American Gothic, Swartz style

George and Jeannie - drawing by son Eric

I really like it when the garden surprises me! Surprise # 1. I thought our radishes were done for, but they are hanging on, and I think we are going to see them mature despite the catepillar attacks. Yeah! Surprise # 2. Everything in the garden survived 5 nights in a row of freezing temperatures!(very rare for Tucson) We loosely covered the rows of lettuce, which seemed the most vulnerable to me; the swiss chard; and the kale with light-weight material normally used for weed prevention. That was all I could find at my local ACE Hardware store. It worked just fine being left on the garden plants for 6 entire days. So, let's hear it for happy surprises.

Because, let's face it. Not all surprises are good ones. Take the cauliflower for example. We have a dozen lovely looking plants (that didn't bolt - yippee!), but haven't produced one head! Arggh! I think we should have seen something by now. I'm going to give them another good blast of fish emulsion and seaweed extract this weekend, and hope for the best.

Our 12 broccoli plants have each give us a decent first head, which have been greatly enjoyed by all. It's amazing how tender fresh broccoli is compared to what is sold at the store. (this is no surprise) Now, the plants are producing smaller, side heads. I hope they do well, because it all came and went too fast. We could have used another 2 dozen plans IMHO. We were pleased to give six, 4-oz bags of our fresh mixed lettuce greens to the Community Food Bank table at our local Farmer's Market yesterday. The FB will sell the lettuce at the market and use the proceeds to support their programs. The lettuce plants are producing more than we can eat.

Make a note: next year plant less lettuce and more broccoli.

Our donation to the Food Bank

I've asked my son to help me build an 8 x 4 foot raised garden bed for my own yard. I know we are going to run out of room in our shared garden because the garlic and shallots will not be harvested until June. And, I'd like to start some carrots and beets now.

There are several units I can purchase, but I'd like to see if we can build one without much work and for less money. So, it's out to Home Depot or Lowe's to check on materials we go!

Despite the continual assault of catepillars we saw through the middle of December, the garden plants are thriving, and have produced lots of delicious lettuce, spinach, chard, kale and broccoli. Unfortunately, the radishes didn't fair that well against the catepillars. The first 5 rows did well, but after that, the increase in catepillars spilled over onto the radish leaves and that was the end of that.

We are really enjoying the abundance of lettuce the garden is producing. Besides the Black Seeded lettuce, we also planted Simpson Elite (A heat resistant variety), and a Burpee Gourmet Blend (consisting of: Ashley, Prizeleaf, Royal Oak Leaf, Salad Bowl, and Red Salad Bowl).

The Garden - December 22, 2010

Shallots, garlic, and lettuce - December 22, 2010

Chard, Spinach, Kale - December 22, 2010

Three of our 12 Broccoli plants - December 22, 2010

At this time of year, there are many butterflies and moths laying their eggs on plants. Our garden was not spared. We've had lots of little green catepillars munching away away the broccoli and cauliflower plants. It's requiring a twice-a-day thorough checking of the underside of each leaf. Those little green guys are incredible eating machines, and if left to their own device, they can devour a four-inch leaf in 24 hours or less, and double their size at the same time.

The radishes require only 45 days to harvest. We are planting only one row at a time, one week apart from each other, and will replant each row after it is harvested.

Broccoli plants - Oct 10, 2010

Swiss Chard - Oct 10, 2010

Radishes and spinach plants - Oct 10, 2010

In just a short 20 days, we have a pretty good showing. Everything has sprouted (except the garlic, which requires more time and more cold weather), and the young broccoli and cauliflower plants are looking good.

October 30, 2010

After turning the ground over, pulling out a few more rocks from the garden bed, and adding more amendments, we were ready to plant our winter garden. It will have: garlic, shallots, swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, broccoli, and cauliflower.

We were very fortunate to have received some Black Seeded lettuce seeds, 7 different varieties of garlic, and some shallots from our garden friends (you know who you are! Thank you!) The garlic varities are: Mexican Red, Sonoran Red, Lorz, Metachi, Inchelium Red, Inchelium White, and Red Toch.

Alex will put in a new irrigation lines, which we hope will be more or less permanent for use with all future gardens.

The start of the Winter Garden