November Cactus Jack

Bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst'

I finally planted a small tree aloe that has been languishing in a pot for the past two years. I hope it lasts. In this region, it must be protected from frost, so it is a leap of faith to put it in the ground. I'll have to keep an eye on the weather forecast and cover it when necessary. I keep telling myself I won't add more garden chores with my choices, but here we go again!

Right across the road from my house, cabbage harvesting is in full force. they strip and pack the cabbage in boxes right there in the fields. I'm surrounded with fields of organic vegetables grown specifically for the gourmet restaurants in the Phoenix area. Currently there's cabbage, loose leaf lettuce and kale in nearby fields. So close, yet so far away! These fields are guarded 24 hours a day. Occasionally, I see some brazen people stop, run to the fields, steal a few cabbages and beat it back to their vehicles before the guard can reach them in his truck. The guard won't chase them once they are back on the public road. Vegetables aren't as popular with the thieves--they prefer melons--and in season the growers have more than one guard watching over the fields.

June Desert Garden

This is as green as my desert garden gets. The flowers are gone for the season except for a few cactus flowers, the Red Bird of Paradise and Orange Bells shrubs, and the Texas Sage in this photo. It bloomed because we had a light rain about 10 days ago. No one is quite sure of the process this plant uses to produce this barometer effect. The desert trees are at their best as far as foliage. Notice that the kinetic wind sculpture is completely still. This is a rare occurrence.

I was right! The flowers on this early-blooming Barrel Cactus were especially large this year. Both buds and flowers on this cactus are beautiful, but I have several other Barrels that will bloom in August, and they have orange flowers that I like more.

Container vegetable gardening is fun! This sweet pepper plant has 21 peppers on it right now. They're supposed to be red, so I guess I need to wait awhile. Since this is my first attempt at something other than tomatoes, I'm not sure if they turn red on the plant or after they're picked. Maybe I'll pick a few and find out. Looks like we are in for a lot of pepper dishes.

I've harvested about two dozen pattypan squash and a dozen cannonball zucchini so far from my two squash vines. I never tire of eating steamed squash with a bit of butter, salt and pepper, however, I do prepare stuffed squash, and a New Mexico favorite, Calabacitos Con Queso on a regular basis. I don't enjoy cooking--never have--but I refuse to let these veggies go to waste after all my work!

A 'No Cactus' Post

Zucchini

Until this year, my only attempt ever at vegetable gardening has been one or two tomato plants every spring. But, I suppose to be technical, tomatoes don't even qualify as a vegetable, so this is truly my first veggie experiment! I got the idea to try my hand at vegetable gardening after I read an Arizona newspaper article about growing vegetables in containers. That seemed a lot easier and simpler than having a whole garden. I purchased a few types of squash and sweet pepper bedding plants in March, and placed them in large containers with potting soil. I also planted some carrots and radishes from seed. It's going to take a lot of effort keeping the containers moist enough in the coming heat, but I'm like a kid, watching the tiny vegetables forming. The most interesting to me is the Pattypan squash, identifiable even at thumbnail size.

Pattypan Squash

Cherry Tomato

Usually I buy the 'Early Girl' variety of tomato, but I couldn't find one this year, so I settled for a cherry tomato. As far as I'm concerned any tomato, if homegrown, is good!

Zonal Geranium

I always have a few Zonal Geraniums in pots around my garden. Each year, I get a different color, and this is what I chose for 2009. Normally I go for the hot, bright colors, but I found these pale pink flowers quite pretty and got them for a change. My maternal grandmother always kept geraniums in pots on her window sill. I loved the fragrance of the leaves when she watered them. I only visited her three or four times as a child, but to this day, the scent of geraniums still reminds me of her.

Callistemon 'Little John'

In very early spring I gave all my Dwarf Bottlebrush bushes a dose of chelated iron. This is something occasionally necessary as bottlebrush becomes chlorotic in our alkaline soil. Iron chlorosis is a condition more common with these plants in areas with highly alkaline soils, high soil temperatures, and high light intensity. The leaves really greened very quickly, and now the bushes are covered with dozens of the bright red "bottlebrush" flowers.

Tecoma stans 'Yellow Bells'

Finally, my Yellow Bells shrub is established and is growing rapidly. I was concerned that it wasn't going to make it as its growth really lagged for months. This is a popular landscape plant in Arizona, as well in many other states in the Southwest. It doesn't get as large as the Tecoma stans 'Orange Jubilee', but it will provide some needed afternoon shade for several cacti as it matures.

Maybe Tomorrow...

I don't keep a regular vegetable garden, but I do grow at least one container tomato plant every year. I patiently feed and water it for several months just to get a few fresh tomatoes. The red one should be ready to pick tomorrow. This year's tomato plant is an Early Girl VFF Hybrid, with 16 tomatoes in various stages of growth. Now that the temperatures are getting consistently above 95 degrees, the 16 tomatoes I have will be all I'll get this year.

Maybe in the fall...

I hope my Brown Turkey figs continue to grow and ripen so that by October I'll have some fresh figs. I pruned the fig back in late winter, just as instructed by the nursery, in order to promote fig production. The first year I decided to let it grow and got only a very few, very small figs. This year there are a lot of figs growing on the small tree, so maybe the pruning worked.

By fall, the pears from this Opuntia engelmannii should be ripe and ready to use for Prickly Pear Vinaigrette and maybe some Cactus Candy.

Procrastination Reward

Flower of

Brassica oleracea var. acephala

Once the weather warms, I discard all the Ornamental Kale and spring flowers take its place. I'm usually prompt in performing this transition, but with all the extra weeding this year, I let it go. Now, I have the prettiest flower stalk! This is the first time I've ever seen one, and everything about it is pretty. The purple stalk, the green and white-striped buds and the beautiful yellow flowers rival the beauty of the leaves when they are at their peak.

Sometimes, procrastination pays off in unexpected ways.

Twofer Veggie

Brassica oleracea var. acephala

Ornamental kale is a twofer--a plant that provides two benefits in one. However, I use it only as cheap winter color for some of the large pots in my garden. Since it is also edible, many folks like to use it as garnish, or prepare it the same way as regular kale or cabbage.

Ornamental kale is available as an annual every fall in local nurseries, so I purchased enough to fill three pots. Many gardeners use it as a border plant, and in some of our large resorts, it is planted en masse in very large beds, and outlined with mums. Last year, I saw it used a lot in common areas of shopping centers. I imagine it is used everywhere in this same way.

The only problem I have with it is it grows very fast once planted and becomes leggy, losing its appeal as it ages. If it gets too warm, it loses some of the color, thus defeating the reason for planting it. If that happens this year, I guess I'll eat it.

Hang On Little Tomato...

There are 16 tomatoes left on this bedraggled, lopsided plant purchased in early March at Lowe's, already potted and complete with a wire cage support. It was a bargain--only $11.99, and it already had a couple of tiny tomatoes and plenty of flowers. So far, I've harvested 33, so by the time these last ones ripen, my cost per tomato will have been about a quarter. I'm not much of a vegetable gardener, but I do like fresh tomatoes, so I buy one of these instant plants every year at the home improvement center and they have always done well. This one didn't have a label so I don't know what variety it is. The tomatoes are very sweet with low acidity. I prefer a little bit more tang, but they are certainly better than tasteless grocery store tomatoes. Now that we are having 100 degree-plus days, this plant is on its last legs. If I can keep it going just two more weeks, those last tomatoes will ripen on the vine and then I'll send it off into the sunset.

Here is my backup plan to continue having fresh tomatoes all summer. It is an AeroGarden, a Christmas gift from my son that has provided three different types of crops so far. The AeroGarden is a device that grows plants without soil, just water and nutrients that continually flow over the roots. No muss, no fuss, and perfect for someone like me who doesn't have much interest in maintaining a vegetable garden. I'm currently growing tomatoes, but I've had crops of salad greens and basil before starting the tomatoes. The salad greens mix included seven different varieties of lettuce, and there were plenty of greens for two small salads daily for over six weeks. The international basil crop produced seven different types of basil, more basil than we were able to use. The cherry tomato crop pictured here is now six weeks old. It will be awhile before I have any tomatoes from these plants as the tomato crop takes about 14 weeks from start to harvest. (The tomatoes in the photo are from my potted tomato plant.)

I love to watch the daily progress of the plants, and the AeroGarden doesn't look bad on the kitchen counter. It is a gift that just keeps on giving.