Garden Update For November

Here's my little garden. Looks kind of dead. The tomato plant that I thought had died at least 3 times now, has started producing tomatoes again. Poor thing. I should have pruned it so it wasn't so gangly. I didn't realize it would try to grow again.

I also have a baby tomato plant that is trying to grow. I should move it in to the greenhouse soon so that it doesn't get too cold but I have to make sure the days don't get too hot. I don't want it to cook!

The squash worms got the squash. I was disappointed.

I really need to find a place to plant my baby trees because they are getting too big for their little pots.

So that's the latest. I'm not going to try to plant any cold weather crops like lettuce because I don't eat it that much and I think it will be just as disappointing as the quash. Maybe next year will be better.

Yellow Squash

I can't really call it a 'success'. One squash was delicious. The other was shriveled inside. Too bad. So, I only got one squash so far. I must say this summer has been quite a failure for vegetables. My harvest was: 4 tomatos and 1 yellow squash. Those should be easy plants to grow. Well, at least I learned a lot. Next year-better soil, more shade, more consistent water. Maybe then I'll have more success.

Two More Happy Hornworms

Can you see them?

My tomato plant is pretty much dead so I am letting 2 hornworms happily engage in the circle of life. Good thing they don't like to eat squash. My yellow squash is my only vegetable that is still growing. Now that I have plenty of water...there is nothing to water. I should check out the planting calendar for Tucson and see if there are any winter crops that interest me. There I go again...I wasn't successful with anything over the summer. Why do I want to continue this fruitless gardening hobby? For some reason I still like it. Maybe I'll stumble upon something that is easy to grow one of these days. (I'm pretty good at growing hornworms!)

The Happy Horn Worm

Did you know that horn worms like Desert Willow trees as well as tomato plants? I didn't know that. This might be a different kind of horn worm. His horn looks different. I did know that another kind of smaller caterpillar loves Desert Willows. I had a bunch of them attack the tree I planted at my house. They did a lot of damage but the tree survived and grew back rapidly and denser.

This happy horn worm was not happy for long. The next day when I went back to see how much he had eaten...a big spider had eaten him! I guess I don't have to worry about my tree. It has a giant spider guarding it.

Two Tomatoes For $2.50

Well, the tomato struggled and finally came back. I picked 2 tomatoes yesterday before the birds discovered them. I paid $2.50 for that tomato plant and watered it carefully (except for the week I was out of town and my substitute gardener forgot about it and it almost died). I have put a lot more time in to that plant than it was worth but next year I will probably try again.

I never got any zucchini. One grew but shriveled when I left for a week. I planted some yellow squash seeds. Perhaps I will get some this Fall.

Planted Trees Today

Here's my happy little Desert Willow. I planted it on the West side of the mobile home near my greenhouse so that I wouldn't have to haul water much farther than I already am for the little garden. I didn't clear the aloe away from the spot. I am hoping the aloe plants will keep the soil from drying out and keep the soil cooler. So far the tree looks happy.

The Mesquite tree is hard to see but it approximately 12 feet from the other tree and will grow very fast to give me some shade. I need to dig a wider basin around the bottom of the tree to collect water. Eventually I want to direct the water that comes off the mobile home roof to go to the two trees. That will take a lot more work since the trees are a little higher up and it's hard to put gutters on a mobile home. I need to design some way to catch the water as it comes off the roof and pipe it over to the trees. That would be easier than trying to dig trenches along the ground I think. It needs more thought.

New Trees From "Trees For Tucson"

I ordered baby trees from Trees For Tucson through the local electric company-TEP. There is also a tree program through Trico Electric for those who have it. Even though the tree application said it would take a month for the trees to arrive, I mailed my check on Friday and they arrived the next Thursday. I am thrilled. Since they are early I haven't dug the holes yet but hopefully they will be ok until Saturday when I have time to dig.

I got 3 trees. A Mesquite, a Desert Willow and a Desert Ironwood. I hope to replace some Cholla cactus with one or two of the trees. I have enough Cholla and not enough trees.

Garden Disappointment

Well, the garden is pretty much dead. All of that work hauling water, putting up shade, for nothing. I didn't even get one tomato. I went on vacation for a week and left a neighbor to water but the garden went rapidly down hill. The birds ate the tomatoes, the zucchini shriveles, the peas died and half of the strawberries dies for reasons unknown. It is very depressing.

I'll try again next year. Maybe add some bird netting and time the tomatoes better so that they don't ripen when I'm gone.

Starting The Spring Mini-Harvest

The mini-garden is still alive. I have to water it everyday by hand because I don't have the a drip system I suppose I could set up some sort of drip system by hanging a container on the fence and connecting it to drip hose. Since I use recycled washing machine water I prefer to water the plants from the bottom to keep any bacteria away from the edibles.

I only bought one tomato plant and I think that will be plenty. There are more than a dozen green tomatoes right now. I hope they don't all get ripe at once.

This is my first zucchini ever. I wasn't even sure it would grow in a pot. So far so good. The hottest month is yet to come. It might not make it thru the summer but I am still optimistic.

What's Growing Now

Prickly Pear flowers are blooming now. Palo Verde trees are blooming too but I didn't get a picture of them. The bees sure are busy!


These aloe plants survive and multiply even though I don't water them at all. These flowers are a little old. They looked better last week.


Here's my little garden. I have zucchini, tomatoes, strawberries and a few other things. I need to set up some shade for them because they are wilting every afternoon. Not a good thing!

From City To Rural

I rented out my city house until March of 2009 so all of my gardening will be done in pots this year in a rural setting. Too bad all of my pots are black. That can't be very good for the plants. I bet their little roots cook in the summer.

So far I have planted beans, sugar-snap peas, zucchini and sunflowers. I had planted an avocado seed but something stole it! I think it was a squirrel. I pushed my kiddie pool up against the chain-link fence so that the peas can climb it (if something doesn't eat them first. I also plan to add some fencing so that animals can't get in and add some shade to prolong the spring growing season.

I am using recycled water from my washing mashing to water the plants. I add an inch or two of water to the pool and let the roots absorb it. It keeps them watered all week long.

Honeysuckle Thinks It's Spring

I thought this plant wouldn't make it through the year. Now it is trying to bloom. Poor thing. I wish I had a better home for it than this pot.

Giant Cactus Came Tumbling Down

My giant prickly pear cactus used to make a nice screen in front of the mobile home. It grew and grew and when it finally rained, it swelled up and fell over. Poor thing. I feel so exposed! How am I supposed to hide from the neighbors if my cactus falls down?

The Sun, A Blessing And A Curse

Look at the handle on my poor watering can! The sun has eaten it! It certainly doesn't take long for anything plastic to disintegrate. I need a new water bucket. The last one was plastic. The next one will be galvanized metal, definitely!

It's Been A While...

I'm renting out my house and I have moved out to my RV which sits on a couple of cactus filled acres. Not much will grow out here that isn't extremely tough and prickly. I brought a few pots from my house and they are spending the winter in the greenhouse. Last year I planted some seeds in the giant bathtub pot but when the summer came, it got so hot in there that I tried to transplant the poor things in to pots and put them outside. That didn't work very well either. The few things that did survive the heat eventually succumbed to hungry varmits.

Today I planted some beans and sunflowers. Those are the only seeds that I had besides ornamental flowers. I don't want to plant too many things this year because I don't have a protected spot for them yet. My strawberry is stil growing as well as a honeysuckle, yellow and red bird of paradise, and a baby fairy duster.