My spring Garden Tour (i.e. My Happy Place)

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       Living here is the middle of the big city of Phoenix, AZ, I have come to realize more and more that my garden is my happy place!  This year more than ever I have gotten into my garden and expanded it.  I've been helping others to develop a love of gardening as well and sharing plants that I've grown from seeds and and by regrowing things I've purchased from the grocery store.  Even before the New Year, I set the goal to be able to be harvesting food year round.  On today's post, I thought I would show you around my garden and let you know how I am doing on my goal.

This is my original garden box that started the whole journey!

     I'll start you here with my original garden box that my husband made for me a number of years ago.  I love it because I can sit on the edge of the cinderblocks and pull weeds and harvest or prune plants.  It is about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.  I can fit quite a bit in it.  Right now you can see strawberries on the left, a bean plant on the right.  There are marigolds to keep away bugs and to attract pollinators.  I have ox heart tomatoes that are prolifically producing those heart shaped tomato babies and there are basil plants underneath!  I also have two special squash plants at the other end that I put in latter that will take over where the potatoes are  right now.  I learned too late that I shouldn't put potatoes and tomatoes in the same planter, but so far they are doing alright.  

Sitting on one corner of my bed is this small potted garden that I planted for one of my sons. He hasn't taken it home yet, but it is producing peppers, green onion and garlic all together in this pot.

Baby tomatoes! I can hardly wait until they are ripe!

I winter my strawberries over and they lasted about 3 years. This year I had to put in some new ones. I have one old plant left that so far has produced the largest berries! I had just harvested some berries before taking this picture. Sorry.

Potatoes. You can see a squash plant peeking in from the left.

     This year I decided to experiment with an in ground bed and make it a 3 sisters bed.  I had started a bunch of plants in containers in order to show examples at the gardening workshop that I taught at.  So, I carefully transplanted the plants into a newly dug bed.  
      A 3 sister's garden comes from Native American gardeners and they would plant corn, squash and beans all together.  The corn provided stalks for the beans to climb.  The beans provided nitrogen to the soil and the squash was supposed to hold in the moisture in the soil.  
       My experience so far has been not what I expected, but fun! 
        First I had to prepare the garden bed.  My husband helped me to dig up our clay soil.  We removed much of it and mixed in garden composted soil for better drainage and hopefully needed nutrients.  Our bed was only 4'x4'.  Small for corn, I know.  
       I transplanted popcorn seedlings, putting them closer together than normal because of the small bed, hoping to facilitate better pollination.  Then I added the  bean seedlings throughout. I transplanted  pattypan squash in a couple of spots.  Beans, which do not like to be transplanted, died.  But the popcorn has been doing great and so had the squash which also includes volunteer pumpkins which I didn't realize I had in my composted soil.  Here is what my 3 sister's garden looks like right now:

The corn is getting taller and so are the squash and pumpkins. I don't know which squash is which, so hopefully I will find some pattypan squash in there soon.

We do have some baby pumpkins growing quickly though! My grandkids will love this garden, popcorn and pumkins!

While the beans in the corn spot didn't make it, I did transplant some other ones nearby, also in the ground, that struggled at first but are now doing well. And, lol, there is another pumpkin on the other side.

     In another 4'x4' garden box I have more tomatoes, a zucchini plant and a watermelon.  Also some cumin, which isn't growing very quickly.  I've never grown cumin before, but we will see how this goes.  Some bird ate the leaves off of my zucchini plant, but it is coming back.  This box has San Marzano Tomatoes and a couple of beef steak.  

San Marzano babies. This plant is loaded and I can't wait to be making tomato sauce in a few weeks!

My watermelon plant is coming right along!

     In my last 4' x 4' spot, I've planted onions, peppers and a little bit of garlic.  I hope to baby this garlic along and then plant more in the Fall. 
    These galvanized steel raised beds are good, but I certainly can't sit on them while I work like I can on my cinderblock bed, so I am really glad that I purchased this garden stool to use when I am working in them. 

The peppers, which I started from seed like most of my other crops, were slow growing at first, but are really taking off now.

One big mistake I made is that I forgot to label which onions are which. I've planted green, yellow, white and red! I've harvested greens from all of them! I love my marigolds!

     As for my goal to be harvesting year round, presently, I am picking strawberries daily, as well as green onions. My basil, which I didn't get a picture of, is doing great under my tomatoes and I can also harvest them at this point. I can't wait to be using it in our food along with the tomatoes!  It won't be long until I have tomatoes and squash coming out of my ears.  

    One more thing that I planted in my yard this year is a Moringa Tree!  This is a fast growing, edible tree that I'm excited about.  Anita has had a lot of luck with hers and she shared some seeds with me. 

​     OH!  And I can't forget my indoor garden!  On my window sill I still have a few things! 

I started this celery from the end of a bunch that I purchased from the store. Celery won't stand the heat of our summer, so I'm waiting to transplant it outdoors in the Fall. It is getting a good start in my window!

Despite the tons of onions that I have in my outdoor garden, I'm still growing them indoors as well! Also, I have Musclan lettuce growing in a pot that makes a nice addition to our green salads.

I just picked up this sweet mint plant from the clearance section of the garden center. I am going to put it in a pot outdoors. I will use the Moringa Tree leaves and mint leaves to make a refreshing and healthy drink this summer.

     Just looking at my green garden makes me so happy, and digging in the dirt and caring for the plants just does my heart good!  This year, we put in a drip system, but we also  still have our plant spikes in place as back up.  You've really got to keep an eye on the water situation here in Arizona! 
     You can also be sure that once I start harvesting all of these veggies, I'll be sharing lots of recipes and preserving methods here on the blog!  
     I hope that you are enjoying your garden as much as I am!  I'd love to see your pictures and hear what you are growing! 
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Past Gardening Posts:

Easy, Practical Urban Gardening
Garden Tips and Tools That I'm Loving This Year
The Perfect Garden Journal
Grandma's Garden (A Short Story)
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Even with our drip system, I still use these watering spikes!

This is my go-to seed place!