Our First Organic Garden in Phoenix

So rather than focusing on a specific recipe today, I'm going to share a little bit about our garden. When we started eating more whole plant-based foods, and buying more organic, we realized it made sense to try to start growing some of our own food. Rich has always had a green thumb and a passion for gardening. I may not have green thumbs (yet), but I do love growing things, and much of that probably came from my parents. I used to hate having to help cover plants in the winter, or carry them into the sun porch. My dad spent a lot of his spare time building flower beds, trellises, etc. and gardening to his heart's content. It's a gorgeous backyard! My mom still keeps it up as much as she can, but it's a lot of work for one person!

My dad, who was an architect, actually built the fence around the backyard, the brick patio from the back doors all the way out to the fish pond, and a wooden "stage" and gate from the main yard to the back portion where the garage is. He and my brother even built a tree house way up in a huge elm tree outside my second story bedroom window! It was a great house and yard to grow up in! This photo shows the patio with the oak tree we planted after my parents bought the house in '72. You can see the grapevines over the trellis at the end of the garage and the plants at the edge of the fish pond, which is just out of sight behind the patio table. The fence line in the background follows the driveway which curves along the side of the house around to the back, where the garage was detached, facing sideways, as it had actually been an old two story carriage house from when the house was built in the 20's! Again, a super-cool house for a kid to grow up in!  I had many adventures in this backyard!

So back to our desert climate organic garden. My husband doesn't do things in a small way. I jokingly call it the Williams Botanical Gardens. We had 7 cubic tons of quality organic soil delivered, which we tediously transported into a 25 foot long garden bed and 21 above ground kiwi crates from Sprouts! We've started composting, and the City of Phoenix sells cutoff versions of curbside trash bins (like at the top of our driveway in the picture to the right) for $5.

Rich built a double-decker structure out of the crates to create a space for hanging plants, along with shade for the plants underneath. We took a couple of classes and planted watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, tomatoes, swiss chard, jalapenos, serranos, mint, basil, Thai basil, rosemary, and more!  We waited a little late to plant in the Spring - it was already warming up - so we didn't have great production, but we did get to enjoy a few things. Not everything made it, though.

So this time, Rich really did his homework, consulted the local experts' planting calendars, and we figured out what we really wanted to grow. He even found better, natural ways to fend off pests - such as those evil green tomato worms that can singlehandedly strip plants of all their leaves in the blink of an eye! One of the reasons I haven't posted in the last few days is that we've been racing the clock to get everything planted and drip lines run. Rich got the first batch of seeds, plugs, and plants into the ground by himself, but I've been helping this time around with everything from planting the seeds to measuring, cutting, and hooking up the drip lines. It's a labor of love!

The list this time around includes bok choy (top left), sugar snap peas (bottom right), parsnips, carrots, radishes, bell peppers, arugula, Texas sweet onions, pearl onions, tomatoes, arugula, butter lettuce, spinach, and Swiss chard... sorry, my writing was just hilariously interrupted by the 10 pm edition of Jr. vs. Sr. Citrus Wars from a local high school! Maybe I'll describe it tomorrow to give you the full effect!  Anyway, the seeds Rich planted a few weeks ago are doing amazingly well and I can't wait to watch what I planted grow! Stay tuned...! :)