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.

Ambrosia cantaloupes

I have never grown better looking cantaloupe plants than I have this year in Toquerville. Dark, healthy, growthy plants with large developing cantaloupes. If you have never grown Ambrosia cantaloupes, I can't recommend them more highly. They are simply the best variety you will ever grow (I grow no other variety). You will never get these in the grocery story because they don't have a long shelf life (the primary consideration for grocery store produce), but if you ever eat one of those tasty, tender, juicy, flavor filled melons, you will never grow another Hale's Best, Heart of Gold, or any other variety. I planted in May, but with the cool spring they didn't really take off until early July. I tilled in compost from the Washington County Fairgrounds in November, and added monoamonium phosphate (water soluble) after plants were up and well established.

Mid summer garden

After a slow start, a cold and windy spring, my summer garden has taken off. The corn is doing great, ate our first serving tonight, my Ambrosia Cantaloupe is growing and looking very impressive, my summer squash, zucchini, crookneck, butternut (actually a winter squash) are all looking great and producing excellent produce.

I have begun harvesting one of my best onion crops ever (sweet spanish), and my tomatoes are still looking well and producing better than earlier this summer. My fall corn crop is about a foot tall, and my green beans are just sprouting. In the past, my mid summer garden was an ugly thing with the heat stressing most plants out of production and into the ugly stage. But in Toquerville, my mid-summer garden is very exciting and bounteous. It's fun to garden in the summer again.

Summer plantings

I have found, in Toquerville, that I can successfully plant, during the summer months, many garden items I could not successfully plant in climates a bit warmer in the summer. Such things as cucumbers, beets, melons and squash. In warmer climates these have to be planted in the spring before the summer heat stresses them out of production. And in colder climates they must be planted in early spring just to be able to mature before cool weather arrives in the fall. But the summers are mild enough in Toquerville that most plants don't stress as they do in St George or southern Nevada. Plus the growing season is long enough that the plants can mature and produce before cold weather arrives.

I believe the key to this is the fact Toquerville is protected from the morning sun until at least 8 a.m. during the summer, and the fact that the daily high temperature is almost always reached by 2 pm and immediately begins to cool from that hour. The Toquerville high, on average, is 3 degrees cooler than St George, but that high is maintained for a far shorter period of time than St George. Also, I have observed that shortly after sundown, Toquerville will be from 10 to 15 degrees cooler than St George--even though both cities may sometimes reach the same night time low, Toquerville will reach that low much earlier in the evening than does St George.

This weather pattern means that plants, which begin to stress at temperatures above 100 degrees, will be stressed for only a relatively short period of time in Toquerville, but for a much longer period of the day in St George and other southern, desert areas.

Soil preparation

Toquerville soil contains clay and sand but is excellent soil if composted material is added. My experience is that fall leaves tilled in with plentiful horse manure in the fall, makes a wonderful composted soil in the spring. In the warmer climates, this compost can be tilled three or four times during the winter and be ready for spring planting. In colder climates, the leaves and manure can be tilled in late fall and again in early spring, and are then ready for planting.

In Washington County, the fair grounds offers composted horse manure and sawdust for ten dollars a pickup load. This is excellent material and can be tilled in the soil at anytime.

I have also successfully used straw and steer manure, although it takes a little longer to break down.