Nurturing the Volunteers in My Garden

This is kind of an embarrassing story. If you've followed my desert gardening exploits, you know I've struggled with squirrels, birds, and other pests going after our veggies. The veggies that survive are usually covered with a bird netting cage.

But I keep persevering, determined to mitigate our desert soil with compost, mulch, cover crops, and rainwater. I enjoy getting out in the shaded garden and hand watering our plants with rainwater collected in nearby cisterns from our generous neighbor's huge roof. Sometimes an inquisitive hummingbird joins me. 

The plants that are really thriving in my little garden are "happy accidents." From the volunteer palo verde that protects the garden from the harsh sun to the mystery plants that sprout in the compost pile or occasionally where I plant something else. That includes two junior fig trees - that may have been planted by one of those silly squirrels or birds. 

It all started with the compost pile. Despite regular watering (with sink water) and turning it to aerate it, I'm embarrassed to say that I have never gotten my compost pile hot enough. Maybe because I cut my kitchen scraps into tiny pieces so they will compost quicker (less than a month rather than six months to a year). But it makes lovely compost nonetheless. It just doesn't kill the seeds... So occasionally I get mystery sprouts. I've decided to embrace the matter. 

The first step was digging a hole along the fence (where the most sun seeps through). Then I mixed that dirt with compost and built a mound.

At the compost pile, I slipped my shovel under the roots of the sprouts and carefully placed them (compost and all) on top of the mound. Then I tucked them into their new bed.  

But the embarrassment doesn't stop there. There were some naughty mice in our pantry that got into bags of beans and grains. So I scattered that mess into another hole. 

I covered them with some compost - that had more sprouts in it. Couldn't wait to see what would pop up! 

 Long story short, we got some bean sprouts (that died out of season), some plant I didn't recognize with cute round leaves, and two tall volunteers (that I thought might be lantanas.)  

On the mound, one of plants grew big round leaves that resembled squash or cantaloupe leaves. (I affectionately called them squash-a-lopes.) It finally flowered and grew a baby sugar pumpkin. It soon became clear (by the yellow flowers) that the tall plants were tomato plants.

In the other hole (to the right) we finally identified those with the round leaves as lentils and the tall ones with pretty blue flowers were chia plants.  Just love my volunteers! But I wasn't the only one... When I witnessed a squirrel eyeing them greedily, I blocked it's access to the garden and installed a little garden fence around some of the plants.

Remember that I mentioned the volunteer figs? 

I love my citizen science...  So I scrolled back through old photos to find out where they had come from.

Long story long, I had planted complimentary plants - chard and carrots in a plot with compost. I covered them to protect them from the critters. I may have planted too many carrots... The bird netting cage discouraged me from thinning them out, so the carrots were tiny and twisted.

But check it out; there's a mystery plant growing in there! 

After thinning them, the mystery plant thrived. Hey, is that a fig tree? (Discovered Dec. 15, 2023) 

And then there were two! These guys are fighters! 

They soon outgrew their cage. So I removed it and installed a fence around them to keep out the critters.

I watched a video that mentioned fig roots like to spread out. So I took out the bricks that were blocking their growth.  

So cool! Now I could see where the roots had grown deeper than the compost and how they had been blocked by the paver. (Note: That's chard I planted from seed under the figs.)

I extended that hole into a basin. Using the technique I applied to the other volunteers, I mixed the garden dirt with compost and built up a berm around it. Then I covered the basin with palm frond mulch to keep the moisture in longer. 

Those are some happy trees! I deep water their basin twice a week and the twin fig trees are thriving!

Here's an update on my volunteer tomatoes and sugar pumpkins twenty days later...

How cool is that!  As long as I keep nurturing them, they keep nurturing me. 

Adventures in Spring Planting

Neighbors exchanging plants and knowledge at Garden District Plant Swap

I love Spring in Tucson. It's that time of year for plant sales and neighborhood plant exchanges. Fun!

Iskashitaa Plant Sale

Every year, I look forward to learning from fellow gardeners and discovering new drought tolerant plants - especially pretty pollinator plants for my rain garden. (Which, admittedly, has been looking pretty stark from the long stretch with so little rain.) Hand watering the new plants gives me an excuse to get out in my yard every morning to mingle with the birds and bunnies. 

While watering my new plants, I spotted this hummingbird!

It can be a challenge to find plants that will survive the harsh drought conditions (especially bad this year) and that won't be devoured by the critters. While I try to get growing conditions from the sellers, it is somewhat trial and error. Not so sustainable, I know. At least I am still able to use rainwater from one of our cisterns. 

This year I got some spiderwort and Arizona Foldwing at the Tucson Organic Gardeners Spring Plant Fair. From what I gleaned from growers, they should be drought tolerant. A quick google search confirmed that. But I also discovered that spiderwort would have preferred sandy soil. At least our basin drains well. 

While I was excited about my new plants; it wasn't particularly good timing. We were heading off on a short family vacation the day after I planted them. I took photos of the new arrivals so my friend Catherine could locate them to water them while we were away. She even brought rainwater from her own cistern! Thanks, Catherine! 

After a couple weeks, the Arizona Foldwing is doing great. Despite the unseasonably hot weather, it has grown several purple flowers! The google search confirmed, The Arizona Foldwing (Dicliptera Resupinata) thrives in full to partial sun conditions, with better performance and blooming in full sun, but it can also tolerate part shade.

I also purchased some dwarf tomato plants (to fit under the bird cage) in my backyard garden. Since we were locking the gate while we were away, we planted them around a tubular olla to keep them watered. 

Here they are with the bird cage to protect them from our resident squirrels. 

Note: they are currently thriving in that spot with daily watering. 

We heard from the growers that Spring is a good time to plant herbs. So we got some mint, basil, and thyme. While everyone says that mint will take over, that hasn't been our experience. For some reason, we can't keep it alive in our backyard. So here it goes in our toilet planter. 

In the past we have had good success planting basil under the birdcage in the shade of the palo verde tree. And the marjoram starter we got at a previous plant sale is thriving in this blue pot - even in this record heat. The high was 91 degrees yesterday! It burned my feet! 

 

Meanwhile, at the high end of our shallow basin...The agaves and aloe that I got from a plant swap, aren't loving our extreme weather - low of 40 degrees and recent highs of 95. The aloe should have never been planted in direct sun. Lesson learned: google before planting. 

 And, yes, it is past time to get some new mulch in the basin. "Chop & Drop" and "Leave the Leaves" (that the ants gathered up) isn't cutting it in this hot weather. 

And before y'all tell me to water those poor agaves, keep in mind that they have been suffering since the cold snap and Master Gardeners recommend that you don't water them during that time because cells will freeze.  (I am watering it now.)  

I don't want to give the impression that nothing survives in our basin. Here are some plants that I got at previous plant sales that have thrived despite record heat with very little water.

The Texas Ranger has hardly been watered at all and it is currently in bloom. 

But pull back to check out the prickly pear cactus. It was looking so wrinkled and droopy a week ago, that I finally gave it 3 watering cans of water. That gave it the strength to hold up those pads that are currently budding! 

The rosemary was looking a little crispy from the extended summer. So far I have given it a total of 3 watering cans of water.  

Even the native chiltepin needed some help to leaf out during this extreme weather. It got about five watering cans full.  Hoping to get some yummy chiltepin chilies this year. 

I was worried about the young ocotillo I got from Borderlands Nursery last year. But it has finally started to grow some leaves! 

Here's the real hero! The jujube that hasn't gotten any extra water besides what it gets from the basin, is budding nicely. 

 

So... I'm glad to say that the new plants in my yard are hanging in there during this extreme heat - with a little help from the rainwater that is still left in our biggest cistern. I won't lie; it's been a tough year. And the most important lesson I learned was to make sure I look up the best location for each plant to give them the best chance at survival. 

More information about our rain basins during happier times:

"Love my rain basin!" 

#lovemyrainbasin

Appreciating our Cisterns During this Dry Spell

It is no secret that my favorite rainwater harvesting feature is catchment basins. They can sink in more water than our largest cistern can hold while nourishing the soil and providing food and shelter for birds and other desert critters. But I have to admit that during this long dry patch, (our last wet day was the hail storm on April 1st) I am extremely grateful to have several cisterns to keep my new plants and moringa alive in this extreme heat. (As I write this, there is a heat warning in effect.) 

Every morning before the temperature reaches 80 degrees (the temperature when plants stop taking in water), I am outside watering my baby plants with my watering can filled with rainwater from our cisterns. I have already emptied one slimline cistern and the other one is nearly empty.

Fortunately, I still have water in our biggest cistern in the backyard, but that requires me carrying it through the house. (See pic at the top of the page.)

I get water from the big cistern to daily water the newly planted hibiscus in the greywater basin and to deep water our heritage, desert adapted pomegranate tree, the hibiscus and two curry plants. We're excited that the pomegranate finally grew big enough to support some fruit this year! 

5 gallon buckets with 2 holes in them deep water pomegranate and hibiscus 

We also have a medium cistern by the garden that gets water off of our kind neighbor's huge roof. The few plants I have in my veggie garden only require one watering can a day to keep them going. (I usually have more planted there but I didn't get around to it with my broken wrist.) 

A few years ago, I asked someone at Watershed Management Group if there was any point in putting in rainwater harvesting cisterns when we are getting less and less rain. They replied that you need even more cisterns to get you through the dry months. I have to say I am absolutely a convert now. We are so grateful to have gutters that direct the water from our roof into our rainwater harvesting cisterns to get us through this dry spell and heat wave. Thanks to the cisterns, we haven't had to use any city water in our yard so far this year. 

If you want to try out rainwater harvesting you can start with a little 55 gallon water barrel for a reasonable price.  Here is our first one that we used to water a few veggies. Dan directed a downspout from the gutter into the blue barrel below.

To find out how much water you can harvest at home, try out this simple water budget calculator from Watershed Management Group.

https://watershedmg.org/water-budget-calculator

Learn more at Watershed Management Group's Rainwater Harvesting Rebate Classes: 

https://watershedmg.org/learn/classes

Read another cistern story:

Racing to get our cisterns installed before the monsoon storms

Sharing my passion with the next generation

I always enjoy sharing my knowledge about sustainability with the next generation. So I was especially excited to give a tour of our rainwater basins to my son Jeremy's girlfriend Lillie, a civil engineering major with an emphasis on the environment. Can Jeremy pick 'em or what?!!! Jeremy tagged along to find out which plants to water when Dan and I go away on vacation. He took some photos while he was at it. Thanks, Jeremy! 

Our first stop was filling up my water bucket at the slimline tank. I explained how we get a lot of rainwater off of the roof (nearly 11,000 gallons a year.) Some of that water is directed from a gutter to a downspout and into our jujube basin. Gutters also direct water to the various cisterns around the house. 

I was delighted to share how the nearby jujube trees had grown three feet last year on just rainwater collected in the basin. And they were starting to bear the first fruit of the season. Even after this long dry spell! 

I had recently chopped and dropped some dried native plants (that some people might call "weeds") into the basin to create organic mulch. That observation inspired this story. Five years ago, Dan had removed a row of aging oleanders and dug a basin there for three baby jujube trees. The one planted farthest from where the oleanders were grew four times as fast as the two planted in the soil poisoned by the oleanders. But native grasses, organic matter (chopped weeds and fallen leaves) and rainwater mitigated the soil, so now the other two trees have caught up with the biggest tree!

The next stop was our shallow front yard basins. (See the pic at the top of the page.) The wood chip mulch has mostly broken down into soil. (We need another truck load.) So a bunch of poppies and native grasses grew there. When they died, I broke the stems of the poppies into hay-like mulch and left the dried grass (that had gone to seed) to feed the ants, birds and squirrels. 

Doves eating grass seeds in the shade of a desert acacia tree by the PLANTS FOR BIRDS sign.

Here I am pointing out the bird bath in the mesquite guild. (It is so important to provide daily water for the birds - especially in this heat!) The mesquite tree acts as a nurse plant providing shade and nitrogen for the nearby hackberry and a young saguaro. Notice that even during this dry spell, the native trees are green and thriving.

Next we visited the right of way basin where our moringa is coming back nicely after dying back in the hard freeze. Lillie gamely tasted the leaves of the nutritious "horseradish plant." 

Then I filled up my watering can and watered our flowering hibiscus plant that we recently planted in the greywater basin. There it benefits from greywater from our outdoor washing machine. The drought tolerant heritage pomegranate in the basin was also bearing fruit! It's always good to have that extra washing machine water for higher water-use plants like fruit trees.

I pointed out how the big slanted roof on the neighbors house had directed so much water into our yard that it had dissolved a wooden shed. Our kind neighbor gave Dan permission to install a gutter there to direct rainwater into a cistern to water our little garden. 

Jeremy followed me and Lillie into our fenced-in garden where he took this picture of his loved ones and learned that I use one watering can full of water on our little veggie garden. 

Lillie learned that the Palo Verde trees shade the garden from our hot summer sun and provide nitrogen to the soil. Bird netting cages keep the squirrels out of the chard (that grows year-round here.) And we use our dirty dishwater (with salt free soap) to moisten our compost pit. Every drop of water is precious in the desert.

It was so fun sharing my passion with Lillie and Jeremy. Can't wait to see what the next generation does... 

Continue our tour of my favorite places to bring visitors here:

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2024/05/my-favorite-places-in-tucson-to-bring.html

Share the love! Join our campaign and show your friends the joys of rainwater harvesting basins.

Just post a pic of your basin with the hashtag #lovemyrainbasin

https://www.sustainablelivingtucson.com/2023/04/love-my-rain-basin-campaign.html

#lovemyrainbasin

Lessons from Snow in our Urban Desert

 

I woke up to this view from my front door. Snow in Tucson!  This is the second time we have had snow this winter! This is the epitome of what Katherine Hayhoe termed "Global Weirding!" Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But it is weird. It is rare for it to snow in our desert town.  

I like to fancy myself a "citizen scientist" taking pictures to investigate what is happening in our garden and desert food forest. So out I went this morning with my cellphone to take pics of the snow. Here are the lessons I learned. 

The snow on the gravel or bare dirt has already melted. But where we have native plants (that some people call "weeds") or organic mulch in the catchment basin, the snow was still on the ground. I noticed that there was no snow left where our neighbors have gravel or just plain dirt in their yards. That demonstrates just how much heat gravel holds. But I already knew that from going barefoot when working on my yard in June. I walk on the horse purslane mulch to keep my feet from burning. 

I found a similar development in the easement behind our house. The snow is sticking to the desert mustard on the ground beside our garden. Notice that the snow isn't sticking to the ground in the garden perhaps because the palo verde branches that shelter it from the summer sun also shelter it from the cold. Note that there are no "weeds" in the garden. 

See the snow on the bunch grass in our jujube basin? As the snow melts it is another source of water for the plants and trees in our basins. 

Our native desert trees and bushes have adapted to the occasional freeze and snow storms. In fact, the hackberry in the mesquite guild (below) and our wolfberry in the right-of-way basin seem to be thriving in the snow. The organic mulch helps.  

Then I investigated what was happening in the backyard. The snow was already melting into the greywater basin supplying water for the heritage fruit trees there.

As anyone who has a cistern (rain tank) knows, we get lots of rain off of the roof.  Now our cisterns are overflowing from the snow melting off of our roof and the neighbors' roof. 

snow on our neighbors' roof

snow melting into the cistern

The cistern overflows into the garden...Sheltered by the branches of the palo verde, the chard is doing fine. 

Reminds me of how the snow melts on the Catalinas, rushing into our desert streams to nourish the surrounding trees and riparian habitat. 

view of the top of our watershed - the snowcapped Catalina Mountains

Here's what I learned from my little citizen science project this morning:

I learned that ground covered with gravel retains more heat so the snow melts. But without a catchment  basin to gather that water for a nearby tree, the water is often wasted. (Though the water can sink in under the gravel to water a nearby plant if there is no plastic preventing it.)  In our yard, the native grasses and organic mulch allowed the water to slowly melt into the catchment basin to the benefit of our native trees and bushes. I observed how the snow in our greywater basin melted into the basin to water our heritage fruit trees and how the snow on the roof melted into our cisterns filling them up to use on our garden and landscaping.

Who knew we had a "snow water harvesting" system?! In the desert! How great is that!?