My Garden in the “Fall”
We don’t really have fall in the desert. This is one of the times the garden is at it’s best because it’s finally cooled off a little… even though my garden might not show it. Some of the pepper plants were huge last year & this year were small… although I got better results on the bell, poblano, jalapeno & habanero this year.
The zucchini, straightneck & patty pan squash didn’t do well. Actually, the straightneck did really well & produced alot at the beginning of the summer, then looked diseased & wouldn’t produce anything so I pulled it. I had a huge ant & aphid issue this year and got it a bit under control for a while. Oh yeah, I only got one okra… I mean one PIECE of okra. I harvested it for seed… which may not be a good idea since it came from a plant that didn’t really produce. I think it was because of the aphids (or some environmental issue) though, so hopefully it won’t matter.
I got a decent yield of spaghetti squash very early, then the plant completely died. The butternut squash went completely wild (as you can see in the video). The very first squash was ready pretty early, but it’s totally small compared to what came after. It’s still producing! Totally cool.
I decided to give corn a shot, although I planted it quite late. It shot up pretty quick though so I think I’ll get something. The pumpkins were supposed to be ready for Halloween & I planted it in more than enough time… It just decided to take longer I guess. I think we’ll be buying carving pumpkins & maybe have fresh pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I’m still hoping at least one will grow supercharged & be ready in two weeks!
One conclusion I came to is that some sort of shade is probably a good idea. Last year I had a canopy for part of the summer & I didn’t do that this year. It probably would have helped, so I’m going to come up with something to give at least partial shade in the heat of the desert summers. I’m sure it would be a good idea not to reinvent the wheel & get a book on desert gardening, lol.
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