Real Gardens for Real People Tour 2012

Need a little gardening inspiration?  Check out the Real Gardens for Real People tour on Saturday, March 31 from 9:00am to 4:00pm and see beautiful gardens created by local Master Gardeners.

This self-guided tour in Northeast Scottsdale features seven themed desert gardens, each landscaped using water-wise, xeriscape principles and unique garden art.  Experts will be on hand at each garden to answer questions about composting, attracting birds and wildlife, growing vegetables, container gardening and water gardening.

Tickets are just $25 and are available online or at most local nurseries before the event.  Download the Official Tour Guide here…and get your garden on!

Eco-Shredder

It slices!  It dices!  It makes Ron Popeil rub his hands together with glee!

I am not entirely certain how I lived without a chipper shredder next to my compost bin.  Worse, I’m not sure why I spent countless hours (and calluses) cutting my yard waste down to manageable pieces so that they would decompose faster.  WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING???

We bought an off-brand of this guy.  Same specs, same everything.  Just a different color (ours is blue, but I would have preferred the yellow).  I set it out next to the compost bin and, in mere seconds, it eats up my trimmings and spits them into the compost bin.  Now we’re working on mulch for our work area.

Some hints, though…it works much better on fresh wood than on dried wood.  We put a piece of dried mesquite through it…common in the Phoenix desert, mesquite is a pretty hard wood.  While it did the job, we stopped after one piece.  Smoke…smell…sigh…

I have no idea how long this chipper shredder will last, but it’s well worth what we’ve used it for!

So I mentioned one of the resources that I use to grow edibles in a previous post.  But this book, Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts, is written specifically for those us of who want to grow delicious and healthy edibles in Phoenix desert.

It was written by a guy (The Garden Guy) who can often be seen on local TV.  Now, it is not the prettiest gardening book around, but it’s cram-packed with the most relevant content I’ve found ANYWHERE.  Instead of consulting a resource and then checking the climate zone to see if it works here (or trying to apply info about growing edibles elsewhere to the desert), ALL of the info it contains is relative to the less-than-glorious growing conditions found in Phoenix!  (Somewhere I hear angels singing…)

The first part talks about growing conditions:  sun, water, soils, fertilizers, companion plants, etc.  Then it goes into detail for each vegetable, nut, and fruit that can be successfully grown here, including how to pick, plant, water, fertilize, protect, and enjoy each one.  Finally, he deals with how to manage pests organically.

This is one of those books that will get a workout.  I’m secretly hoping that the next printing will include a spiral binding!