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!

With Heat comes Reptiles

As my children get older I find that they have inherited my tendency for catching lizards. My younger son recently stated that when he grows up he wants to have a “lizard ranch”.



A young Spotted Whiptail Lizard about to go into my garden

While rising summer temperatures increase, so does the activity of the reptiles outside. My children run after whiptails and fence lizards during by day and my wife and I enjoy seeing the geckos consume moths around our porch light at night.

This Blind snake does not want his picture taken

This last week was the second time I saw a blind snake, while many people here in Tucson keep tame desert tortoises in their backyard. Reptiles are pretty well adapted to the Southwest and make our desert landscape much more interesting.

The Blind snake showing his head on his way off