Something new

Last year I decided to try growing tomatillos, and got none because I only planted one plant. I learned later that at least two plants are needed so that they will cross-pollinate, so this year I planted two. For months they've done nothing, but yesterday I noticed several dozen small fruits. They're really interesting in their papery shells. If you're interested in trying to grow them, here's a helpful link:http://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-tomatillos/

Wheat and tares and melons

Jesus once told a story about a farmer who found his crop heavily infested with weeds. Rather than attempt to dig the offending plants out, possibly causing damage to the roots of his wanted crop in the process, he decided to allow wheat and tares to grow together until harvest time. When that time came, he reasoned, he could pull everything up at once, keep the good stuff, and throw away the bad.

September marks a "pull everything up and start over" season in our gardening year. During the long, hot summer, "weeding", if done at all, mostly meant chop-and-drop...that is, cut the weeds off close to the ground and toss their carcasses on the ground where they provide a cooling and water-conserving mulch for the roots of our fruit and vegetable plants. But as the weather cools and the days shorten, most of our summer crops are at the end of their life span, and it's time to get serious about digging up weeds, roots and all, prior to planting fall crops.

Bermuda grass is a particularly invasive and persistent enemy, one whose roots can go down several feet. We know it's impossible to eliminate entirely without the use of herbicides, which we really prefer not to use in close proximity to things we plan to eat. Mint, Mexican primrose and Mexican petunia, and a large cloverlike creeping plant are also invasive, although not as deep-rooted. Now is the time for these things to go away from places they are not wanted, at least until next spring when we'll repeat the process.

We're leaving some plants that are still producing in place...eggplant mostly, and a few surviving tomato plants that might be coaxed into setting a second crop. We thought about digging up this melon, which has produced nothing but rampant vegetative growth...or so we thought. As we peeked through its leaves this morning, we found two good-sized honeydew melons that were hidden by the leaves on its vines. I think we'll wait on digging up the Bermuda grass that is growing in here for a bit longer.

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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.

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

A time for every thing

Now that the photographer has come and gone, we're enjoying this (probably the last for a while) cool spell by working on some garden projects that we've been putting off. I also find my garden time more relaxing since I don't feel the need to keep it "company ready" at all times. Here are a few overview photos taken from different angles.

We've wondered if the photographer came out at exactly the optimum time. The roses were past their peak and fading fast, and the hollyhocks and coreopsis weren't blooming yet, although I think he got some nice pictures of larkpur, nasturtiums, and Mexican petunias in bloom. The vegetables have grown quite a bit, and I picked the first squash and green beans yesterday, along with the last of the broccoli and asparagus.

 I've also noticed this week, that while I thought of several ideas for blog posts about the thoughts that came to me while I was gardening, those posts never came to be. I'd think of an idea and tell myself I'd do it later, when I finished whatever gardening task I was doing when I thought of it. Then I'd find something else to do and promptly forget about it!

Ideas, like gardens and much else in life, are fleeting things, and sometimes it's best to act on them right away. However, I think there's something to be said for delayed gratification as well. "Seize the day", if acted on continuously, becomes "Look, a squirrel!" and nothing gets done. There needs to be a balance.

Although the photographer missed prime time for some things, I think he found plenty of things worth photographing. The nature of a garden, like that of the human mind, is growth and change. Like life, not everything in my garden is beautiful at the same time, and there is no such thing as a perfect moment. Roses give way to larkspur and larkspur gives way to coreopsis. Lettuce and peas will be replaced by squash, tomatoes, and beans, and those will in turn give way to eggplant, peppers, and melon. So it is with ideas, and with life in general.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

"He has made all things beautiful in his time."

Photographing the photographer

A photographer from Phoenix Home and Garden came out the afternoon of April 1 and spent about three hours taking pictures in our backyard, and I sneaked a few pictures of him taking pictures. It was interesting to watch him at work.  He was assisted by a digital designer from the magazine, who turned out to be one of my former students.

I don't think I'll ever look at a magazine picture the same way again. They probably spent more time composing pictures than they did taking them. First, they walked around the yard and when they found something they thought might make an interesting picture, looked at it from several angles. Then they waited for the light to get just right before taking any shots. Parts of the experience were simply hilarious, mostly the ones that included us in the picture. The photographer posed us the way he wanted us, and then we had to pretend to be working while remaining looking in a particular direction. The sun was in our eyes, so Julena (the digital designer) had to stand up in one of the raised beds and put her arms out to block it so we wouldn't squint.

I'd love to have copies of the pictures he took, but I understand there are probably copyright issues involved. We don't know when (or if) the article will come out in the magazine...they said it could be two months, or it could be a year.