Hotter Than Hot!

I can't believe it! Yesterday was 20-degrees hotter than Sunday and it's only April 21st - 105F! At noon time the tomato plants and pepper plants in the raised garden bed that gets the most sun were wilting. Even though the soil was still moist I gave them a generous watering and within minutes they were perked up again. I draped some shade cloth over that side of the bed, and draped shade cloth above the lettuce in bed #2 also. Hopefully it will cool down in a day or so because it is way too early to have temps in the 100's. Last Christmas my husband gave me an oven thermometer (even though I already had a good one). I read in a garden blog that these could be used in the garden to read the soil temperature. So I dug it out of the drawer and started testing the soil in all the SFGs and also all of the containers. In two of the beds that get about an hour of sun less than the bed #1 the temperature was around 79-80F. In bed #1 the temps were between 89-90F. I was shocked when I read the soil temperatures in the containers - 94-100F! Poor little flowers and herbs. Now I've got to think of what to do to keep them cooler. One of the things I will be doing is keeping the large watering can filled and stored in the kitchen - because when the temps stay in the high 90's and up the water in the ground stays very hot and I don't think that is going to help cool down the plants. Anyone have any good ideas for keeping cool in the hot desert sun?

Tomato Progress

Today was a hot day! 85F - At high noon I went outside to check on the garden and: wilt! wilt! The peppers and nasturtiums were really wilted, and the tomatoes were just starting to droop. Even though my moisture meter shows there is moisture in the raised beds it certainly isn't enough when the temp gets high and there is dry, hard blowing hot air. This is by far the hardest part of gardening for me - do they have enough water? am I overwatering? I think I've killed most of my marigolds because I insist on watering them along with everything else, and from what I've read they really need very little water. But, then again, since they are annuals maybe it's just the end of their life cycle. I will definitely have to continue reading up on this. Here are progress pixs of all the tomato plants: (The early girls are lagging because I grew them from seeds and all the others were store-bought plants).

Harvest Time

Brussel Sprout

Tall Top Early Wonder Beets


Broccoli Bouquet

Cherry Belle Radishes

Before and After - and still progressing

My first plans were to build three 4'x8' raised beds. Then, giving it more thought, I decided 4'x4' would be more managable for me to construct. After the frames were built and beds were filled in with a layer of sand, then a mixture of garden soil, vermiculite and peat moss I enclosed them on the outside 0f the bed with 24" high chicken wire and latched them closed with a bungee cord. My original plan was to make a wire cage that would fit over the top of the bed frame but this has worked out perfectly - it's low enough I can tend to the plants without removing fencing and I can pin sunscreen to the wire with clothespins for protection against the wind. I have PVC frames on all three beds that I've used several times on cold nights, draping sunscreen over the PVC (which I will also do when the temperatures get really high this summer).

Out of the Garden Salad

Assorted garden lettuce
Couple baby carrots (tiny ones)
Sliced kohlrabi
Snipped garlic chives
Baby pea pods
Nasturtium leaves and a flower or two
Lawry's garlic powder
Minced onion bits
Use kitchen shears to cut up carrots, chives, and nasturtium leaves. Throw pea pods in whole and slice kohlrabi in thin slivers. Toss with small amount of honey-dijon dressing. Awesome!
Young kohlrabi http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/kohlrabi1.html

Square Foot Gardens

I built three raised garden beds. Two are 4'x4' with a grid of sixteen 12-inch squares in each bed. The third bed was a bargain! The wood only cost $2. I bought left-over cut wood at Lowe's and had the four pieces cut into 3.5' pieces, so this bed is slightly smaller and I adjusted the spaces according to what I planted in each.

In Bed #1 I've already harvested a bunch of radishes (cultivars: Sparkler and Cherry Belle), broccoli, and kohlrabi. Now there are two tomato plants - a Big Boy and a Big Beef, pole beans, bush beans, green pepper plants, still have a broccoli which brings in just enough to add to salads. I planted some store-bought brussel sprout plants five months ago and they are just now starting to product brussel sprouts!

In Bed #2 there is a Better Boy tomato, green peas (delicious picked young and added to salad), lettuce, mesclun, nasturtium, chives, marigolds, and a cantaloupe plant.

Bed #3 has two Early Girl tomato plants which I started from seeds, sage, bush beans, beets, three sunflowers, cosmos, margarite daisy, and lobelia. Two bell pepper seedlings bit the dust. They just weren't strong enough to withstand the gusty winds we've been having.

Container Garden

In November 2008 I started my container garden. After taking two Garden Workshops at my community college I was gong-ho to get started! First, I bought some 5-gal and 3-gal paint cans to plant a cherry tomato and Patio tomato plant in; followed by a six-pack of brussel sprouts and broccoli. Every time I'd go to Wal-Marts or Lowe's I couldn't resist buying some vegetables, seeds, or flowers. Finding the right size containers posed the most problem: Is it deep enough? Wide enough? Now, five months later, I can say my lettuce did really well in its 5-inch high bus pan container. The broccoli and some radishes were planted in 10.5 quart pails. I think maybe they were too deep, or not wide enough; anyhow, they didn't produce well. The radishes I had planted in regular shallow planters produced healthy, delicious tasting radishes. This spot on my patio only gets about four or five hours of sunlight which also may be the reason production wasn't the best for the sun-loving vegetables. This was the first time growing brussel spouts and I was very disappointed in not seeing any sprouts - only big ole leaves - which were very tasty steamed. But now -FIVE months later! Two of the brussel sprouts are actually growing little sprouts all up and down the stem! And the tomatoes that went dormant when the weather became cold starting flowering as soon as the weather warmed up. So, the lesson I've learned in gardening is: it ain't over till it's over! (meaning when the plant is all shriveled up and very obviously Dead!) In fact, today a friend was telling me that she has had tomato bushes that lasted a number of Years! And here I thought they just lasted one season!

The petunias, my all time favorites, were profuse in their flowering. Two zonal geraniums took off once the weather started warming up. I managed to kill the sweet basil and the Thai basil, probably too much water. The lavender and oregano are doing well (once I stopped overwatering them). The vegetable that I have enjoyed harvesting the most (like a little kid!) is the carrot. There is just something about pulling these little carrots out of the dirt - awesome!