Taming the blackberry jungle

Cooler weather means it's more enjoyable to work outside (and less risk of succumbing inadvertently to heat stroke!) Today I worked on pruning, fertilizing, and mulching some sadly sun-stressed blackberries in a narrow raised bed between our lemon and orange trees. Blackberries do rather well here and spread like wildfire, but to produce fruit they need some shade during the summer. Otherwise they scorch and dry up before fully ripening. We didn't shade the ones in this location soon enough last May, so we didn't get any edible fruit.(Here's a link back to a post with a picture of the shade we constructed in another location and another one that discusses how to build shade screens. Next year, we'll put one in this location too)

After a given cane produces fruit, it's done. It won't produce any more from that cane, which will eventually die, and should be removed to give the new canes space to grow. This should be done right after fruiting, when it's relatively easy to differentiate this year's fruit-producing canes from the ones that will produce fruit next season. I didn't do it then, but better late than never.

After removing the floricanes, I attempted to remove as much of the Bermuda grass, nutsedge, and dollarweed invaders as possible, sprinkled the area with a little organic fertilizer, and mulched it with pine straw. I'm very appreciative of friends with a cabin in Flagstaff who regularly bring us bagfuls of the stuff. It's great for keeping weeds down, lowering the soil temperature, and conserving moisture. It doesn't break down as rapidly as bagged mulch, and as it does, it helps acidify our alkaline soil.

Here's a link to an article on blackberry cultivation in the low desert with detailed instructions and drawings explaining how to prune them.

 (Totally unrelated to gardening, but the source of my pine straw supply is a writer with several published mystery and Austen variation novels. If you enjoy reading those genres, you might be interested in the descriptions on her  blog  and website.)

Stayin' Alive

This year we're trying something new for us: temporary shade screens. I got the idea from some Facebook gardening groups I'm in, and Mike figured out how to build them. We have a couple of different designs. The simplest ones, shown above over the tomato plants, are just 30% shade cloth from Arizona Bag Company.. Here's a link to a Youtube video on how to construct these. The instructions are for young fruit trees (see picture below) but we just made a bigger one for the tomatoes.

Our new Ein Shemer apple tree (planted this spring) was really suffering from the heat. I'd painted the trunk earlier in the spring, but it just doesn't have enough of a canopy to protect it from the afternoon sun. The leaves were becoming dangerously singed around the edges as our temperatures soared into the teens. We hope that by providing it a little extra shade this summer, it will survive and grow big enough that it won't need the shade screen next summer.

We also expanded the shade screen over the blackberry bush to cover our new Brown Turkey fig tree (planted last fall). It was thriving until the heat set in, and produced several dozen figs which are ripening now. This design is made out of PVC pipe, with the shade screen held in place by grommets. It's a little sturdier, but also more time-consuming to construct. We purchased all the materials at Home Depot, and I'm not sure what percentage the shade screen is but it's more than 30%. I got the idea for this one from pictures people had posted in this Facebook group. and Mike adapted their designs for our needs. Once an engineer, always an engineer...and a very handy one!

This month in the garden

I've been neglecting this blog, but have been fairly diligent about posting a picture a day to my Facebook gardening album, which is easier than thinking of something clever, inspirational, or educational to post here. Plus I think most of those who read this blog are also my Facebook friends.

We've had an unusually mild spring so far, but summer is here, and I tend to let the garden go because it's too hot. As you can see, zinnias are taking over our largest raised bed, which we planted in February with tomatoes, squash, beans, and eggplant. We're working on thinning them by "chop-and-drop" method, which means cutting them off and ground level and cutting into smallish pieces to use as mulch. This time of year plants can use all the mulching they can get.

Mike built a shade structure for one of our blackberry bushes out of PVC pipe and shade screen. Here it is behind the fig tree.. It has been a success...we harvested blackberries for the first time this year. In the past they've dried up before ripening.

Speaking of figs, they are also beginning to ripen. We planted a Brown Turkey fig last fall to replace the Ein Shemer apple that died after we converted the grass lawn to gravel. The small tree is loaded with figs.

We continue to harvest tomatoes and squash, but they're fading fast. The green beans have about had it too, but the eggplant and melons are beginning to produce. I didn't even plant the melon..several vines came up as volunteers, including this one in the gravel pathway! Part of the fun of gardening for me is unplanned surprises like this.

Early June overview

Yesterday marked the first 110 degree temperature of the year, and it's expected to be equally hot today.

We're still harvesting tomatoes, although most of them have stopped setting new fruit. Cherry and yellow pear tomatoes continue to produce, and I've found producing volunteer tomatoes all over the place. There are two volunteer cherry tomato plants growing out of the rocks lining the streambed, an as-yet unidentified tomato growing out of a parsley plant, and numerous kinds hiding out in the zinnia jungle.

The transplanted yellow squash in the foreground bed produces a nice-size squash every other day or so. The original mound, which lies in the large bed behind Zinnialand, hasn't done as well. The squash it produces are rather small if picked before they begin to darken and harden. I've gotten about one grey zucchini a week from the same bed, and nothing so far from the pattypan. The acorn squash has produced a long vine along the edges of the pond, but no sign of fruit yet. I haven't seen any melons or Armenian cucumbers yet, either. That's interesting, because the bed is alive with bees, hummingbirds, and other pollinators attracted to the zinnias and the artichoke blossoms. Maybe they are too busy with those flowers to bother with the squash and melon blossoms.

Last year's Japanese eggplant is still producing, and the new one is setting fruit. It was supposed to be a white eggplant...one Japanese eggplant is plenty..but it's clearly not. Some of the strawberry plants are still alive and producing, and I actually found a few blackberries that ripened rather than drying up.

Sweet potatoes are showing up in last year's planting beds. Obviously I didn't remove them all when I harvested them last fall. There are enough of them that I decided not to plant new ones. We're still harvesting smallish red potatoes from the bed under the lemon tree, as well as small but edible red onions.

I'm pretty sure our sick apple tree isn't going to make it, as its stunted leaves have turned from green to brown. What remains of the old peach tree appears fairly healthy, although it is a shadow of its former self. We should get the first peaches from one of the new ones we planted last year later this month. And of course, there are plenty of green citrus fruits growing on our grapefruit, orange, lemon, and lime trees.

Today's harvest

This morning's pickings included a bowlful of yellow pear tomatoes, three Early Girls, one Purple Cherokee, one mystery tomato, the first two cherry tomatoes from the volunteer plants that are sprouting like weeds everywhere, and a nice batch of green beans. Not shown are the yellow squash and Japanese eggplant we picked and ate last night in an adaptation of this Julia Child recipe.

 I also found four strawberries and two blackberries which actually ripened instead of drying up. They were eaten before I could get them to pose for a picture.

Berry disappointing

I love home grown strawberries, which taste so much sweeter than store-bought ones. But our climate isn't the best for them, so we never get more than a few each season. I picked (and ate) six today.

As far as other berries go, blackberries are the ones most suited for our climate but even then getting edible fruit is a challenge. Unlike blueberries and raspberries, which prefer a more acid soil than I can provide with any amount of amendments, blackberry canes thrive to the point of being invasive. We bought one plant when we first put in the raised beds, and I later realized that putting them in the same bed with asparagus and roses was a mistake, so I dug them up (or so I thought) and transplanted them to three different places where they would have more room. Not only are the transplanted plants growing and spreading, blackberry canes continue to pop up in various locations in the original bed.

Unfortunately their vigorous vegetative growth has not led to an abundance of tasty fruit. They have no problem setting fruit, as you can see in the picture on the right, but unfortunately the berries sublimate from an unripe and sour red to a dessicated brown, bypassing the juicy, sweet black stage I was anticipating. I did a little research via my friend Google and found the problem might be caused by (a) too little water or (b) too much sun. Shading is suggested, and I haven't done that. I also haven't given them extra water during flowering and fruiting time, because the leaves haven't shown any signs of water stress.

If you're interested in growing berries in the desert, here are some links for further information:

Phoenix Permaculture Alliance thread on growing strawberries
UA Cooperative Extension publication on growing blackberries
UA Cooperative Extension publication on growing fruits in the low desert (Scroll down to the very bottom to see recommended varieties of strawberries and blackberries)

Moving Day

We took advantage of the recent rain to move a blackberry out of one of the raised beds to a less crowded location along our back fence. (See item #8 here) Here it is in its new home between an orange tree and a grapevine, which isn't visible in this picture because it is dormant. It should have more to room to spread here, I'll be able to pick the asparagus in the other bed without being attacked by blackberries, and we should be able to pick blackberries here without stomping on asparagus or being maimed by rose thorns.

Summertime blahs

Summer is not my favorite time in the garden. It's too hot to work for more than a few minutes at a time, and it's a constant battle to make sure everything is getting enough water. We have a fairly sophisticated drip/minisprayer system, but drip irrigation is never maintenance-free. Drips get plugged and don't put out adequate water, or a sprayer works loose from its stake and sprays in the wrong direction, so we're constantly repairing and trying to improve the system.

The corn is going to be a disappointment, I'm afraid. Some of the silks have already turned brown and are not filled out, so I would say our experiment with hand-pollination was unsuccessful. Most of the pole beans died as a result of an emitter-failure that went undetected for a couple of weeks, and the surviving ones have no beans. I think it may be too hot for the pollen to be active now. Although we have several squash plants, I can see only one squash growing, and a couple of smallish Japanese eggplants. Tomato plants still have fruit, although they probably won't set any more this summer- too hot for them. There are a handful of blackberries and blueberries left, and our June-fruiting peach tree has a half-dozen peaches.

Sometimes all you can do is keep on keeping on- five minutes at a time weeding, checking for those plants that need supplemental water, and wait for the weather to cool off!

Good Mulch

If you miss two weeks in the garden, you miss a lot, and that's how long I've been away from it. Larkspur, hollyhock, bachelor's button, sweet alyssum, black-eyed susans, yarrow, and Gloriosa daisies have faded and gone to seed, which the birds are enjoying. Surprisingly there are a few petunias and snapdragons still blooming. Without my daily walks through the garden to pull up the tall dandelion-like weeds, they have multiplied exponentially. Some things are wilted because of malfunctioning drip irrigation emitters-checking the moisture status of plants and giving supplemental water when needed is another daily responsibility. However, nectarines, blackberries, and tomatoes are ripening, pole beans have started to produce, and the apple tree is bowed over by an abundance of fruit. Squash, melon, and cucumber plants look anemic and spindly...the spring flowers grew faster than the spring vegetables, and probably shaded them too much. The corn plants are producing tassels, and soon we will see if our hand-pollination efforts produce any edible ears.

We spent the morning pulling up flowers that were past their prime, and removing weeds and grass from the raised beds. This involved separating the dead flowers from the weeds as their remains will make a good mulch that also contains the seeds of next year's flowers. The weeds and grass have to go into the trash as we don't want their seeds spread around. (Unfortunately, quite a few of the ones that sprouted in my absence have already done that) There were a few surprises that were hidden until we removed the taller plants- tiny zinnia and snapdragon plants that sprouted from last year's seeds. After a run to Home Depot, I planted a few six-packs of vinca and portulaca in the most barren raised bed, scattered more zinnia and cosmos seeds, and topped it all off with two bags of mulch.

As I was pulling up plants and separating them into usable and nonusable piles, I was reminded of the parable Jesus told of the wheat and the tares:

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

This story probably came to my mind as I was working today because two recent events that occurred in close proximity have caused me to think about "the end of the age", or at least human mortality. In practical terms for the individual, I think the two are synonymous. First, there was a great deal of publicity about the May 21 Rapture prediction by Harold Camping, which of course, did not happen. Second, my younger sister suddenly and unexpectedly died due to a complication from a medication she took that was supposed to prolong her life, not take it. As "no man knows the day or the hour" of Jesus's return, so also no one knows when his or her life may end. I hope and I pray that my life will be the kind of "good mulch" that enriches the soil and contains the seeds that will one day grow into next spring's beautiful flowers.