learn to garden

Our vegetables are growing splendidly. The flowers had a very good Spring and the pots are now ready to be replanted. The trees are green and thriving. The Butterfly Bush is attracting its assigned demographic. There are hummingbirds all over the place. The resident finches, sparrows, doves, mockingbirds and peach-faced lovebird have been joined by several cowbirds, red sparrows, and the occasional hooded oriole or some other beautiful migratory creature. Our garden is alive and well—even in the desert southwest.

The zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, cantaloupe, bush beans, tomatoes, onions, and mesclun are all growing! No signs of fruit yet, except on the tomato bushes – they are thriving – but it’s all coming up and spreading out.

The pomegranate bush has one lonely blossom on it, plus a lot of spiral carvings from some as yet unseen parasite, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting the plant any, so no chemicals yet.

The trees we planted are doing great. The ficus has dozens of tiny little figs on it. I hadn’t known before that even ornamentals bear fruit. The little palm trees have tons of new growth, so their old stuff got a trim-back the other day.

The butterfly bush, honeysuckle and other small hummingbird attractants are all growing and the transplanted ruellia is coming back vigorously. The gardenia bush is going crazy. Every time I take a flower off, it grows 3 more!

Even the grass is growing on the side of the yard we seeded. It’s all so lovely!

Oh. Here, I’ll post a picture. :)

All but a dozen or so of the seeds we sowed a couple weeks ago are up. In fact, the sweet peas are already about a foot high! NONE of the passion flower seeds have germinated. NONE. The package doesn’t say how long they’re supposed to take so I’ll give them a little longer.

The vegetables and nasturtiums are out in the raised bed garden and doing fine. We bought a big pot for the courtyard and I put most of the flowers in it. There are English and African daisies and another daisy looking flower called Chocolate Sundae. I will set the sweet peas in the little bed under the window today. I’m excited about having a nice little garden again. :)

I haven’t written anything here since last summer?! Well, I’m not that much of a slacker on this goal really, but still, now’s a good time to get back into posting on this.

This afternoon, the Dearest and I sat out on our new patio and planted seeds in about a hundred Dixie cups. We bought both flower and vegetable seeds, and it was 84º here today, so I’m pretty sure any danger of “frost” has passed. ;)

We’ve built a raised-bed garden on one side of the house and will be transplanting the veggies into it once they germinate.

The flowers will go in several different spots, but we thought it would be better to get them started with some TLC instead of tossing the seeds right into the ground.

Also on my list of gardening basics is my little plot below the front window. I had the porch chair in front of it until we built the courtyard, but now I can use it again and I’ve dug up the dirt and mixed in a rich combination of planting soils, so my flowers will be extra happy there.

I’m most excited about the passion flower seeds. There were only 8 seeds in the little packet, so they’d better grow! and the sweet peas!!! I LOVE sweet peas! I think that’s my favorite smell in the whole world. :)

My terrarium is full of little green pixies dancing in the moss!

Nothing is going to grow outside right now, so I planted some wildflowers in a terrarium. There’s already a dormant orchid and a tiny little pitcher plant in there, so the wildflowers, when they bloom, will be a nice addition. The box is set up in my bathroom so there’s plenty of humidity for growing things.

The dearest was paying attention! Not only did he get me “The All New Square Foot Gardening” book for Christmas, he also made me a “gift certificate” by folding a piece of paper over a $100 bill and writing a list of all the stuff I’d need on the outside of it. It was very cute and thoughtful and I can’t wait to get started!

I checked the book out of the library. It looks terrific. I can hardly wait till it cools down a little and I can go tear up the yard!

While I was at the library, I also stopped by their book sale and bought a few books on gardening. I found some that pertain specifically to dry and desert areas . . . stuff on soil prep and low-water-use plants that won’t break the bank to try growing during this 12-year (so far) drought.

I spent this morning listening to someone whose talent and knowledge surpass almost anyone’s in the area of making things grow (except my husband’s grandfather and Dave Owens, “The Garden Guy”).

The seminar was about growing food. I learned how to set up and prep the ground for a garden. I was surprised to learn that in this desert, we need at least six inches of mulch mixed with the dirt before we even start!

I learned what the 3 numbers on packages of soil nutrient mean and what the nutrients do. The first number is for Nitrogen. It makes the green part of the plant grow tall. The second number is for phosphorus. It makes the fruits and flowers grow. The third number is for potassium, which makes the plant more dense and bushy. The man uses ironite instead of potassium, so he prepped the soil with a 16/20/00 mixture of nitrogen & ammonium phosphate. Then he put ironite in the soil, too.

In the desert southwest, we have ridiculously dense soil. Our mud is very thick clay. Combine that with a 12-year drought, and we basically walk around on concrete all day. I learned today how to loosen up that soil so things can actually grow in it (given enough water). Gypsum. Very necessary to make good dirt here.

Then the most awesome part was from a book called “Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Get the Book! Mr. Chapman showed us how to cordon off our gardens into square foot sections and then plant various vegetables at 1-per, 4-per, 9-per, or 16-per square foot instead of planting in rows. It was awesome!!!!!

I also learned to plant vegetables in “waves,” meaning to plant every 3 weeks throughout the season, thereby extending the harvest time and reducing waste from surplus veggies.

I ALSO learned to choose plants that take less than 70 days to grow because in Zone 9 our sowing seasons are short. We should plant in the Fall instead of the Spring because the ground is still warm in the Fall, instead of after winter when the ground is still cold.

Boy, I learned A LOT!!! Another thing I learned was to change out the flower beds during the 3rd week of April and the 3rd week of October. That way they have time to get established before the severe weather sets in.

Wow. I had to write this all down before I forgot it. I will want to come back to this entry time and again, that’s for sure!

Before the golf course, we had a pretty extensive vegetable garden in the back yard. My husband’s grandfather taught him all kinds of secrets to making great crops of food grow. We still have a little room back there, under the kitchen window. Maybe we could grow tomatoes or something. I mean there isn’t room for corn or zucchini, but we could do some little stuff!

As for the front yard, I planted some flowers a few months ago. I think one might still be alive, but only because it has been protected from the broiling sun by the tall grass. So that means it may be there, but we can’t see it anyway.

A lot of the neighbors have caved to the drought and just put in rock. I hate that. I won’t do it. No offense to anyone reading this who loves their gravel lawn, but that choice is not for me. I need green.

I bought some books at the library book sale, three of which were about gardening, and one was specific to growing plants in the southwestern U.S.

My main focus with this goal is to create attractive landscaping in my front yard. I also want to grow a couple vegetables in the back yard and have some flowers living in the bed next to my front door.