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.