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The Arizona Desert Vegetable Garden
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Garden Diary

Fall 2000/Spring 2001

The same old garden bed has been used for several years. To start off this season, on one part of the garden, homemade compost was spaded in; and on the other part homemade compost, ammonium phosphate, Dispersul, and perlite. The experiment was to see which part did better, even though each part doesn’t get exactly equal sunlight. We had the following in our vegetable garden this period:

  1. broccoli (Waltham 29)
  2. mustard greens (Florida Broadleaf India Mustard)
  3. spinach (Indian Summer Hybrid & Teton Hybrid)
  4. carrots (Red Cored Chantenay)
  5. radish (French Breakfast)
  6. lettuce (Buttercrunch)
  7. beet (Ruby Queen)
  8. cauliflower
  9. Swiss chard (Fordhook Giant)
  10. turnip greens (Seven Top Greens Turnip)
  11. parsley (Extra Curled Dwarf)
  12. cilantro
February update---
The mustard greens were very tasty. When I went to pick the turnip greens for the first time, I discovered aphids. Last year I tried controlling the aphids with washing using soapy water, but they kept spreading, so this time I just removed all the turnip greens and most of the mustard greens. Every few days I squish the few aphids I see that are trying to get started on the broccoli. The cauliflower, which had over-summered from the year before with very little water, bore cauliflower that tasted sweet. It didn't have that common bitter taste, and even a normal non-lover of cauliflower might have liked it (like me). Alma's been eating the lettuce and says it's very good. I don't eat lettuce. I don't know what happened to the Swiss chard. It came up, and all of a sudden there wasn't any. The radishes were okay. It's hard to grow them economically since you can buy a big bunch at the store for a dollar. I don't like them much and thought being home-grown they might taste more mild, but if so not enough mild for me. We've been using lots of spinach, so prolific here. The one variety (forget which one) has a wrinkled leaf and is hard to clean. It has a different taste than the smoother-leafed one, but not so much better to me that it's worth the hassle of washing it. So much rain this year has splashed up lots of dirt on the plants. Alma's been using cilantro in cooking. The carrots and parsley are maturing very slowly.
As for the difference in soil amendments, in the part with several additives, the spinach looked better but the broccoli worse. I think that's probably due more to watering or sun exposure differences. There's no major obvious difference yet.

May update---
The garden is quickly winding down due to the summer heat. The broccoli didn't produce well, hardly at all. Next year I plan to buy plants instead of using seeds for the broccoli. The cilantro has gone to seed, so we get coriander from it. There was no obvious difference in the two soil amendment techniques. For some reason carrots used to do well, but the last few years they don't mature rapidly enough to beat the heat.
We decided to not plant a summer garden due to lack of time to tend to it. A few things have done well here in the summer: watermelon, sweet corn, and okra.
Fall 2001/Spring 2002

December 2001---
We started again to make the garden for the winter of 2001/2002. The garden was spaded in October with 10 gallons of homemade compost mixed in with the south part, nothing extra added to the north part. On October 20, we made a trip to the store to get some broccoli plants. After not finding any in three stores we ended up at Kmart. There were the sorriest looking vegetable plants I've ever seen. It was kind of from pity we bought some broccoli and cauliflower plants, to plant them before they withered away. From October through December the following seeds were sown:
  1. mustard greens (Florida Broadleaf India Mustard)
  2. spinach (Indian Summer Hybrid & Teton Hybrid)
  3. carrots (Red Cored Chantenay)
  4. Swiss chard (Fordhook Giant)
  5. parsley (Extra Curled Dwarf)
  6. snow peas (Oregon Sugar Pod II)
As always, there is cilantro coming up volunteer.
So...as of December, we're watching things grow and are waiting to start eating.

March 4 update---
The cauliflower and broccoli have been mostly harvested. The cauliflower was sweet again this year. The broccoli produced a little then started to flower instead of continuing production. I haven't found the key to keeping it going before flowering. We've eaten some mustard greens, not as good as in the past--a little bitter. The spinach is just now ready to use. Some younger spinach plants were thinned out and moved to where the cauliflower plants were. The carrots didn't come up. I think fresh seeds are maybe necessary for carrots. A few parsley plants are just now starting to show up. The snow peas look great as plants, but so far no peas. The Swiss chard was thinned and the extra ones tasted great. A possibility is to plant Swiss chard real thick and eat it raw as a young plant. We've got several tomato seeds sown to set out when frost is no longer a danger, some Sweet 100; and some heirloom seeds, a new venture for me. It's a constant battle to keep the cilantro from taking over.
The broccoli and cauliflower in the north part were mulched with the homemade compost. It hopefully added some nutrients into the soil at each watering.

May 31 update---
The spinach tasted good, but there wasn't much of it before it bolted. The Swiss chard did real well and is still producing. The parsley has been doing very well for many weeks now. The snow peas that were sown November 21 were very fruitful, producing more than we could eat from just a 4-foot row. Some snow peas that were sown January 21 hardly had any peas. What a difference the sowing time made. If one had tried planting snow peas only in January, they could have been disappointed and never try them again. The cilantro has matured and is giving lots of coriander seeds. The Sweet 100 tomatoes are ripening and just about to bear enough for meals if they can win the race with the severe summer heat. The heirloom tomatoes didn't survive, but I hope to try again next year with the few seeds I still have.
We've discovered a method, new to us, to cook spinach and Swiss chard. You can heat up a skillet with some oil or butter and some seasoning, for example mustard seeds and a mint leaf or two. Salt is optional. Then throw in the leaves and cover the skillet to keep in the steam from the moisture in the leaves. In a few minutes turn the leaves over kind of like flipping a pancake. In a few more minutes they're done.
I sowed a few okra seeds awhile back. There are two squash-looking plants that came up volunteer. If we're around to apply water then maybe we'll have something this summer. If not then we'll wait till fall.


Summer 2002

October---
The garden is partly a continuation of the spring garden. The squash-looking plants were volunteer cantaloupes. Usually the bugs get in underneath the cantaloupe and eat into them ruining them, maybe after softening from mold growth. This time I put a pile of perlite with a little soil sulfur mixed in underneath the sole cantaloupe. It seemed to work, and we had the best tasting melon I've ever eaten. Too bad there was only one. The okra plants didn't bear enough to make the effort worthwhile. The ants destroyed each okra pod later in the season. One of the plants bent over to the ground for the ants to discover one okra pod, and then they climbed to the other pods as they ripened. The Sweet 100 tomatoes produced many tiny but good tasting tomatoes and are still alive but not bearing. One bunch of parsley and one Swiss chard plant survived the summer.


Fall 2002/Spring 2003

February update---
One Sweet 100 tomato plant was nursed along until it bore a few fall tomatoes. They tasted awful. The alma fig tree roots had invaded one end of the garden, and it took quite awhile to dig them out and to put in a deep barrier with plastic and concrete squares to slow them down next summer. I'd wondered why I had to water the garden so often and the tree not so often last summer. We spaded in twenty gallons of homemade compost and put in the following in November and December:
    --plants--
  1. broccoli
  2. cauliflower
    --seeds--
  3. mustard (Mizuna)
  4. spinach (Indian Summer Hybrid & Teton Hybrid)
  5. Swiss chard (Rhubarb Red & Lucullus)
  6. parsley (Extra Curled Dwarf)
  7. snow peas (Oregon Sugar Pod II)
  8. turnip greens (Seven Top Greens)
  9. beet (Ruby Queen)
There's still parsley and Swiss chard growing from last year. As always, there's volunteer cilantro everywhere. I've sown a few heirloom tomato seeds in containers on a window sill, but they haven't come up yet.
We're already eating broccoli, Swiss chard, and are cooking with cilantro.

Mid-March update---
A lot has happened since February since there were a lot of vegetables planted. There were a few days of record heat that weren't good for some of the vegetables. Things seem to go better in years with gradually climbing temperatures. The cauliflower did well and tasted great. As has been happening lately, the broccoli either goes to seed quickly or sometimes even bypasses the head-forming period and goes directly to flowering. The mustard was a little bitter, but maybe because of the rapid maturity. The spinach has been steadily producing. The Swiss chard has given us lots of healthy meals. The parsley grows very slowly and will hopefully survive the summer for next year's crop. The snow peas once again give us more than we can eat. They taste great, sweet when eaten raw. The turnip greens aren't doing well. The beets are progressing and should be ready soon. There's plenty of cilantro to use for flavoring in cooking. There have been some aphids, but they came later on in the season and didn't ruin too much.

June update---
The leafy vegetables have mostly bolted or slowly faded away. The beets were small and of low quality as in the past. I've concluded they aren't the best crop for our garden. We didn't plant anything for the summer due to lack of time to tend to it. The parsley slowly grows and should produce well in the fall and winter.


Fall 2003/Spring 2004

 November---
The garden is planted with the following:
    --plants--
  1. Comet broccoli
  2. Premium broccoli
  3. Early Snowball cauliflower
  4. Sweet marjorum
    --seeds--
  5. mustard (Pak Choi)
  6. spinach (Indian Summer Hybrid)
  7. Swiss chard (Rhubard Red & Lucullus)
  8. snow peas (Melting Sugar)
  9. carrot (Gold Mine)
There are also still a few plants from last year of parsley and Swiss chard. We spaded 34 gallons of homemade compost into the garden and stirred 11 gallons of perlite in the north section.

February 15 update---
The broccoli comes all at once, so we have it in at least one meal a day. I did a taste test with the old standard Comet variety vs. the Premium which was new for us. The Comet contained that familiar, slightly bitter taste that makes broccoli so unpopular. The Premium variety had much less of that, tasting a bit sweeter, but with a faint metallic-like aftertaste. The Pak Choi mustard plants bolted in early February without any particularly warm days. Won't try those again. There's lots of parsley that was from last season. The carrots never sprouted. The marjorum doesn't look too great. Everything else is not quite ready yet.
Aaron with hoe
hoeing
Aaron with cauliflower
cauliflower
April 18 update---
The broccoli and cauliflower are long gone. Both did well this year. The spinach was a little weak in production, but the Swiss chard did as good as ever so took up the slack. The snow peas also did very well. No carrots came up continuing a bad record of not getting a good stand of carrots. The sweet marjorum and parsley are doing okay. There is always cilantro that comes up volunteer. It wasn't so prolific this year. The plan was to get seeds from the mustard plants to use for cooking and from other plants for other purposes, but the finches discovered them and ate them instead. It was fun watching them -- I guess. We put in two Early Girl tomato plants in mid-March. There are some volunteer gourds or melons coming up, probably from seeds that survived the compost heap.


Summer 2004

September 20 update---
The tomato plants grew and then suddenly stopped growing, probably due to some disease. We had about three tomatoes. If we try tomatoes next year it will be in a different spot. The melon plants, or whatever they were, didn't survive the summer heat. On August 21, we sowed some Sugar Dots Hybrid sweet corn. It's looking very good, but the whiteflies arrived a week or so ago and can cause lots of damage.
Fall 2004/Spring 2005

November 17 update---
All there is is corn, and lots of it. The seed packet said 75 days to harvest, and we had the first ear on day number 76. The peak harvest time was about a week later. Many of the ears are small, I'm guessing because of the cooler weather coming during maturity time. Perhaps the corn should have been sown a week or two earlier to have enough heat to fill out the ears. What there is tastes great. I highly recommend the Sugar Dots Hybrid variety.

January 2005 update---
On November 21, 2004, the garden was planted with the following:
    --seeds--
  1. mustard (Florida Broadleaf)
  2. parsley (Extra curled dwarf)
  3. Swiss chard (Rhubard Red, Lucullus, & Fordhook)
  4. broccoli (Calabrese Green Sprouting)
  5. carrot (Gold Mine)
A few gallons of homemade compost were mixed in with the soil where the broccoli and carrots were sown. Everything has come up and looks good so far. The sweet marjorum looks healthy, unlike when it was 105 degrees last summer. There is also still one old thriving parsley plant. As always, there are a few volunteer cilantro plants. This season is an all-seed garden with no transplants since there is minimal time to spend on the garden, hence a low investment. We bypassed spinach this time, normally a favorite, but last year it didn't do as well as the years before and was a little discouraging.

May 15 update---
It was a season with much more rain than normal. If I'd have known that I'd have planted more. We have a small area for the core garden and then make temporary gardens here and there, but not this time. The Swiss chard did real well. The Fordhook tasted the best, with a sweet aftertaste. We've had Fordhook Giant before which may be the exact same variety for all I know, but I don't remember it tasting so good. The carrots did well and tasted great, the first time we had success with carrots in many years. The broccoli went to flower even in a cool, moist winter and was pretty much useless. The mustard bolted early and didn't do much good either. The parsley's coming up slowly but surely as always and should supply us throughout the summer. The old parsley plant went to seed. The sweet marjorum is still plugging away.
The heat is here, 100 degrees today for the first time this year in Phoenix, so it's time to think of the summer garden. As has been the case recently, there's no time to tend to one. There's a volunteer tomato plant with two green tomatoes, one bird-pecked. The coriander seeds are nearly ready to gather if the insects and birds don't get them first. So now, it's most likely 'wait till fall.'


Summer 2005


Not too much went on this summer since the garden wasn't maintained except for adding a little water now and then to see what would happen. The volunteer tomato plant resulted in two small, tasty tomatoes. There were several volunteer tomatillos that didn't bear more than one or two fruits that disappeared before picking. One volunteer cantaloupe came up, looked good, then shriveled up after the whiteflies attacked it. If I'd had seen the cantaloupe growing on it that showed up after the leaves dried up, I may have tried to save it. The parsley and sweet marjorum survived the summer. There's a giant plant, either a cauliflower or broccoli. I'm anxious to see if it bears this winter.


Fall 2005/Spring 2006


This season I sowed the garden earlier than normal to try to get a good stand before the hot spring temperatures. Due to lack of free time, I only did a small segment and only spaded it without adding any amendments.

On October 1, the garden was planted with the following:
    --plants--
  1. unidentified broccoli, six plants
    --seeds--
  2. mustard (Pak Choi & Mizuna)
  3. Swiss chard (Lucullus)
  4. broccoli (Calabrese Green Sprouting)
  5. carrots (Gold Mine & Nantes Coreless)
I'd said I'd never try the Pak Choi mustard again but decided to try one more time.

March 2 update---
And the Pak Choi never worked again this time, bolting about as soon as it grew out of the ground. The broccoli tasted great, what little there was before flowering. Maybe the lack of large broccoli heads before flowering was the warm weather, or maybe I don't water often enough. Wish I knew. Not one carrot came up. The Mizuna mustard did well and tasted very good. I think a bird kept eating the one Swiss chard plant as it slowly tried to grow. There's still lots of parsley from last year that's doing real well, and the sweet marjorum plant is hanging in there. There was a huge broccoli plant that survived over the summer that put out several stalks and looked promising, but it went to flower very quickly.

A new patch of ground was prepared and some heirloom tomatoes set out grown from seeds: Black Prince, Debarao, Mt. Gold, Ozark Pink, Cherokee Purple, Aunt Rubie's German Green, and Dubza. I don't have much hope since the whiteflies are already attacking them full force.

August 14 update---
The parsley eventually bolted and faded away. The sweet marjorum has gone to seed but keeps on going.
Heirloom Tomatoes:
The heirloom tomatoes can be called an experiment since there wasn't grand success. That way I don't feel so bad. The tomatoes didn't bear as early as they should have, so the crops were light before the severe July heat. The sun, bugs, and birds got many of the tomatoes, but in spite of all that there were a few good ones, and it was worth the effort. The tomatoes were bunched together to get shade, and I think some may have cross-pollinated making some strange looking fruits. The main motivation for planting the heirlooms was to try to relive the great yellow tomato experience I had as a kid when we had some great tasting yellow tomatoes one summer. It turned out that the yellow, or yellowish, tomatoes this year were the less best tasting, the Mt. Gold variety. My favorite one was the Black Prince. It was prolific, smaller which is better for the desert, and one of the best tasting tomatoes I've ever had. There was even a lingering aftertaste that blessed the mouth for several minutes after consumption. The Druzba was my second favorite, a smaller normal-looking orange tomato with a good regular tomato taste, but more of it. The Debarao was much like a Roma tomato and only good when very ripe from the vine. The Aunt Rubie's German Green tasted okay, a little acidic, but fun to eat since it was green when ripe, a trick for the eyes. After having said all this (or written), I can't say for sure if any of the plants were the seeds I ordered. I bought them all bidding on the internet, and even if received what I ordered, I may have gotten the seedlings confused even though I went to great pains to mark things correctly.

Black Prince tomato
Black Prince tomato
German Green tomato
Aunt Rubie's German Green tomato

Summer 2006


Everything got too busy to have time for gardening. On August 27, some Sugar Dots Hybrid seeds were thrown in the ground, but the stand was too poor to maintain. Only a few came up.


Fall 2006/Spring 2007


There were about 25 gallons of homemade compost this fall. All were stirred into the soil on the south part of the garden. On October 15, sowing began, and then sowing and transplanting continued every week or so to try to space out ripening:
    --seeds--
  1. spinach (Bloomsdale)
  2. kale (Red Russian)
  3. broccoli (three varieties-- Calabrese, Romanesco, and Spring Raab)
  4. mustard (Tendergreen)
    --plants--
  5. unidentified broccoli, six plants
December 17 update---
Everything's coming up and growing, very, very slowly.

January 28, 2007 update---
Cut some Red Russian kale and Tendergreen mustard leaves. Steamed them for about 12 minutes. Some of the best greens ever tasted -- almost sweet.

April 22, 2007 update---
The spinach did well and was very tasty, but it didn't last long before beginning to bolt. The aphids started in midway through the picking period, so the harvest quantity was limited. It was a horrible year for broccoli. The Spring Raab variety gave some yield, but most of the others just went straight to flowers. The last few years haven't worked out broccoli-wise. I just can't figure out what's going on. The Sweet Marjorum is still hanging around.

Some Sweet Basil plants that were started in a window in January were put out but seem to be struggling to survive. Some parsley is doing okay and about ready to start using. Some zucchini seeds were sown in early February. A couple are up and growing at a snail's pace. The tomatoes that were begun in a window in January are now out and doing fairly well so far: heirloom varieties of Black Prince, Ozark Pink, and Cherokee Purple. None of the Earl of Edgecombe plants came up. A couple of tomatoes from the store were thrown in too: Sweet 100 and Early Girl.

August 12, 2007 update---
The zucchinis didn't make it. We had some good tomatoes, just not as many as wanted. (This tomato season is discussed more below.)


Summer 2007


August 12, 2007---
Sowed some "Peaches and Cream" sweet corn on August 8.


Fall 2007/Spring 2008

Jan. 13, 2008, update---
The Peaches and Cream sweet corn made a sparse stand, but there were several tasty ears of corn to enjoy.

sweet corn
Peaches and Cream sweet corn
On September 5, 2007, the following seeds were sown, and on September 21 broccoli plants from the store were transplanted:
    --seeds--
  1. cucumber
  2. Nantes Coreless carrot
  3. broccoli (three varieties: Calabrese; Romanesco; Spring Raab)
  4. mustard (three varieties: Tendergreen; Pak Choi; Florida Broadleaf)
  5. spinach (two varieties: Tyee; Bloomsdale)
  6. kale (Red Russian)
    --plants--
  7. unidentified broccoli, six plants
The birds or something got to the seedlings, so the following never made it: Calabrese and Romanesco broccoli, and the Tendergreen mustard. The cucumbers nor carrots popped up, not even one.
On November 25 the harvest of greens began, steaming a batch of kale, broadleaf mustard, and spring raab broccoli. The taste wasn't fantastic, but they're vegetables and are good for you, not necessarily meant to be a delectable meal.

In November, ten gallons of homemade compost was spread over the area where the six broccoli plants were set.

The December frosts killed all the basil.

Apr. 12, 2008, update---
The first broccoli was picked on January 30 from the store-bought plants. It was tasty, and the prospects looked good for future crops, but once again it went to flower early and didn't work out too well. Keeping the broccoli from flowering early is a continual problem not yet solved. Maybe next time more water will be used, if there is a next time.

On March 8 the last of the greens were picked and cooked and thereby eaten, some spinach and kale, to make room for the tomatoes. Some tomato seeds had been started in a window sill in January and other plants were bought. Since there seemed to be a curly top virus or something last year, this year I tried covering the tomato plants with plastic to keep off the insects. One day it got hot, real hot, and cooked most of the tomato vines. The steamed ones were replaced, and here's how it ended up:
    --tomatoes--
  1. Black Prince (from seed)
  2. First Lady II
  3. Champion
  4. Celebrity
  5. Lemon Boy
  6. Early Girl
  7. Southern Star (BHN444)
    --peppers--
  8. Orange sweet bell
  9. Yellow sweet bell

Summer 2008

The tomato crop matured and lasted until the severe summer heat. The results are described below (Tomatoes in the Arizona Desert: 2008). There were only a few bell peppers. (The pepper plants looked really good in the late fall, but a December freeze got them when no one was here to cover them.) A zucchini plant was bought and transplanted into the garden on March 23. The first zucchini was picked on May 26. There weren't too many more after that one.
Fall 2008/Spring 2009

On September 15, 2008, several vegetable seeds were sown, but the birds ravaged them. On October 3, more seeds were sown, and the birds got them too. Chicken wire was used, but as soon as it was removed after some seedlings were strong and healthy, the birds apparently jumped in for the remaining seeds and ruined everything in the effort. On October 31, nine Early Dividend broccoli plants were bought and transplanted, too large in size to interest the birds. A few plants did survive from the seeds somehow:
    --seeds--
  1. broccoli (two varieties: Calabrese; Spring Raab)
  2. Tendergreen mustard
  3. one spinach plant (unknown, either Tyee or Bloomsdale)
    --plants--
  4. Early Dividend broccoli, nine plants
Mar. 11, 2009, update---
The broccoli once again went to flower too soon, although we did get a fair quantity to use. It seemed that a warm spell came at just the wrong time. The mustard plants worked out okay. The one spinach plant picked on Feb. 28 was tasty -- looked like the Tyee variety.

The following were put in the ground on various dates in February and March (updated Mar. 14):
    --seeds--
  1. Tendergreen cucumber
  2. pole beans
  3. Bodacious sweet corn
  4. Old World melon
  5. Sugar Baby watermelon
    --plants--
  6. tomatoes: Cherokee Purple, Druzba, German Green (all grown from seed, started indoors)
  7. epazote (grown from seed, started indoors)
  8. Ichiban eggplant
The north part of the garden where the sweet corn was sown had about 40 gallons of homemade compost thrown on in January that was later spaded into the soil.

Summer 2009

There was one cucumber, a juicy, tasty one. I kept removing the bird protection too soon and would have to resow. Seems like since there are curve-billed thrashers here, the plants have to be covered till they're a few weeks along. The pole beans grew well, but never got any beans, again thanks to the birds. The sweet corn was good, don't know if I'd plant the Bodacious variety again since others may taste just a little bit better. The Old World melon never came up, but the Sugar Baby did and did great this year. Didn't see so many whiteflies which normally wreak havoc on melons. The eggplant did well, just one plant for experimentation since don't remember ever trying any before. The epazote was also an experiment. It did fairly well but the plants went to seed before growing too tall and fizzled out when the summer heat set in. See below about the tomatoes (Tomatoes in the Arizona Desert: 2009) which were protected by bird netting by the way. There are a few things growing volunteer where the corn was, a pepper plant and some melon vines of some kind.
Sugar Baby watermelon
Sugar Baby watermelon (had been 113 degrees that weekend)

Winter 2009/Spring 2010

Just plain no time for a winter garden. The sweet marjorum was the only thing in the permanent garden bed, staying strong after six years. Going back to the summer of 2009, about the volunteer pepper plant and melon vines -- the pepper plant ended up being some long, weird-shaped tomato, and the melons gave one huge tasty cantaloupe and a few good watermelon. The aphids attacked the watermelon leaves, and the birds the watermelon itself. The ants attacked the stick I'd use to lift up the leaves to spray soapy water on the leaves, and they'd run so fast up the stick that I didn't have but a second or two before having to tap the stick on the ground and try again. I say there wasn't time for a garden, but if things would have gone better the last few years I'd maybe have made some time. Kind of getting tired of planting broccoli and watching it bolt just before picking time.
Summer 2010

Sowed two things in February to have melons by summer: Sugar Baby Watermelon and Old Original Melon. The Old Original Melon has given one melon so far (Jul. 17). Was very tasty. The Sugar Baby area was overtaken by butternut squash vines. I guess they came up volunteer. Alma said she thought she planted a seed or two of some melon not knowing I'd sown the Sugar Baby seeds, but there were scads of butternut vines, so we're guessing they came from the homemade compost somehow. Anyway, there were dozens of butternuts, one of the best producing anything I've seen here in our garden.
The tomatoes did real well. I've written about those in the section on tomatoes below.
Had several epazote plants. They did well this year.
That's about it, few words, but lots of food.

Spring 2011

Made up my mind to try to grow something even with extremely limited time available. Gotta have a garden.
Here's the list:
    --seeds--
  1. Sugar Dots sweet corn
  2. Blue Lake green beans
  3. Old World melon
  4. spaghetti squash
  5. butternut squash
  6. epazote
    --plants--
  7. Italian parsley
  8. tomatoes: Columbia, Marion (bought as plants)
  9. tomatoes: Green Zebra, Tigerella (grown from seed)
  10. Black Beauty eggplant
Everything's doing okay so far, as of May 7. I sowed some eggplant seeds that never came up so bought some plants for the area specially selected for eggplants. Put out a first set of tomatoes that all withered I guess from a frost I'd underestimated. The birds ate some of the green bean seedlings, so not a thick stand as planned. Corn is tasseling. Squash, green beans, and eggplants are blooming.

Jul. 30, 2011, update---
One of the best seasons for sweetcorn. Overplanted to get a thick stand after thinning, and of course unlike most years nearly every seed came up. Could hardly keep up eating the corn, and was very tasty. Only had a handful or two of green beans as expected after the birds ate so many seedlings. I have to cover the seeded garden nowadays with chicken wire, but the birds reached through and plucked them up after an inch or two high. The curve-billed thrashers and mockingbirds have such long bills. No Old World melon nor butternut squash, but ate a few small spaghetti squash even though sown out of season. The epazote goes to seed so early here in the hot desert. The parsley and eggplants did well. For the tomatoes, please see the tomato section for year 2011 below.

Summer 2011

Basically watched everything fizzle out in the heat and didn't put in anything new.

Fall/Winter 2011

Garden lying idle. Started to pull up the eggplants in the wintertime, but with some green in their stems left in a couple. Set out one artichoke plant as an experiment.

Spring 2012
    --plants--
  1. various tomatoes (fizzled fast)
  2. Anaheim pepper
Set out several varieties of tomatoes. They all looked awful very early on, like either receiving drifting herbicides or too much fertilizer in the soil due to a stronger mix than marked on the bag. I don't suspect a virus because all varieties looked the same, stunted and brown-tipped leaves, and it seems like at least one variety would react differently if it were a virus. Didn't put much effort into trying to save them because of lack of time. One Anaheim pepper plant set out near the overwintered eggplants did okay and gave a few tasty fruits.

Summer 2012

The artichoke produce two or three good artichokes.

Fall 2012

    --bulbs--
  1. Red Baron, Dutch onions
Saw twelve dry-looking onion bulbs at the dollar store and set them out. Three came up. Sowed some old epazote seeds in the same 5-gallon plastic bucket used last time.

Winter 2012

Onions slowly growing. Epazote coming up. Tried unsuccessfully to over-winter the Anaheim pepper, but was an unusually cold winter and even covering it on the cold nights didn't help. The artichoke plant of early 2012 wasn't watered at all after it fruited and then flowered and was given up as history, but it came back and came back strong. Set out a few prostrate rosemary plants that are touted to do well in the Arizona desert with little care.

Spring 2013

Set out one Black Cherry tomato plant. It took right off and set fruit early. Alma threw a few sprouted potatoes (I'd originally written 'tomatoes' here) in the ground near the onions, not knowing to cut them up into pieces. There are three clusters of rapidly growing plants. The artichoke was noted to have a fruit, or whatever it is, in early April.

Summer 2013

The tomato plant bore well. The effort to fruit ratio is too high with just one tomato plant. Maybe should have at least put out two. The Irish potatoes did real well, not very big but had several pounds, and tasty too. Finally got to the long-awaited day to harvest the few onions. When I dug out one there was about the most rottenest smell I've ever encountered. Guess the heavy summer rains kept them too wet. The rosemary plants don't seem bothered at all by the intense sun and heat.

Fall/Winter 2013

Did some late September sowing:
    --seeds--
  1. Waltham 29 broccoli
  2. Florida Broadleaf mustard
  3. Red Acre cabbage
  4. Olympia Hybrid spinach
  5. German chamomile
  6. White Icicle radish
  7. Hamburg Rooted parsley
  8. epazote

Jan 1, 2014, update---
 And some more sowing and planting after the first September wave:
    --seeds--
  1. Tall Top Early Wonder beet
  2. cilantro
  3. snow peas
  4. Black Krim tomato
  5. Black Prince tomato
    --plants--
  6. Premium Crop broccoli

Florida Broadleaf mustard, very prolific but not the best tasting. Olympia Hybrid spinach, deep green and robust but a bit on the non-sweet side. Hamburg Rooted parsley, ate some of the leaves after thinning out, good taste but not very punchy as sometimes. White Icicle radish, prolific. I'm learning to eat radishes by just ignoring how unagreeable they taste. The epazote nor chamimole have yet made a stand and I'm guessing probably won't. Sowed some old tomato seeds in a depression in the ground under a piece of glass as an experiment. The artichoke is coming back in its third year.

Aug. 26, 2014, update---
Kind of late giving an update. The Premium Crop broccoli was far superior to the Waltham 29 variety producing solid tops instead of loose, flowery tops. Had a few small cabbage heads, probably small because I didn't thin them out like instructed. The chamimole did come up after all and did quite well. I liked the lightly fried parsley roots, would like to plant them again soon. I'd never liked beets but forced myself to eat them because I hear they're nutritious. From this stand I'd say beets are a good crop for here. Snow peas did excellently. The tomatoes fizzled out, I think not preparing the ground well was a major factor.


Summer 2014

Didn't plant anything. Not enough free time. Did have an artichoke or two ripen.

Fall 2014

Garden sat idle except for the radishes that came up volunteer in and around the garden. They seemed to taste more bitter than the original crop.

Spring 2015

Had mixed in quite a bit of homemade compost into the "north part" of the garden, then on January 17 sowed the following seeds:
  1. Florida Broadleaf mustard
  2. Olympia Hybrid spinach
  3. White Icicle radish
  4. Tall Top Early Wonder beet
  5. Hamburg Rooted parsley
There are also a few tomato plants that came up volunteer in weird places in the yard last fall, so covered them during winter frosts to see what happens.





Tomatoes in the Arizona desert

Here are some results of my personal experience with growing tomatoes in the Phoenix area:
In the early 90s I grew different varieties of tomatoes and kept track of how much fruit was produced each year per plant.
 
1990 Early Girl   8.5 lbs.
     Columbia     3   lbs.
     Celebrity    3.5 lbs.
1991 Sweet 100   17.5 lbs.
     Empire       7   lbs.
1993 San Diego    4.5 lbs.
Each year, of course, varied in several ways, such as weather, soil preparation, and watering schedules, but this gives some kind of clue about which varieties do well. The taste of the tomato is important to each person. If a tomato doesn't taste good it doesn't do much good to grow more of it. I've forgotten which varieties I preferred. It seems like the mid-sized tomatoes generally tasted better to me.
All of these tomatoes were bought and planted on or after March 15, the stated first guaranteed frost-free date. The tomatoes did real well through May and June. Then in July they started to decline and by August were barely surviving. It took a lot of work, shading and lots of watering, to get them to make it through to the fall when they started to produce again. The fall fruit never seemed to taste as good and wasn't too prolific, so in later years I didn't try to carry the plants through the summer.
In recent years I've never had much success with tomatoes and wonder if the soil hasn't gotten infected with some virus or something.

-----

Then several years later in 2006, I tried several varieties of heirloom tomatoes, types that have been around for years but not planted nearly as often as the modern hybrid types. Here are the estimated results of edible tomatoes. I'd say about half of the tomatoes were lost to insects and sunburn, and the plants weren't given great care, so I believe that with more care it could have been a better harvest.
  variety     lbs. per plant
  -------     --------------
Black Prince      2.7
Cherokee Purple   4.8
Debarao           3.3
Druzba            3.8
German Green      3.4
Ozark Pink        2.6
Mountain Gold     1.3
(These estimates are based on a recorded count, but with an estimated weight from memory several months after harvest: Black Prince=3 oz.; German Green=5 oz.; Druzba=5 oz.; Cherokee Purple=12 oz.; Ozark Pink=6 oz.; Mt. Gold=5 oz.; Debarao=4oz.)

-----

Then in 2007, tomatoes were tried again. The main reason was to see what happened with the seeds from the Cherokee Purple tomatoes that were huge and great-tasting. I thought maybe that they weren't really Cherokee Purple as advertised, but that I'd found a new variety that grows large tomatoes in the desert, something that's not supposed to happen. Seven plants were set out: two Cherokee Purple, two Black Prince (my favorite flavor), two Ozark Pink, all grown from seeds; and one Sweet 100 from the store. After several weeks of growing, it appeared that some of them were stunted, with symptoms like curly top virus, so I pulled up the two Cherokee Purples, very reluctantly, and one of the Ozark Pinks that looked puny. It was early enough when I pulled the one Ozark Pink that I put an Early Girl plant from the store in its place. The two Black Prince plants acted poorly shortly after they started bearing tomatoes, so I pulled out one of them too, again reluctantly. The other Black Prince sputtered along and produced a little bit. Here are the totals out of each plant: 
  variety     lbs. per plant  planting to 1st tomato
  -------     --------------  ----------------------
Black Prince      3.5               81 days
Early Girl        3                 61 days
Ozark Pink        7                 90 days
Sweet 100         7                 57 days
These are the totals up through July 10. After that the taste and quality declined, although we used some for cooking. In general, it was a mediocre tomato season. The Ozark Pink tomatoes impressed me, lots of tomatoes that tasted really good when fully ripened, although they bore fruit later than supposed to, if they're indeed Ozark Pink tomatoes (seeds were bought via internet). I don't see that variety touted much for the desert, but would recommend it from my limited experience with it.

-----

Although knowing better, in 2008 that elusive good tomato year was reached for again. Here are the production averages from each plant: 
  variety     lbs. per plant  planting to 1st tomato
  -------     --------------  ----------------------
Black Prince       0.7              90 days
Celebrity          0.8              85 days
Champion           0.1              90 days
Early Girl         0.7              55 days
First Lady II      2.0              60 days
Lemon Boy          0.5              61 days
Southern Star      2.7              95 days
Some tomatoes were picked after the main season but not counted above, mainly the Lemon Boy that kept on eking out several tomatoes. Obviously this wasn't a stellar tomato year -- rather quite dismal. The plants seemed to really drag along before finally producing, and hot summer came suddenly, but not unexpectedly. It seems that none of the tomatoes were vary tasty this year. My favorite flavor is the Black Prince, but even they didn't taste right. The Lemon Boy had a good, zingy flavor. The First Lady was good when very ripe. The Southern Star was okay, an old-fashioned ordinary tomato taste; and it seemed to take the heat well, not bearing for 95 days but then having more production than the other varieties, due in part to its large size.

-----

The main reason for tomatoes in 2009 was that in 2006 one of the Cherokee Purple plants had huge, tasty tomatoes that didn't really look like the typical variety as far as I knew. Some seeds were saved to try to duplicate those strange tomatoes. This was tried in 2007, but the plants didn't make it. The plan fell through again because the tomatoes looked like "normal" Cherokee Purple." It might have been that three years ago there was cross-pollination with another variety, or some other thing going on. Turned out okay anyway since the tomatoes were tasty this season. Here are the production averages from each plant: 
  variety     lbs. per plant  planting to 1st tomato
  -------     --------------  ----------------------
Cherokee Purple    2.0              85 days
Druzba             1.5              85 days
German Green       0.3             101 days
Wish I would have always recorded my subjective taste test so will start this time. The Druzba has a sweet taste, very little tartness and acidic taste. It would be great on a hamburger. The Cherokee Purple is delectable with a strong, rich aftertaste. The German Green is also very good. The last time in 2006 the German Green tomato taste didn't impress me at all, and I almost didn't try it again because of that. Maybe this year picked them more mature -- don't know.

-----

Tried tomatoes again in 2010, and it worked out well making me downright happy. Here are the results: 
  variety     lbs. per plant  avg. oz. per tomato planting to 1st tomato
  -------     --------------  ------------------- ----------------------
Black Krim        7.0              6 3/4 oz.            88 days
Black Prince     10.1              2 1/4 oz.            82 days
Cherokee Purple   3.7              7 1/2 oz.            87 days
Tried Black Krim for the first time after reading that it's a proven variety for the Arizona desert. It definitely produced heavily. The taste isn't to my liking, in fact sometimes okay and sometimes not, but if one wants an occasional one-pound tomato in the desert this is one way of getting there. Of course in all cases it's better than a store-bought tomato. The Black Prince remains a favorite of mine for taste. There were a few cross-pollinated tomatoes thanks to the busy bees that turned out well. The Black Krim & Black Prince mixtures tasted very good. I attribute the good tomato year on a soil amendment, just guessing, an $8 investment of a 40-pound mixture of compost, sphagnum peat, composted manure, and poultry litter. I also mixed in gypsum, and a product that's gypsum pellets with some nitrogen added.
black krim
Black Krim tomatoes


-----

Had to go for tomatoes again in 2011 since last year was a hit. Used the same spot as 2010. Mixed into the soil a product used last season, the gypsum pellets with added nitrogen, called Soil Buster that Lowes was apparently discontinuing and practically giving away awhile back. 
              lbs. per       average oz.   days to 1st
  variety     plant average  per tomato      tomato
  -------     -------------  -----------   ---------
Columbia          14            3 1/2          92
Green Zebra        2            2 1/4          93
Marion            12            3              76
Tigerella          3            1              81
Not a bad season at all as far as heavy production. It was my first experience with Marion tomatoes. They did well even though almost all of them had cracked tops, mainly a cosmetic issue. Also my first time for the two heirlooms, Green Zebra and Tigerella. Their appearance was more appealing than their tastes. Tried to come up with a personal taste scale for each variety. Black Prince is still my favorite, so I'll give it a "10" on a 1-to-10 scale. A "1" would go to a tomato that's slightly painful to eat, even though I doubt there is such a commonly-grown tomato that low. Here's how I rank the four this year: Tigerella 7/10, Marion 7/10, Columbia 6/10, Green Zebra 4/10. The Green Zebra had an odd consistency, kind of cottony or something, hard to describe, but I enjoyed each one.
tomatoes 2011
from left: Marion, Columbia, two Tigerallas, two Green Zebras
-----

Put out one plant for 2013 having limited time for gardening yet wanting some home grown tomatoes. These were tough to chew and had very little flavor of anything, let alone of tomatoes. 
              lbs. from     days to 1st
  variety       plant         tomato
  -------     -----------   ----------
Black Cherry      6.5          59


-----

notes--
planting level: Some people recommend transplanting tomatoes at an angle to have the roots near the warm surface at the cooler part of the growing season. Some recommend tearing off the lower leaves and planting them deeper than they were originally. It seems I've had better success by just planting them upright at about the same level or maybe slightly deeper than the original soil line.
peat pots: After the growing season and seeing the pulled up plants, I've noticed that the roots are better established when the plants are removed from the peat pots they were sown in. Also, the netting around the peat pellet starters seem to have a negative effect. I think the roots need complete freedom early on to go where they think best.


Spinach in Kansas
Popeye was my hero when I was a little kid. I'd never eaten spinach and thought it would be the thing to do based on Popeye's exploits. I made a seed packet with some paper and glue and rolled up some little cotton balls the size of seeds to put inside it. Then I sealed it up and wrote SPINACH on it. I was probably about five or six years old. When it was time to plant the seeds, the only ground I could find that I could dig into was underneath the huge crabapple tree. I planted the seeds and kept going out everyday to see them come up. They never did. Later my Dad found out I wanted to try spinach and made sure I tried some and made sure he was there to watch. He was entertained. I wasn't. One lesson I learned among several is not to sow seeds in the deep shade of a big tree.

 Punch here to go back to Gardening