The January Garden

One of the best things I learned when gardening in Tucson is to plant in spring for the hottest days of the summer and to plant in the fall for the coldest days of the winter. As the temperature here rarely goes below 20°F then it is pretty safe to plant brassicas, lettuce and many other greens, onions, peas and some other kinds of beans, beets, chard and cilantro.

A view of my children's winter garden

Digging a trench for composting in my summer garden.



Growing year-round with two separate gardens always presents the problem of competition for space and light. My summer garden often comes into my winter garden, though I have never had the opposite concern.

 

 

With the summer garden put to rest, the winter garden has light

 

 

Jerico Lettuce (which I begrudgingly share with the caterpillars)

 

 

Monstrux De Viroflay Spinach

 

I tend to plant my winter garden very intensively and pull plants as they need the space. Though all plants need light, many of my greens can survive on minimal light until I recognize that they need to be thinned. Conversely, I tend to space my summer plants much wider as each plant requires much more space and any plant that gets crowded out will likely end up being a disease and pest liability, as well as a waste of time and effort to plant.

 

 

Small Black/Purple Carrots



Tavor Artichokes

 

Some of the plants I am growing this winter include Jerico Lettuce (which I plan to save seed from the plants that bolt last), purple/black Turkish carrots, Kyoto red carrots, Spanish black radishes, some small Texas multiplying onions, Viroflay spinach, snap peas, Tavor Artichokes, a lone Celebrity tomato plant and McGregor’s Favorite beets.

 

McGregor's Favorite Beets

 

If you want a minimal maintenance garden in the Southwest then Winter is the prime season to do it. When the weather consistently goes above 75°F then I have to water more than once a week. But if not, then I can usually get away with watering once every 10-12 days. With many of the pests and disease vectors wiped out by the first light frost there is little maintenance required for the winter garden. Truly, the Tucson winter garden is a delightful way to grow and enjoy winter salads, greens, and roots to well into the spring.

 

 

Some tasty Snap Peas

 

Bringing Back the Winter Garden

Little things in life can sometimes make a huge difference for my overall wellbeing. When I fallowed my winter garden last year, to take care of the needs of my family, I never imagined that it would affect me psychologically. When times are tough and things everything seems to be going wrong, going out and seeing the growth of the plants is a real morale booster. After leaving my winter garden to fallow last year this small strip of sun baked soil is making a comeback.

Little Viroflay Spinach Seedlings Sprouting up

 

Recently, the school district I live in had a fall break which enabled me to have some time. This break, along with my wife lovingly taking the kids for a get-away gave me some time to get my winter garden set up. However, getting my garden set up turned out to be a little more complex than I had initially anticipated. The first in planting in my winter garden came with accessing that portion of the yard. The sweet potato vines had grown into the winter garden over the summer and I didn’t really want to cut them down. After talking with one of my daughters about the issue we decided that some unused water barrels would do just fine in lifting up the vines enough to clear out the area in the winter garden.

 

 

Rather than pruning the sweet potatoes I lifted them up with water barrels

 

 

My next dilemma came in working with the soil. The soil was incredibly airy and soft. In preparing my soil I leveled, then tamped down the soil to ensure that any water put into the ground would not run off onto the nearby Bermuda grass. Though trampling and tamping down regular dirt can be very detrimental to the structure of clay soils, it is very beneficial when working with an airy organic material-based soil. If the soil is too airy, then it can quickly evaporate leaving seeds to dry out. My last major undertaking in preparing my garden was the complex task of hooking an elaborate system of regular hoses, soaker hoses and Y-joints up to my garden timer. After getting all of that set up I finally was able to plant!

 

 

Some Jerico Lettuce seedlings

 

Though I was very concerned about plants sprouting I discovered, soon after planting that I saw small spinach leaves coming up. Spinach usually requires a cooler temperature – so this was good news for the rest of my seedlings. I then noticed the Jericho lettuce, with its delicate green leaves, seemingly sprouting up overnight. The beets and carrots have been coming up too – but the real celebration came when my first artichoke seed sprouted. For the last 3 years I had been waiting and trying to grow artichokes and had repeatedly failed by planting seed from an established seed company that turned out to be completely unviable. A more recent failure with growing artichokes from seed came when I had sprouted some seed in early September only to have the seedlings wilt during a hot September afternoon as a result of temporary problems with my watering system.



Peas, Onions and Carrots sprouting up

 

 

What I am trying to relate at this time is that I am looking forward to this winter's garden. I hope to let my children pick peas from their garden and have me experiment with McGregor’s beets in my garden. It is my belief that when life becomes complex and overwhelming there is wonder in taking a minute to go outside and watch the plants in my garden grow and flourish.

An Artichoke Sprout at last.

 

While making my first Garden



My Old Garden in the early spring.

Given the fact that I do not have money to pour into my garden (I’m a teacher) my need to be creatively resourceful is relentless. For my first garden, I found slats of wood that someone was giving away for free. With a few of these I shored up the sides of my garden in my attempt to keep Bermuda grass out. Once those were installed I dug at least 1’ down and put compost under the 1’ of soil. After amending the soil with sulfur and fertilizer I made rows and put newspaper on the bottom of the rows. On either side of the newspaper I ran my soaker hoses. Then on top of the newspaper (on the trough between the rows I laid the rest of the boards that I didn’t use for the sides of the garden. To keep from compacting the soil I walked on the boards, sometimes like a circus tightrope walker. Once the bounds of the garden were set and the soil was prepared I got set on planting.

Some of the first things I planted in my winter garden were Green Globe artichokes, Purple Dragon carrots, Tyee Spinach, and Chartwell Lettuce (a Romaine variety). I also planted some Fallstaff Brussel Sprouts to the dismay of my whole family. Lesson learned: Don’t plant any food crop the family does not want to eat.


Fallstaff Brussel Sprouts

I really miss growing carrots. Purple carrots are fun and very tasty. I think I’ll try growing some again for seed this coming year. I’ve just got to remember to pull out the little ones and let the big ones grow for stronger seed next year!

Purple Dragon Carrots

If you ever get a chance, Little Marvel Peas are great to grow.



Little Marvel Peas

 Some pics of the Spinach and Chartwell Lettuce. My wife loved the Spinach and the lettuce was a big hit with everyone I shared it with.



Tyee Spinach, Chartwell Lettuce & Carrots

Then there was the artichokes. I figured the adults could eat the larger tough leaves and that we could save the heart for the youngest children. My thinking paid off well. Our kids loved them. One day my oldest son was describing to me his favorite vegetable. It took a while, but then we figured out he was talking about artichokes!


Green Globes can get quite large

The beauty of the Artichoke



As you may notice from the pictures a good 1/4 to 1/5 of my garden area was taken up by the compost pile. Deciduous trees usually drop their leaves here between the second week of December and February, depending upon the weather. It usually took half a day just to rake them up and collect them into bags to store for later composting. I used leaves, coffee grounds, and manure from a local horse ranch along with some added kitchen scraps to make my compost.

Garden with old compost pile (lemon grass in the left corner)



My "Old" Garden

My inital garden was in a relatively flat area on the mid-east area of Tucson. We were renting at the time, but our landlord was very willing to let me dig up the ground to plant a garden. It began as a compost pile. One day I threw some store-bought cantaloupe into the pile and that is where my garden began. In the time leading up to us moving from this site I learned several lessons.

The first lesson I learned was to not grow in native soil. I would amend and amend my soil with compost time and time again just to have it quickly revert back to its light-colored brick hard consistency. The second lesson came from growing plants in containers. I quickly learned that the sun cooks anything above the ground and that, for the purposes of insulation from dramatic temperature shifts and water conservation, the best solution would be a lowered garden bed. In a conversation with another member of the Tucson Organic Gardeners (TOG) noted that you cannot grow in the soil here and said that the best thing to do would be to grow in straight compost. At the time, I agreed. I hope to expose some of the benefits and drawbacks of such an approach as I relate how a compost garden worked for me.



The Winter Garden at our old house

The Summer Garden at our old house