I have planted Burpee zucchini, sweet basil, dwarf sunflowers, teddy bear sunflowers, and thumbelina carrots from seed in the garden. I also planted one Sweet 100 Plus tomato plant and a bell pepper plant as well. Here you can see the progression in pictures:

April 2007:

May 2007:

The tomato and pepper plants are in the ground and the first sunflowers are starting to grow.

June 2007:

I have only one tomato on my plant, but there is one! The pepper plant is growing well and producing two peppers. The beginnings of the zucchini plants are showing. The basil is growing!

July 2007:

I cannot believe what a difference a month makes in a garden! The sunflowers, basil, and zucchini are doing very well. I am getting at least a couple of zucchini a day from just two plants. You can’t see them well in the picture, but the plot that looks empty actually has carrots growing. I have had one tomato and it was beautiful! A bird came and ate it! Hahaha! The tomato plant and pepper plant have stopped producing including blossoms. I figure it is because it is so HOT outside….

More to come…..

 

Over the past few weeks my beautiful green and growing zucchinis have thrived and produced like gangbusters. Last week, however, I began to see my zucchinis turning yellow at the ends and eventually dying. I have watered my plants in the same pattern and an organic feeding schedule has been maintained. There has been no disruption that I could see…

I spoke to my younger sister who is a wonderful gardener. This chica has everything in her garden from corn to lavender, you name it. So I IMed her and asked her what was up with my zucchini. Her response is that they are not getting pollinated by bees. All I need to do it take a small paintbrush and transfer pollen from one zucchini blossom to another and pollinate in place of the bees. I started doing this yesterday so we will see what happens. I would have never in a million years have to come to the conclusion that bees were not coming to pollinate….

Then I begin to seethe bigger picture. A few months ago I read a few intriguing articles, about the rapid and distinct decline in the honeybee population throughout the world.

It has been reported that over 90% of honeybees in the U.S. population have all but disappeared and close to 75% in other parts of the planet have disappeared and/or have died as well. There are many theories buzzing around (hah!) such as cell phone radiation or global warming is causing this significant decline in the bee population. I personally agree with the theory that it has to do with the bee’s immune system being compromised somehow (pesticides?). Whatever the cause, the effect of bees not pollinating could be devastating to farmers who grow nuts, fruits, etcetera. They depend solely on bees to pollinate their crops. This is enough of a problem that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture has held meetings discussing this issue.

We could be giving our future generations the lack of never experiencing the crunch of an almond or the sweet taste of a strawberry. The United States could stand to lose billions of dollars in agriculture and become completely dependent on foreign countries. I went off on a tangent there, but it is disconcerting to see the ripple effect that will be caused if we permanently lose our honeybee population.

I will keep update on the condition of my zucchini and see if the surrogate pollinating makes a difference in my garden. Cross your fingers!!

So one day in April of 2007, I became so utterly sick of our backyard; that is the lack of anything there for visual stimulation beyond that occasional weed and rocks we had paid someone to cover our yard. You see, here in the desert, “decorating” your backyard consists of filling it with rock and a cactus or two. DEPRESSING! Xeriscaping is a novel idea and can produce beautiful landscapes if: 1. You are so talented to design and do the work yourself or 2. Pay someone an insane amount of $$ to have them do it for you. I qualify for neither as I do not even know where to begin with a protractor and ruler or have an extra $20G burning a hole in my pocket. I am totally assuming you need a protractor to do these things….

The inner hippy in me appreciates knowing how my food is grown and I was genuinely curious if I could actually pull this whole gardening thing off. The two plants I have in my house require little maintenance and caretaker knowledge, hence that is why they live .

So given the challenge of living in the desert and not having any real desire or knack to keep houseplants alive, I thought Hey!, why not try constructing a garden! I dug up as much dirt and rock as I could, which was not very deep given the caliche (clay soil we are blessed with here), and I put in a generic plastic border. This took about a week of digging and hammering at the ground. Great workout for the arms – it was rough! I added organic compost, eventually planted seeds, and watered the hell out of the soil.

Here is a pic of the plot where my garden is at the beginning. It is roughly a 10′ x 12′ area.