I love using companion plants in my garden.
Companion or complementary plants have qualities that help other plants in the garden. They can repel bad bugs, attract pollinators and good bugs, fertilize the soil, prevent plant disease and in some cases – improve the flavor of fruit and vegetables.
I am a huge fan of using companion plants in the garden. Nasturtiums and marigolds are planted among my vegetables and help to repel damaging insects.
I also plant garlic and onions, not only to eat, but also to help keep the bad bugs away.
The other day, I was researching an article that I was writing for a magazine and I found out that companion planting has its roots in early American history.
Native Americans would practice the “3 Sisters” method of companion planting. They would grow beans, corn and squash in the same area.
All of these plants help each other:
– The corn provides support for the bean vines to climb upon.
– The beans take nitrogen from the air and convert to a form that the corn and squash can absorb in the soil.
– The squash shade the soil, helping to maintain moisture and keeps weeds from growing.
So, my daughter, Gracie and I decided to adapt this plan for our garden and called it the “Two Sisters”.
We decided to plant some of our Kentucky beans (that we had been growing indoors in Starbucks coffee cup sleeves) next to the young corn in our garden.
(Gracie was happy to help me. Please ignore the unbrushed hair, but it was an early Saturday morning and we had better things to do – like PLANT!)
You can see how big the beans had grown.
They grew quickly in the 2 weeks on my windowsill – just look at all the roots.
We planted them next to our corn, keeping the cardboard sleeve around them. (The cardboard will disintegrate in the soil).
Just 3 days later, I can see the beans already climbing up on the corn.
I realize that we did not plant any summer squash to complete the “3 Sisters”, but to be perfectly honest – I don’t like squash.
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I spent 4 hours this morning, helping to add a hummingbird / butterfly garden with a pathway and benches in an area that is dear to my heart.
I can’t wait to share it with you soon.
On another front – we have been told that our insurance company will replace our carpet and paint some of our walls. They took a piece of untouched carpet and padding and sent it to Florida to a place that will determine the quality of what we had, so that they can replace it with carpet/padding of comparable quality.
So, our living room is full of furniture of the kids rooms and other stuff. We aren’t sure how long we will have to wait for our lives to get back to normal, but I am so grateful that insurance is covering the damages.
I hope you are off to a good start.
What are you doing in your garden this week?
A ‘Big’ Vegetable Harvest
Vegetable GardeningLast week, I spent some time checking the vegetables my cool-season vegetable garden.
I was looking to see how they were growing and if any were ready to harvest. I’ve also learned (the hard way) that it’s important to check for any insect damage so you can treat it early – I got hit bad by spider mites last summer because I wasn’t paying attention.
I have been checking up on my cauliflower plants lately. Seven days ago, the largest one looked like this…
cool-season vegetable garden
Today, it looked like this…
Okay, this photo doesn’t really show how big it is, so I put my hand next to it to show the scale…
Now, compare this photo with the first one and you can see how big it grew in just one week!
My son, Kai and I harvested this large cauliflower by simply pulling the entire plant out of the ground.
It was quite heavy. Of course, you can simply cut the cauliflower, but you have to pull the plant out sooner or later. We chose sooner.
It was at least twice as large as the cauliflower in my local supermarket. The photo really doesn’t show that though, but this bowl is very wide salad bowl.
I’ve really never noticed how pretty the cauliflower florets are before, have you?
We used some of the cauliflower in our dinner salad, which also included Romaine lettuce and carrots from our garden as well.
Our cauliflower is so huge, I will have to figure out other ways to serve it.
My son’s favorite is smothering it with ranch salad dressing.
I have three other cauliflower plants in the garden. I may have to give some to my mother, since I don’t know how we will be able to eat it all.
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Cauliflower is a cool-season vegetable, which does best when planted from transplants and not seed. I have had no problems with growing mine at all – no insect problems, etc.
What is important for growing cauliflower is fertile soil and regular irrigation.
How about you? Do you grow cauliflower?
Do you have any cauliflower recipes to share?
3 Sisters Companion Planting Minus One…
AZ Plant LadyI love using companion plants in my garden.
Companion or complementary plants have qualities that help other plants in the garden. They can repel bad bugs, attract pollinators and good bugs, fertilize the soil, prevent plant disease and in some cases – improve the flavor of fruit and vegetables.
I am a huge fan of using companion plants in the garden. Nasturtiums and marigolds are planted among my vegetables and help to repel damaging insects.
I also plant garlic and onions, not only to eat, but also to help keep the bad bugs away.
The other day, I was researching an article that I was writing for a magazine and I found out that companion planting has its roots in early American history.
Native Americans would practice the “3 Sisters” method of companion planting. They would grow beans, corn and squash in the same area.
All of these plants help each other:
– The corn provides support for the bean vines to climb upon.
– The beans take nitrogen from the air and convert to a form that the corn and squash can absorb in the soil.
– The squash shade the soil, helping to maintain moisture and keeps weeds from growing.
So, my daughter, Gracie and I decided to adapt this plan for our garden and called it the “Two Sisters”.
We decided to plant some of our Kentucky beans (that we had been growing indoors in Starbucks coffee cup sleeves) next to the young corn in our garden.
(Gracie was happy to help me. Please ignore the unbrushed hair, but it was an early Saturday morning and we had better things to do – like PLANT!)
You can see how big the beans had grown.
They grew quickly in the 2 weeks on my windowsill – just look at all the roots.
We planted them next to our corn, keeping the cardboard sleeve around them. (The cardboard will disintegrate in the soil).
Just 3 days later, I can see the beans already climbing up on the corn.
I realize that we did not plant any summer squash to complete the “3 Sisters”, but to be perfectly honest – I don’t like squash.
******************************
I spent 4 hours this morning, helping to add a hummingbird / butterfly garden with a pathway and benches in an area that is dear to my heart.
I can’t wait to share it with you soon.
On another front – we have been told that our insurance company will replace our carpet and paint some of our walls. They took a piece of untouched carpet and padding and sent it to Florida to a place that will determine the quality of what we had, so that they can replace it with carpet/padding of comparable quality.
So, our living room is full of furniture of the kids rooms and other stuff. We aren’t sure how long we will have to wait for our lives to get back to normal, but I am so grateful that insurance is covering the damages.
I hope you are off to a good start.
What are you doing in your garden this week?
Plant Shopping
az plant lady familyI would rather shop for plants then clothes. Seriously….
So, I was so excited when it was finally time to buy the plants for our front landscape renovation.
My husband came with me (he usually does, because I am known to buy more plants then what is on my list). My nephew, Kenny, also came with us because he loves to garden.
Plant Shopping for our front landscape renovation
Because we were only renovating part of the front landscape, we didn’t have to buy a lot of plants.
I did purchase both purple and white trailing lantana, white gaura and gopher plant for the front garden and Arizona yellow bells and pink trumpet vine for the back garden.
Okay, I also bought a plant that wasn’t on my list – my husband left my side for 5 minutes, so it really wasn’t my fault 😉 But, I just couldn’t resist the fragrance of the pink jasmine vine and I have the perfect place for it (right next to my new vegetable garden, where it can grow along the fence).
Have you ever bought a plant that wasn’t on your list?
Whenever you have to buy many different plants; you usually will have to go to more then one nursery.
The nursery we visited didn’t have the desert marigold I wanted, which can be hard to find. I also didn’t like the look of the 24″ box Desert Museum Palo Verde trees, so we bought a 15-gallon.
I realize that our new tree looks like a green stick with some leaves glued on it. But, this type of palo verde grows very fast.
I also have a single desert marigold growing in my front garden and they grow easily from seed. So, I will just collect some seeds and plant them instead of searching other nurseries for the plants.
The front garden is progressing well. We have added the boulders, have almost finished planting and have installed the drip-irrigation.
I am planting an octopus agave that I grew from a ‘pup’ and have also planted some of my artichoke agave pups.
Next, is to add the flagstone step stones and finally the gravel.
It will be so nice to be finished.
We did take a break this past week for a family gathering at Double S Farms….
My sister, Jennifer and I just love spending time with our twin nephews. Before we know it, they will be too big for us to hold anymore 🙂
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I have a lot to share with you this coming week.
Old and New Blend Together in My Backyard Landscape
A Dirty Job….
AZ Plant LadyWe have been in the process of renovating our front landscape. I must admit that it is a dirty job.
I have purposely not shown a picture of the area of my front garden that is directly in front of my house.
I have shown photos of other areas of my front garden before…
But, I have always avoided showing you the main part, because frankly, I didn’t really like it.
The reason is, is that I wasn’t particularly proud of it because it had a ‘kidney-shaped’ area of grass. Now, there is nothing wrong with having grass growing in this shape, but it’s not my cup of tea.
Here is a partial picture of it that I had to take for an article.
Now, it looks like this…
My Artichoke Agave has had a lot of babies. I will replant some, but need to find homes for the others.
We have ripped out all of our grass in the front garden.
And it is a dirty job…
Off to the dump….
Next we are working on creating contouring (mounds).
Then we will add boulders, plants and finally gravel.
My husband and two nephews have been working so hard on this project.
I will keep you updated to our progress.
Plant Shopping
Starbucks Coffee Plant Containers
ContainersDo you love visiting your local Starbucks for that perfect cup of coffee? Or maybe you prefer an iced coffee like I do.
Well, my mother absolutely LOVES coffee and Starbucks is a frequent stop of hers. The other day, she brought over a bunch of used coffee cups and sleeves.
She had the great idea of using the sleeves for starting seeds in.
Of course when my mother has a good idea, I usually listen 😉
So I got to work….
coffee cup containers
The kids helped me plant the seeds.
Then I started looking at the cups and I thought that they would make great planters too.
So I cut them in half and then cut out the bottom of the lower part of the cup using a knife.
Because there are no bottoms to the planters, it is important to place the containers before you fill them with soil.
I think it turned out pretty good, don’t you?
Tomato, Bachelor’s Button and a Marigold plant.
Once your plants are ready to be transplanted, simply plant the cardboard coffee sleeve in the soil. The cardboard will break down.
The coffee cup containers won’t break down easily, so place the plant and container in your prepared hole and then simply cut down the side of the container and carefully remove it and finish filling in the hole with soil.
So the next time you stop your local coffee house, don’t throw away your cup – save it and use it for starting seeds.
**To learn more about how to start seeds indoors, you can read my earlier blog post.
Vegetable Garden Update
Vegetable GardeningThe other day, I stepped out into my vegetable garden to get a close up look at how my veggies are ripening.
Vegetable Garden
It may be hard to tell what is what because at first sight, it looks like a sea of green.
In the back I have cauliflower and carrots growing among the nasturtiums. Toward the front, I have green onions, green leaf lettuce, spinach, parsley and oregano.
The front part of the garden is full of San Marzano tomatoes, pink-flowering Oxalis (not a veggie), garlic and nasturtiums, which are spilling out of the garden.
Lastly, the side garden has shallots, sugar snap peas and a single cauliflower.
I love this time of year when there is so much going on in the garden, don’t you?
Check out more gardening tips at
Gardening Tips at Readers Digest
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I would like to thank you all for your supportive comments concerning the flooding of our house.
We currently have 30 high power fans and 2 large de-humidifiers working in our house. Unfortunately, that makes the air very warm – 90 degrees inside.
My kitchen is non-functional while appliances are pulled away from the walls, so we are eating out quite a bit (which really isn’t all that bad 😉
The interior walls, furniture and carpet were destroyed. Thankfully, the insurance company has been very helpful.
I hope you all have a great weekend!
New Vegetable Garden Finally Finished!
Toilet Paper Rolls and Vegetable Seeds…
Arizona garden, California desert garden, DIY, Gardening With Kids, Vegetable GardeningLately, I have been collecting toilet paper rolls. Now I know that may sound a bit weird to some of you, but I needed them for my garden.
So how on earth can toilet paper rolls help you in the garden?
Well, they are an inexpensive, environmentally friendly tool in which to start seeds indoors.
From upper right – bush beans, marigolds, Kentucky beans, cucumbers, sugar snap peas and spinach.
I thought this would be a good project to do with the kids, so we gathered our seeds.
We cut each toilet paper roll in half (you can use paper towel rolls and cut them into thirds for this too.)
We used a planting mix that had slow-release fertilizer already included and also had water-holding granules. I advise wetting the soil before adding it to your toilet paper rolls.
Now that we had everything, we were ready to start. The kids used tablespoons to ‘spoon’ the planting mix into each tube.
Then we lightly pressed down the planting mix and added more.
Now it was time to plant.
Then we used a spray bottle filled with water to thoroughly water each planted seed.
Now we had to create a ‘mini-greenhouse’ effect by covering our toilet paper roll with clear plastic wrap with some holes in the top. Then we placed them on top of the refrigerator, where it was warm enough to help them germinate.
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Every day, we checked the moisture of each toilet paper roll and added more water if necessary.
Once the seedlings germinated, we removed the plastic wrap permanently and placed our seedlings by our bright, sunny kitchen window.
We are keeping the soil moist, but not soggy.
Soon, we will be able to plant our seedlings (with their toilet paper rolls) in the vegetable garden. The cardboard from the toilet paper rolls will disintegrate into the soil.
Of course, you can always use the ready-made plastic seeding trays, but I must admit that I like this method better 🙂
**Are you new to vegetable gardening in the desert? We are fortunate that we can grow a large variety of vegetables, as well as fruit. I invite you to click the ‘Shop’ tab where you’ll find some great information on growing vegetables.
One Year Ago…
az plant lady familyThis week is off to a busy start. My husband and kids went on a camping trip, leaving me alone for 24 hours.
I had great plans for what I would do while they were gone.
I would work on writing blogs….
Work in the garden….
Plant seedlings indoors for a instructional video coming up….
Work on our taxes….
AND get a Redbox movie to end the day.
Well, I did achieve writing a blog and I did get our taxes done, but that was about it. My oldest daughter asked me to watch my granddaughter for a few hours, which I was happy to do. However, she had just returned from the doctor after getting her shots, so she was not too happy. So I just held and cuddled her.
Then my daughter brought lunch over and we visited for awhile. So I got started on my taxes a bit late. I do like using tax software, but I don’t like having to get all my receipts together.
I ended the evening eating dinner at 8:00 and watching TV.
As I sat in my very quite house, I remembered where I was one year ago to the day.
We were on a cruise of the Caribbean with in-laws. They had treated us all to the cruise, which was to be a great time to build memories while we still had my father-in-law with us.
My in-laws always had their grandkids sitting their table. My father-in-law couldn’t smile or speak anymore, but he was able to communicate through his iPad.
We had a fabulous time.
Our first visit was to St. Maarten. I had my camera with me and along with taking photos of the family, I also took pictures of the tropical plants.
I didn’t know my husband was taking a picture 😉
At first, I was shocked at how blue the water was. (I am from Southern California, where the ocean is gray blue).
St Maarten
The plants were very colorful and I recognized some….
Bougainvillea
Vinca
There were other plants that I had no idea what they were….
This plant is rather unusual.
St Maarten
You know, it didn’t matter that I didn’t know what all the plants where.
It was enough to know that they were beautiful….
A Wonderful Memory…..
Please Let Me Take Them Home…
AZ Plant LadyHave you ever seen the following sight when shopping at the nursery?
It just makes me want to cry.
Seriously, I just want to take them home, nurse them back to health and find good homes for them.
I do understand that nurseries probably have problems selling plants that are past their prime and have to remove them from the shelves.
But some nurseries just throw them out even though they can still be planted and in most cases, survive.
Some nurseries put these less then desirable plants in the back and sell them at a reduced price.
Unfortunately, not all plants you find in nurseries (particularly big box stores) aren’t suitable for your climate. In the shopping cart above, daffodils have a hard time growing in the desert – but it’s not impossible. The primrose in the bottom, make great container plants in winter.
So, the next time you visit your favorite nursery, look in the back section, which is where the the discarded/discounted plants are likely to be found. Maybe you can ‘rescue’ some plants and give them a good home 🙂
How about you?
Have you ever seen discarded plants at your nursery or do they sell them at a discount?
Making the Most Out of a Sour Gift…
Double S FarmsLiving close to Double S Farms, my mother’s residence, means that we get to enjoy some of the bounty from her large lemon tree.
My nephew, Oliver, helping with the lemon harvest.
Now, I could grow own lemon tree in my back garden, but I really don’t need to since my mother has more lemons then she knows what to do with.
Unfortunately, lemons don’t grow year round and I am stuck getting mine at the grocery store.
Have you seen how much a single lemon costs at the grocery store?
I can’t remember the exact amount, I just know that it is a lot.
So, whether you have a ready supply of lemons fresh off the tree, or even if you have to buy yours at the grocery store
– here are some tips to make the most of each lemon:
Let’s say that you have a recipe that calls for the juice of half a lemon. Well, after spending up to a $1 a lemon, the last thing you want to do is throw away the other half, so why don’t you save the juice?
Whenever I get lemons from Double S Farms, I juice them and pour the juice into ice cube trays. Then I freeze the ice cubes and then remove the frozen cubes of lemon juice and store in a plastic freezer storage bag in my freezer.
Then whenever I need a bit of lemon for cooking, all I have to do is grab a frozen cube of lemon.
In addition to saving lemon juice, did you know that you can also save and freeze lemon zest?
Now this step should be done before you cut and juice your lemons.
I actually forgot this step until it was too late, but I was still able to zest a somewhat squishy juiced lemon, although I wouldn’t recommend it.
Remove the outer yellow skin of your lemon using a microplane tool. Take care not to remove the white of the peel, which is bitter.
Store your lemon zest in a plastic freezer bag and put in your freezer. Whenever you need lemon zest, just grab a little.
Whether you want to make the most out of your expensive lemon purchase or if you want to preserve your yearly bounty of fresh lemons, try out these tips.