Growing Tomatoes in the Desert Department

Raised bed with pvc/burlap shade and bird netting

I've never had much success growing tomatoes before. I've been able to coax a few off the vines over the years, but the heat usually kicks in, or the white flies get too thick, and the vines soon die.

When we moved to Maricopa, I decided I was going to get serious about having a little vegetable garden. I emphasize 'little', because anything bigger than a few plants, I knew I would probably not take care of it properly.

When we first moved in down here, the house was newly built, and the yard was a blank mud canvass. I hired a contractor to put in some side walks, and another to put in an over head shade along the back of the house. While they were busy doing that, I was busy putting in gravel, edging stones, a rose garden, etc. One of the things I did was to put in a fairly small raised planter along the back wall.

The first year I was able to grow a few tomatoes in it, but the heat and white flies hit, and the vines died off before they really produced much.

The next year, I built a cheap shade for the planter. As you can see, it's just made from pvc pipe. I used 3/4", but if I ever do another, I would use 1", as the 3/4" tends to sag. I then covered the top with burlap (you can get from any garden store), and I put bird netting over the tomato cages and vines. Notice that the pvc is painted. This is essential if you're gong to leave pvc pipe exposed to the sun, as it will discolor and become brittle very quickly.

German Queen heirloom tomatoes

Tomato cages are pretty much essential for getting the vines up in the air. I used the colored ones, as they look a little classier then then plain galvanized ones.

The plants came from Home Depot and Walmart. They need to be planted as soon as possible after the last frost- usually around the last week of January, here. This last year, I planted four of them: a Roma, a cherry variety, an heirloom variety (German Queen), and  Big Beef variety. As far as fertilizing them- I'm about as organic as the nearest box of Miracle Grow. (which really kicks them into overdrive, incidentally.) This next season, I'm going to start the tomatoes from seed around the first weeks of December. You can get a wider variety of plants that way, also. Any plant growing in the desert benefits from mulch (to retain the moisture), so I also mulched them thoroughly.

Cherry Tomatoes

As far as insect control, I use insecticidal soap, and lizards. The soap doesn't bother the lizards, and they do a great job of keeping the bugs down. Of course, when the white flies hit- nothing much helps for that except keeping the plants as healthy as you can. I encourage spiders, also. How do I get these lizards and spiders, you ask? I don't know- they just show up...

(The exception being Black Widow spiders. Just an aside on Black Widow spiders: you don't have to spray to get rid of them. That would kill all the spiders off. You go out and hunt them down at night with a flash light for a few weeks. They get fewer and fewer, and eventually you'll get rid of all of them, as the other spiders move in. This is our third year in this house, and I've only seen three this year.)
Near the end of March, I believe, the tomatoes started showing up. They lasted until just last month, when the heat is so bad that it's 90+ degrees at 3:00 in the morning. At that point, the vines just can't handle the heat anymore and start dying off.
So the plants produced fruit from basically March until the end of July. (This was a fairly mild spring, which may have helped.) During that time, these four plants produced loads of tomatoes. I had fresh tomatoes for every meal, tomatoes for snacks, tomatoes for grilling kabobs, tomatoes for drying, tomatoes for giving away...
Whether or not I can do this again, remains to be seen. I'm sure going to try. I've got some greens in a compost bin that I'm going to beef the planter up with next season. I'll add some more top soil, and mulch again, and try my own seed starts.
If you've never had home grown tomatoes, you probably don't understand the appeal. I was giving out samples to friends at work, with a little sea salt on them. Everyone loved them! You'd be surprised at how many have never tasted a  homegrown tomato. I hope this may help you to try growing your own sometime, or help you if you've never had much luck at it.

If I Had the Candidates Over for Dinner Department

Just some thoughts on what it would be like to rub shoulders, so to speak, with the presidential hopefuls.

If I were to have the Trumps over for dinner, I would serve a fine wine, pull out the good dishes (if I had any), discuss ways to deal with terrorists, and make America great again.

If I were to have the Cruz’s over, I would use the everyday dishes, serve iced tea, and we could discuss ways to save the republic and get back to a constitutional government.

If I were to have the Sanders over, I would confiscate someone else’s dishes, serve organic water, and discuss what it would look like to live on 5% of my current income while providing “free” college to illegal migrants.

If I were to have the Clinton’s over, I would hide the good dishes, serve a cheap beer, and make sure my daughter was out of the house for the evening.

After Thoughts Department

• I drive by a fire department everyday on my way to work. As I turn the corner down the street to my work, I can't help but notice the flag. Most mornings, it seems lately, the flag has been flying at half mast. My heart just kind of sinks, and I'm thinking, "What happened now?" Then I get to work and listen to the news, to hear about the latest Muslim terrorist attack or police shooting. According to http://us.halfstaff.org/ , it seems the president orders the flag to be flown at half mast nationally. I gather the governors do the same thing on the state level. It just seems to me, that this year the flag has been flying at half staff for most of the year. Maybe this should Obama's true legacy: The "half mast" presidency.
• As I only get to post 100 blogs for free- I figured it might be more economical in the long run to keep appending the existing short ones. So bear with me one this, the two of you who may have accidently stumbled upon this place of random ramblings.
• When God put Adam and Eve on this Earth, he didn't put them in a shopping mall, or in a concert hall or movie theater, or on a couch in front of a television. He put them, I believe, where He knew they would be the happiest- in a garden. When we think of a garden, we may think of a place of relaxation. Or a place that delights the senses with it's colors and fragrances. Maybe a place to watch koi in a pond and daydream. Listen- this only happens after a whole lot of work has been done to make it happen. A garden is a place of work. It takes planning: how are the borders going to be laid out, how do I water this area, when do I start the seeds, what can be planted next to this tree, etc. It takes hard work: these stones need to be moved over there, this area needs to mulched, this area needs to cleared to plant these, this area needs a shade cover built over it, this area needs irrigation to it, etc. And a garden needs maintenance: these need watering every night, this needs pruning, this needs to be raked up, this needs mowing, etc. Ultimately though, there is a payoff: You get to enjoy the fruit off that apple or orange tree. You get to enjoy those tomato's or peppers. You get to feed the koi in that pond and enjoy watching them. And, you get to sit and relax after a hard days work.