Getting Ready for the Freeze

At last! Winter has descended on our desert town. While there are joys to be had - like nearly an inch of rain that filled up all our cisterns -  winter also brings with it some challenges. 

I've learned (the hard way) that there are some preparations I need to make around our yard to be ready for the freeze. And there are some things that I am still learning - like what to do with the basil... 

After the big rain this summer, our three moringa trees grew so big and had pods (drumsticks) for the first time. What a delight it was to see them flourish and to enjoy the bountiful harvest of leaves, small pods, and flowers!  I will be so sad to see them go. From experience of winters past, I know that our moringa (in the right-of-way with nothing to protect them) die during the hard freeze. In fact, the whole trunk gets moldy inside. The good news is that that they usually come back again from the roots by the next spring. But I feel a bit more secure when I wrap some insulation piping around the bottom of the trunks. Here it is all tied up with string.  

The trunks grew so thick this year, that even two pieces of piping didn't fit around them all. So I wrapped a used plastic mailer around the thickest ones. You know, the envelopes with the bubble wrap in them? It felt good to re-purpose that packaging too. We'll see how it does. 

We had so many edible leaves this year, that we put out a call for people to glean some, but we still had plenty left.

The moringa were starting to lose their leaves in the cold. So I started pulling off the leafless branches and cutting them into small pieces to add to the decaying mulch. That's what Brad Lancaster calls "Chop and Drop." I just love free mulch! 

The day after I got the insulation around the trunks, it started to pour. I knew it was supposed to freeze the next night (Saturday), so I rushed out into the storm and started harvesting some more of the nutrious leaves. 

I wrapped a rubber band around them and hung them to dry. 

Since we will be cutting back the trunks when the cold season ends, I decided I would try a little experiment. I cut one of the thick trunks to see if I could propagate it. 

Here I am carrying the trunk - branches, flowers, and all - to the house. 

I pulled off the branches and cut it into two pieces and planted them about 6 inches into soil  (a mixture of dirt and potting soil.) Yeah, I understand this isn't the right season to propagate this way. It needs to be 70 degrees. But I thought I would start it in the house and plant it when it warms up. (If it works...)  I heard that one gardener had started some in water in the house. 

I also left some test branches to see if these larger trees could make it through a freeze and they did!  I think it was because of the deep watering it got the day before. 

UPDATE 3:50 p.m. The branches still seem to be intact, but the leaves are wilting and dying.

Like I said, it's an experiment... 

Speaking of experimenting... After getting a variety of ideas on what to do with my basil before the freeze,  I decided to try out a few of the suggestions. 

I headed out to the garden to protect what I could of our basil. 

I finally get to try this gardening cage. 

I covered it with an old cloth. I heard it should reach all the way to the ground. I did my best.

Then I dug up one of the smaller basils and planted it in a hanging pot that I will keep in the house until after the freeze. 

I ended up planting three basil plants in the soil that they were grown in. I watered them with rainwater from our cistern. 

Someone suggested that I harvest it before the freeze. I harvested a whole bunch that were getting really tall and going to seed. 

While I was harvesting it, I got a nice surprise. I uncovered a volunteer tomato plant! 

We decided that this little guy deserved the best chance to survive the freeze. So I cut the bottom off a plastic milk bottle for shelter. 

I had done the same thing to protect some cilantro sprouts from the critters in our garden... 

That night it rained. Which was great because it completely filled up our new cistern! Deep watering also helps protect plants from the freeze.*

I covered up our compost with an old table cloth so it wouldn't get over saturated and become anaerobic. 

And I managed to find another one to cover up the cloth I put over the basil.  

I  happily carried my basil bounty back to the house. 

Can't wait to see how my little experiments turn out. In the meantime, we'll enjoy the harvest!

Starting with this tasty pesto! 

Wishing you and yours an abundant New Year!

For the results of my little experiment check out: 

Springing forward! How my cold-sensitive plants fared the freeze

MORE INFORMATION

All you need to know about frost protection in your Tucson garden - tucson.com*

6 Tips for Protecting your Warm-Climate Garden from Freezing Temperatures -growinginthegarden

Why we put Styrofoam cups on cacti and other Tucson winter gardening tips
Tips for desert gardening in the winter -  This Is Tucson

Strengthened by the Storm

It has been a turbulent year. Since President Trump was elected, it has been a constant battle against the relentless storm that is the Trump Administration. The constant assaults on our land and water.

Being bombarded with bill after bill repealing or dismantling our hard fought for environmental protections. 

My one respite from that storm was getting out in the morning light and seeing our beloved moringas finally flourishing. By the end of August the largest one was blooming and bearing fruit.  The long awaited pods were 8 inches long and nearly ready to be cooked into a yummy Filipino stew.  

But then the storm (remnants of Hurricane Rosa) hit our little food forest.

One night we came home to this.

With heavy hearts, we tried to salvage what we could of the pods and leaves. 

 Sadly, the pods were still too thin to eat or save for seeds.  

I did manage to save most of the leaves...

That was little consolation.

 But our moringas had lessons to teach. 

Our fallen moringa came back, as moringas do

Reminding me to hang loose...

While the lazy, unpruned moringa droops and strains from its own weight 

threatening to tip over if a carpenter bee lands on a misplaced flower. 

The moringa that was savaged by the storm 

is stronger and fuller for its struggle.

Pruned back by the micro burst

the edible leaves are now greener than ever and in easy reach

as they were meant to be.

The forces of nature accomplished what we couldn't.

Watching our durable moringa grow strong gives me hope. 

A sign that our country could be strengthened

by our struggle with the storm. 

Story of 4 Little Moringas

It was a dark and stormy night...December 22, 2017. 

With only a sheet tucked around their trunks for warmth,

 my beloved moringas were struck by the SUDDEN FREEZE.

I woke in the morning to this sight.

Just days before we had discovered that our drought tolerant moringas had grown another foot since they had stopped being watering by the monsoon rains.  Bees buzzed around the blooming flowers. The pods would soon be big enough to eat. Life was good.

After the freeze, I shared my disappointment with sympathetic followers who responded with kind words. Some commented that the moringas might return if the roots were still alive. I held onto that hope. That was my one consolation.

That, and harvesting leaves for tea.

Some of them had grey sections from mold and sap seeping out of them, but there was still an inch of green at the bottom of each plant.

(Thanks to the sheet I wrapped around them?) 

In my earlier research I read that to have full bushy plants you can harvest easier (rather than long willowy ones), you need to top them after they reach 2-3 feet tall.  But I never could bring myself to do that to my baby moringas. 

The freeze finally forced us to cut them back. 

Dan cuts back the moringas in March. 

The mulch in the basin had started to decline, so Dan cut the branches and trunks into wood chips and left it around the stumps.

This is what Brad Lancaster calls "chop and drop."  

        

Breaking this chip into smaller pieces

Dan watered the mulch. That mulch retains the moisture longer and as the wood chips break down it nourishes the soil too.

Trees love their own clippings!

It was Spring, so we started watering it (one can) every evening to see if we could get our moringas to come back.

And they did! 

We noticed the first branch sprouting on March 17th

(despite grey mold on the upper part of the trunk.) 

By April 1st, there were signs of growth on a second stump...

Can you see the growth on the bottom right?

And a second branch started sprouting out of the first plant! 

It's cool how the leaves grow over the stump. 

April 7th

Now they look like this! 

For a few weeks we gave these two a can of water every other day.
Now we are trying out watering them every 3 days.
Soon we will let the monsoon rains do their job.

Now we are watering a THIRD moringa every day
to allow it to catch up with the other two!  

So 3 of our 4 moringas survived the freeze.

One little, two little, three little moringa! 

We're afraid this one isn't coming back, but who knows?

Will it ever sprout?

Stubborn moringa finally sprouts! 

I was ra...ra...wrong. That "dead" moringa finally did come back! 


Last year, the moringas froze before the pods were big enough to eat or to collect the seeds. We should have planted them before June 7th. This year's moringas already have a jump on them! 

Here's to second chances!  


More moringa stories:

Planting monsoons and moringas in our street-side basin

Mucho Munchable Moringas