the updated information on my annual tomato plant sale. This year I am growing over 20 different varieties. The date is Saturday February 17th, time 8am, location 16440 East Bainbridge Avenue, Fountain Hills, AZ, 85268 See list in previous post for detailed descriptions of each variety. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions and feel free to spread the words to your gardening friends who might be interested. Looking forward to seeing both new faces and old friends. Don't forget to bring a box to take them home in !! Happy Gardening everyone

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