Newbie in Las Vegas, year 1!

Her name is Lunch, hahaha. My girlfriend commented when I posted the pic on facebook, and said "she has so many plans for him...", and I'm all, "but all your plans are the same...they start with a knife, a little squealing, and then OMNOMNOMNOM..."

My cucumber plants are in bad shape...leaves are yellowing with green veins, started at the oldest but it is chasing the newest leaves now...and the oldest are having their edges go all dead and papery and generally Bad Things.

I gave them some nitrogen, and then some epsom salts, and now some AZOMITE...here's hoping they green back up. I don't really wanna replant, but at least cucumbers seeds are quick!

Sooo, this happened today (the glider bench)...

And my volunteer sunflowers!

BC,  You are a testament to desert hardening!  I love your glider; I wouldn't get much gardening done if I had it.  Maybe a lot of planning, but actual gardening??

sanderson wrote:BC,  You are a testament to desert hardening!  I love your glider; I wouldn't get mush gardening done if I had if.  Maybe a lot of planning, but actual gardening??

Thanks sanderson!

So the peas were planted at basically the perfect time, and are loving the nice days and cooler nights.

However, I feel I started my tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers much too early, or at least I put them outside too early.  Most plants are showing significant stress from the cool nights, curiously except the Hungarian Black peppers!  Those are flowering, and I've even found a baby pepper.

The cucumbers, while having put on a fruit, are having a lot of leaf die off, but they seem to be rapidly pushing out new leaves, so it's sort of a sad race to see if the plant sticks.  If I have to restart, at least they are quick, and I would direct sow.

The tomatoes all shed their lower branches, but again, decently rapid new growth, and even flowering!  A week or so will tell if they set any fruit.

The bell peppers seem most impacted.  They were slow to start inside, I got poor germination, and then when transplanted they seem very unhappy.  I may restart them and direct sow, once the beds warm up.  They're still sitting at 60 degrees at root depth, on a day like today.  I need some 80s!

The garlics still seem to be doing amazing, and the onions are puttering along...not really sure how far they should be at this point, but no obvious losses, just...slow.

Planted a bunch of herbs in the holes in the brick for the girlfriend, then the girlfriend became an ex-girlfriend, so I'm gonna have to find a bunch of recipes for oregano, basil, cilantro, sage, and I don't even remember what else.  C'est la guerre.

Brainchasm, sorry about the girlfriend...  I'd suggest drying the herbs and either selling at a local farmer's market or give them to a food bank.  After you put aside whatever you'll use, of course.  Who knows - maybe you'll find a new lady at one of them...

You pics are really nice.  I like the cinder block idea.  And I agree w/ Sanderson about the glider.  I'd spend WAY too much time sitting & daydreaming instead of actually planting & harvesting, lol.

Oh, I forgot to mention it when it happened...

Follow along with me on the logic train:

1) I live in Las Vegas. We have horrible soil.  Caliche.  Basically natural concrete.  Poor nutrients, high clay content so water runs instead of soaks in, no organic material to speak of, and barely any rain anyway.  It is death.  This is my backyard.

2) I have gravel on top of the "soil" of indeterminate depth.  Rocks.  Sharp ones.

3)  I have raised beds that are full of hand-made Mel's Mix.  Between the MM and the gravel/dirt, there is a 4" sand layer.

So how in the world did I find a frisky six inch NIGHTCRAWLER in my raised beds when I was digging holes for the tomatoes?!  No pics, but he was big and happy and dug right back in when I set him down!

I don't know if you buy transplants or not.  But it could have been small or a cocoon and come in with the soil from the transplant.  Also a cocoon could have been in the compost you made or purchased.

yolos wrote:I don't know if you buy transplants or not.  But it could have been small or a cocoon and come in with the soil from the transplant.  Also a cocoon could have been in the compost you made or purchased.

I start everything from seed.  Guess it was in the compost!

I'm not complaining, more just marveling...

Your guest probably began life in a batch of worm castings!

donnainzone10 wrote:Your guest probably began life in a batch of worm castings!

I've never added worm castings, or anything for that matter other than some um, human-sourced nitrogen.   

But yeah, I suppose if there was some compost that had a worm casting component, that'd do it.  Regardless, was thrilled to find it!

My entire garden is seeming nitrogen-deficient this year (except the peas of course).  I need to drink more water.........

 

I think that qualifies as TMI, brainchasm!

walshevak wrote:Please don't waste the cinderblock holes, especially since they are getting water.    Only plants that need 1 or 2 squares wouldn't be happy in one.  Although I would try 1 pepper plant just to see if there is enough nutrition and root space.  I have a rose garden built out of block that way and I'm going to try tall sunflowers on the west (fence) side, a medium height flower on the north and south sides and portulaca on the east side.  The whole bed gets full sun.

Had portulacas in the holes this past year and they went nuts. 




Kay

Wow, I hadn't seen that picture before. That looks great!

I bet the bees were happy with that arrangement!  I've never seen portulacas that dense!

2 plants per hole.  As I said, they went nuts.  And this picture was taken just before I I did some serious deadheading, so the flowers were not in full bloom.

Kay

This morning's harvest...

NICE, brainchasm!  I'm jealous!  But carrots are peeking up as are beets & corn.

So, I've known about these for a while, just neglected to take a picture of them:


Sorry it's blurry, camera wanted to autofocus on the zucchini seedling in the background.


But this...THIS, I just found tonight while I was weeding/pruning:


FIRST TOMATO!  

   

 

Woo hoo!

So, my cinder block compost enclosure thing so far hasn't made me happy.  I can sometimes get my pile up to about 90degF, and then it just putters out.  I watered it a bit last night, turned it, and at 10am this morning, it was only 60degF.  Air temp was like 78degF.  That's bollocks.

So, I moved my tumbler (that I had stopped using) out behind the bench in the garden.  Not the prettiest thing, but it gets sun for a looong time.  Loaded it up, watered it a bit, gave it a few spins and we'll see what it's doing in a few hours.

I also had a black bin that I use for general stuff, and had some leftover compost from the cinderblock pile, so I watered that and put it in the bin, in the sun next to the tumbler.  Hopefully it'll do...something.

Re: the compost tumbler

We might have ignition!  The sun is down, it's only 70-something outside, but the heart of the tumbler is sitting at 108degF!

Let's see what the nighttime temps do to it...

I'm on staycation all week, so I'll be around to tumble it and water it...actually, it'll be more about keeping me AWAY from fussing in and around the garden.