Transplanted

Well, I actually transplanted my seedlings about a week ago now, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. I think it's a bit hot for them, we are still hitting 100 or so in the afternoon, but so far most of them seem to be doing ok. I watered the plots the night before I transplanted, and watered the plants in their cups right before moving them to their new home. I did not, however, water the whole garden after transplanting them. That was a mistake. I thought there was enough moisture still in the ground from the day before. When I came home from work the next afternoon however, they were all totally wilted. I was afraid I had killed them all. However, with a good soaking, and after the heat of the day was off, they sprang right back (mostly). So, note to self, always soak well after moving plants. Perhaps some of it was just the shock of the move, but either way, more water would've done them good.

So a week later, and most of them look like they are going to make it. I've lost a few, but most of them are putting on new growth. They were definitely right on the verge of becoming too big for their coffee cups when I decided to move them. I think the new space for their roots has done them good. Now to just water and wait I guess, while watching for problems. Now that they're in, a good soaking every other day seems to be keeping them happy.

I do need to transplant a few things yet. My beets, carrots, spinach, and lettuce have yet to get moved. I also need to get the corn planted. Hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow or Wednesday.

From the "Eat The View" campaign

Eat The View is a campaign to get the next president of the United States to plant a kitchen garden on the White House lawn. This is a 60 second promo video they have out.

http://vimeo.com/1519380

http://www.eattheview.org

One Week

Well, after one week things are looking decent. Everything has come up now except two of four peppers, and most of my spinach has yet to show. There might be a few other random things, like a bean or pea here or there that are slower starters then the rest, but almost all of the cups now have something showing in them. Yesterday I finally got around to building up the sides of the beds so that I could flood irrigate them. Then this afternoon I flooded the beds to water in the fertilizer and manure. I will probably do that at least once more. I was also advised that it is a good idea to cover the garden with clear plastic for a week or so after watering in the fertilizer, but before planting. Supposedly "solarizing" the soil in this way preemptively kills a lot of weed seeds etc... and sort of sterilizes the soil of harmful organisms. So I will probably give that a go. Here are some snapshots of my cucumbers, zucchini, and beans.

Today I thinned out the plants that had multiple sprouts in a cup. Some of the seeds are very small, and I put multiple seeds in a cup. Turns out that is quite unnecessary. So far I have lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, red beets, both types of tomatoes, beans, and peas all coming up.

Sprouts (aka the beginning)

So for the time being this blog will mostly be documenting my first gardening attempt ever. The fall/winter season is supposedly the best time to garden here in Phoenix. The season is basically from September till the first frost, which is usually December sometime. I am using George Brookbank's Desert Gardening, Fruits and Vegetables as my guide, and I'm generally following the recommendations found therein. Hopefully my backyard will be transformed from an empty dusty nothingness to rows of green veggies. This first post encompasses the work of Aug. 30 through today.

Background and research recap:

Although looking at the number of days between first and last frost, one might assume that you can garden year round here in the desert southwest, and to some extent, you would be right. However, the summer, particularly July and August are so hot that not much survives, so it is not entirely as it appears. We essentially have two fairly short seasons that are really prime for growing between a scorching summer, and the winter freezes, so often the varieties that do well here are short season types that were developed for more northern climates, where they also have short seasons, though for different reasons. I ordered all my seeds in the middle of August from Ed Hume Seeds. They specialize in short season varieties. My order arrived a week later. A complete listing of what I'll be attempting to grow this year, is as follows:

• Early Girl VF Hybrid tomatoes
• Sweetie tomatoes
• King of the North green peppers (sweet)
• Marconi Rosso red peppers (sweet)
• Red Ace Hybrid beets
• Marketmore 76 cucumbers
• Jackpot Hybrid bush zucchinis
• Blue Lake Pole beans
• Oregon Sugar Pod II peas
• Ingot Hybrid carrots
• Parris Island Romaine lettuce
• Olympia Hybrid spinach
• Arrowhead Hybrid bicolor sweet corn

Implementation:

With Steve Schrock's help we dug up three plots. The first is 10x10 ft just for sweet corn, then there are two 6x15 ft plots for everything else. Then I added steer manure, ammonium phosphate, and soil sulphur, dug those in and raked the beds. There rates were as followed, 1 cu. ft. manure for every 8 sq. ft., 3 lbs ammonium phosphate, and 5 lbs soil sulphur per 100 sq. ft. Those amounts are basically straight out of Brookbank's book. The soil here tends to be basic and very low in organic matter, and those additives work to correct that.



I started everything except the sweet corn in syrofoam coffee cups on my covered patio to give them an earlier start, while keeping them out of the heat/direct sun (we're still hitting 105). I used an organic potting mix, and they were all planted on Labor Day afternoon (Sept. 1). So far I've had to water them once in the morning, and once in the evening to keep them all moist. By Yesterday afternoon (Sept 3) I already had sprouts coming up! My lettuce was the first one I spotted, and the largest in number, with a few cucumbers peeking through as well. I was pretty surprised, but excited to see things growing so fast, since most of the seed packets said it would take at least a week.