Chacha Cha CHIA

My toddler's have grown straight into teenagers, ready to hit their sexual prime. they have flower buds that should open any day. I cannot Wait to see how they turnout , finding picture of these guys is hard. so far I have 5 almost bloomed Plants from my original planting. But I also have 3 "elementary Schoolers" in my okra and 2 in my 'maters. I plan On weighing each seed I harvest so I Can decide If it was worth it- these seeds are expensive. I f I can get at least a pound from the cup or so of seeds I've used I would be happy.

GALECK, GALECK

Garlic, if there was ever to be an alien space invader made of kitchen tools I hope they have tons of GALECK

But in the mean time I preparing for my first garlic winter.  I grew garlic once in Fl. It was initially an amazing success, followed closely by unmitigated disaster. Not a single garlic in the pots or garden. However the year after I moved to Tucson my old roommate called me up "Hey, remember your garden? Garlic and Peppers seem to be growing like crazy over there!".  So while I did not get to enjoy the bulbs of my labor at least I know they were delicious eventually. Garlic makes my favorite i feel like crap dinners , Sopa de Ajo (from my FAVORITE cookbook, Clarita's Cocina-check it out) so I am definitely motivated to try again.

I started out at the AZGardenForum.  http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/azgard/msg0920362827535.html Turns out there is a bunch that goes into garlic. I am planning on doing a grocery store planting since so many of the garlic I buy already sprout when I forget them in the fridge.  So I'm pretty sure they are not sprayed with any retardant. So while my formal plan is to just shop and plop  I thought it would be nice to find some more out about Garlic to help with good planning on where it should go.

AH: Mother Earth News Fill us in: what do you know, the best kind for braiding :) Turns out these babies won't be ready till next summer.  Harvest time is when about half the leaves turn a yellowish color.  I need to figure out how to mark these guys as different from my chives, because they look similar. (My second test to identify plants after looking is tasting and they taste too similar for me to accurately identify between the two with any confidence)

Companion Issues: (and my NEW C.P. List) Plays poorly with Peas/Beans (Hmm, my chives are near the mystery beans, note to self to check on that later!) But it also plays VERY well with other plants turns out it is a "natural fungicide"  It is often grown with Roses to combat Aphids (see pests). It is also grown with fruit trees! (Who knew? not me!) They also support a lot of winter veggies, beets, and cabbages.


Pests: the reason Garlic is such an awesome companion plant is because it is supposed to help repel insects.  In fact in the War on Aphids, I considered making a Garlic Spray as one of my attempts to combat the gross lil devils. (I ended up making Tomato Spray because that was what was in the house). The lady at Arbico-Organics noted that the small flowers on herbs tend to attract lots of beneficials so I bet Garlic would as well.

Aphid elimination???

A whileback I noticed this guy in my plants 

I was worried that he A.) Might be another aphid destroyer bug, and I killed him with the neem oil  or B.) this is some other kind of terrible pest sent to destroy my beautiful garden.  Well it turns out my worry was unfounded. Turns out that little guy is a Syrphid Fly or Hoover Fly. This guy goes CRAZY  for aphids when it is a nymph then turns into a pollinator machine.  My worries of eradicating my entire beneficial population was also unfounded. Upon closer inspection among my melon and cucumber (i.e. worst hit by the aphid apocalypse) are tons of aphid munchers!

 See that guy?

they are not as gross when you think they are saving

your butt!

Mystery Beans

They are getting bigger and definitely some sort of bean.  I love pea/bean flowers. They are so delicate and dainty. They also offer up a nice change from all of the yellow of the summer veggies (think squash, melon, cucumber).

 They also have some beans. Problem is they are sort of a mystery plant. I got a little crazy and I planted a Bush bean, some Pinto beans and black beans at various times. However I did not label any of them, and they took FOREVER to come up.   I have no clue which ones these are!  I've tried a bite and they seem a little small and too furry to be edible at this time.  So maybe I have my first home grown frijoles!

Savers: Melon eddition

Not only did I make dinner tonight, I grew our salad.

pretty huh

And in the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit I have already lied. I did not grow the cucumbers, they were a gift from a friends garden.  But everything ELSE was all me.  We have Mint, (yup THIS mint, more on that front in another post)  Basil, Cucumbers, and Melon (don't ask what kind...I REALLY need to invest in some kind of labeling system!).

Along with making a yummy salad I thought I'd show you how to use your delicious melon to extend your garden.  So follow along with another SAVERS: Melon Edition.

Step 1. Start with your melon: 

Step 2. Cut it in half:

Look at all them seeds

Step 3. Start Scoopin'

Really get your hands in there...Gross

Step 4. See all that goop? Rinse it off, and let dry! TADA!!!

oh yea...goop

Step 5. And then I check to see if they are "filled".  I'm not sure if this is totally "scientific" but the way I check the seeds to see if they were from a "mature" plant is crack one in my teeth and see if there is a seed pod inside. Sometimes if you picked to early the seed sheath on the outside is all you have but the inside is empty.

If you look REALLY close you can see the "outside" of the melon seed (testa) and the seed guts (endosperm) on the inside. 

From this whole melon I got a whole handful of seeds.I just saved a few dollars on a new envelope of melon seeds. This handful is only from one melon, another melon in the garden and I will have enough melon seeds to grow a garden of melons!

Not a mystery-and part of the war on the aphids

Well look what I found.  I initially thought I had an M3 here; (mystery plant #3) but upon closer inspection I found a seed casing on one of the leaves.  I looked through my recently planted seeds and Viola! It appears my Cosmos have sprouted! (I really need to start labeling shit around here)

so cute and pretty

I planted these guys a few weeks ago in my battle of the aphids. These guys will grow tall and set out some beautiful white flowers. See it's the baby lace wings that are voracious carnivores as adults they are strictly vegetarian.  The Adult Green Lace Wings eat nectar from the flowers. Since I have PLENTY of nymph food (aphids) and hopefully I will soon have lots of adult food the plan is that they will then stick around the garden to lay their eggs. These guys are way to small to explain the sudden increase in beneficials at this time but should they survive the winter I have a jump start on the spring planting and bug control.

The first Official Beneficial (Aphids Cinco de Octobre)

Well, back from vacation and things don't look much better..

In fact the aphids look worse. But wait, Look Closer

And Closer

Mummies and Parasitic Wasps. I returned to Arbico-Organics to confirm that what I had was finally a breakthrough. IT WAS! My first OFFICIAL BENEFICIAL.  These guys are also really awesome. They are stingless wasps that lay an egg INSIDE of the aphid. That "mummy" in the second picture is actually a swollen aphid that has turned into a cocoon! A second wasp will be flying out of a hole in its belly some day soon. (Nature is SO gross)

I was also confirmed that the aphid infestation is bad, really bad.  So I picked up bottle of Neem Oil to spray down some of this invasion. I have some mixed feelings about this move.  I was told not to worry too much about harming my wasp-he has wings so he will fly away.  Plus Neem is pretty natural stuff, in fact its the original tooth-stick .  It will also work as a fungicide, one of the side effects of aphids sticking their little mouths where they don't belong, is the introduction of fungus into your healthy plants.  So I will be using the spray but I will only be spraying the neem oil in a few of the MOST infested parts of the garden. Just enough to knock down the numbers and give these wasps a second to come through. 

Aphids Part...I Can't keep up.

So I sprayed the neem. I made sure to avoid where I had seen the parasitic fly.  Because it is an oil compound I made sure to spray at night. I want to avoid all the leaf burn that occured with the soap sprays.  This morning however I went out and lo and behold

See that little wormy guy up at the top? I think that's a nymph of some sort of lace wing bug guy.  I immediately felt terrible that I might have killed these good guys. I went through the garden picking up leaves that were heavily infested.  I found several more mummified aphids (at least three), a few more parasitic wasps, and some of these wormy/guys.  I picked up a whole gallon baggie of gross aphid plants.  I then inspected EACH ONE for the beneficials. I pulled each one off with my scissors and deposited them back to the plant to keep their munching.

I have mixed feelings about my neem purchase.  I don't want to kill these delicate beneficials but until today I have barely had any beneficials and mostly lost aphids.  I did spray a second round on the lentils because they are baby plants, read delicious to bugs, and I did not find a single aphid eater in here.  Perhaps with the neem oil knocking down a few of the aphids it lets my beneficials catch up and knock down. If the neem oil did not kill the beneficials but kept a few of the aphids under control I might come out ahead and even get one or two cucke's before this year is out.

Growing Growing Mystery M2

M2 is getting bigger. Remember when she was only this tall Flowers all over. Yet not a single snack to eat.  I still do not know a thing about this gal or what she might be. I think I am just going to let her get bigger and bigger and hopefully she will be identifiable one day.

Winter Seasons

The weather has shifted.  It is starting to be coolish in the morning.  Winter here is short.  Before long I will be prepping for Summer Season.   This time I did something new, I planned.  Especially after the bug-hell I have been in I thought I should spend a little more time getting ready for winter. Plus I am hoping to cut down on the mystery plants. So I've consulted my Magic Garden Companion Guide, picked my winter veggies and Viola! A garden map to end all Garden maps:

Classy right?

So what did I pick and why?
Well first of all Aphids, Aphids Aphids.  The reason I have had so many aphids is because I have had so few beneficials.  I have had so few beneficials because I have no habitat for them.  I have started an "overwinter" garden (which will also be my main garden next year) but thought I would try to pull in some regular plants that might help.

Carrots: Attracts a TON of beneficials such as parasitic wasps, (see my first one HERE!).It also attracts lace wings, assasin bugs and "big eyed bugs" (whatever that is). It also provides added water to the soil (a must here in the desert). It grows really good with Peas and other winter veggies.

Beets: Add tons of minerals to the soil. Also a good companion plant to brassicas (brussels and cabbage).  They are improved by Garlic.

Onions: Supposedly keeps aphids away. I'm not sold on this as I have put in TONS of chives around my more aphid infested plants. But maybe a stronger allium would help. I will also be marking at least two to go to seed.  I think the flat white flowers will attract lots of the beneficials that I am missing.

Garlic: Not only another aphid resistor but also something that will help the orange tree-who knew?. So I sandwiched it between the beets and the orange tree.

Peas-now here is where things got tricky tricky. Supposedly peas and onions are not friends in the garden (despite making a tasty treat in the kitchen). So I pulled them apart a little bit, hopefully this is enough.

Not on the Map-Dill, and Coriander- Both are good garden plants.  Also both taste good. Also Dill and Cilantro are closely related; seems good right? Well maybe not. They cross pollinate.  I have dill growing in the overwinter garden; hopefully that will be far away enough to put some coriander in the garden but where? Carrots and Dill don't play nice, does that mean Coriander won't either? I'm going to need more research to figure this out.

Also I forgot to add Broccoli from some bizarre reason. I think they will go where the lettuce is and the lettuce will be sprinkled around the garden like basil was during the summer. OH yea and SPINACH, forgot that too, i'll find a spot somewhere...

Aphids Quatro

The aphids have not died. The aphids are worse.  The bananas  did nothing, the Tomato Spray did nothing. I still have more and more aphids, and not a single aphid snacker in sight.  It's time to jump start the process. I headed over to Arbico-Organics a local garden store (they ship!) to see what my options are.  After a great chat with a master gardener who considered at my problem; aphids, lack of beneficials, and an army of ants protecting their aphid heard, we came up with a plan...

1. Kill the ants-because there are so many aphids I now have SO MANY ANTS. They collect the aphid poop-honeydew-and protect their little poop farms like crazy.  DE will help cut down some of the ant population so that the Aphid Eaters can get in there and tear it up

Diatomaceous Earth-to kill the ants 

2. Kill the Aphids. Lace wings (AKA Aphid Lions) are a good choice here. Lady Bugs, everyone's favorite aphid killer, are miserable here in the summer. Even though it is October it is still hitting 90 degree's every day. Not a good choice for the lady bird beetle.

lace wing eggs

First I Sprinkle the DE around the garden, this keeps the ant population down and protects the plants. Then I split the eggs into coffee filters which I tied to some of the plants. The filters protect the eggs from things that might creep along and snack away on my lil lacewing babies

egg nursery

Trying to keep the filter on the melon off the ground was tough!

They should hatch in a few days but I will be out of town when that happens. Hopefully when I get back we will less of this

Mystery Plant part Deux

and once again the garden is full of surprises, notably this one:

No seriously, what is this?

And not only is there another mystery plant, she is living WITH the other mystery plants.  (in fact I think I spied a 3rd mystery plant in that corner but I just CANT with that right now). So while I still try to figure out my first mystery (no news on that front as of yet) we are on to M-2 as I like to call her.

And clearly she's a girl, she has bells, one of the first things I noticed as I attempted my sleuthing.  Here's a shot:

It's a little blurry but those bells seem to house the flowers.  The flowers are pretty, similar to okra in shape and with a small dark center.  They only stay open for a day or so.

 and have a beautiful "star" shape when they first open.


Now google images has gotten me some BEAUTIFUL yellow flowered plants but nothing quite like this. It has grown much faster than M-1 but there is only one of them, hopefully she can self pollinate and I will get to learn what this is.  I have no weeds like her in the garden and so I must have planted her. I tried a leaf-not good- (and probably a habit I should stop).

Savers: Lettuce Edition

A tutorial to Collect Lettuce Seeds.

I was really confused about when to harvest seeds and how to keep track of the various stages of the budding/pollinating/maturing of the pods so here is a handy guide of how I learned to identify each stage.

After a season of Lettuce the plants sends up a long stalk, all along the stalk are small buds like this:

 See how most are "tight" buds and a light green? That means they are baby buds and not ready.  The seeds will eventually be at the bottom of each "bud".

Watch and wait and suddenly you will notice some of the buds have blossomed into small yellow flowers like This:

If you watch closely in a day you will notice the yellow flower "close up" 

Small closed yellow flowers

The flower bud will start to dry out and the yellow flower turns white and fuzzy.  This lets you know it was pollinated. 

See how green this bud is? Also it is not a
"fuzzy" white, that means it has not yet
turned into a yellow flower or been pollinated
it is still a baby bud

This one is drying; you see more white
and the white is "fuzzy" also the bud is lighter
this one has turned into a yellow flower and
then pollinated.

READY!

He is ready! see how the bud is brown and dry? If you look really close under the white fuzz you can see some of the seeds. I simply pinch the white fluff and pull out the seeds then drop them into a ziploc bag.

READY!

The seeds! the white fluff is in my finger.  and I have a fingerfull of seeds.  Each plant makes several buds and each bud makes a decent number of seeds.  Next thing you know you could have enough seed to grow another garden!

Aphids part Three

They are coming!!! I can not get a handle on these guys. This is my summer squash that has already beat one round with the aphids.  I have left it alone but after dousing the armenian cucumber and the regular cucumber this guy got hit again.  I do not think the tomato spray did much, it just moved the suckers. So I am not going that route again.  This time I have strategically placed some Banana peels under the plant. It has been suggested that the ethylene/ethene gas might ward them off. I do not want to kill  them but I just want them to not kill anything else. If you notice the baby squash plant is growing crooked because of those gross buggies.

Sunflower

Awww, sunflowers.  What could be more "summer". These hot loving plants are supposed to attract birds who also eat bugs. They also attract bees to increase pollination. They also make delicious seeds.  But notice anything unusual about these guys?

yup, that is not a camera trick, those are TINY sunflowers.  I hijacked some seeds from a beautiful GIANT sunflower at my local community garden....seems that they are not true to parent. Turns out a little research clarified this problem

"Sunflowers will cross-pollinate and must be separated by ½ mile to ensure pure seed. Harvest the heads when they have completely filled out, lost all of their petals and the backs begin to turn brown."

Oops, That garden had a HUGE variety of sunflowers within a 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile plot.  I will follow these guys a little longer and maybe I  will still get some teeny tiny snacks out of the deal.  

Savers

To try to save some money I have begun to harvest some of my seeds. This way I can spend the money on other things like shoes  trellises (trellisi?). So here is my step by step to saving Zinnia Seeds.

 These are the first "productive" flowers I have been able to grow other than some native plants. This guy is HUGE and much bigger than I expected so he has provided some lovely shade to my poor butternut squash (more on that in weather issues).  I see tons of bugs hanging out around him, He has been bit a few times but seems to survive the occasional munch.

1. Pick a beautiful specimen-one you hope to repeat next
year.  This guy has a beautiful pink shade and he
is opening in a somewhat uniform manner-see that guy
in the back corner? too unruly

2. Let him dry til he needs some
Cetaphil. You know he is ready
When you pull a petal out and a
little arrow is attached.

(Those little pointy arrows circled in green are the seeds
they are attached to the petals)

3. Give him a good haircut. Cut as close to the
"center" part (which is hard) as you can, all that
extra petal is not necessary.

4. Pull off the seeds, these are really the bottoms of the petal
so what you have left is a pile of seeds/petal butts, and the
rest of the flower center-I don't know what it is called.
the petals should pull of easily, just rub your thumb over them
or gently pull them out.

 They needed to dry some more so I put them in an origami box since I did not have any paper bags. I will pull seeds from a few more flowers this year and grow at least two next year!