Bed #1: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, and lettuce

After two years in Arizona, it is still hilarious to me that I can walk out in my backyard to get some broccoli from the garden in January.  Blows my mind.  The summers may be scorchingly hot, but this place is really awesome. However, my garden hasn’t always been so…

Fall of 2011 was my second attempt at a fall/winter garden.

Flash back to last October (2010), Rob made me two awesome semi-raised garden beds – each four feet by ten feet.  Since our yard is one huge long expanse of rocks, we knew that we were going to need to do some work on the soil, but I thought adding a few bags of dirt from Home Depot would do the trick.  I then spent an entire weekend painstakingly sowing seeds using a pre-marked wood “measuring” stick to ensure appropriate spacing (I never said I wasn’t a little anal).  Well, all of my seeds sprouted, but nothing grew bigger than a couple of inches.  It was a big disappointment, especially given the time and effort spent.

I knew my soil was probably the source of the problem.  The seeds had sprouted, but then obviously weren’t getting enough nutrients from the soil to make any progress.  I was given a tip that Singh Farms had great compost (they also sell fish emulsion and have an awesome farmers market on the weekends), so we bought 4 bags ($12 each) to give our soil a better start before I planted again in the spring.  I have been amending the soil with organic fertilizer and the horrible smelling fish emulsion (it’s nasty, but it seems to work) and we have even started our own compost pile (a post for another day).  Our spring 2011 garden was a lot more successful.

Okay, flash forward to this year.  I was a little gun shy about doing all seeds again after my experience last fall, so I decided to plant a mixture of seeds and seedlings – right around Halloween (maybe a week or so before).  I sowed buttercrunch and romaine lettuce and spinach seeds, as well as some green onions.  I then planted seedlings for the broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.  Everything took off growing quickly, and the “greens” on the plants looked amazing.  But, the heads on the broccoli and cauliflower just were not forming, no matter how much I watered and fertilized.  I really had started to give up on my garden again when, low and behold, in mid-late December everything started to grow!  Who knew – it just wasn’t cold enough here until then!  Silly Arizona, always keeping me on my toes.

Broccoli crown!

Here’s a little tip: When I harvested my first head of broccoli, I was totally dismayed to find small green caterpillars curled up amongst the florets.  I had noticed small holes in some of the leaves, and was worried that the plants might be infested with something harmful.  A little internet sleuthing found that these are simply something called cabbage loopers – and they are just a sign that my produce is wonderfully pesticide-free!

All you need to do is soak your broccoli (or cauliflower) florets in some salt water for 15-20 minutes before doing cooking/eating it – that helps get the little caterpillars to “let go” of the florets so you can rinse them away.

All in all, this fall/winter garden was a decent success.  I haven’t purchased lettuce from the grocery store since probably October, and we are now swimming in broccoli.  I learned that even though the temperatures cool down the ground stays warm for a bit longer, so I just need to be patient.

Oh, and the bird netting that I finally broke down and bought was a great investment.  I was able to stop running out back every five minutes to scare the birds away from my seeds.

It’s the little things.