Hey SW gardeners or other zone 9's!! Who is planting and what are you planting right now?

The weather is beautiful and I'm gonna bet it's gonna stay that way.

We got out today and planted Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, micro greens, radish, bush beans, corn, strawberries, basil, cilantro, and I'm sure there was something else!

It felt good to get out in the sunshine today!

Good for you. I am jealous for sure. Good luck on your upcoming season over there.

But, we are only a few weeks behind you and coming on strong....lol.

Been enjoying the sunshine the past 2 days and enjoying even more the help of my mom in cleaning up the backyard and building MORE sfgs! Suggested to my husband that we each take $100 of our tax refund as "blow money" and he was more than happy to agree to that idea (I'm the natural saver and he's the natural spender in our relationship), so I'm getting to really expand this year. Having my mom visiting from NC means I can accomplish more in a day than I can in a week with just me and the kiddos. "Unfortunately" we're losing most of tomorrow to a trip to the beach.

Planted dwarf peas yesterday that I hope will produce quickly enough to finish up before the heat gets too bad. Hardening off most of my tomato plants and plan to have them in the ground by mid-week, when I will start hardening off the rest, plus the pepper plants. Need to get the new beds in, though, because I still have many squares occupied by broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce, carrots, and Swiss Chard that all survived our freezes at the beginning of the month.

Cucumbers will go in by the end of the month and I'm holding off on the really "warm weather" crops like melons, squash, beans, and okra until March.

The only thing technically in my first SFG is lettuce. I have about 4 trays of seedings outside hardening... I'm anxious to get my Dragon's Egg cucumbers and Beit Alpha Cucumbers in because they are growing tall in little peat pots - they need to get in the soil.

You think we're good to go, duhh?

I'm in Chandler 85248 and next week it says low around 36 degrees while in Phoenix 85008 the ten-day weather forecast says 41. Should I hold off an keep everyone in trays until then?

elliephant: hope you have fun at the beach, but know what you mean part of you wishes to stay home and get stuff done.

jkahn2ed: Glendale is usually slightly warmer than the east side.. so I would say plant if you dare. usually the last frost is the 2nd week of Feb. I just couldn't wait any longer with all that sunshine and warmth out there. Dragon's Egg cucumbers sound fun. I went with pickling, lemon and armienian(sp) cucumbers. They grown super fast! I normally start cucumbers, melons and squash outside because when it's hot they just grow so fast!

Hello AZ gardeners! This is my third crop using my square foot gardens. I have two six-squared gardens. I planted some seeds the last week in February in one of the beds. Cilantro, onion bunches, Kohlrabi, Finger carrots and Romaine lettuce, one of the squares still has spinach in it. I was planning on this being my late winter/spring garden, hopefully I can get some lettuce harvested before it gets too hot. I also have an AeroGarden and I use that to start my seeds. The seedlings should be ready to transplant in a couple of weeks. I also built a deeper garden bed (12 inches deep) to be devoted entirely to sweet potatoes. I will wait until late March to plant those, they like lots of warmth.

I was a little afraid of the weather report from last week when the temps were getting in the 30's at night. Then this past Sunday I looked outside and my garden where I had planted had white stuff on it! What! We live in Arizona, snow should not be happening here!

Happy gardening!

TiredMamma
Did you ever build the SFG's on legs that you were considering last year? I am building and using Table Tops, sure does make life easier when you don't have to bend over or kneel to work in the garden.

Best of luck for this year's garden. I eny you the warm growing season.

Wow - what one night of warmer temps can do with a day of temps. Finally transplanted the rest of my garden yesterday - still have a bunch in plastic cups for a friend's garden - and everybody looked super perky and taller when I got home from work tonight. More lows in the mid-40's instead of high 30's and highs in the mid-70's. My first cherry tomato is about ready to be plucked. Can wait to taste the juicy sweet...

Congrats on the tomato!!!

I'm loving the weather right now. We didn't get that cold here in Glendale. No snow this time around. Hadn't seen any new sprouts yet and today found squash and corn sprouts They were planted a bit before the last little cold spell and we were thinking we might have to replant. Tomorrow I thnk I'll be planting watermelon

I started my seedlings in peat, indoors on 31JAN (tomoatoes) and will put the first batch in the ground this weekend.

• Black Princes are 12" and ready to go into 1x8 box Saturday
  
• Green and red Bell peppers are ready to transplant into 4x4 SFG this Saturday
  
• Cherokee Chocolates are in 4" pots & should be able to go in the SFG next Saturday
  
• Black Crimsons ahould be ready to go in the ground on/before 24MAR
  

Temps are in the 50's at night and low 80's during the day this week.

I had a single "straggler" added to the mix this weekend when my dad brought me up a "new" tomato variety (Sebring). It's a OP, determinate, hybrid, out of University of Florida ...... and I think it caught his eye because it was named the same as the town he lives in now (Sebring, FL).

It was a present, so I gotta grow it now

I was told at the garden department that greens would bolt immediately this time of year. But I would love to grow some. I'd appreciate knowing what those are. Thanks

I know there was another post that showed Lavender Debs micro-greens growing in sieves, but I could not find it.
Micro-greens are assorted leafy lettuces, beets, pak choi. kphlrabi, broccoli and radishes that you grow just for the greens and usually add to salads. You grow them until they are about 2 inches high and clip them off at the soil line.

You can purchase packages of micro-green seeds, already a blend of various seeds, wherever you find lettuce seeds.


Micro-Greens

Furbalsmom, I have two of my gardens on legs. Love it! Plus, the weeding is gone. When I had the raised beds on the ground, even on top of the weed blocker, the weeds still came through or maybe the wind or birds brought in seeds or something. I have my other raised garden beds laying on a crate which is on top of cinder blocks. Not as high, but still less bending and still no weeds.
Here is a link to the pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/rkmoneypit/SquareFootGarden51611#

lookin good Tired Momma.

I can't tell you how much I enjoy my table tops. So far I have pulled ONE weed.

Those beds of yours on legs with a shelf underneath are pretty neat.

Tomatoes are big and green right now... just pulled our first cucumber - sucker must have been 13 inches long and 3 inches think. Tasted awesome!

Eggplant fruits are 3 inches long, mini sweet bell peppers are forming, jalapenos are elongating....

Just my quick update

I have toms of tomatoes just waiting to turn red, bush beans, parsley, tomatillos, eggplant, cucumber, summer and winter squash, lettuce, chard, spinach, sweet peppers, jalapenos, melon, ground cherries. The eggplant was started from seed in January and is only 3 inches tall, it seems to be struggling. Ground Cherries are something new I am trying our. Can't wait to harvest

O...and I have garden peas in a bucket but they are almost done. And carrots in a bucket.

Growing a garden at my friend's who has health issues. Hopefully the fresh veggies do her well. The tomatoes were starting to bake so she pulled a bunch and gave me a bagfull today along with some other goodies:



From left to right is an eggplant, mini sweet bell peppers, jalepenos, black cherry tomatoes, dragon's egg cucumber and vorlon tomatoes.



A friend has been harvesting a boatload of roma tomatoes, pictured above along with the mini sweet bell peppers, jalepenos and then a few items from the store.



Slicing up the Dragon's Egg Cucumber and below trying to ripen the Vorlon tomatoes and black cherry tomatoes (sooooooo tasty)

jkahn

Nice to help a neighbor in need with some fresh veggies. Those certainly can't hurt and may well help her a great deal.

Looks like there has been a nice harvest going on with your other friend and all those romas, mini bells and jalapenos.

Enjoy and have fun.

I feel like my garden might be done for the summer. I am new to this and this year I got one HUGE zucchini (there were 3 smaller ones growing,we went out of town and when we got back the 3 small ones were gone and here was this HUGE one - it was like the big one ate up the small ones cause there were just gone!?!) I have had a few small handfuls pf cherry tomatoes (if I can get them before the birds). My red pepper appear to be a nice snack for something (birds or bugs I don't know). my spinach got over taken by the zucchini (I am beginning to think zuch is a garden bully).

So my question is now what? Do I plant new things? Do I wait? Do i rip out what is there right now - it is all beginning to look a little crispy?

THANK YOU!!

A new gardener

I forgot to tell you I am working with a raised garden box 3'x4'

My garden is looking a little crispy too. Peppers, Melons, pumpkins and some squash are still doing great.

You might still be able to grow some melons if they have room to srawl. I would pick a smaller variety since it is so late in the season. I have heard if you plant pumpkins around 4th of july you'll have one for halloween. Just make sure you trellis it, or have lots of room for it to grow. I let mine spill out of the boxes right now. Next year I will trellis them.

I'm waiting until beginning of Sept until fall/winter plantings. I can't wait to have fresh lettuce again!

Good luck!

Thank you for responding! I might try to pumpkin. I have a trelis on the back of my box!

Again, thank you!

Nothing right now just enjoying the harvest. In about two months I will start planting the fall garden. It is still in the planning stage. I am rooting some cuttings in water but I don't think that counts.

Found this guide exciting for the fact it encourages transplanting tomatoes and peppers now!

http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1005.pdf

I have a bunch of "volunteer" tomato plants popping up in my garden! I thought it would be way to hot for them. I will now be better about picking up any fallen tomatoes out of the mels mix. I may leave one there, but there really isn't room. I can try to transplant some of them too I guess.