2015 July

We spent a very busy June canning and preserving a lot of wonderful produce coming out of the Haws Haven Experimental Farm,  Our pantry is full of good stuff!  The following pictures show that everything is off except for the Butternut squash that is still producing some squash and actually is still producing some flowers.

The above pictures show that I have decided to prepare grow boxes using 4x8x16 fence block over the entire garden.  It looks nice to have straight rows and a confined area for planting and another for walking.  The planting area is 31 inches outside block edge to block edge.  The walkways are 12 inches clear.  I wish I could make them a little wider, but I would have to give up on a row.  I am in the process of adding grass clippings, leaves and manure in the planting areas.  

I managed to do all of this without uprooting the bell peppers and chilli peppers to keep a promise I made to my wife to not destroy her bell pepper plants.

I hope to plant pinto beans and black eyed peas within the next week in two of the rows and save the other rows for a winter garden to be planted in October.

I added a wash table and wash basin at one end of the garden to keep dirt from going inside the house.  The wash basin drains into a bucket that I carry to areas of the garden that seem to need it most.

Garden of Eden

This is the produce we picked from HHEF just today.  You will see in the following picture: 2 kinds of tomatoes, apples, melon, chilli, armenian cucumbers, onion, corn, and bell pepper.  Just today!  We have been picking a lot nearly everyday and have canned a lot from the garden and fruit trees.

I finally got a sign up for the "HAWS HAVEN EXERIMENTAL FARM" though I found out that people can interpret the abbreviation EXPERIMENTAL to EXP in a lot of different ways!

Over the last 2 months or so we have picked lettuce, corn, 2 kinds of  tomatoes, green bunching onions and granix onions, beets, chard, kale, zuchinni, parsley, bay leaves, butternut squash, armenian cucumbers, and I am sure other stuff I have forgotten about.  

The triple digit temperature is here, so in another month it will probably all be gone and I will be preparing for a winter garden.

HHEF is back up and Running!

When we returned from the Dominican Republic we had a lot of work to do in the Haws Haven Experimental Farm, but finally I have something I feel good about and am willing to share an update.  Here are some pictures of what the HHEF looks like today.

Homemade Water Nozzle.  It cost a little less than a commercial watering wand and shouldn't rust out.

Water source for the water wand

I built boxes using 4x6x16 block just laid next to each other.

I used leaves that had fallen off the trees mixed with dirt to fill the boxes. The flood irrigation surrounds the boxes, but doesn't over top and damage the soil or plants.

Butternut squash is just starting to come up on the right.  The left side of the box has turnips, radish, lettuce, beets, chard, onions.  I hope they can all grow together in the small space if I train the butternut to climb the chain link fence.

Peas just about to finish their very productive season

Yellow crookneck just sprouting.  In spite of the bird netting and chain link fence a bird did damage to one seedling

Bell pepper and Anaheim Pepper

Onion and Garlic

Onion on left, kale on the right.  How you ever tried homemade kale chips?

Lettuce going to seed.  I probably will not let it go to seed.  Rather I will pick the stem because the lettuce leaves are still good.

2011 June

I harvested all the corn this morning and blanched it for 4 minutes, put it in plastic freezor bags and into the freezor.  Good tastee corn.  These PICTURES also show other vegetables that are all coming off at the same time.  This is what you see in the pictures:  corn, zuchinni, butternut, chilli, pepper, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, marigold seed and 3 different kinds of desert flowers I grew in a bed and collected the seeds.  They are from seeds Sheredith gave me last Christmas.  I now have many times more seed then she gave me for the next planting.

I was awared the cook's hat because I was the cook at girl's camp last week.  I now spend more time in the kitchen and love my hat.

I taught a gardening class to the KBP ward last Thursday and give a class to the SGP ward this coming Tuesday.

I made my first contact with the East Valley Men's Center to get them started on their first garden project.

Garden Plan

Starting with the planting chart prepared by the UofA Agricultural Extension Service, I prepared a plan for my garden.
1. I selected varieties that grow well in my area and which my family enjoys.
2. I created a spreadsheet showing the varieties and the months they are planted and harvested.
3. I labeled each variety as W=winter and S=summer.
4. I "sorted" the spreadsheet by W/S and alphabetically by variety name.

The result is a spreadsheet showing me what to plant when and a layout of my garden into a Winter zone and a Summer zone.

Click here for a downloadable copy of the spreadsheet. GARDEN PLAN
Let me know what you think!

2011 April

I wish I had been keeping this blog up over the months just so I had a decent record. Here is a quick update.

The Wally's Worm experiment is over. WORMS

I have tried various watering systems in the past. I have flood irrigation to my yard which I consider a blessing. But the garden still needs supplemental watering. I think I have settled on a bubbler system for the summer garden. I installed a faucet at the corner of the garden and a PVC line with values and bubblers. I can adjust the bubblers as I water to ensure equal coverage throughout the garden. It works pretty well, though not automatic. Here are few pictures.

On another note the U of A agricultural service has a very nice garden planning chart I think is pretty good. CHART

Worms

I have wanted to try Vermicomposting for a long time. Finally I purchased some worms through the mail. There are many internet sites where you can learn all about worms and where to purchase them. This is one of the many sites for WORMS. I quote them here:

"Two breeds are used in vermicomposting: Eisenia foetida or Lumbricu rubella. Worm populations double each month. Mature redworms make two or three capsules a week, each producing two or three hatchlings after about three weeks. The hatchlings are tiny white threads about half an inch long, but they grow fast, reaching sexual maturity in four to six weeks and making their own capsules. Three months later they're grandparents!

This rapid breeding rate means the worm population easily adjusts to conditions in the worm box according to the feed supply and the proportion of worm casts to feed and bedding---their casts are slightly toxic to them, and as the box gets "full" they'll either leave, if there's anywhere for them to go, or they'll die off."

I include a picture of me receiving 2 lbs of "Eisenia foetide" in a plastic bag and a picture where I have dumped them into their new home. Their new home is a wooden sided box I built from scrap lumber held together with metal braces.

I have had them for a month. I was keeping a lid on the box, but ended up throwing so much garden waste into the box it is over flowing.

I am really worried about what is going to happen to my worms in the fierce Mesa, Arizona heat when the ambient temperature is well over 100 degrees. I put the box under a tree and have a long needle thermometer to monitor the inside temperature. I am hoping for the best. If you have a good idea how to keep them cool---let me know.

25 April 2011

The great Wally's Worm experimental is over! This is what went wrong. Generally speaking we have had pretty mild temperatures so far. However, I found the temperature reaching near 100 degrees F inside the box due to composting material. When that happened all the worms migrated as far from the middle of the box as they could hugging the outside boards. I watered the box which dropped the temperature. The worms seems really happy generally speaking, but then I noticed a lot of fruit lies and it was starting to stink. Then this morning I opened the lid and found a great big cockroach. I haven't seen a cockroach around here for a long time. That was the final straw. I dug a hole in one of the rows of my garden and dumped the whole pile into the ground. I think the worms will be happier and I know my wife is a LOT happier.

So ends the worms experiment. I know some people are doing it successfully, but I certainly haven't learned how to do it. Maybe another day.