Community Gardens in Mesa, AZ

The city of Mesa has gotten involved in supporting community gardens. They are now taking proposals to establish new gardens. See their website at:

http://www.mesaaz.gov/sustainability/CommunityGarden.aspx


The City of Mesa invites an individual, a group, or an organization to submit a proposal regarding the planning and implementation of a community garden.


The City of Mesa will agree to enter into negotiations with the selected leadership members to provide cooperative funding for a portion of startup costs which may include getting water to the site, waiving development or permit fees, fencing and/or other amenities. More information can be found at www.mesaaz.gov/sustainability/CommunityGarden.aspx


DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT GOALS

Project goals include creating a planning/steering committee, site selection, fundraising, determining garden layout, developing guidelines and community garden agreements for participants. Visit Mesa’s Web page for planning toolkits and many other resources: www.mesaaz.gov/sustainability/CommunityGarden.aspx

PROPOSAL FORMAT

Eligible proposals MUST include contact information, a narrative, and timeline. Deadline for submittal is Feb. 16, 2012. Be sure to attend the City of Mesa Living Green Workshop on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 1:30 p.m. at Mesa Main Library, Dig In! Steps to Starting a Community Garden (www.mesaaz.gov/sustainability).

http://www.mesaaz.gov/sustainability/pdf/iMesa_Garden_Call_to_Community.pdf

Hard Freeze kills watermelons - Sunfowers survive!

Last night was a real hard freeze. Not sure what the official temp was, but when I went to water the birds this morning, the water in the hose was frozen solid!

The watermelon vines were totally wiped out. Too bad too, these were my "longstanding" vines, planted last spring!



The beets appear to have handled the freeze just fine, along with the volunteer sunflower!



Yeah, Christmas sunflowers, only in Arizona!

Thanksgiving Watermelons!

Watermelons ripening just in time for Thanksgiving??? Yeah, we do that!

Grey Water systems

I am in the process of utilizing more grey water systems myself. Already have my kitchen sink/dishwasher set up for it, and am working on a bathroom tub conversion as well.

Here is a link I found to a group dedicated to spreading the word. Based up in the Pacific NW, I wondered, man, why do THEY need MORE water???

Down here in the desert, grey water systems are especially useful. My kitchen sink/dishwasher provided more than enough water for about 150 sq.ft. of garden, and that was through our SUMMER! If I can convert my tubs to grey water systems, I don't think I will have to water the gardens out of the house at all.

Anyway, the link: http://greywateraction.org/blog

RIP pumpkin patch

So, last night I harvested most of the pumpkins, for jack-o-lantern carving with the kids. We did all of the big ones and some of the small ones, and saved the seeds for roasting.

Sugar baby pumpkin patch drying up


Jack pumpkins


Sugarbaby pumpkins


still ripening






Here is a pic of one part of the new garden, with the companion plants wheat and peas. I planted them at the same time, but the peas are a bit stronger. Next time I'll give the wheat a week headstart.

Wheat & Peas coming up

October Pumpkins in the desert - believe it or not!

Bringing in a summer pumpkin crop is quite possibly the most gratifying accomplishment in my Arizona Victory Gardening career. I've got about 8 sugar babies, and about 7 jack o lanterns getting fat and orange right now!

A nice fellow was driving by on his bike the other day while I was watering, and he stopped and chatted for a bit. He was a gardener too, and he didn't even know it was possible to grow pumkins in Phoenix!





Sugar Baby

That was my first sugar baby, matured in late Sept, from a mid June planting.







Immature sugar baby








Immature jack o lantern



The pics are a couple weeks old, showing them maturing nicely but still green. Most of them are orange now, and the vines are dying off (I'll try to update pics soon).





The coolest part of growing pumpkins is the beautiful huge orange flowers in morning, which always attract swarms of honey bees.

bee in pumpkin flower

Late summer Okra!

Okra is without a doubt the most frustratingly slow plant to sprout....  My sunflower/cucumber garden was up for literally months before I even realized that some of the okra seeds had sprouted.  Turns out I had one "mega-bush" in there and 4 smaller bushes hiding in the sunflowers the whole time....

 

But after "biding its time" all summer, it is okra's time to shine, I guess!    As soon as mid-September rolled around, the okra started blooming (oh those beautiful delicate pale yellow okra flowers!!!), and now it is fruiting like mad. 

 

The chickens love the okra seeds, but my wife is not letting me feed the birds....  She is going to pickle it!   

 

The fried okra, well, I'm one of those people who find it a bit too "slimy" for my taste, but she says some folk love their okra pickled!   Alright, whatever, I am willing to try anything....   And if we don't like, we can probably give it away to those old Southerners down at church...