2011 garden Glendale, AZ (duhh) planted 2-13-2011

Just wait until you taste truly fresh artichokes.



Yummmmm



Mine needed no special care, just making sure the few weeds were removed. If you neglect to pick the heads (blooms) before they start to open, just leave them on the plant and you will get the most beautiful purple blossom. My only pest problem was aphids and they are such sturdy plants that using a strong jet from the hose removes the aphids and does not damage the plant.

I've been debating if I should start a new thread for 2012 or just keep going with this one... For now will keep going. I think it's fun to look through the old pics and see how my garden has progressed!

Had our little cold front. We did not stake down the makeshift green house thing and it tipped over. Did some major damage to the old Yellow pear plant, but I am still holding out hope that it will survive! It looks pretty rough right now. the tomato plants that I covered with sheets did much better. I think I have lost one, but I will give it another week before I count it out. the temps here are crazy warm I think it hit 80 here yesterday! My tomato plants are loving it and I noticed several tomatoes are starting to turn!



I plan on making an Asparagus bed here soon. Also planting some more Kale and lettuce in some empty squares. I am wasting alot of space right now. It's not right for them to sit empty! I seem to struggle with winter stuff. Next year I will plant garlic and onions and that should help to take up more space.
View of garden from the back porch.


the old yellow pear looking a little rough! I am going to leave it and not prune until after last frost date... At least I keep telling myself that!


Bell pepper! I hope it turns before it freezes to death!


Wall of pea plants!


Black Russian Prince beginnning to turn! We grew this from a seed we saved last year too!


Largest mater out there right now


Scraggly tomato plants, chard and kale


nice cluster


Purple broccoli plant

Almost ready!!!

Well enough pictures for now! Hope you are all having a great one! I have tomorrow off and plan to play in the garden a little. Maybe harvest some peas, kale, spinach, chard, and hopefully a tomato!!

Looking tough, you say? Looks great to me! Anything growing in January is GORGEOUS!

GG - With serious garden envy!

looks great

I love winter in Az. It's been so warm this year. Planning on playing in the garden more tomorrow. Needs to be cleaned up, Empty spaces need to be panted with something. I am itching to plant tons, but I still need to wait for a couple more weeks. My usual last frost date is mid-end of Feb.

Yummy salad last night!



Pease trying to take over the entire bed!



Some peas my nephew and his friends are letting grow for fried rice!



Asparagus crowns before planting. Nephew said they looked like little squids!



Asparagus's new home.



Bell pepper plant almost a year in the ground now. One of the only ones left.



Thought the yellow pear was a goner after being hit with some frost awhile back. then ?I saw this little bit of green and it make me so happy! It has been in the ground from Oct 2010!



Harvesting tomatoes in Jan!!! Nephew had to pick a carrot he couldn't stand it any longer!



Purple cauliflower finally doing something!



Well that is it for me for now! Gotta get some shut eye!!

Duhh, I couldn't sleep (hurt my back turning the compost ) I just wanted to tell you how great your garden looks. All your veggies look wonderful! I'm in the process of finishing my first SFG bed. I can't wait to get it planted.

Way to rock it, Duhhh...

We may have to get a lil' group to tour each other's gardens here in the Phoenix area. I have a few nice looking tomatoes just starting to ripen and a little jalepeno that started to grow.

I am so tempted to throw some plants in early with all the warm temps. This is ridiculous and about to get nicer this weekend... Last winter we had tons of nights in the mid-30's and I think we've had maybe 4 or 5.

jkahn2eb wrote:Way to rock it, Duhhh...

We may have to get a lil' group to tour each other's gardens here in the Phoenix area.

I agree... I wonder if we can get something like that going.. hmm.... Let me think on it a bit and see what I can come up with!

Things are busy busy, Can't believe it is April already! Had some time to go out in the garden today and clean out some of the winter stuff and get things ready for squash, melons, and such wonderful summer things!

Pulled up ine of the Swiss Chard plants that had decided to go to seed. Was shocked to see how big the roots were. This was planted in the corner of one box 6in of soil.



Was almost giddy when I saw this guy! Was wondering when I would see something. The plant is huge!



back wall garden, tomatoes, basil, artichoke, kale, peas, lettuce, spin, chard, more tomatoes.



Trying to show my hanging cd's to keep the birds away. You can also see how tall the grapes are getting. I'll still have to use some shad cloth this year, but next year hopefully the grapes will take car of the shading!! So far so good with the cds...but there isn't much that the birds want to eat in my garden yet....



First large tomato of the spring growing season..



Time to pick more lettuce. I have been having to pick it 2x a week now:) I like the leaves small and sweet



Asparagus fern. These are cool. tried to plant strawberries in the same bed, but I am not having luck with Strawberries.



Side view of the garden



Just pulled out most of the peas. Found some lady bugs in them! Pepers, tomatoes, some pease left. Will be putting some cucumbers in here later.





The rest is non square foot garden stuff in my yard, that I would like to share!!!

Black berry blossom!



2nd year grape vine really waking up! growing like crazy this year.



My first little peaches. tree was planted last year. I should take them off, but can't bring myself to! There are only about 10 on my little tree.



Part of our urban orchard. I will be adding a few 2x2 boxes inbetween the trees for my melons and squash so they can sprawl out over here and creat a living mulch for the trees during the summer. Pictured are, Lime, Limequat, fig x2, cara cara orange, and an apricot. Not sure if you can see them all, but that is what is down this side of the yard.





That is all for me right now. I will try to keep things more updated for awhile. things will be growing like crazy for the next little while.

Oh Duhh, I am so tickled to see your artichoke. In our cool weather, the artichokes don't come in for several months yet.

Your lettuces look especially pretty. Everything looks nice and healthy. Thank you so much for sharing.

The weather here has been very strange, just like everywhere else! It can't seem to make up it's mind, but something tells me the heat is here to stay. I'm glad that I have been posting on this because it's been fun to look back on and see how far my yard/ garden has come in the past 1 1/2 years! Although this time last year I was still harvesting lettuce, this year, it bolted way faster with all of the heat waves!
I got so busy with work and such that I planted some things pretty late Like my squash, and cucumbers. Not to worried though, they are growing nice and fast!

Carrot and beet harvest! This will teach me to thin them out. We had some nice sized ones, but most were to crowded and not able to grow properly.


Whole garden view. Just mulched it with pine needles


2 Jalapeno plants that are going crazy. they are just a little over 1 year old now


Yellow pear tomato just got its first "hair cut" Just did this on Sunday and they already beginning to ripen


Back wall garden before the lettuce got taken out


Asparagus and the few strawberry plants that are left


I thought I had some pictures of my little bags made of tule I put over my tomatoes in hopes of keeping them from the birds. So Far it has worked on my blackberries and the peach tree. I'll have to post those next time. Also didn't post the artichoke plant. It is starting to look a little rough, but got 6 artichokes from it... well more like 5 I left one on to flower because I want to see what it looks like!

Well done. A real oasis in the desert.

Kay

Too cool Duhh...same here - fun seeing the evolution over just a year of SFG. Tried yellow pear tomatoes for the first time the other day - DELICIOUS.

So... It has been awhile, but here is an update from my corner of the world! It's 115+ out today... I'm bored and stuck inside!

Have had some great results this year, 3rd year gardening.....  I would have to give credit to the new drip irrigation line hubby installed. I don't think we were watering enough/ consistently for our hot Az climate.

Our garden is beginning to wind down for the summer, I'll have a bit of a break for the next month or so. Usually squash, Armenian cucumbers, melons and some peppers will stick around during the heat. I'll start replanting summer squash and kale around mid to late August. Other winter veggies will wait until September.

Here is the garden today: (try to ignore the trash the dogs keep taking out and tearing up.. it's to hot to clean it up!)

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side view


what was harvested today: banana melon, speg squash, summer squash, peppers, egg plant, tomatoe, lemon cucumber... grapes are next to the sfg not in.
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harvested a couple of weeks ago:
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what we did with all the squash!


Just a quick update from Az! Happy gardening!

Found this as I was cleaning out my summer garden! Weighing in at 13.8 lbs! Was hidden under all the vines!

This is a fun post to read from last year and this year!  It is amazing how you can keep a pepper plant alive for that long.  We freeze here and have to start over every year.  You have done so well and your garden and produce are beautiful!  That last squash should feed a family for a week, lol!  Thank you for sharing your pictures with us all!

It's now been 4 years and things are still growing. I'll admit my garden isn't perfect sfg, but it is still has  a lot of the main principles. I started with mels mix, and now just top off with compost, I took the grids off because they annoyed me and always seemed to get in the way. I dow still draw out squares in the dirt when planting and try to stay with the same planting. I put my trellises in the middle of my box because in AZ I think it's important to have the taller plants provide shade for the shorter ones, and so far so good.


Picture of my back bed on 5/23/2014 I just pulled the garlic and the onions and planted Armenian cucumber and more summer squash in the front bare areas. Other plants here are tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash and cucumber




View from the front of the garden on 5/30/2014 I am trying to get the grapes to grow on top of the pergala to provide shade for the garden... so far it's working!



Side view of the garden 5/30/2014 Kale still hanging in there. but tomatillos will soon take over that bed





5/30/2014 Yellow pear tomato plants don't know how to stay where they are supposed to! I didn't keep up on the pruning so I just caged them and let them do their own thing for now. These were grown from seeds from previous years and they seem to be even better than before.


harvest on 5/30/2014


Harvest on 5/15/2014 Last of the peaches off of the peach tree




I make little bags of tulle to cover tomatoes, grapes and peaches. They work fantastic!



This is a picture from earlier in may I just liked it and wanted to share!



5/30/2014  view from the back of the garden. I just really like the gape vines!

Just some bugs I found around the garden one day. Was very excited to see so many predators hanging around!








  Assassin bug



 Preying mantis.. or as we call them, Sheldon




Lace Wing adult (I haven't been able to find the babies, but see lots of eggs!)


Lady bug larvae  


Adult lady bug

I keep finding more and more areas in the yard for the garden! This will eventually be the larger vine plants that I can train up the cattle panels. Right now I have planted, pumpkins, butternut, and spaghetti squash. I got a bit of a late start on them, but hopefully they will do well. During the winter, I hope to use the panels and create a green house area for my spring plant starts!


pumpkins 5/30/2014



Beds just built 4/13/2014.. these were my birthday present!

Duhh, Your garden is just amazing! I am so jealous!    Are the tulle baggies for sun protection?

They are to keep the birds from pecking holes in every one of my tomatoes... I assume they would also shade the fruit too.

Looking great!    I can't wait to have something to harvest. I can only hope for a fraction of your success!!!

Went camping this last week and it was 110 degrees at home! Didn't expect much when I got home, but found all of this! This is the first year we have gotten our paste tomatoes to actually produce and they are really going! Thinking about putting up some shade cloth to keep things going a little longer.

Goosegirl, don't worry, you're garden will be going strong and beautiful while mine dies in the AZ sun! Be sure to post pick so I can drool over your garden too!

Duhh, Nice haul you have there!   

+1!  Looks fantastic, Duhh!