Showing posts with label Strawberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strawberries. Show all posts

Friday, May 29, 2009

Growing Berries in Arizona

I have learned this spring one simple lesson with berries in Arizona: if you want thriving plants, water thoroughly every day.

My strawberries and bababerries were beginning to struggle in the late-spring heat being watered only every other day. I am sad to say my blueberry has not survived, probably because I watered it only a couple times a week (as it was in an odd part of the yard).

As soon as I started the daily waterings, the strawberries and bababerries perked up, stopped browning at the edges, and started growing and fruiting again. The loganberry was doing well even bi-daily, but now it is growing even faster.

I keep the strawberry in a protected space, getting less than half a day of full sun. I tried a full-sun strawberry as an experiment, but, as I suspected, it died. The bababerries and loganberry are in full sun.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Stawberries Doing Well


My strawberries are doing well in the partial shade raised bed environment. I put one out in the field in full sun, just to see how it does by comparison, and the raised bed/partial shade ones are definitely doing better, even though they get far far less sun.

You can see the little green berries forming! I hope they are as sweet and sugary as I remember.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Strawberries


Added ten new strawberry shoots, from a ten pack at Home Depot, making a total of 20. They seem to be doing really well in the raised bed. It is in a protected part of the yard, so I hope to keep it alive into the summer. I have tried strawberries years ago, in those clay strawberry pots with all the openings in this sides, as conveniently pictured for you here on this page. Yeah, that looks great at first, but forget about it, not in Phoenix. Nothing in clay does well in Phoenix, it is just gets baked up in the heat. So I am onto plan B. We shall see how they do.

Great warm day today. I tilled a bunch, and laid out three new sections about 3x13 each: carrot, tomato, and hot pepper. Good lord, I love my tiller!

A victory garden is something you can't just set up in a day. It takes a while, just to get the soil prepared, loose and grass free. I am getting my victory garden up now, before I really need it, so it will be ready later, when I really do need it. Plus I can get my knowledge base tightened up and really get to know my soil and microclimates, so I can make my mistakes now, when it is really not a big deal. I am already realizing I did some things that I probably shouldn't have, just a few weeks ago.

Mulching trees with newspaper is pretty cool, but you have to bury the edges of the paper under the berm walls of the tree basin, or the wind will pick up the edges and blow them around your yard. Also, thrown down the whole newspaper, all together, or at least a couple sections folded up. Anything less is too lightweight.

Oh yeah, also threw down a bunch of sunflower seeds, that have been sitting out for two years, I collected them off of my sunflowers two years ago. I don't know if they are too old, or if it is too early for sunflowers. I need to thrown down some nasturtium too, also two years old. Now those are some pretty flowered plants.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Rough Weather Today, Eh?


Read an article today about sub-freezing temps all the way down into the Southeast. Wheew, man, I do feel for you, folks! Hold on, let me check, yeah, it's all the way down to 68 degrees right now (a bit after 10pm). Today's high was 78, and let's see, oh, goodness, it will get down to 48 tonight. Brrrrrr........


Strawberry shoot is coming up nice, greening up from bareroot in about a week. Mmm, can't wait for the strawberries. I have them planted in a raised bed, in a shaded and cool part of the yard, hoping they can withstand our Phoenix sun long into the summer. We shall see!