Fall, 2008

December 1st... Still Fall weather here! We have yet to experience a freeze, and as we are about 60-70º during the day, I have been waiting to plant daffodil bulbs for the Spring around the trees... Above is the beginning of a new branch archway I am making. As the garden is blasted with Sun in the Summer, we are starting to add trellis and shade to help individual garden areas a bit better. We have also planted a Mimosa tree in the center of the back garden, as well as an Empress tree along the back fence which gets blasted by Sun, and a Mulberry on the other end. These are regarded as "Nurse Plants", as they grow quickly to help shade those beneath them. We have now observed that Desert Sun is not what any nursery means when they say "Full Sun" - we must create dappled shade, or intermittent shade on all areas unless we are planting desert plants. But what we are trying to do is actually change the overall micro-climate of our space to allow food plants to thrive better.

Above left is the most amazing Sunflower. The main stem was flattened by the wind, thus about 11 heads have popped up from its back! I have found the birds are so beyond smart, rather than ripping out the seeds for them, we have a slew of larger birds that come and work as they go. Above right is a bird feeder, with the heads of dried Sunflowers replaced as they are emptied.

The Tire Garden walkway has been overhauled completely. Originally, we placed plastic bags down to cover the grass, then woodchips with a few large brick planks. This ended up not being so fun to walk on, I even noticed the dogs would walk alongside rather than walk on it. As the grass has died off, I've pulled up the plastic, and added carpet, then sand, and have worked a primitive mosaic style walk, with bricks and cement. The woodchips have been reapplied in between the brick. The overall feel is more comfortable and bouncy, and much more enjoyable to walk on - not to mention it looks neat! I have driven tiny stakes along the outside of each brick to make sure the walk stays intact. Now when it rains, the water can go directly into the ground, rather than pooling on the plastic. I will be replacing any plastic walkways with carpet, once I know the relentless bermuda grass beneath it has died off.

October 15th... At last, perfect weather! As I hack down all the Summer growth to get ready for Winter, I realize that we have a new growing season which may last the next couple of months if we're lucky... Possibly we may have about 3 separate growing seasons per year out here in the high desert! Above, the sages and flowers are in full bloom, while tomatoes are still going strong. Our days are 80s-90s, nights about 50. Having said that, we did have a 28º night, which put ice in the water dishes. Not enough to kill off everything, but it was close... Our tire garden was redone for Fall last month, now it has cool weather peas growing well, and the broccoli that held out through the Summer for better days is beginning to really grow. An interesting point here is that the tire garden gets quite a bit of Sun during the hottest months which caused the tires to heat up, but once Fall hits, it is in the shade all day, which keeps the tires themselves cool. We will be sure to paint the tires light colors before next Summer to keep them from heating up too much.

The herb spiral built by the Ars Terra PDC is going strong! We added a trellis wall for shade, which puts the herb spiral is on the north side of the trellis, and it also keeps the back garden safe as well as helping the aesthetic of the place. Grapevines will most likely begin to take hold of the trellis next Spring and keep the spiral in better shade next Summer. Too much Sun is the biggest problem of our area, and we have realized that setting in trellis walls to face North/South is the best way to handle this until trees can finally take hold.

Currently, we are once again re-working the front yard plan, now to include trees, which we've been building soil for all Summer. It seems in our climate, it is best to plant fruit trees in January, where all possibility of a sudden warm up is gone. But by the end of the month, we are going to plant two shade trees in the front, and in the back, we are planting a Mulberry in the main garden (for the us and the ducks as well as for shade) and a Corkscrew Willow will stand in front of the Orchard/Food Forest for shade as well as for future wood.

In the Orchard, I have found it will be a few more seasons of soil building before I will have the right kind of forest soil that berries truly love... Thus far, only one or two berry bushes have taken hold, as what we have had there is dead desert dirt and hard pan beneath that. So until then, we will be mainly planting perennial flowers, garlic chives to keep the pests at bay and turning cover crops to mulch until I have a good organic soil to work with.

At the right is our front veggie garden in full bloom. This garden was used for an Ars Terra Workshop on building soil last March. Now with shorter, cooler days, Squash (see early photo), Peppers and Eggplants are coming in strong! What we learned from last year is less and less water is needed, and watering in the mornings at this point keeps powdery mildew from forming on leaves, as last year, watering at dusk with cold nights was not good for the veggies!