November 6, 2009: Do the Best With What You Have

I had very good intentions of getting the second square foot garden box built this week, but my only source of "forest products compost" (Wal-Mart), was sold out. I've found this to be a pretty good mix when combined with composted manure, and affordable at under $5 for a 1- 1/2 cubic feet bag. So...yesterday my friend, Esther, and I decided to head for Phoenix to buy some plants, potting mix and spend ourselves silly at Costco. We stopped in Buckeye to check out Wal-Mart's plants, but they only had some really horrid looking Patio tomatoes, way overpriced, and no other varieties that could be grown in containers. Nearby was Lowe's, so we checked on their plants and scored their last two Patio tomatoes. They were lovely, stocky plants with lots of blossoms and some tiny tomatoes already forming, and only $3.45 each. We also picked up two 2 cubic foot bags of potting mix with moisture control, which was a bit pricey, but already contains fertilizer and should work well to retain moisture in our dry desert heat. Esther drives a small Honda sedan, and we already had two large picnic coolers in the trunk to transport our frozen foods from Costco. We had to move one of them to the back seat so we could get the two large bags of potting mix in the trunk. The precious tomato plants were tucked safely between our purses, on the floor behind the driver's seat.

On to Costco, where between the two of us we purchased nearly $300 worth of groceries, mostly frozen, and a very large plastic mat to go under Esther's office chair. This managed to fill every remaining square inch of trunk space, plus the cooler on the back seat. The mat got rolled up and placed in the back seat, on top of the cooler.

After a quick Costco hot dog, drink and churro, we headed for the next nearest Lowe's to check on more plants. Esther wanted another Patio tomato, and you know what a sucker I am for tomato plants. We also decided we needed a few flowers to brighten our patios and gardens. We did find a few Patio tomatoes, although they were much smaller and had no blossoms or tomatoes on them, and were not in the best shape. We caved and each bought one anyway, and had to pay the same price as we had for the beauties at the previous Lowe's. We also bought a bunch of pansies and white alyssum. The tomato plants were placed on the floorboards behind the passenger seat, the eight 6-packs of flowers were placed single file inside the rolled up office mat. By now, the poor little Honda was darned near dragging bottom! But we weren't finished with our shopping!

Back toward home, we stopped at Goodyear to do some more Wal-Mart shopping. I had to buy 20 pounds of frozen chicken hind quarters for my dogs. Yes, I spoil them with roast chicken and veggies, but they are my babies, you know ;-) And the only place left to put them was on the front floorboard, under my feet. It was a really hot day, so I didn't mind cooling my feet on frozen chicken parts. Wal-Mart had the compost I wanted for the garden, but we had no space for it so I had to pass.


Today I potted up the tomatoes and most of the flowers. I ran out of potting mix for my last large planter.


This corner of the patio gets sun from the east and south, from morning until around 2:00 pm. It also gets a gentle breeze to aid the tomatoes with pollinating. You can see the difference in the sizes of the tomato plants. The three pots on the ground are the ones I brought from Washington, and the lettuce is almost ready to pick again. I'll have some for the Monday Harvest post! Later this winter, when the temperature drops, I'll move the tomatoes to the south end of the mobile home, which gets bright, hot sun as well as reflected light. The pots are light enough to bring inside at night if the forecast is for cold weather.


I had a bucket of compost left from the little square foot garden, so I dug it in around the end of the front rock garden. I hope it is enough to give these pansies and alyssum decent soil in which to grow.


More pansies and alyssum were put into the long planter, and the big pot needs more mix before it gets planted, possibly with a geranium or two.


See the pretty little blossoms and tomatoes!


Red Romaine


Red Sails lettuce, with a stray Red Romaine or two.


The radishes emerged in the 9 sf. garden yesterday, all three rows! No sign of lettuce yet, I hope the record breaking temperatures we had this week didn't cook the seeds. It ranged from 93F to 97F three days in a row, and the sun was brutally hot on the soil.

All in all, things are looking pretty good considering we have only been down here for about 2-1/2 weeks. I'm trying to squeeze all I can from the small spaces I have to garden.

22 comments:

  1. Boy, you manage a decent garden no matter where you're at!
    I grew that Red Sails lettuce for the first time this year-that stuff is GOOD! It's made the list of "keepers" for next year!

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  2. Hey Lady! More tomatoes??? LOL, you need an intervention. I was also laughing at the visual of you two in the little Honda, makes me think of heading to college with all that stuff in a little car! Seriously, everything looks great, can't wait to see the tomato pics again. It will be eye candy for those of us that right now are anxiously awaiting our seed catalogs for those "garden porn" pictures in the middle of winter!

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  3. Sue, garden yes, decent...that remains to be seen. If I can keep the rabbit in greens and have a fresh tomato now and then, I'll consider it decent!

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    Erin, is there a 12 step program for tomatoholics? Would you believe I must have left an entire box of home canned tomato products behind? I have nothing but sweet chili sauce down here, and I'm down to my last three fresh garden tomatoes. I sure wish I'd brought a bell pepper plant with me...gallons of them in the freezer up north, nada here.

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  4. As always lookin' good! I'm sure under your care the runty tomato will perk right up.
    (And isn't it easy to drop a LOT of $$ in Costco? That place is dangerous)

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  5. Thanks, Jenn. Yes, Costco is a dangerous place, especially when I had just stocked up on groceries and didn't really need anything...yet I spent $130 all on food! I do hope my tomato plants grow and produce. My friend grew one last year and it was just pitiful!

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  6. Only $300 between the two of you? My dear, you aren't even trying. I can spend more than that myself when I go. OK I only go three or four times a year and stock up on everything. Two times I'm using it to cater big birthday parties I throw every year. I live for Vermont Cabot Cheddar and they have the good stuff. If I just add the yearly cheese bill up it would be huge. My kids take it to school with them too, so I need enough for them. My daughter makes me take her when I go, so I'm stocking up for her as well as me.

    I'm glad your garden is shaping up for the winter. We just got a freeze. I hope my lettuce lived through it.

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  7. Oh Daphne, I had just stocked up (two trips, about $400 worth) at the new Super Wal-Mart and Safeway in our nearby town, and I really didn't NEED anything. I just went along to get some potting mix! Now my freezer is stuffed to overflowing....and I still forgot to buy vanilla! And believe me, if I could have found room for the adorable plush $50 rocking horse for baby Alicyn, I'd have bought that too! Back in WA, I shop Costco more frequently because it is nearby (here it's 110 miles away), and I can always count on spending a minimum of $120 each trip. There are a few food items I MUST buy there...chicken breasts, breakfast sausages for Mr. H, Marie Calendar chicken pot pies and big packages of organic frozen veggies through the winter months. I really couldn't resist the frozen asparagus this time, even though it was rather pricey. Actually, we get lovely fresh asparagus here, for a decent price, probably around Jan-Feb.

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  8. Your mini garden is shaping up nicely! I drive a Honda Fit and I am constantly amazed at how much stuff I can get into that vehicle when I need to! The fold down seats make it a perfect Costco shopping vehicle. ;)

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  9. For only being in AZ 2 ½ weeks I would, say the garden is looking great. I suspect that a lot of the preserved food back in WA will go to the family and not be wasted. John

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  10. KitsapFG, I love the fit. I tried to talk Mr. H into one last year, but he thought they were too small, now he has decided we NEED a small car! I definitely want one with a hatchback and fold down seats for shopping :-)

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  11. John, the family has already got more than their share...I want some!

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  12. Oh dear me, I forget how upside-down the seasons are there.
    More tomatoes, ha!

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  13. Gran, it sounds like you had a REALLY busy day! All of that back and forth from one shop to another would have driven me to my breaking point. But you did score an nice looking tomato plant. To think that you're growing tomatoes in NOVEMBER! I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out. What is the average winter temperature where you are?

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  14. There's nothing wrong with growing in containers. I really like the fact that they can be moved indoors if a killing frost arrives.

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  15. Stefaneener, more tomatoes...hopefully. but maybe a few pounds this time, not hundreds of pounds. Just enough for the pizzas and salads!

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    Thomas, it averages around 58F for the five months we're here, October 1-March 1. We sometimes get about two weeks of cold weather in January, but some years it stays quite warm. Winter before last it got down to 17F for a couple of days, but that's the coldest I've ever seen it. Last year we may have had a few days in the 30s. Even then, the sun is so hot on the south side of the house, it's way to hot for greens and such. The tomatoes should love it. I grew a cucumber in January!

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    EG, me too! I'm going to cover the tomatoes with plastic at night if it goes below 50F, but I'll bring them inside if it goes under 40. I have a piece of plastic carpet protector I can set inside the door and just pop the plants in and out as needed! If I have to leave them in, one of the bedrooms has a south facing window.

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  16. What fun to be tomato plant shopping in November.

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  17. Dan, I never noticed all those tomato plants before...but then we didn't have a Wal-Mart here before, so I never thought to look for vegetable or annuals at all. There are a lot of tomatoes for sale, but mostly indeterminates. Celebrity was the only determinate I saw, and it's still too large for my needs. I was happy to find the Patio variety. I am surprised I saw no cabbage or broccoli plants anywhere. I wish I had started some before coming down here.

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  18. Granny, sounds like you're getting right into the swing of things and fast too! Wow, planting tomatos in November, awesome :-)

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  19. I just came back from my father's 70th birthday party. It was a Costco hotog themed lunch for Saturday. Fantastic. Just sublime.

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  20. Ribbit, it's a good thing I don't go too often, 'cause those buck and a half hotdogs and drinks are awfully good. The churro wasn't half bad, either. Esther and I had to split it, it was so large.

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  21. Well you two had quite the adventure didn't you? Sounds like you couldn't fit a single thing more into that Honday, what a sight it must have been!

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