By Kim Nichols
As a kid, I grew up on a farm in Buckeye, AZ. We always had some sort of a garden from my Mother’s asparagus patch to rows of corn, zucchini, and lettuce. Having a garden now satisfies the need to be out in nature, and getting my fingers in the soil. Watching things grow is exciting and satisfying. Not to mention the abundance and health advantages of growing your own food.
This is a very challenging place to raise a garden. We have a very short growing season, we’re closer to the sun (compared to our old place, at 500 ft elevation!), and it’s gravel and granite, not soil. Not to mention the animals.
Our yard faces south, the entire yard gets good morning sun, some parts h
ave afternoon shade which really helps. Other parts have full afternoon sun. Adding shades helped this year. Last year there was lots of rain to cool things off, the year before, it was very dry and unproductive. There’s something to be learned from the garden every year, like different irrigation schedules, methods, and delivery systems.
Late last year (May) I built a raised-bed garden. I fenced it using 4X4 posts with 2X4’s laid flat on top between the posts and stapled 4’ tall ½” wire mesh that I buried 8 to 10 inches all the way around. I used ¾” PVC pipe and fittings to make a 4’ high pitched frame and draped ½” fabric mesh over the top to completely enclose the garden. (See pic 1)
I used fiberglass panels cut in half and 4×4 posts to make my raised beds. One 5’x10’, and an “L” shaped bed about 3’X15’x10’ with a 2’ walkway between them. Putting in matching pavers for the walkway and at the gate entrance connecting the garden to the yard pathway and stairs made the garden more functional and beautiful.
To fill the beds I used bagged soil, topper mulch, gypsum, saw dust, ashes, and native dirt. Although bagged soil is expensive and it never goes as far as you’d like – I’ve found it to work best. Getting regular dirt from elsewhere has the potential of introducing unwanted things into your garden, fire ants come to mind or grub eggs, but I’ve also had introductions of aphids, grass and other unwanted things from bagged soil. So, I do ½ bagged soil and ½ soil from the forest.
Adding raised beds late last year adds growing potential. Ultimately, the goal is to add 3 more raised beds which will help with crop rotation. Being able to move crops from one spot to another on a 4 year cycle helps prevent disease and pests from taking hold and delivers nutrients from certain plants into the soil where other deplete the nutrients out of the soil.
Just about everything to add to a garden is expensive, so I’ve made my own beds and fenced area. Saving money doing this myself I can afford to look at other projects this summer, like a better rain capture system a bigger greenhouse, chickens or any number of things.
Disclaimer
What follows is an assortment of things I’ve noticed or experienced, things from the internet or from conversations with other gardeners, things I’ve tried or want to try. I consider myself to be a beginner. It’s way harder to grow here, our last place had fertile soil, no monster bugs, no elevation or water challenges.
Monsoons are great but sometimes it’s too much of a good thing. Last year all of the roses developed black spot, because of all the rain. This year the yellow rose is under a sun sail, which deflects a lot of water and it’s doing much better.
I have considered putting up a shade many times. In the heat of the summer they really struggle, and get sun burned, same with tomatoes and squash. The beauty of sun sails is that they still allow sunlight through, but block enough to give the plants a break. Too much heat stress causes plants to abandon fruiting in order to survive. I think it’s an elevation thing. In the old garden at 500 feet, if I had planted 11 squash plants it would have been a problem.
I am always in the learning phase. Next issue I’ll share what I know about composting.
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