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Written by Thomas Porter
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Thursday, 26 October 2006 |
My yard when I bought the house...
Digging for 12" Flood Irrigation
Laying the pipe for flood irrigation
Tillin' with a Deere
Baby garden! Staked and raked
My first eats! Red/Green Jalepenos
Punkin' Blossom
Much better than before!
Different Angle
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November 8, 2006
I decided this fall (2006) to plot out and plant an organic garden that measures about 3200 sq. ft. I wanted to establish a really large garden for fresh vegetables and fruits. Why so much you ask? Who knows... that's just what I do. Like everything I do, I always do a lot of research before I dive in. I found a ton of information online and had some wonderful conversations with gardeners and farmers here in Arizona.
When we purchased our home back in May of 2005 there was a lot of debris in the backyard. We had to do a lot of clearing. The homes in our area are set up to receive flood irrigation from SRP (Salt River Project), which is great for trees and gardens, however, our flood irrigation system was not in working order. The lot had not been irrigated in a very long time, and the system had been tampered with and was full of debris. On top of that the yard was riddled with weeds and trash. The soil was good, but needed to be improved in order to be a garden. I decided to redo the flood irrigation system and redesign it so that it was more efficient for my application. This meant I had to rent some big power tools! I love renting equipment.
Digging the flood irrigation was more of a project than I had imagined. There was a lot of digging, leveling, laying, gluing, and brute force required in the job. Luckily for me, my father has a landscape company and we were able to employ the forces of his crew to help out. I decided to put in three 12" irrigation heads that are made to be glued to the low-flow 12" PVC Pipe. These heads can actually close completely, allowing me to shut them off in the event I don't wish to irrigate that portion of the yard, or if that area is receiving too much water. I divided my yard into 3 portions, front yard, back yard, and furthest portion being the garden. We have a ~50 ft. head of water that comes in, so with the 12" piping, it can fill my yard quickly and easily. It actually allows me to receive more water in shorter time, and the water flows out evenly and smoothly, keeping it from eroding the surrounding dirt as much. Since I've installed it I've been able to receive irrigation a number of times allowing me to perfect the system and figure out how much time to request. One thing I will say is bad about irrigation is that people who receive irrigation are not always the brightest people. It brings out the worst in people sometimes.
I ordered a truck and transfer load of mulch mix from Rock 'N Rollin Rock Yard in Peoria, AZ. I wanted to provide some organic material so that the nutrients in the soil would be richer and so that it would retain more moisture. I also wanted to make it more of a sandy loam, so I ordered it mixed with sand. They delivered the mulch in my back driveway and I used a tractor with a loader on the front and a tiller on the back to spread the mulch across the yard and till it into the soil. I accepted irrigation twice before actually making the garden, just to establish the nitrogen cycle and wait out the summer heat. When it came time to prepare for planting, I rented a smaller self propelled tiller that allowed me to soften up the soil again so that I could hoe the furrows by hand easier. I marked all of the rows with stakes and ran a line level to each row that I wanted. I measured out each row planning for the correct spacing for each of the different crops. I made sure that the rows were level to ensure that high spots of water didn't collect if I accepted flood irrigation.
For plant watering I had to install a drip system. I don't like fighting weeds, and I can't get the benefits of flood irrigation all the time because it just doesn't come in often enough, so I set up a 4 station timer and divided the crops up with drip lines for each row. It works pretty well. Each plant gets a good deep watering every day. It took a long time so set up properly, but if something isn't worth doing right, it isn't worth doing.
The next step was planting the actual seeds. I purchased the majority of the seeds from Seeds of Change. Their website and their catalog is fantastic. They have a wonderful variety of seeds. I also looked into purchasing heirloom seeds from Seed Savers and Native Seeds. They have great resources for organic crops and heirloom breeds as well. There is plenty of great information on the web about why planting organic is better and more healthy. I really just prefer the taste of organic produce.
So far, all is going as planned. I was going to plant earlier, but it was too hot. We didn't get out of the high 90-100º temperature range until the middle of September, when I planted. Luckily for me, the weather has been great, and the crops are doing well. As long as we don't have a frost in December, we should have some fantastic stuff.
Here's a list of what I planted (all 100% Organic):
African Marigolds (to keep the bugs out)
Green Bell Peppers
Yellow Banana Peppers
Anasazi Peppers
Jalepenos
Muskmelons
Desert King Watermelons
Jack-O-Lite Pumpkins
Armenian Cucumbers
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Eggplant
Carrots
Dark Red Beets
Strawberries
Star of David Okra
Spinach
Cabbage
6 varieties of lettuce
Golden Sweet Corn
Cherokee Bush Beans
3 varieties of tomatoes
Rosemary
Mint
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Look at those plants grow!
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 Pumpkin' in the making!
 Green tomaters!
 Heirloom lettuces... mmmm
 Another heirloom lettuce... yummy
 Green bell pepper |
7 Lettuces, Spinach, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Carrots, Celery - Getting ready to be washed
Now that's what I call a head of cauliflower!
Picking celery and carrots for a friend
Cabbage, Carrots, and some Beets
Me, Teak, and Toppy mowin' the grass. Never too early for a child to have a John Deere hat. :-) |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 16 May 2007 )
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