My cat is also a rescue. She's a deaf kitty that I brought in from the great outdoors. The vet estimates her age at 3-4 so hopefully she'll be around for awhile. Of course it's never long enough but at least she's got a nice, round belly from sufficient food and a big house to be safe in. Deaf kitties are gravely disadvantaged outdoors! She didn't know it when I tricked her and trapped her indoors, but she was already better off in my basement! She came out in time and now walks on me regularly LOL. That's huge for a cat!

3-4 is the perfect age to bring in a cat too. They're still fun but they can settle themselves down better. She's definitely better off indoors being deaf, thats awesome! We have this monster that came from a shelter too and we've had him I think a year less than Luca. He's slightly older too so 11 or 12 most likely. He came with no front claws so he doesn't get to go very far but he loves the backyard more than Luca. He's also my biggest garden pest trying to eat my plants.

Zion (The Lion)

Realized this morning that I sit on a cross department committee with the two people that created the Extension Planting Calendar for Maricopa County. I'm important! and the least qualified person on the committee.

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/ext ... 5-2018.pdf

Rescues are the best breed, aren't they? Zion reminds me of pictures I've seen in a book I read recently: My Beloved Monster Masha, by Caleb Carr. Masha was a rescue Siberian who'd been abandoned in an apartment when the people left, and she got into much mischief! Evidently Siberians are big cats and this one beat up bears and big dogs. I cried when he had to put her down! Zion reminds me of the pictures of her.

Interesting stuff in that list! We really can't grow things like artichokes, okra, and peanuts up here. I've tried the first two and they grew but not well; the okra pods I got were very few & far between. I'm also surprised you can grow brassicas down there, which prefer cooler temps than what you get. Crazy.

leftylogan wrote: ↑Thu Feb 27, 2025 12:19 pm Realized this morning that I sit on a cross department committee with the two people that created the Extension Planting Calendar for Maricopa County. I'm important! and the least qualified person on the committee.

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/ext ... 5-2018.pdf

But guess what... you can get instant answers to your questions! Need a bug or disease ID'd? Bring a sample to the committee meeting and if they can't tell you they can take it back to the office to someone who can. Yay!

BTW that's a sweetheart of a dog you have and an absolutely gorgeous cat. How could anyone give up such a beautiful animal unless it was a dire situation.

The cat here is Lester, a stray who decided this home was the right one. Showed up like he owned the place and fit right in with the other cats like thay had all been great friends for ages. Maybe they had. He's a real cuddlebuns.

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 01, 2025 8:47 am Rescues are the best breed, aren't they? Zion reminds me of pictures I've seen in a book I read recently: My Beloved Monster Masha, by Caleb Carr. Masha was a rescue Siberian who'd been abandoned in an apartment when the people left, and she got into much mischief! Evidently Siberians are big cats and this one beat up bears and big dogs. I cried when he had to put her down! Zion reminds me of the pictures of her.

Interesting stuff in that list! We really can't grow things like artichokes, okra, and peanuts up here. I've tried the first two and they grew but not well; the okra pods I got were very few & far between. I'm also surprised you can grow brassicas down there, which prefer cooler temps than what you get. Crazy.

Zion is a huge cat so I always assumed he had some Norwegian Forest Cat or Maine Coon in him but the picture on the book you mentioned does look a lot like him! So maybe I need to throw Siberian in the mix as a possibility.

I know okra is a heat lover but I don't care much for it to even have one plant. Yet, I've considered growing it just because it could be fun and grow like crazy. I like artichokes a lot but not enough to deal with processing them so those were a no-go as well. I can imagine your artichokes struggled in that climate. I think the long daylight hours you get mid-summer can mess with their flowering cycles as well.

I love root vegetables but the effort to reward ratio doesn't seem great in grow bags so I've ignored them so far. I know people get tons of potatoes out of them but even keeper varieties go bad quickly here.

I don't anticipate any brassicas tasting as good as the ones I grew during my college internship in the mountains in Flagstaff due to the lack of frost here. We grew tons of excellent kale up there and sold most of it to local restaurants to fund the rest of the farm. I think it's going to be a fight to keep them from bolting when our summer inevitably goes until Thanksgiving.

Alrighty - my parents came to visit this weekend so I did not have a lot of free time. Went to a spring training game though which are always fun. My parents brought me a shovel which will make my life easier (and save my back). Have I mentioned that I've done every single thing in this thread so far completely by hand and without a single garden tool? No trowels or shovels here until today.

I potted up a few more tomatoes and some basil this evening. Indet tomatoes have been going into 15 gallon grow bags. Dwarves have been going in 7 gallon grow bags. I should probably be using 20's and 10's but I'm not yield hunting. I also have 2 green zebras that I'm using as a control. They went from the same seed cell to the same 3.5" pot and now one is in a 10 gallon gb and the other in a 15 gallon. Mostly curious about water needs rather than yield differences.



Everything really enjoyed the heat this week. It was mid 80's most of the week and touched 90 on Wednesday. We're about to get some weird weather this week even for spring in the desert.



These sunflowers grow an inch every time I look at them.



cont...

More pictures since stuff has enjoyed the hot spring and decided to flower or grow crazy.

First is this cactus that didn't have those bits on top 2 weeks ago



Then this Lantana that I salvaged from home Depot clearance for $2 came back very strong. These do really well in the heat and are a common landscaping plant around here. There's some purple ones in the landscaping down the street I'm going to take a cutting from eventually too.



Had a patented Arizona sunset this evening. It was only missing that twinge of purple to be completely perfect

I always got an ok potato yield from my 40 gal bags but at the time I was using pure potting soil. This year I plan to mix that with some of my compost, which should yield a nutritious mix that’s light enough for pots.

Wow, all of that literally by hand! Proper tools will help. Really good tools are a joy to use and make the work so much easier! I love my Red Pig tools!

Tools are a gardeners best friend. They enable us to grow so much more too.

Your weather through Sunday looks really close to ours here in Georgia over that time period.

We're going to plant potatoes tomorrow but just one 12' row, Like in your area, they don't store well here. We enjoy them fresh and when a sprout or two shows the rest get canned.

Yay for a good shovel! It will be the start of your tool collection. It's like buying seeds... there's always something else you just have to get.

@JayneR13 I'm wondering if you should consider some extra perlite in there too with your compost addition to keep it even lighter. I'm thinking root vegetables will like the room but it would probably increase the fertilizer needs. I bet your yield increases regardless with the compost included. I'm currently planning on heavily utilizing compost tea for my grow bags to try and activate every square inch of material.

I still like using my hands to do most things but the shovel made quick work of mixing together my potting soil ingredients. It was a workout mixing ~20 gallons at a time if any of the material was wet. I picked up a 97 cent trowel at Walmart this evening so I can see where the addiction starts. It's wonderful black plastic so I'll be increasing the microplastics percentage of my potting mix.

@GoDawgs Right it's very southeastern weather not southwestern. Canning potatoes is a good thought I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever get a pressure canner. I would think potatoes would dehydrate well . But ours also go bad in the opposite direction where they lose all their moisture to the 0% relative humidity and shrivel instead of sprout.

I could indeed try the bags again, possibly, if I have enough media to fill a 40 gal bag after filling all of my pots! That's the big question: filling as many as possible while buying as little as possible. Though as I type I'm considering the soil I'm going to have to remove from two beds for the garage construction; mixing that with the lighter potting soil might be an option. And maybe some perlite since that's garden soil and fairly heavy. Thanks for a great idea! I need to make as much use of my deck as possible this year, although hauling soil up there won't be any fun.

While your cheap Walmart trowel will do the job, better tools are a joy to use! I upgraded one year to the Fiskars tools at my local home & garden center, then learned about Red Pig Tools. Those aren't cheap by a long shot but they'll last a lifetime and are a joy to use! The handles fit my hand well, the high carbon steel won't break on a rock, and the edges retain their sharpness far longer than most tools.

I've canned potatoes and while it does work, the potatoes will get a bit mushy over time. I find potatoes that I canned back in 2012 to be useful in pot roast though. And don't even bother with cole slaw, no matter what the websites say! Done that, been there, tossed 5 cases of pints that while edible, were so gray as to be unappetizing. Sometimes we learn the hard way, right? And a pressure canner is a great investment. I'm still using the one I bought in 2012, just had to replace the rubber and get the gauge recalibrated.

leftylogan wrote: ↑Sun Mar 02, 2025 11:28 pmHad a patented Arizona sunset this evening. It was only missing that twinge of purple to be completely perfect

Sooooo, you's actually DO have clouds...?

The gotch

Cornelius_Gotchberg wrote: ↑Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:50 am

leftylogan wrote: ↑Sun Mar 02, 2025 11:28 pmHad a patented Arizona sunset this evening. It was only missing that twinge of purple to be completely perfect

Sooooo, you's actually DO have clouds...?

The gotch

Only if my rain dance worked...

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 04, 2025 10:42 am
While your cheap Walmart trowel will do the job, better tools are a joy to use! I upgraded one year to the Fiskars tools at my local home & garden center, then learned about Red Pig Tools. Those aren't cheap by a long shot but they'll last a lifetime and are a joy to use! The handles fit my hand well, the high carbon steel won't break on a rock, and the edges retain their sharpness far longer than most tools.

I've canned potatoes and while it does work, the potatoes will get a bit mushy over time. I find potatoes that I canned back in 2012 to be useful in pot roast though. And don't even bother with cole slaw, no matter what the websites say! Done that, been there, tossed 5 cases of pints that while edible, were so gray as to be unappetizing. Sometimes we learn the hard way, right? And a pressure canner is a great investment. I'm still using the one I bought in 2012, just had to replace the rubber and get the gauge recalibrated.

Those Red Pig tools are beautiful and now I will be longing for them

I can't decide if I'm going to go for a dehydrator or a pressure canner this year. I'll eventually acquire both but I haven't yet figured out which is going to be more useful to me initially. I'm thinking a dehydrator but I could also probably sun-dry stuff with window screens considering our heat, lack of humidity, and all the peppers and tomatoes I'm growing.

Another great tool to have on hand is a hori hori. I keep mine on me most of the time while I'm out in the garden.

leftylogan wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 9:25 pm
I can't decide if I'm going to go for a dehydrator or a pressure canner this year. I'll eventually acquire both but I haven't yet figured out which is going to be more useful to me initially. I'm thinking a dehydrator but I could also probably sun-dry stuff with window screens considering our heat, lack of humidity, and all the peppers and tomatoes I'm growing.

I'd go with the canner first. Kinda hard to dehydrate meat, soups, stock etc. . You can dehydrate tomatoes but you won't have that instant use and all that good juice to go with them. I use my dehydrator but use the canner way, way more.

I have a dehydrator and two pressure canners but no longer use either of them. Now I freeze. In the garage I have a chest freezer and two refrigerators with top freezers. A large selection of freezer jars and a bunch of Pyrex rectangular glass storage containers I use for freezing as well as refrigerator storage.

There are decent hori horis available on Amazon and a few other sellers that are cheaper than the Red Pig. They do import that one and it's a great tool, but I ended up losing mine and rue what I spent on it. It's a wonderful and very useful tool however, and if you're looking for something that's all purpose I'd go for that one.

I'm also a proponent of getting a canner first. Presto offers some that can be used as both water bath and pressure canners relatively cheaply. I also use my canner far, far more than my dehydrator. While freezing isn't a bad option, if the power goes out and your food unfreezes, you've lost quite a lot of food. This is no bueno. I've found this book, titled Preserving Food Without Freezing, very useful. https://www.amazon.com/Preserving-Food- ... 117&sr=8-1 This book contains a number of historical methods in common use long before canning/freezing/dehydrating. I use the winter squash method every year, which is wiping the squash with vinegar, then a light olive oil for preservation. Squashes I preserve that way last nearly one year. I've found the book well worth the money. Also, if you're getting into canning, the Ball Blue Book of Preserving is a must have. I purchased mine in 2012 and it's now well stained from use! Their larger book contains more recipes, which I found useful for an overabundance of green tomatoes. Both books contain sections on equipment and techniques that are extremely useful.