Gardening Update

The weather has warmed and the garden shows it. This picture shows strawberries at the lower left, then my beets in the foreground, looking impressive, then Sweet Spanish onions, looking great; then the peas--looking ok. The ground on this end of the garden is too heavy for peas, I will plant peas on the far end of the garden next year.

Behind the peas are the tomatoes, finally starting to grow. I lost two plants to frost, had to cover my tomatoes twice. Beyond the tomatoes is my broccoli, growing very impressively. Beyond the broccoli is the potatoes. The potatoes took a long time to emerge, but they are now all up and doing well. Cauliflower is the last green row, and they are beginning to grow too.

I have installed a drip irrigation system this year, with the ability to distribute water soluable mono-amonium phospate through the drip system via a Miracle Grow, inline feeder. Behind that I have a battery powered timer so I can be sure the garden gets watered the right amount, and watered when I am out of town.

I'm liking the drip system. It puts water only where the plants are, keeps the rest of the garden dry keeping down weeds, and allowing me to work in the garden while I'm watering, or after, without getting mud on my shoes. It's a wonderful system and not expensive.

Today I planted Ambrosia cantaloupes--I plant no other kind of cantaloupe. I also planted a row of Crenshaw melons. Sylvan Wittwer PhD agronomist from Hurricane and Michigan State recommends planting melons (all melons) on hills or ridges, deep watering, then not watering near the plant, but moving the drip lines out as the melons grow. This is supposed to eliminate, or minimize, the squash bugs. So this year I am going to try that and see how it works. I had great melons last year, but the squash bugs did eventually take the plants.

If you have never grown Ambrosia Cantaloupes, you must do so. They are without question the best flavored cantaloupe available. You cannot buy Ambrosia melons in the grocery store because they have a short shelf life (does that tell you something about melons and the grocery stores?) But the flavor is out of this world, and if you grow them once, you will never grow any other variety.

Spring Planting Report

Throughout the fall and winter months, I tilled large amounts of leaves into my garden. I also tilled in some clean grass clippings, and some mulch I got from the fairgrounds. I've tilled my garden often (when it wasn't too wet) throughout the winter and early spring. Nearly all of the material is now decomposed, making a nice, loamy soil.

On January 31st I planted peas, which are up and growing nicely now. On February 3rd I planted beets and onions, all of which are up and beginning to grow, now that the weather has warmed. On February 21st, I planted carrots, which are all up; cauliflower sets, and carrots. The carrots are now all germinated. I also planted seed potatoes on February 21st, they have not yet emerged. I did cover the onions, beets, carrots and spinach with clear plastic to ensure good, quick germination.

On March 3rd, I planted broccoli sets, which are now growing. On March 4th, I planted a few tomatoes, which froze March 8th. On March 14th, I replanted with Better Boy, Big Beef, and Celebrity.

My raspberries and boysenberries put forth leaves the first week of March. My strawberries also began to grow that week and are now flowering.

Last year I watered my garden by sprinkling and had more or less satisfactory results. This year, I determined to put in a drip system, which I have used before, and liked. I have the drip lines connected to a battery powered timer, which ensures watering even when I am out of town.

Winter Pecan Harvest

I began picking up pecans that fell to the ground in early November. Wind, birds, and the ripening process caused enough pecans to fall that I had gathered about 40 gallons of pecans before Christmas. On January 13th the "pecan tree shaker" came and shook my three Mahan trees. I gathered 75 gallons of pecans from this shaking. I estimate another 10 gallons of pecans did not come down with the shaking, and are left to the birds and the squirrels.

In early fall, before the pecans had ripened, a hard wind blew off a good 30 gallons of large, beautiful pecans in the husk. But the pecans had not matured, so there was nothing to harvest. Other pecans have come down, blown down, or been eaten or damaged by the birds. I have calculated that all totaled, I got about 200 gallons of pecans off these three trees. Only about 125 gallons were usable and became part of the harvest.

The ratio of shell to meat on the pecan is about 50/50. So we will get about 60 gallons of shelled pecans from this year's harvest. A gallon of shelled pecans weighs about 3 1/2 pounds. So we will harvest about 210 pounds of pecans.

Crows, ravens, woodpeckers, starlings, doves, and blue birds, all come into the trees and eat the pecans. They do little damage while the pecans are still in the husk, but once the husk opens up, the birds peck into the shell and eat out some of the meat and waste the rest. Many of these nuts fall to the ground and are of no value. The squirrels also harvest pecans that fall to the ground, and are lost. Still, the harvest is so abundant, and I pick them off the ground so quickly, that the birds and squirrels don't actually take a significant number of the nuts.

Pecans are best when picked off the ground as soon as they fall, or harvested as soon as they open up. Commercial growers shake the trees early and place the nuts, in or out of the husk, on concrete floors for a few days to dry. I did this with the early pecans that dropped. Three to four days on the floor and they were ready to crack and extract the meat.

Some locals believe the pecan leaves are too acidic and should not be tilled into garden areas. But according to the National Gardeners Association, only walnut leaves should not be tilled into gardens, Pecan leaves are fine. I also till in the husks and the broken shells after I crack the nuts. Mowed up pecan leaves, husks, shells, and grass make a great mulch for the garden.

Nutritional Composition of One Ounce of Pecans
15 Vitamins, including significant amounts of Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and Folate
10 Minerals, including significant amounts of Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium and Magnesium
Pecans have no sodium, are cholesterol free, fiber rich, and significant protein

Late Fall Planting Report

In mid-November I planted lettuce, peas, onions, beets, and carrots. I got a good germination for all. In mid-December we got 13 inches of snow, which covered these young sprouts for three weeks. We had temperatures down to 19 degrees this winter, and freezing temperatures almost every night since the snow in December.

Only the peas and lettuce survived the cold and snow cover. The peas did the best, and are actually growing right now (end of January). Not all the lettuce survived, but some did. I suspect that had I planted in October, and these sprouts gotten better established, they would have done better. All should have survived the winter.

I know from past experience that lettuce, peas and carrots will winter over, under snow, in much colder temperatures than we have here. And established onions don't freeze. So it was the tenderness of these young sprouts that was the problem. I knew it was late to plant, but thought I'd try anyway.

I didn't plant any fall spinach, but my neighbor did, and says she has harvested it all winter, and it's the best spinach she's ever had. Fall and Winter is a great time to garden. Many gardeners ignore this time of year, but there are no pests, no diseases, and no weeds.

Fall Soil Preparation

This fall I determined to delay planting a fall garden to allow for time to till in compost and leaves into the soil. I have tilled in a truck load of compost from the fairgrounds, all my pecan shells, pecan husks, and leaves. I tilled in leaves I brought from my daughters place in Springville, leaves I bagged from the church, and leaves from my neighbors. I also tilled in late lawn clippings, which included fallen leaves and pecan husks. The lawnmower does a nice job of cutting the grass, leaves and pecan husks into small pieces, insuring they will compost more quickly.

With the fall rains, and repeated tilling of the ground, the leaves and material are already decomposing nicely. On Monday, December 15th, snow fell, a total of 9 inches in Toquerville. The snow cover, freezing temperatures, and the recently tilled soil will all contribute to a nice decomposition of the leaves and other material. By planting time in the spring, the soil will be ready for production.

I cannot emphasize enough, the necessity of composting leaves and other organic material into the garden every year, it is essential. I also throw in some commercial nitrogen when tilling in composting material, it expedites the decomposition process and adds nitrogen to the soil.

Still, in early November, I planted peas, lettuce, onions, carrots and beets. I'll see how they winter over. We've already had temperatures as low as 21 degrees.

Crenshaw Melons

These Crenshaw melons were impressive, sweet, mild flavor; large, firm melons. Harvested on September 15, 2008

Ambrosia Cantaloupes

This is clearly the largest cantaloupe I've ever grown and probably the largest I've ever seen. This melon has a circumference of 25 inches! Wow! These are not specialty melons, it is an Ambrosia Cantaloupe, without question the best tasting cantaloupe in existence. These melons are soft, sweet, juicy and will change your taste for cantaloupe forever.

Why so big? Last fall I tilled in liberal amounts of mulch from the fairgrounds in Hurricane, then this spring I tilled in a little more and added monoammonioum phosphate before planting, and several times throughout the growing season. Watering was as frequent as weather and temperature required; sometimes every three days, sometimes every two days, sometimes everyday--mostly overhead sprinklers. Garden is in full sun.