Prepping it, Digging it...and so are the dogs!

Yesterday, we spent most of the day prepping the garden. Paul and I built a trellis out of re-bar and chicken wire for our snow peas and pole beans. Then we dug out river rocks along the side of the house where we plan to plant our tomatoes this year. We are raising the tomato beds using a cinder block enclosure. We theorize that the thermal mass of the cinder blocks and the brick of the house will create a more temperate climate for our heat loving tomatoes. We still plan to use walls of water around the tomato starts, that is, once we transplant the seedlings in mid-May. Hopefully the new home for our tomatoes will create the perfect micro-climate for an earlier yield and a longer growing season. I will report later in the season if this is the case.

Oh, yeah...we forgot to lock the latch on the gate to our garden last night. Our dogs got in. Now we have a nice big hole where I planted the lettuce a week ago. Can you classify dogs as garden pests? Hmph!

Oh I love trash...

In the words of wisdom  by Oscar the Grouch, "Anything dirty or dingy or dusty. Anything ragged or rotten or rusty. Yes, I love trash." And I think about my beautiful red wiggler worms devouring all the composed organic matter from our kitchen. What a wonderful job these red wigglers have..turning garbage into gold. Gold, gold, gold for our depleted garden soil. The decomposed bio-material and worm castings will give the needed nutrients to our deprived soil so that we can produce more viable and stronger crops. Oscar you had it right! You are even the perfect color. My red wigglers squirm with delight as they hear your song.

Harvesting rain...snow

It is amazing how much snow we still have in our north and south facing yards since the huge snow storms in January.  Over a year ago we added rain basins to our north facing front yard to hold the rain on our property (rather than it filling the water sewers). The ideas come from http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/, a totally amazing approach to harvesting rain in arid environments.  We plan to add more basins this spring.

We are also planning to cut our curb. The curb cut will capture some of the street run-off into our yard. Secure a city permit and re-mark the public utilities (and rent equipment to cut the curb), and we are set.  We purchased a metal culvert last year, and it sits until we can afford to convert it to a rain water cistern above ground. If only large sums of dollars landed magically in our lap -- then we could move forward with these great projects. I dream...

I can't wait to see this spring. The slow melting of the snow should give our growing season a great head start. 

Soak it up

Four years ago Paul installed a soaker hose system in our vegetable garden. That was our best growing season by far. However, the last three growing seasons we did not reinstall our soaker hose system, which in my humble opinion has been the demise of our exceptional yields.

It goes something like this (information shared by Paul via master gardening program). Water your garden as if you are watering an inverted cone-like sponge. The idea here is that you saturate the wide opening of the upside down cone until it reaches the point of the cone (the spot near the base of the plant). If the cone is well-saturated then plants will be able to access the water even in very windy, dry, sunny days - a regular occurrence in Flagstaff. So what the soaker hose does is allows the water to slowly soak into the inverted cone. Surface watering evaporates too quickly and if you hand water you will not spend us much time on each plant letting the water soak the conical sponge.

Mulching the surface of your garden will also prevent the soil surface from dehydrating too quickly.

So this year, we are going to reinstall soaker hoses in combination with mulching. I will report later in the season if my revisted approach is correct.


Soaker Hose Image Courtesy of http://grow.ars-informatica.ca/grow_topic.php?subject=wat0

Ground Hog...Please

Lorraine Elder writes on Twitter, "Wondering how to bribe a groundhog mañana. I srsly don't want 6 more weeks of winter. Then again, spring in these parts is no picnic either."

I am dreaming of a yard without snow, begging for a chance to dig my hands in the soil while absorbing the warmth of the sun on my back. True, spring is no picnic in Flagstaff. The wind is fierce. The weather is temperamental. Nonetheless, I yearn.

Reseed and Hope for the Best

This past weekend, Paul and I reseeded the garden with quick to germinate and harvest plants (arugula, cilantro, zucchini, 4 types of heirloom lettuce, sweet basil, and kale). It's a speed race since we have a little over 60 days before our first possible frost. Yowza!  And hopefully the ear wigs are under control so that we can yield some positive results.  Keeping all fingers and toes crossed. 

Lettuce Applause

Oh the virtues of lettuce are abundant in Flagstaff! Lettuce has been non-stop this season. We used seeds called the Heirloom Lettuce Collection from Seed Savers Exchange, and they have been worth every dollar (the 6 heirloom lettuce seed packages together as a package retail at $13.50 plus shipping ).

After two months of hand picking, the lettuce is just now getting a little tough. Time for harvesting the rest of the lettuce and reseeding this weekend for another batch. We will plant Arugula, which prefers cooler temperatures, in early fall.

Our early variety tomatoes are blooming like crazy. The tomatoes that are surrounded by walls o'water (see earlier post), are triple in size compared to the plants sans walls o'water. The tomatoes are also being watered using sweat hoses that are buried 8 inches below the surface. Water right at the roots -- just where it's needed.

Pole beans are climbing to the top of the trellises. However, our sugar snap peas are not doing so well this season. We have replanted several times this year with no luck. It could be the seed stock we have been using this season.

Corn is growing, but needs the monsoonal rains to really get it going.

Earwigs have been the pest of choice this season. Normally earwigs are a not-so-common pest in arid climates, but these little buggers took hold during an unusual wet late spring. They have practically decimated our squash (all varieties) and any recent seedlings we have planted.

“Man cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen" by Michel de Montaigne

My friend gave me a can of red wigglers. Instead of throwing them into the compost bin, I created my own red wiggler farm based on my hubby's recommendation (ya know, he is a master gardener). With a little research and a jewel of a website http://www.redwormcomposting.com/, I constructed my very own worm farm which resides quietly in the laundry room. View the video below for a detailed demonstration on how to build your own farm.

It's raining, it's pouring

For the past 2 weeks, Flagstaff has experienced monsoonal-like rains that usually occur later in the summer. The plants in our flower and vegetable gardens are crazy with delight. We will take it!

Wheelbarrow

Paul bought this old wheelbarrow from a neighbor who was moving away. She no longer needed it. Salivating, Paul handed five bucks over to our neighbor. The flat wheel, the handles full of splinters, and the basin filled with paint chips and rust now makes me think of Mater from the Disney/Pixar movie, Cars. And like an old tow truck, this beaten down wheelbarrow with a little bit of TLC (translation- inflating the wheel) was as good as new...well, as good as new for work in a Flagstaff garden. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Season Extenders: Cold Frames

In a previous post, I briefly mentioned the benefits of a cold frame. In Flagstaff, they are essential if you want your perennial plants to survive the winter (like my herb garden) or if you want to grow cold tolerant lettuce (like Arugula, Sorrel, Spinach) throughout the winter or early spring.


The cold frames above are made from a salvaged screen door with glass (see cold frame in the background) and a double pane window (see cold frame in the foreground). Paul added insulation board to further protect the plants. In the winter, you can close the cold frames for the duration of the season. During the spring, venting is a must. Temperatures can rise quickly to 120 degrees F.

Below are pictures of the herb garden and the lettuce garden which have been protected by the cold frames the entire winter. Lisa Rayner of Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains suggests to use rocks to add more thermal mass to your garden. It works. You will see how rocks are used in the picture below.

Thyme, Sage, Fennel, Oregano

Arugula and spinach with some green onions interspersed.

Dig It and then Dig it Again

Or another title for this post is double digging. That is exactly what we accomplished this past weekend. After expanding the garden, we prepped a new vegetable bed. Paul and I have found that double digging promotes root expansion. In past years, we double dug one garden and simply tilled the other garden. The garden that we double dug produced healthier plants with greater resistance to pests as well as provided a greater yield in the end. The reason you double dig in Flagstaff is that the subsoil is usually compacted into chunks of dry soil, looking much like rock. By digging out a foot of your soil and then tilling the next 6-12 inches, you begin to break up the compression. Also you add nutrients into the soil during the double digging process.

So here are the steps:

1. If you have any healthy top soil, dig the first 1-3 inches of the top soil onto a tarp. The top soil contains most of microorganisms, fungus, and micronutrients that nourish your plants. This is why removing this top layer is important. Keep in mind that virgin ground in Flagstaff may have an inch or less of top soil. The top soil is fairly dark compared to the subsoil underneath. Past the dark layer is the subsoil which is slightly lighter in color and most likely more compacted. You will be shoveling the top soil back onto your garden in the final stages of the double digging process.

2. Once you have removed the top soil, dig a trench that is approximately 12 inches deep. Shovel the dirt onto the side of the garden, but try to avoid mixing it with the topsoil. Later in the process, you will be shoveling the subsoil and then topsoil back into the trench.





3. With a pitchfork, till the subsoil about 6-12 inches. This breaks up the hard compressed subsoil and gives room for roots to expand. NOTE: We chose to till by hand instead of using a rototiller. We believe that tilling by a pitchfork preserves the integrity of the soil without destroying earth worms and other important soil properties. However, this approach is not scientifically proven.


4. After you tilled the under layer, add a layer of compost or fertilizer to add nitrogen and other important nutrients to the under layer. We used alpaca dung combined with alfalfa at this stage. The alfalfa will compost underground. Some people do not like using alfalfa because, if there are any seeds, they will sprout as seedlings. We simply weed the alfalfa plants out when they begin to surface.


5. Next shovel the subsoil back into the trench.

6. Now spread the top soil onto the top of the bed.

7. Add important nutrients onto the top soil. We added our own homegrown compost, Earth Magic (which contains mycorrhizae, or fungus root), Protein Crumbles (which feeds the mycorrhizae). See references in my Poor Man's Fertilizer post. Use a ground rake to mix the nutrients into the top soil. Saturate the garden with water.

Paul made this compost tumbler out of a rain barrel.

8. It is ideal to let the garden sit up to a week before you plant. We added hay as a mulch to prevent the top soil from drying out. We will remove the hay when we are ready to plant.

Double digging is an arduous process, but it is worth every tear, ache, and blister.

The 70's show

Flagstaff meteorologist, Lee Born, reports on this season's winter wrap up.

Winter Weather Wrap-Up With Flagstaff Meteorologist Lee Born
Gillian Ferris Kohl
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (2009-04-17) Though it's been nearly a month since winter was officially declared over...the snow has still been flying across northern Arizona. To give us a winter weather wrap-up and a preview of spring and summer conditions, Arizona Public Radio's Gillian Ferris Kohl spoke with Flagstaff meteorologist, Lee Born.

Lee Born announces that 70 degrees will be arriving next week. Finally!

It starts with a seed

My husband started seed trays in our laundry room, our makeshift greenhouse. We planted tomato, basil, and other seeds over 3 weeks ago. The seeds have already sprouted their first leaves. This is a huge feat since the weather has been less than ideal for starting seedlings in the garden.

Oh Hail, Sleet, Snow, Wind, and Rain!

The regional expression, "If you don't like the weather in Flagstaff, wait an hour," certainly applies during the last 12 hours in Flagstaff. Last night golfball size hail pummeled every street, car, and stray cat. Today, we experienced wind gusts nearing 45 mph combined with sleet, snow, and rain. This is yet another lesson why gardening can be so unpredictable in Flagstaff. One way to get ahead of the game and get behind the weather is to invest into cold frames. Cold frames extend your growing season on both ends. And cold frames give the added benefit of deflecting damage to your plants from possible hail and snow, especially during unpredictable spring.

We have used cold frames for the past three years. My husband made our cold frames by using salvaged windows, storm door, and wood. He added insulation inside the cold frames to provide further protection from the cold. If you are not inclined to make your own, you can purchase cold frames online.

My coveted herb garden of rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, cilantro survives every winter by being protected under a cold frame. I have already harvested arugula and spinach thanks to another cold frame! I can't say enough in praise of cold frames.

Walls O'Water

One way to give cold intolerant plants like tomatoes and basil a head start in Flagstaff is by using walls o'water. Walls o'water are made out of either clear greenish or reddish plastic tubes connected together in a big threaded circle. One end of each tube in the threaded circle is open. Water is then poured into each of the tube openings. The water, which is heated by the radiant heat during the day, tempers the air within the water walls to protect fragile seedlings against the cold frigid nights.

Getting the walls o'water to stand upright is a comedy of errors. There is no surefire way to get them to stand. But once they are upright, they are fairly stable. We usually plant the basil and tomato seedlings first, then surround the walls o'water around the young plants before filling the tubes with water. Although you can do this task alone, it's less destructive to have someone hold the walls o' water in place while the other one fills each tube with the water. I have found that supporting the walls with soil at the base helps to keep the walls more stable. Also, loosely closing the circle on the top so that it looks sort of like a retro teepee provides more stability. As long as there is water in each tube the walls o'water will remain stable. See Planet Natural for alternative detailed set-up instructions. As this article suggests, setting up the walls o'water a week before transplanting may prevent the seedlings from going into shock. Hmmm...I learned something new and may give that approach a shot this season.

Cold intolerant plants inside walls o'water will triple in size and double the yield compared to the same plants living (surviving more like it) outside the walls. They are worth every dollar.

Victory Garden

During World War II, leaders like Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged citizens like you and me to dig Victory gardens. If citizens grew some of their own food, then resources that were used to produce food for the masses could be redirected to the war effort.

In Flagstaff, victory garden simply means, "Celebrate any victory however small in your garden." If your one tomato ripens before the first fall freeze and your one basil plant survives the grasshoppers' unyielding appetite, scream to heavens, "Hallelujah!"

And a word to the first time Flagstaff gardener, just have fun. You may not get back what you put in. Staying educated about what edible plants work or don't work in Flagstaff gardens is your best approach to a better yield. James Crockett's Victory Garden is a good place to start. Mr. Crockett gardens in the equally inhospitable New England area, and many of his month by month suggestions apply very well in the Flagstaff garden. Also by amending your soil (see previous post) you will see dramatic improvements. So instead of 1 ripe tomato you may actually savor 5. Celebrate your garden victories however small.

Poor Man's Fertilizer

We awoke to a blanket of snow on this fine April day in Flagstaff. My mother-in-law from upstate New York calls this particular weather event "poor man's fertilizer." Let's hope and pray at least.

My husband scored on a bounty of alpaca dung this morning. "Four hundred pounds!" he said. Alpaca dung, a well-known nitrogen fixer, contains acidic pine shavings and alfalfa straw - a good carbon fixer. The combination together morphs into the ideal compost, especially for high alkaline soils of Flagstaff.

Bill McDorman of Seeds Trust in Cornville, AZ preaches, "it's all about the soil; if you fix your soil, you fix most of your problems." Adding compost to your soil fixes minerals and nutrients and balances your soil. And supposedly, adding mycorrhizal inoculum boosts played out and poor soils. According to the founders of Mycorrhizal Applications Inc., mycorrhizae literally means:

..."fungus" - "root" and defines the mutually beneficial relationship between the plant root and fungus. These specialized fungi colonize plant roots and extend far into the soil resource. Mycorrhizal fungal filaments in the soil are truly extensions of root systems and more effective in nutrient and water absorption than the roots themselves.

Mycorrhizae is becoming more available in nurseries, especially nurseries that endorse organic growing practices. Flagstaff Native Plant and Seed sells Earth Magic, a mycorrhizal humus, and when mixed with Protein Crumbles - a food source for mycorrhizae - the mycorrhizae will be greatly augmented in your soil. We have used this compound for the first time this season, and so the verdict is still out. I will be sure to update this blog later in the season.

Flagstaff's Banana Belt

We live in the Banana Belt of Flagstaff, located south of Mount Elden. The reason why this area is called the Banana Belt is because Mount Elden acts as a thermal mass trapping the sun from the day and tempering the cold air at night. During years gone by, this area was one of the few places where settlers could actually grow edible vegetation. In fact, our backyard is an old played out potato field, which unfortunately turned our soil into fine dusty dirt with little resemblance to healthy soil - yet another gardening challenge. Despite the banana belt effect, it is not unusual to see temperatures dip 40 degrees between daytime and nighttime even in this temperate area. Areas north, west, and east of Flagstaff can experience temperature differences up to 50 degrees between night and day. So the Banana Belt offers a promise, albeit a slight promise, to the otherwise frustrated Flagstaff gardener.