The Unfair Garden

I try not to constantly complain about Tucson’s summer weather – however – during a recent trip to Utah - my sister’s beautiful garden made me a little jealous. She said that all she had to do was weed and add seed.




My oldest son picking peas in my sister's garden



Gardening can be easy in more moderate climates

The previous tenants in the house worked very hard on the garden and she is definitely reaping the results. Her lettuce was delicious – even in the heat.




My nephew picking a carrot



My nephew examining his carrot

My children were picking peas most of the time we were visiting her. The weather was warm – but no where close to Tucson.




Peas grow wonderful in July - in Utah

A New Mexico Gardening Getaway

Recently, my wife and I were able to get away to a really nice bed & breakfast in Southwestern New Mexico, called D&D's Organic Haven. Deb and her husband Dan do a great job taking care of people who need a getaway. The real highlight of this getaway is that I was able to get away from the work of my own garden while enjoying all the benefits of Deb's work in her garden. 

Backyard view at D&D's Organic Haven

A few of the flower beds at D&Ds

Some onions and beets

Deb caters to diverse food allergies and is more then willing to incorporate her produce into the meals. I had a great time.

Deb was a wonderful host

A pretty purple flower

Some pretty blue flowers

It was fun to see some of the same beetles that live in Tucson

Some of the chickens at D&D's Organic Haven

Deb has to cover most of her veggies so that she doesn't only feed critters

Some beets and onions

A young squash plant

Chard and Butterhead lettuce

Lettuce and Carrots

Another look at the beets & onions

Sightings in New Mexico

While on an incredibly overdue getaway in New Mexico, with my wife, I came across this rarity in the town of Mogollon. Just like similar sightings – it is important that the observer take distinct pictures to provide evidence to prove that these creatures are real.

This creature definitely looks incredible.

I had never seen one of these insects in real life and I would have to say that it was one of the coolest bugs that I have ever seen – somewhere between a mantis and a lacewing.

I thought nothing of this bug at first, until I took a closer look.

From the Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders, Mantidflies live in Grasslands and forest edges from New England to Georgia and west to California. The adult and larva prey on smaller and less aggressive insects, spiders, and grow quickly [by consuming] spider egg masses. Larva also feed on wasp nests when possible. Oval eggs are laid on short stalks.” I wonder how these would do in Tucson. I was not about to disturb this one in transport even though I would love to see a few of these in my garden!

This mantidfly was not photogenic

Purple Carrot Experiment

In looking for new vegetable varieties to try out I stumbled across purple carrots. Although the majority of purple carrots I have grown in the past have been of purple only on the outside, I have been experimenting with some more deep purple carrot varieties.



A few purple carrots from a recent carrot trial

One helpful hint, courtesy of Kitazawa seed company, is that if your desire is to have your carrots exhibit full dark colors, you should grow them over the winter. Thus, if you want to grow a dark red or purple carrot – you should try to grow them when the weather is cool.

In May my purple carrot experiment was doing well



Thinning a few of the carrots out in May



Some more purple carrots

Another reason to grow carrots in the winter, should you live in a hot climate like I do, is that growing over the winter can assist in avoiding harsh summer growing conditions and pests. In my excitement to plant a new purple carrot variety, I decided to try growing my carrots over the summer. However, thanks to some local leaf-hoppers and the unrelenting heat of the summer putting my plants under stress, my whole purple carrot patch became infested with mosaic.



With leafhoppers comes Mosaic

The leafhoppers discovered the remaining carrots

All I could do to save the remaining carrots from mosaic was to pull up most of them and hope for the best. While pulling out the carrots, the leafhoppers clued in on what I was doing and shifted their population to the last healthy plants. The remaining plants soon became diseased. My only consolation is that I learned something and that I have more seed for next fall. Until then, I will make sure to remove all food sources (including carrots) for the local leafhoppers. The main consolation of a failed vegetable experiment is that I can consume my failures before they consume me.



Another way to say "garden failure" is "dinner time"

EM·1 Microbial Inoculant

Back in December 2011 I attended a Tucson Organic Gardener (TOG) meeting with a presenter from Terra Ganix. During this meeting, the gentleman presenting highlighted the incredible properties of their EM·1 Microbial Inoculant. He noted that its multiple anaerobic microbes were able to naturally “heal” gardens and bring the beneficial microbes in a garden into balance. I thought very little of this presentation until this last spring when I decided to give the EM·1 stuff a try. I contacted the company and found the location (on West Grant, in Tucson) where I could pick up a bottle from a vendor without having to pay shipping.

EM·1 Microbial Inoculant

With some amount of hope, I took my EM·1 home and diluted it in water – making sure to apply it in the evening. As luck would have it, I applied it on the only cloudy day in April.  Instead of using tap water, which is full of chlorine and other possible antibacterial substances, I just used filtered water that had been sitting out for a day – just to make sure. I also applied more water afterwards – to ensure that the EM·1 penatrated deep into the soil.

So – does EM·1 Microbial Inoculant really work? What happened when I applied this miracle cure to my garden? Nothing really. All of my plants miraculously grew at the exact same rate that they had been growing. The plants that were doing poorly continued to do poorly and those that were doing well just kept on doing well. I would like to say that EM·1 is some kind of miracle item but I really cannot. One would hope that this means that I have plenty of good microbes in my garden already. Perhaps, in the future, I will get better results by applying diluted kefir to my garden

EM·1 Update: Even though the EM·1 did nothing for the rest of my garden it helped my sweet potatoes grow and produce much more than they would have otherwise produced. If you grow a lot of sweet potatoes I would highly recommend this product. I have more information on my more recent experiences with EM·1 posted here.

No noticable change in my Garden after applying EM·1 

My experience was not a total waste of money. To be able to compost more of my kitchen scraps – including bones, meat, and dairy I plan on using my EM·1 to make some Bokashi. Bokashi is a substance that uses a substrate (such as wheat bran) to pickle your compost in a way so that it does not stink. You can think of Bokashi as a compost pre-digester. EM·1 can be activated to make more EM·1 and make lots of  Bokashi – so you can compost more food without having the negative pests and smell associated with composting. You can find out more about this process on Terra Ganix’s website.