Gardening Journal - Post your gardening updates here

Her gfm raised $250k, something China wouldn't have allowed. Times are better than then.

Humus? Did soil conditioner? Sharing is caring.
Growing a few malawi piquante plants in a few locations to see what grows. What peppers are you growing? Any tips?

Hugekulter raised beds are doing outstanding, all the veggies are thriving.

The utility that cut my new septic lines came in and replaced them so we built raised beds for flowers since the yard was torn up.

I'll see If I can make a video tomorrow.


We are getting a lot of rain this year, we've been in a 3 year drought so this is helping everything.

The cone flowers we planted 2 years ago on the 3 acres out front are growing like crazy and a few are blooming. It should be a sight to behold when they're in full bloom this summer.

Bermuda grass puts out roots that go several feet deep. Even if you till it out the roots remain and will form a mat of roots just below the till line. I planted white clover in a area effected by bermuda grass. The clover will chock the grass out and it can be tilled under and controlled.

5-28-23 Lunar Pentecost Sunday

It is lunar Pentecost Sunday 2023. I finally made it back from a long and delayed driving adventure in the middle of Kansas. Of all places to get stuck, I had to get delayed in Kansas.

I'm pleased that upon my return I find that the Hopi winter squash is indeed the first of the pumpkins/squash to sprout and take off. It is highly adapted to our southwestern United States region here, but I didn't expect it to fire out of the gate quite like this. I'm thinking this long storage variety of winter squash might just be the answer I've been looking for. My ultimate goal is to cross a Cherokee pumpkin with this Hopi winter squash and produce a variety of Hop/okee pumpkin that is truly xeric tolerant.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662881977417240576

Halp!

Aphids on my tomato plants.


I've done the soap spray method on roses to no avail.

Are they a big deal for tomatoes?

5-28-23 Memorial day weekend

Just checked the Essene sundial at high noon true local solar time (TLST) and it's reading correctly.

It's right between the second to innermost and innermost concentric circle, which means we are at mid-month of the 2nd solar month (Secember) of the Essene/Enochian/Saducean. The 15th of Secember begins this evening at 6:00PM TLST.

When it reaches the innermost concentric circle, that marks the beginning of the third month. The sun reaches that concentric circle on June 14th. Solar Shavuot/Pentecost/Wheat Harvest begins on June 18.

So, even though that doesn't exactly show you the solstice mark, that's going to get you real close. I've learned that what this Essene sundial does in fact is simply show the solar month marks. Those solar months just happen to coincide with the solar equiluxes at the 1st and 7th months. So, you'll always hit the equiluxes right on.

And even though it doesn't show the exact dates of the solstices, when the sundial shadow reaches the first edge of the 3rd and 9th month concentric circles, you'll always know you have arrived at summer or winter solstice week.

It'll get you within the week of summer and winter solstice, so I can live with that. What it does a truly good job of, though, is keeping track of the solar months themselves.

There's been a lot of misinformation and speculation about what this Essene sundial does by people who have never bothered to take it out to the garden or yard and practice with it. I've made it my task this year to investigate it further and find out what it really does. What it really does is quite useful.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662900757384011776

I don't know about sprays. I don't use them.

I plant some junk brassicas like wild mustards that will attract all the aphids and they'll completely leave the tomatoes alone.

Then the lady bugs will come and eat all the aphids.

And I want lady bugs in the garden anyway.

I just plant wild mustards and let the lady bugs take care of it.

Concerning the tomatoes, they're coming along and they like the olla. However, it is yet to be seen if they will survive June and July out here.

I have some shade cloth I'm ready to drape over, and I would go ahead and start pruning, but I want to let them get just a bit more established.

The lady bugs of early May completely wiped out the aphids in the garden. The winter mustard of March and April really helped draw away the aphids.

Tomatoes are a toss up. They suffered in this scorching desert heat last year, and I don't see it being much better this year.

Whatever the case may be, the olla is working so far.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662908705841758209

This little corner is an experiment, but it seems to be working so far.

The Desert Datura is drawing away the pin flies so they stay off the Indian Tobacco (Nicotiana quadrivalvis).

The pin flies will punch a million holes in the Datura leaves, except the Datura doesn't even flinch and is so toxic it ends up killing the pin flies.

I can live with that.

What I haven't figured out yet is the magic trick to drawing away the tomato and tobacco horn worms. And they'll be coming.

The Navajo green thread tea is coming along well and the hops are still alive which I consider to be hitting par.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662914546527514624

The wild desert rhubarb transplants I put in this early spring are finally getting established.

They'll start going into summer dormancy after seeding and be back this winter. I'll have to see what wild desert rhubarb pie tastes like.

If they're seeding, they're on the right cycle. And that's a good sign of a healthy root system, which I want before they go into the summer hot season.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662927226197938178

Granted, this area already needs to be pruned back. However, I'm truly amazed at the amount of growth I've had from just these two ollas in this one little area.

If you look at the ground in this little kitchen garden patch, the soil looks dry as a bone. There's no surface water at all. Right under the surface, though, the ollas keep it continually infused with water.

It's the most efficient system I've ever had, and I can now see why Queen Cleopatra preferred ollas so much.

This wild lettuce is nearly 3ft tall and is getting ready to seed. So, I'll be collecting that in June and then harvesting it for tincture and medicinal tea.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662930568907218944

What all the medicinal properties of Ratibida (Mexican Hat/Prairie Coneflower) may be is still to be explored.

It is directly related to the much more famous purple coneflower (Echinacea). And the root seems to possess a similar potency.

Many employ this prairie coneflower root to make a similar tincture or anti-inflammatory tea like Echinacea.

I don't know, but I do want to explore it further to see what properties it has that are comparable to Echinacea.

Mountain Echinacea of Apalachia doesn't do well out here in desert southwest region 14, but Ratibida thrives.

I have to finish going through Monsoon season seed packs to see what makes the cut this time around.

This lunar Pentecost Sunday and Memorial Day weekend is a good time to get together a last minute plan because summer monsoon kicks off in just over a fortnight (June 15, specifically).

I'm leaning toward Hopi Tsoqa'qawu black sunflowers, Hopi Casaba melons, Hopi purple Mawiwjwa pole beans, Desert Marigold, and Hopi Sakwapu blue corn.

It's a very Hopi heavy year this year, and I didn't necessarily intend it to come out that way. That's kind of how it's happening, though.

Hopi it is, then.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1662966551027527680

Praying for a blessed monsoon season this year. Lord, you know we need the rain.

Psalm 65

9Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the rivers of God, which are full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

10Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the spring thereof.

11Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy currents drop down oil.

12They drop even upon the plains of the desert: and the little hills rejoice on every side.

So, I just had an idea, which can often be dangerous.

What if I bury these smaller terracotta jars around the edges of the garden squares to use for liquid fertilizer (urea, namely)?

Sure, I've seen the big 2 to 5 gallon liquid fertilizer injectors. I'm looking at them at Home Depot online right now. That would be easy. I just pay my $200 and get my conventional plastic 1/4 drip line liquid fertilizer injector. Problem solved, right?

Except that's not my goal. My goal is to have a system that is basically set up to require little to no modern parts. I want it to be a garden system that could have been perfectly at home in ancient Ptolemaic Egypt, or Greece and one that factors in the natural rain cycles as an integral part of the whole system.

I'm thinking instead of taking these smaller terracotta jars and surrounding the 4 sides of each square with one of them and then filling them with urea and letting it slowly infuse into the soil. It will be away from the plants, but over time it will work into the soil.

That way there's still no surface watering and urine is not getting directly on any plants. Instead, it is slowly working into the soil itself to break down into its component parts and act as a true fertilizer.

I think I'll go to Hobby Lobby tomorrow and pick up about 10 or 12 more of these and just place them at the sides of each of the squares.

There's no plastic tubing to break and I won't even have to mix down the urine with water. Just put it in the ground inside the terracotta jars.

I'm going to try it and see what happens.

https://twitter.com/_/status/1663002740635889664

Yes, they make it look easy.

On the advertisements they even make seem like it works.

It also looks like something that would break after the first major hail storm.

Liquid fertilizer, urine, and swamp water are all the rage, but I'm going a different route on the delivery system.

Ohhhhh my goodness, I've roped my man and his poor unsuspecting brother into helping me start a new bed today. This time it's for peanuts! Weeeeeee!

My thoughts on this Greening the Desert documentary.

Well, it's really an amazing fete of engineering and xeriscaping what these two have been able to do in Arizona over the last two years.

My critique is that I question if this really qualifies as 'off grid'. How sustainable is this as a fallout scenario survival plot? This is really 'neato'. It's also not comparable to what the Hopi out there can do with dry farming alone.

I mean I like it. I just don't trust that it's not going to break in the near future. This is the kind of thing I can't get too excited about.

I guess if you have money and time to blow, this might be your way to a desert oasis.

no one wants aphids.
the ANTS bring them to the plants...like little farmers.
what you can do is spray off the plant with water blast as many as you can off, then wipe some PETROLEUM JELLY around the base of the plant.
the ants cannot cross this so they will go elsewhere.
the rain doesnt wash it off so it should last for a long time.
it wont hurt your plant either.

spray with soapy water any that are left over after trying to spray them off with water.'the soapy water will kill them.

well i had to move the peach tree in the pot since it busted out of it.
i moved it out to the edge of the yard:

https://imgur.com/a/4fMTvL5

https://imgur.com/a/RxWbdiB

it already has peaches but i doubt it will make more until next year since its been moved.i dont mind either.

i went with my daughter to wally world (I HATE that place and rarely ever step foot there)
shes into succulents and sure enough, on the floor underneath the plant shelves are little pieces that drop off and can be replanted.
she scored five.
my favorite is the PINK one, but idk what it is.

https://imgur.com/a/6zA2BOh

https://imgur.com/a/19stJnT

speaking of succulents...i was given this one a few days ago.
does anyone know what this is?
its variagated:

https://imgur.com/a/rZj3pxf

my first coneflower of the season, one of the five divisions i made from the mother plant.
it came out a pale pink, not as purple as i expected.

https://imgur.com/a/YbfvZgv

either way they seem to like my garden so im happy as well.

PURSLANE grows throughout my whole yard.
i saw they are expensive little plants at wally world.
cant believe they sell WEEDS there..
you cant even EAT these:

https://imgur.com/a/a09crOz

to be fair, they sell all the purslane colors i do not have.
yellows and oranges..

two plants were brought to me, branches really...
to try and grow.
idk what it is though:

https://imgur.com/a/Y5G1cWc

https://imgur.com/a/dgaAEsQ

the other unknown plant:

https://imgur.com/a/tm8Ga6l

https://imgur.com/a/tDi8ard

https://imgur.com/a/dcLw2E6

i put some in water and potted up the rest,
they came from Universal Studios where they were doing some HVAC work.
i told them to next time take a picture of the plant in its original place so i can see more.
the two unknown plants were together in the same beds.

the west side of my house has many different colored vines all growing together with Angel Trumpets...
so far i see RED, BLUE, PURPLE, LIGHT PURPLE and now ORANGE flowers

https://imgur.com/a/AZKoZRY

https://imgur.com/a/JwDXURp

i think it might be called a trumpet vine.
i cannot wait to see them all abloom together.
im giving it another month.

a gift left for me from one of the cats:

https://imgur.com/a/JkBfbkN

a mole, i think..quite dead, totally intact.

Last Edited by rob2 on 05/29/2023 08:41 AM