I can garden in the desert!

This post is not for the faint of heart.  It's the biggest post ever.  Feel free to take it in sections.  Like a giant cheesecake.

Desert gardening is all about timing.  It gets up in the 90's begining in May, so you've got to have all your plants very well established and flowering finished by then.  But many plant can't go outside until mid march.  So you want to have them as big as possible by then, to give them a good headstart, or else you will not get any food.

Here's the headstart I gave the plants.  Grow lights.  This was early January.  It was still in the 40's throughout the day and nights were long.  The plants liked the grow light.  So did the kids.  This is meant to be an office, but we call it the growing room.

I sprouted way too many zinnias.  Little baby plants.  It makes me feel like their mama.

I was itching to take them outside because they got big so fast and wouldn't fit on their shelves and were crowding each other.  I put them out mid-end of February.  They did not like it.  It was too early and some of them I started too early - beans, sunflowers, zinnias, and they got root bound.  Some of them were leggy too because the grow light wasn't close enough.  It really needs to be 3 inches away.  I didn't believe them and the light was 6 inches away.  About 2/3 of the plants I started died at this stage.  I cried.  Because remember, they're my plant babies.

The tomatoes I kept inside.  I babied them because of all the food I want, it's tomatoes.  Warmed by the sun, juice running down your chin, feeling you're in the garden of eden, tomatoes. 

We ordered 10 earthboxes, because they've done us so right in the past.

I cried again at this point.  Because just as the weather became warm enough for plants to live outside, the wind picked up.  A lot.  The first day we had 40 mph winds and my tomatoes looked like helpless green flags flapping around.  I watched them whipping around, the leaves becoming wiltier and wiltier.  I was really convinced that the desert hated me.  And I hated the desert.

I had to protect my plants from the wind, so I went to Home Depot and got supplies and started building.  I was so fearful that my plants wouldn't make it until I finished the wind barrier.  So I did what every good farmer does, and I prayed.  I prayed for God to help my plants.  And the wind stopped.  Which if you live in Las Vegas in the Spring, you know that's a miracle.  I stayed up and worked by the bright overhead light until I was falling asleep while drilling.  Then I started again the next morning.  And just as I put them in place, the wind started again.

Here's one of the two barriers before I got the plastic on.  Strawberries at the front, green peppers in the back, melons against the trellis, tomatoes not yet in those boxes.  (I've got 10 tomatoes in 5 earthboxes.)

Fast forward a month and a half...  You'll notice the tree that was covered in pink flowers, here has maroon leaves.

My hard work has paid off and the tomato flowers are starting.  You'll notice the petals on this one are pointed backwards, which means it has been pollinated and will form a tomato.

And here's one that I think I've just hand pollinated and hopefully the petals will be pointed back tomorrow.

If you don't know what an earthbox is, you should find out.  It doesn't let you over or underwater, and the plants get exactly how much they need.  This year we even got the self watering kit, so I don't even have to water the tube!  

I'm pinching the flowers on the strawberries until the plants get big.  Hopefully in the Fall we'll get berries from these ever-bearing strawberries.  

The strawberries, melons, and peppers I didn't start from seed, but the rest of the garden I did.  See how big those little sprouts have gotten in just a month and a half!  I'm so proud of them.

Grow up that trellis little cucumbers!

These are alyssum and phlox that I started from seed and in the back are beans that nearly died in the February cold, but maybe they'll pull through and grow up the other side from the cucumbers.

I bought two bouganvillas as well in Februrary.  They were shockingly beautiful, and then the cold wind blew off every single flower and leaf they had.  But I kept watering, and then saw signs of new leaves!  And now it's almost as beautiful as when I bought it.

There is a little raised bed with part shade in the yard.  I've got 4 tomatoes that I thought had died and wasn't caring for them at all, and then noticed tender new leaves.  I thought those fighters deserved a chance to live, so I put them in the garden.  I've got gourds that will hopefully grow up the sunflower stalks, zinnias, bells of Ireland, cucumber, and marigolds to scare away the bugs.  All of them I started from seed.  It's a miracle and I've watched them from their beginning.

Maybe the desert doesn't hate me after all.  Maybe I don't hate the desert.  Maybe.

Somewhere in there, I tried to potty train Boone.  I only lasted 4 hours and 9 pairs of wet underwear.  Maybe he's not ready.