Show Us What You're Growing

[Smoke em if you got em]

Prime growing season in the Phoenix area.
I got a late start on tomatoes due to the yard revamp and the new raised beds, but they are starting to ripen and it looks like a potential bumper crop. There are about a dozen varieties planted. The big tomato is a Golden Queen, it was my first time growing them, and it had excellent texture and flavor. The biggest tomato I've ever grown in AZ. The others shown are Cherokee Purple, and a Roma variety.

Radishes and they are not woody or hot. The round ones (not shown) are a large variety also that I plant every year.


The new raised beds, 17" tall for the tomato plants and 32" tall for the small crops, for easy access.


Artichoke plants


My wife's Christmas Cactus with the most blooms we have ever had.


Garlic Mint Basil & parsley

Also not show, various greens, Scallions, onions, carrots and more, and a multi-year experiment with pineapple.

[LA Pork Butt]

Enjoy your growing season. I am guessing that in the summer vegetables die of heat exhaustion. LOL If not then I am guessing you can grow year around. Here in Dallas the summer heat slows everything down until a respite in the fall.

[Smoke em if you got em]

Yep, not much can take the summer, but surprisingly sweet potatoes and cow peas love the heat and are planted as cover crops to keep the soil alive. I haven’t had much luck yet with them, but melons, some cukes and pumpkins do well in the summer. I can get cherry tomatoes to grow all summer, but bigger varieties can’t take it. Crazy as it sounds I start my tomato seeds in July for the fall growing season.

[Lynn Dollar]

My tomato season ends about the 4th of July. Daytime temps get well over 90 and the plants shutdown.

I pick my first tomato about Memorial Day. So I have about a one month window.

[SheilaAnn]

I always, always kill an African Violet. Don’t know what happened this round…. But I got a second round of blossoms for the first time ever!

[Purc]

Looks great. I have not seen an African Violet since my mother passed. She had them everywhere in our house for decades. Thanks for the memories.

[CandySueQ]

My 2 remaining cabbages, the leeks and kale plants survived the ice! Even have some snow peas popping up.

I have enjoyed the violas I planted last fall next to the charcoal grills.

I have 2 pots of viola volunteers that have sprouted out in the lawn. Here's one.

I am so ready for spring!

[Smoke em if you got em]

The San Marianos are starting to ripen.

[SheilaAnn]

Stunning!

[Lynn Dollar]

The beginning of my tomato garden .. with a few peppers .

[58limited]

When I was a teenager I had quite the cactus collection, mostly from my Uncle's ranch in the Texas Hill Country. We moved and I had to leave all of the cactus which I had planted at the side of the house (I drove by a fewl years later and they were still there - I was happy).

I decided to get back into it so here are a few:

Horse Crippler - I had one from my uncle's ranch as a teen. These come from a friend's uncle who has a ranch in Brownwood, Tx. Horse cripplers grow very low to the ground and the spines are very stiff. They can injure livestock hooves hence the name. The picture is from December when I got them and I was in the process of potting them. They came with enough of their native soil to pot them. The big one is producing buds now and should bloom in a month or two.



Spiny Hedgehog from Alpine, Texas near Big Bend National Park given to me by my friend's son who is in college there. This is a much bigger species than the ones on my uncle's ranch. I just repotted it today, it is nearly a foot tall.



Christmas or Pencil Cholla from my uncle's ranch. I started with a 1 1/2" segment that I broke off of one at the ranch, two years later it looks like this.



I received this yesterday and potted it today: A saguaro from Arizona, 25" tall, grown from a seed planted in 1997. They only grow 1 inch in their first ten years then growth speeds up. Makes that 13.5 gallon pot look small, don't it?



I plan to add more to the collection but not too many: it rains too much here in Southeast Texas so I have to drag them inside all the time else they will get root rot and die.

[Oak Smoke]

Several years ago a friend told me about his dad’s ranch near Clayton New Mexico. They have an old truck with weed burner-flamethrower hoses on it. They walk along by the truck burning the spines off the cactus. With no spines the cattle eat them like candy.

[58limited]

My uncle had Angora goats on his ranch. They would eat the prickly pear cactus with the spines! That ranch is where I learned to not wear tennis shoes in the pasture.

[RonB]

I like cactus too. We were given one, (species unknown), for a wedding present almost 50 years ago. It's in a pot inside, and is now over 8' tall.

[58limited]

Use google image search, might ID it for you.

[RonB]

Thanks 58limited . It appears to be a cowboy cactus - Euphorbia ingens.

[Smoke em if you got em]

One morning's tomato harvest.

[TomfromtheSoo]

Beautiful!!!

[SammyJ]

Brown, jalapeño seeds under the tile the tile helps hold heat, so the mat doesn't have to work so hard
Should produce 12 viable ceilings here in a couple of weeks. May God bless us all with good crops this year.

[Smoke em if you got em]

My biggest San Marzano ever.



My biggest one day tomato harvest. This is from one 4’x8’ bed.


We’ve already had temperatures over 100 for a few days. That’s about a month earlier than what used to be considered early! I had to cover the tomatoes to keep them going.

[TomfromtheSoo]

Wow!

[Alan Brice]

Is not the heat about to blast production outta town?

[Smoke em if you got em]

Yep. Fortunately the temps are dropping down to the low 90’s and upper 80’s. But these plants will probably be done by mid May. Then I start seeds the end of July for the fall season.

[58limited]

Follow up to my cactus post above: The Horse Crippler is blooming! The flowers close at night and reopen in the morning. The flowers last 3 days.

[Donw]

Beautiful.

[SheilaAnn]

Stunning!

[Lynn Dollar]

Got my tomato plants in the ground yesterday .

[Finster]

Wow. Won't be for another 6 weeks for me. Not til after Mothers Day

[Lynn Dollar]

Finster our average date of last freeze is April 7th. So first or second week of April is more common to go into the ground. But our 10 day forecast shows nothing as to another freeze.

And if we get a freeze in April, its rarely a hard freeze. I can cover the plants with 5 gallon buckets.

[SammyJ]

First transplant. Brand new babies.

[captainlee]

These tomatoes were started in February, just transferred to their last pot. Will probably plant in the greenhouse within two weeks. These will grow out the roof vents by August, they get so large.

[CandySueQ]

I want to be a lazier gardener, which means I've been working really hard to achieve it!

Doubled space for cucumbers and relocated original pots to be in the watering zone. Waiting for seeds!