Winter Doldrums

Winter can be a very difficult time for someone who gets a lot out of the health of their garden. Everything slows as the amount of light decreases and more things begin happening to the garden than things happening in the garden. Wind and cats have taken their toll. High winds knocked over a lot of plants, which only began to recover as kitties began to utilize my garden more as a litter box than as a place to avoid. Every spare inch of vacant soil is toilet fodder for my neighbor’s cats.

Meanwhile, back in the greenhouse the fabulous idea I had for using diatomaceous earth on the pill bugs did not work as well as I had supposed. The little crustaceans were relatively immune to the powder and finished off my cucumber plants pretty quickly. I was under the false assumption that they would begin to die off without much food, but they continue to reproduce. I should probably take a layer of soil off the top of the planter and put it into a black plastic bag to bake them. Eventually I got the good idea to replant the stock tank with Fava beans. The Fava beans have done relatively well so far. Still - I’ll have to keep up my night-time visits to the greenhouse to make sure.

After the pill bugs, comes the fava beans

Even in the greenhouse I am using sideways tomato cages to deter kitties.

My tree collards have done well. I have experienced difficulty with reproducing them due to the prevalence of little green caterpillars (some sort of moth larvae) that continually devour the small leaves of the transplants. The lemongrass has done well in broths to help me to stave off the effects of any cold virus. The red leaf lettuce has been slowly growing. It has taken a beating from caterpillars, slugs, aphids and some sections the lettuce bed have been excavated by kitties.

Red leaf lettuce and onions

I split apart and re-potted most of the lemongrass (to share with friends)

In order to stop the incessant assault from my feline foes I have turned some tomato cages on their sides. It does not look pretty in my garden, but I have gone past the point of caring. The need to have my plants live is a little more important than my garden looking like a lunar moonscape (complete with kitty-created craters).

Working to make my garden a little more kitty resistant (and ugly!)

The few carrots that I have grown are doing alright, though it looks as if I could have done a few more plantings. I believe most of them perished from poor watering. The peas seem to be doing well and a few chickpeas have managed to survive. Meanwhile, garlic and onions are sprouting up everywhere.

Messy onions, garlic and peas.

The biggest winners this winter are the tree collards, the lemongrass and the fava beans. The fava beans are from some plants grown by a local elementary school. They were willing to share, so I planted some. I quickly learned that favas do not take well to excess nitrogen (probably because they produce much of their own), but they do love the cool weather of this winter and have thrived as a result. I am really impressed.

My fava beans

Visiting the U of A Pima County Extension Garden

The Pima County Master Gardeners are hosting free tours on select mornings.

So - I read that the Pima County Master Gardeners were hosting a tour of the U of A Extension Gardens on Campbell Avenue this fall. Though I knew that the times included every Saturday at 9:00 am I did not check to make sure that they were hosting the event  when I visited on August 30^th.

 

So – my daughter and I had a little self-guided tour of the garden.

 

Browsing the All-American Selections (AAS) Winners



Mascotte Bean - An AAS Bush Bean (with no beans on it)



An AAS Winning Flower



A Cayennetta F1 Pepper, as the sign states.

My daughter enjoyed walking around, but like me – she was not very impressed that no one was there. Hopefully, in the future, I will read things more carefully before I jump in the car to go across town.

Egg Plants grow very well in warm Arizona.

A few long Eggplants.

 

Some Okra Plants

My kids love most veggies - except Eggplant and Okra



A few of the Peppers at the County Extension Garden



Ordono Peppers - the healthiest pepper variety I saw.

Bell Peppers

 

Some form of Sorghum

Sweet Potato Vines



The tomato varieties.

I cannot leave my tomatoes un-kept like this.

For those of you who would like to see the gardens, they are in Tucson on Campbell Avenue on the east side between River and Ft. Lowell. When I traveled there, I parked in the community parking lot just north of the gardens. For a schedule of the dates when the garden is doing tours, see below.



My daughter posing as a carrot. (=

 

 

A healthy Artichoke plant that will surely produce plenty of spring chokes.

 

 





Some feathery Asparagus stalks

 

 





 

Immature Grapes

 

A Little Bunch of Grapes

 



 

A Row of Bush Beans

 

 

 

My daughter at Tucson Village Farm

 

 

 



A large Armenian Cucumber - possibly still edible

Armenian Cucumber - Perhaps being grown for seed?

 



This one is definitely for next year!

 

 



Another Large Armenian - At this point the flesh is more like carrots.

 

Mexican Sunflowers

 



Bees on small flowers



Bees Pollinating Mint



 





Bees Pollinating Onions



 

Bees on an onion plant

A red caterpillar.

Another look at this red caterpillar



A black swallowed tail butterfly on a Mexican Sunflower

There were plenty of insects at the U of A gardens

A nice big spiderweb

Spider on Pepper Leaves.

I really like this vermicompost setup.

My daughter came prepared to take notes.



I really liked this little solar oven.

Instead of taking a self-guided tour (as I did) let a Master Gardener provide a tour of the gardens for you. Here are the tour dates for Fall 2014:

September – 9:00am every Wednesday and Saturday.



October - 9:00am every Wednesday and Saturday.

November - 9:00am every Wednesday and Saturday, except the Week of Thanksgiving.

December - 9:00am every Wednesday and Saturday, except the Week of Christmas.

 

I received this information by subscribing to the Pima Master Gardener’s listserve, which can be found at: http://calsmail.arizona.edu/mailman/listinfo/pimamastergardeners

A pair of Zebra-Tailed Lizards. They move their tails like worms! (=

 



My daughter tried catching a smaller one of these. She didn't have a chance!