Finally Back To Gardening!

Gardening has been an up and down experience for me.  Of course gardening here in Arizona certainly presents its own unique set of challenges.  I didn’t grow up here, I was born and raised in Northern California where we had four true seasons and plenty of rich soil.  Gardening here is like nothing else.

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I am so fortunate that a few years ago my father came over and helped me build four raised garden beds as well as a fence surrounding them.  I worked very hard that first season planning out and designing where and what I was going to grow as well as trying to figure out the easiest and most efficient way to water it.  At first my biggest struggle was the watering.  I was watering by hand with my garden hose, and it just was not working out well.  Some days I hardly seemed to have enough time, and other days if I wasn’t home my poor garden was neglected.  I tried to install a drip system that I purchased from Home Depot that was specifically for raised bed gardens, but that didn’t work out well either.  It was a lot more difficult to install than I anticipated, and my plants were not getting near enough water.  Finally, after trying several more types of sprinklers, I finally found one that worked.  It’s a small sprinkler that you can completely customize.  All I have to do is turn it on and off to water the garden.

The other problem I was having were critters!  Birds, chipmunks, and squirrels were enjoying my garden more than I was.  Anytime something would start to grow, they seemed to get to it before I could.  I remember being so excited one morning seeing a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes that were going to be ready to pick in just a few days.  I went out there later that afternoon and every single one was gone!  Along with all my strawberries and peppers that had just started to sprout.  It was so frustrating.  I went to Home Depot and purchased some bird block netting to put over the garden, and that seemed to really help.  Of course we ended up having a storm one night that completely blew all the netting off, and the next morning all the critters helped themselves to a wonderful buffet.  Even more frustrating was that this happened in mid-June, and by then it was too late and too hot to try to replant.

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This past weekend I finally replanted, making sure to really secure that bird block netting.  I had to start my garden a little later then I hoped, but I was out of town most of October, and it also stayed in the high 90’s and even hit 100 degrees until the end of October!  So it all ended up working out well.  This year I’ve dedicated one planter strictly to herbs.  I have rosemary, thyme, mint, sage, and parsley.  In my other planters I have tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow squash, onions, bell peppers, hot thai peppers, poblano peppers, and habernero peppers.  I’m really hoping this year I can finally get some vegetables that I can eat!  In the past I was only able to get a few eggplants and rosemary.  I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my garden.  Wish me luck!