Sun and Soil Circle

We’re getting a storm in today in Phoenix, and I am SO excited! Rain is always sorely needed in the desert.

Also, here’s some plant pics. 1st 2 are mine, then snippets of Ben’s and Corns. Corn has actually melons growing while all my melons have been freeloading jerks.

I did some digging and found a blueberry variety that does ok in AZ, sunshine blueberry. It only needs 150 chill hours. The BEST blueberries I’ve ever tasted, hands down. We’re getting cheated by what’s in the stores.

Finally figured out how to share a video. 🤦🏼‍♀️
This will be filled with fish and plants sooner than later! Thanks @dvnprt.bsky.social!

Things are slowing down for us with the warming temps, so we may take a few fun field trips together, like the biosphere, or foraging up north. Update wise, Corn has finished setting up aquaponics and one of our friends also gave us permission to share these beautiful desert pics. Enjoy.

I’m so glad you’re able to garden now! Gardening is truly the best thing for mental health. 💚

My garden looks so wild, and I am loving it so much!

@dvnprt.bsky.social, @bencookman.bsky.social and I went to a farm tour today at the GORGEOUS Edge of Nowhere Farm in Wittman. It was a ton of fun and we won some Blackberry wine! We also bought some sugar cane cuttings, I’itoi onions, and Ben got a mulberry tree.

Corns garden is DONE! I’m jealous and may copy it for my front yard, one day. They also got a sweet new aquaponics set up, pics when that’s done!

Oh, and the brown stuff on the plants is cinnamon. After a cat decided the wooden bed would be a great place to drop a dead baby bird, I’ve had an ant problem.

My 5 year old planted seeds with me after the garden beds were ready. Seeds were being flung around left and right, and now I have 49 tomato plants between both beds/buckets/pots. I don’t even remember planting them, so I’m pretty sure a packet went flying when I wasn’t looking. 😬🍅🥫

These guys were already poking up out of the soil by quite a bit. First harvest of radishes!

I also have these gems.

Yesterday we started building a garden for a good friends Mom. Not quite finished, but it’ll be beautiful when it’s done!

@bencookman.bsky.social has dubbed my garden as “Woodhenge”, and I actually like it! Another day spent with my favorite people, and we finally have a permanent fence. 💚
Next week we’re going to be building a garden for a friends mom from the ground up, can’t wait!

We weren’t able to get together this past Saturday, but we all did our own thing! Corn built a massive garden bed that looks AMAZING. Ben helped me add irrigation to my beds and put sun shade over them also.

Garden update for my place! Planted so many beans, onions, melons, & squashes. One bed is in the process of being prepared for corn, and more to come since I have 5 types. I also found 2 volunteers, a pea & nasturtium, next to my compost bin! Lots of peppers, tomatoes & cucumbers are growing.

WOW! I’m so jealous! Pretty soon all of our gardens will look like that, I hope.

Garden helper time!
Freya is one of the most neurotic shepherd mixes you will ever meet. Leaf falling? Bark. Someone daring to take a walk the next street over? BARK.
She’s also very loving, very soft, and very very sweet. Lives for barking, licking people, petting and belly rubs.

These 4 pictures cannot even remotely describe the amount of work done in Corns yard today. 2 trips to the dump, more tilling, bush and Bermuda grass removal and more!

Corns house was on the schedule today. We got to smash a planter, pick worms and tilled the crap out of their soil.
P.S. Bermuda grass can go burn in hell.

We immersed ourselves in dirt today! Some of us more than others, like @dvnprt.bsky.social said.
We also exchanged a bunch of seeds, and I cannot wait to try some of them!

Found another awesome seed company, this one is LBGTQ+ owned.

driftlessseeds.com

If anyone knows of any other seed companies that do not donate or pal around with right wing nasties, please reply!

Alliance of Native Seedkeepers - Heirloom Seeds & Heritage Discover unique heirloom and non-GMO seeds at Alliance of Native Seedkeepers. As a Native American-led store, we specialize in over 1,500 varieties, preserving the rich heritage and biodiversity of in...

I was searching for a new seed company and found a great one! Alliance of Native Seedkeepers. www.allianceofnativeseedkeepers.com

The seeds are AFFORDABLE (paying $5 a pack is not sustainable for me, and probably the same for others).
They’re heirloom.
Owned by Indigenous farmers.

I work at a college that has multiple gardens and I noticed that one now has a sign giving the ok to harvest. While I’m assuming they meant the tomatoes, I took that as a free pass to grab some marigold seeds that I’ve been coveting. Free seeds for the win!

This project is never ending, but at least it’s mostly done. Also, a few more friends have joined us, so now we have 7!

I hope everyone finds the one thing that helps them deal with what they’re going through.

I’ll be honest, much of my life my dad and I were at odds, but cancer sucks. My son and I picked out cantaloupe and corn seeds and went to town. Gardening helped me get out of my depression/fear and sort out my feelings around what was happening. With the US as it is now.. it’s helping again.

What got you started on gardening?

I’ll go first: 2023, my dad was dying of Pancreatic cancer across the country. I had nothing to take my mind off it, and I remembered the “green bean farm” he helped me with when I was 3. My son was 3 at the time🧵

Left to rt: Corn, Lisa, Ryan, Tab and Ben

Irrigation lines and planters laid down at Ben’s today! Gryffin the Garden Rottweiler helped dig and obliterate Bermuda grass.

Between all of us we have many dogs, I’m pretty sure we like animals more than people. Expect one of these posts every once in a while. 💚