Fruitfulness

Zinnias (and beans, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, even if they aren't obvious)

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and self-control"

I've been thinking about this verse as I watch beautiful and delicious things grow in my garden. It's always been one of my favorites, but my understanding of it has changed over the years. I used to think of it as a checklist of qualities I was supposed to have, and berate myself when I felt depressed, anxious, or otherwise lacking in any of them.

But as I've watched my garden grow, and as I've grown older, I've come to the realization that I can no more will myself to bear spiritual fruit than the flowers, fruits, and vegetables in my garden can will themselves into being. A tomato plant creates tomatoes because it is a tomato plant, not because it decides to do so. Given the right amount of sunlight, warmth, water, and nutrients from the soil, it has no choice but to produce tomatoes. It is true that I planted some of the things growing in our backyard, but others have come up entirely on their own, from seeds scattered by the wind or birds, or from vegetable scraps I threw out for compost.

I think "the fruit of the Spirit" manifests itself in us like the fruits in a garden. It's not something we strive to achieve, but something that grows out of our relationship with God. As we nurture that relationship in whatever ways we've found work best, the "fruits of the Spirit" can't help but grow in our lives.

Tomatoes

Artichoke

Fig

Green beans

Strawberrie

Yellow squast

Peaches

Red potatoes

Plant a radish, get a radish?

I corresponded this week with Cathy Cromwell, who interviewed us last spring for a possible article in Phoenix Home and Garden magazine, about the timing for a photo shoot of our Arizona Backyard Eden. I'm guessing the garden will be at its best in late March or early April, which is when we've scheduled our annual IHS Retiree Luncheon in the Garden. At least I hope it will...gardens, like children, are seldom predictable, despite what this song from The Fantasticks might claim.

The nasturtiums and sweet allyssum I planted as a border around the raised beds didn't come up as thickly as I would have liked, so yesterday I transplanted a flat of marigolds to fill in the gaps. The roses may wind up blooming ahead of the larkspur and hollyhocks this year. The bushes are loaded with buds and a few of them have begun to open.

Is gardening dependable? Predictable? I think not, and to me that's part of the fun. But I would agree with the song  that "a man who plants a garden is a very happy man"!

Squash blossom

Yellow Iris

"Don Juan" climbing rose

Tea rose

Tea Rose

August overview

We've spent most of July clearing out the raised beds for fall planting. Summers here are like winters elsewhere...not much fun and not much success in the garden. Serious gardeners extend the growing season by putting up shadescreen over their vegetable beds, but we usually don't; we just give everything a rest.

An unexpected consequence of our conversion of the grass pathways to gravel was the loss of several more trees in the summer heat. In addition to the apple tree, a plum and a fig tree started showing signs of severe decline. My theory is that the tree roots were shallow and spread out because of the grass watering pattern, and couldn't adapt to a drip irrigation system.

If you're wondering what to plant in August, here's a list: We planted beans, carrots, lettuce, and summer squash in the smaller bed nearest the house and are going to try corn (again) in the larger bed by the streambed.

Today's pickings

Yellow squash, several kinds of tomatoes, peppers, green beans, peaches, and grapes. The Roma tomatoes are volunteers that are growing in the zinnia jungle.

Squash and eggplant

Yellow squash, and what was supposed to be a white eggplant and obviously is not.

Interestingly, this yellow squash was a transplant from a mound in another location. The squash that came up from seed in the original mound are doing rather poorly,while this one is flourishing. This eggplant is also doing much better than an older one that survived the winter.

In addition to the squash, I picked the first Armenian cucumber today from vines growing at the other end of this bed. I'll use it tonight, along with the last of the Purple Cherokee tomatoes, in tomato-and cucumber salad. There's no need to buy out-of-season lettuce for a salad when you have tomatoes and/or cucumbers.

OK, so I was wrong

I braved the heat long enough to due a little weeding in the back of the zinnia jungle, and found this acorn squash....

...so I checked the Armenian cucumber for signs of life and found these!

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.

Squash

It looks like will we get at least one zucchini this year. The urban legends about zucchini that multiply like tribbles haven't usually been born out in our experience. Generally, we have more luck with yellow squash than zucchini.

No fruit yet on the pattypan or acorn squashes, although the plants seem healthy. I'm seeing an abundance of female flowers and a deficit of male flowers on all the squash plants so far, and it takes two to tango, or to make squash. Thanks to zinnias, alyssum, and other heat-tolerant flowering plants we have plenty of bees and other pollinators. So, if the female:male ratio improves before it gets too hot, we ought to see more in the way of squash.

I spent a few minutes clearing out mint and Mexican primrose that was encroaching on the pattypan squash's access to water and sunlight. I do believe if a giant asteroid were to wipe out most life on earth, mint and Mexican primrose would survive, along with cockroaches. While doing so, I found a surprise in the way of a pepper plant I didn't know was there. I had pepper plants in that spot last year, so I assume this one either self-seeded or came up from the roots of a plant that appeared to be dead. I often just cut away dead or spent-looking plants, rather than uprooting them, so I don't disturb the roots of other things growing in the same area.

More baby vegetables

There are a couple of small yellow squash on the plant in the foreground, and I believe a zucchini on the upper plant. It's hard to tell when they're at this stage, because what looks like a fruit at the base of the female squash flower will wither away if it isn't pollinated. I haven't seen any male flowers open, but they must have at some point because the yellow squash at least are definitely past the embryonic stage, not only on this plant, but also on one I transplanted to another area. No sign of fruit yet on the acorn or flying saucer squash plants.

I picked enough green beans for a meal and about five small Japanese eggplant. This is the first time I've tried to get a second crop from a plant that came back from the roots after winter cold seemingly destroyed it. I'm not sure if they are so small because of that, or because it's not really hot yet. Eggplant really like the heat. When everything else suffers, eggplant, okra, and sweet potato vines keep going.

Baby vegetables

We're seeing the beginnings of green beans and yellow squash from our February plantings, as well as several Japanese eggplants on a plant that lived through the winter. Zinnias are coming up everywhere in this bed. I regret having to pull healthy, attractive plants up, but if I don't they will take over and crowd out the beans and squash. I once heard it said that the definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don't want it, but I still hate to pull up zinnias.

Bee-utiful borders

I like to plant flower borders around the perimeter of our raised beds, an idea I picked up from a Phoenix Permaculture Guild class we took a few years ago. Not only do they look nice, they attract bees which is helpful if you're trying to grow anything that requires an insect pollinator. And even if you aren't trying to grow food in your backyard, you're doing the environment a favor by providing for the bees.

There's a lot of speculation about why bee populations are declining, but one problem we have in large cities is the "urban desert" effect...buildings, parking lots, roads, and gravelscapes don't provide much in the way of livable habitat for them. The Maricopa County Cooperative Extension ran into this problem when they attempted a community garden project in an area of downtown Phoenix where there is a large homeless population. It was hoped that the garden would not only provide nutritious food to supplement the diets of people living in the area, but that the gardening skills they would learn might help some of them find work. But the Master Gardeners volunteering with the program found that many of the fruits and vegetables they planted never produced anything, because there were no bees living in the area to pollinate them. It would be a very serious problem if bees died out, so I'm happy to help them out any way I can, especially when what makes them happy makes me happy too.

The permaculture class suggested edible flowers, so I use a lot of nasturtiums, but they don't like really hot or cold weather. I usually plant petunias in late fall for winter color and in the spring, sweet alyssum and dwarf marigolds which will take the summer heat. I don't think you can see them, but there are dozens of bees on the alyssum in this photo. It has a sweet, honey-like scent that I think I enjoy as much as the bees do.

This bed contains bush snapbeans, tomatoes, and three kinds of squash. I didn't plant any of the tomatoes; one plant survived the winter and all the others are volunteers. I just put the cages around healthy-looking plants that came up in areas where I didn't have anything else planted. I'm not sure what kind of tomatoes they are as I had several kinds planted here last year. It will be interesting to see what they turn out to be.

The morning after

Subtract pea vines and add yellow squash and white eggplant transplants, along with a sprinkling of bloodmeal and a bag of mulch.

I dug up the yellow squash plant from a mound elsewhere in the yard where too many seeds came up. I haven't tried white eggplant before, but when I saw the plants at Home Depot, I thought I'd give it a try this year. Last year's Japanese eggplant is still alive, but the Black Beauty plant didn't make it.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something that needs weeding

Well, maybe not exactly borrowed, but my friend Lisa gave me two plants from a pony pack of a kind of squash that's new to me, a pattypan variety that look like little flying saucers. I found them a home in an unplanted spot of this raised bed.

Behind the newly planted squash plants is an artichoke I planted last year, and a Japanese eggplant that made it through the winter and is showing evidence of its resurrection by its vigorous new growth. And unfortunately, there is also a lot of Bermuda grass and mint that needs to be removed!

Gardening is like a box of chocolates

Gardening is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're going to get.

What is all this? I don't know yet. When seeds first come up, they all look pretty much alike. All seed plants produce either one (monocots, including corn and other grasslike plants) or two (dicots, including most other vegetables and flowers) embryonic leaves. It's not until the plant's first true leaves appear that you can begin to guess what the plant is, and that might be several days or even a couple of weeks.

When the true leaves appear, I'll be able to distinguish the smooth oval leaves of zinnias from the feathery leaves of larkspur. Telling a marigold from a tomato seeding, or a squash from a melon seedling, might take a little longer.

Knowing what was in this bed last year, I'm guessing that a fair number of these seedlings will turn out to be zinnias which I'll need to thin aggressively. There's some larkspur in this mix, too, and there are likely to be tomatoes considering how many wound up composting where they fell. And somewhere in there is the red okra I planted a couple of weeks ago.

Part of the fun for me is seeing what I wind up getting, and then trying to incorporate it into an attractive whole.

Spring plantings

Mid-February marks the beginning of prime spring planting time in the Phoenix area. High temperatures have been in the eighties the last few days, which is a bit warm for our normal February weather, but we're not likely to see freezing temperatures again this year. We planted yellow, zucchini, and acorn squash, cantaloupe and honeydew melons, and Armenian cucumbers in this bed. In another bed, which most recently hosted broccoli, we set out three more tomato transplants- Early Girl, Yellow Pear, and Purple Cherokee. I also found a spot for a new basil plant in a third bed.

.

We added two stepping stone pathways in this bed because it's too large to access plants for weeding and harvesting without stepping on (and compacting) the soil. Below you can see how we adjusted the drip tubing layout for mound rather than in-line planting- just coil the tubing around the mounds. We use the same setup around the tomato cages. I only got as far as planting the back part of the bed today; I plan to plant bush beans in the front part, and when I do I'll use straight rather than coiled sections of drip tube and plant two bean seeds under each emitter.

Also seen in this picture is some mondo grass (called monkeygrass in the South) I transplanted from the side of the house because it will no longer get water when we remove the last of our backyard lawn. I think it will make a nice edge plant for the streambed.

Winter squash vines

A couple of winter squash vines have escaped their raised bed and are snaking about eight feet across the grass under the apple tree. This is the first time I've tried winter squash, and I planted them in late February when I planted everything else. They've bloomed, but not set any fruit so far.

We finally got some rain from the monsoon activity yesterday. Rain is particularly welcome here because the high mineral content of the water coming through the drip lines can cause salt buildup in the soil, and burn the plants. A good monsoon storm helps wash all that stuff down away from the root zone.

Yesterday was the first day of the fall Master Gardener training class. I completed the class in 2010, so I'm volunteering as a mentor to interns taking the class, and Mike is taking the class as an intern. It's an intensive training, much like a college class in scope, and runs for three hours once a week for seventeen weeks. Each week we have a lecturer on a different topic, chosen from experts in that particular area. It's a very worthwhile experience and I'd recommend it for anyone seriously interested in gardening.

Gardens do not thrive on neglect

We just returned from a week in California leading a group of young people to work on repairs to a couple of aging city church buildings and some houses of low income and/or elderly members of the community. It was nice to sleep in a bed instead of a church floor surrounded by giggly teenagers, but it was not nice to take a stroll around our backyard garden! If a giant asteroid hit the earth and wiped out most life, I don't think the last thing alive would be cockroaches...it would be Bermuda grass. Yikes! I am not looking forward to the task of getting it out of the raised beds.

We have everything on drip irrigation, but this time of year I usually do a daily walkabout and provide supplemental water on an as-needed basis. Other than the Bermuda grass invasion, most things are still alive. I haven't seen any major casualties, other than the tomatoes, but I don't think I can blame their demise on lack of water. Because we took our portable pop-up canopies on the trip to shade people,  the poor tomatoes had none, and they really need it this time of year. There are some yellow squash and Japanese eggplant which grew to a harvestable size while we were gone, and the sweet potato vines are thriving. There are nice long vines on the winter squash, yardlong beans, zipper cream peas, and Armenian cucumbers, but no fruit yet.

One of the churches where our team works has a number of pocket gardens on the property, worked by people who live in a nearby subsidized apartment building populated by refugees from Eastern Europe and Asia. Many of these refugees suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome, and gardening is therapeutic as well as a source of economical and nutritious food. Some plots are maintained by homeless people. The church has a "Co-Op Cafe" serving the homeless which utilizes some of the produce. Here's a picture of some of these pocket gardens at the edge of the church parking lot. Anywhere there is a patch of dirt, someone will use it to grow food! I'd love to see this idea spread to other communities.

Nectarines in bloom

Our dwarf nectarine tree is loaded with blossoms this year. The peach tree behind it is already setting fruit. I also noticed one of the calla lilies blooming today, and I picked a nice bowlful of sugar snap peas and some asparagus.

I have to amend yesterday's "no squash seedlings" observation. I replanted the mounds with some seedlings I'd started indoors, and watered them in well. Today what should I see but a cotyledon from one of the zucchini seeds I'd planted in February breaking ground!

What a difference a week makes!

I've been gone for a week visiting my family in Alabama, and there have been quite a few changes in just a week. Things are finally waking up! There are blossoms on the apricot, apple, nectarine, almond, pear, and plum trees, and leaves on the crape myrtle. The roses have leafed out and should begin blooming in a couple of weeks. The three tomato plants I thought were dead have put out new growth, nasturtiums are blooming and some of the other annuals won't be far behind. Hollyhock plants are about two feet high. Even the grass is beginning to green up somewhat.

No beans or squash yet; I think that last cold snap hit at the wrong time for successful germination so I'll need to replant. The potato bush has come back nicely from the frost and the plumbago and snail vine are showing growth at the roots. The thevetia hedge hasn't really come back yet, although it's beginning to show signs of life. We pruned back the hibiscus and bougainvillea even further and never did find green wood, so it will be a long time before they come back.

We had Paul from The Pond Gnome over yesterday for a consultation and got some good ideas for projects to improve our ponds and streambed. We used flagstones to line the pond banks and streambed, and a lot of them have deteriorated. He suggested replacing them with rip rap, which will give us the same red rocks look and be more stable, and also replacing some of our pond plants with less invasive species.