Greetings to all of our gardening friends around Pima County.

 

Raindrops keep falling on our heads, fortunately.  These precious monsoon rains with their spectacular light shows and primordial sound effects arrived early this year to signal the renewal of the Sonoran Desert, and a jumpstart for our gardens. Yippee!

 

I like to check my rain gauge after each storm to help me judge my watering.  If you don't have a rain gauge, you can get one at most garden centers and hardware stores. They're inexpensive and it's fun to go out and check the level.  You can also go to Rainlog.org and see the rainfall amounts each day at many locations around Tucson. Rainlog is a cooperative rainfall monitoring network.

 

In this issue of Sonoran Seasons we've pulled out all stops to provide you with a variety of interesting and helpful articles.  Take your time browsing through it, and forward it to your gardening friends by clicking here Also, visit our website for access to many resources and publications and like us on  Facebook to stay in touch.

 

Thanks for being our friend and happy gardening! 

 

Paul Ellis

Master Gardener Coordinator

Gardening Question?

Jean Lewis, Master Gardener

 

The Pima County Master Gardeners Plant Clinic can help you solve your garden and landscape problems.

 

Volunteer certified Master Gardeners can:

• Help select the right plants and trees for your site.

• Identify insects, diseases, and plants.

• Recommend the least toxic treatment to avoid blanket use of herbicides and pesticides.

• Identify and help you attract beneficial insects.

• Learn how and when to plant and prune trees and shrubs.

• Discuss when and what to use for soil amendments.

• Much more

To speak to a Master Gardener you may visit the Plant Clinic in person with your samples or photos Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at 4210 N. Campbell Avenue, Tucson 85719. Or you may call 520-626-5161 or email your question and digital photos to fcorrell@cals.arizona.edu. Some questions may take several days to answer. There is no charge for this service.

 

Check out these answers to some common problems we see in our Plant Clinic. FAQ

 

Join us for some fun, educational activities over the next few months.  Click on the links for more information and refer to our Activities Update sent to you recently. The schedules for our Campus Arboretum Tours and Library Talks  beginning in September will appear in our next Activities Update.  Tours of our 14 Demonstration Gardens are available on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 9:00, except around major holidays.

• All-America Selections Garden Tour, Sat. 8/1, 9:00-11:00

 September

• Seminar, Vegetable Gardening Part 1, Sat. 9/19, 9:30-11:30 
• Seminar, Vegetable Gardening Part 2, Sat. 9/26, 9:30-11:30
• Workshop, Gourd Birdhouses, Sat. 9/26, 9:00-11:00

October

• Seminar, Companion Planting, Sat. 10/03, 9:30-11:30  
• Fall Plant and Garden Art Sale, Sat. 10/10, 8:00-11:00 
• Seminar, Growing Citrus Trees in the Desert Part 1, Sat. 10/17, 9:30- 11:30  
• Workshop, Decorative Succulent Gardens, Sat. 10/17, 9:00-11:00
• Seminar, Growing Citrus Trees in the Desert Part 2, Sat. 10/24, 9:30-11:30   

November

• Seminar, Water Gardening in Tucson, Sat. 11/7, 9:30-11:30 
• Workshop, Holiday Gifts from the Garden, Sat. 11/14, 9:00-11:00

At our Demonstration Garden at the Cooperative Extension on North Campbell, you will see how easy it is to grow fruits and vegetables year-round using the basin garden technique. It's a traditional growing method for the native peoples of the Southwest.  The purpose of basins is to provide passive water harvesting to augment other means of irrigation.  At our garden we dig the beds and mix the native soil with compost to enrich it and provide better moisture retention. After the seeds germinate and grow, we use drip irrigation and only organic fertilizers. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is used to protect the crops and minimize our need for pesticides.
 

Heat tolerance is an important attribute in our plant variety selection. Right now we have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and a new "three sisters" bed (corn, beans, and squash), as well as a bed of perennial fruits and vegetables.  The grapes, blackberries, and fruit trees produce in the spring and early summer.

 

Please come visit our garden at any time. We have signs with instructions for when and how to grow the plants.The food we grow is harvested weekly and donated to the Iskashitaa Refugee Network, a grass roots organization that helps rebuild refugee lives through partnerships with volunteers and local organizations. 

There are only two kinds of berries that grow well in Tucson: strawberries and blackberries. The Rosborough variety of blackberries is our favorite. Although they are thorny, they are a wonderful variety for this area.  They grow very easily in full sun or partial shade, and produce large, tasty blackberries in May.  Our Propagation Team grows the plants and sells them at our spring and fall plant sales.  You can see mature blackberry plants growing in our Basin Vegetable and Propagation Demonstration Gardens.

Arguably the most frequent client questions in our plant clinic concern growing citrus. The main issues for most home growers revolve around fertilizing and watering. We are all worried about too much, too little, too early, too late, how frequent - all in pursuit of just right. From season to season and year to year those of us who grow citrus are always watching for the changes that signal a problem.

Read more

Ginny Peterson, Master Gardener

 

Arizona Milkweed

Milkweed is NOT just another weed. It is a garden beauty and the host plant for the Monarch butterfly larvae. Out of the 100 species that grow in North America, only 27 are used by Monarch caterpillars as food plants. Monarchs will lay eggs only on milkweed and it is the only food plant used by their larvae. The toxic milky sap protects the caterpillars and the adults from predation. All across the USA milkweeds are being crowded out by parking lots, condominiums, and shopping malls or destroyed by herbicides.  The Monarch population has been greatly affected by the loss. Without milkweed the monarch cannot exist. We can all help by planting "Monarch Stations" of milkweed to help them on their annual migrations.  It's easy to add a station to your landscape.

Read more  

Come visit our Demonstration Gardens and you'll see different varieties of milkweed and other plants to attract pollinators in our Pollinator Garden.

 

Gardening Tips and Reminders

Here are a few tips and reminders to help you succeed during the monsoon. Click on the links for more specific information.

• Prepare garden beds for fall planting by adding aged compost.
• Fertilize citrus trees at the end of the month.
• Continue fertilizing flowers, vegetables, and lawns that may be nutrient-depleted from the monsoon rains.
• Plant seeds of bush beans, sweet corn, pumpkin, winter squash, snap peas, kale, beets, and turnips.
• Avoid heavy pruning of trees and shrubs at this time of year.
• Prune any surviving tomato plants back.
• Dethatch lawns early this month.
• Wait until October to replace dead plants.
• Adjust irrigation based on the rains.

This zucchini bread recipe comes from the Midwest where the zucchini grow to monster lengths overnight. You may use large or small zucchini.  People who say they do not like zucchini bread love this bread, but you needn't tell them the ingredients until they are raving about your baking skills!

 

The complete recipe 

The Garden Kitchen Outreach Program

Jean Taylor, Master Gardener

 

Are you familiar with the Garden Kitchen, a free seed-to-table health education program that demonstrates how to grow, buy, store, and cook nutritious food? The kitchen opened in the fall of 2012 and is funded largely by federal grants. It was created as a partnership among UA's Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, UA's Pima County Cooperative Extension, the City of South Tucson, and Pima County. The program currently serves thousands of community members every year helping them to build healthy families. The program's twin missions are to empower people to make healthy food choices, and to help South Tucson residents meet their nutritional needs economically.

 Read more

 

We now offer an on-site consulting service to local residents. Master Gardener Consultants who are experienced and knowledgeable in urban horticulture will come to your residence and identify plants, diagnose insect problems and plant diseases, evaluate watering issues, and provide general care guidelines. They'll spend up to one hour in your garden answering questions and helping to problem-solve. No physical labor will be performed. This service is available to residents within a 10-mile radius of the Pima County Cooperative Extension Office at the intersection of Campbell Avenue and River Road for a fee of $40. Call for a quote beyond 10 miles. To request a consultation, call the Plant Clinic at 626-5161 or email: fcorrell@cals.arizona.edu    A consultant will contact you to arrange this service .

1. Green Valley Gardeners www.greenvalleygardeners.com/ 

2. Tucson Bonsai Society www.tucsonbonsaisociety.org 

3. Sierra Vista Area Gardeners Club www.svgardenclub.org 

4. Native Seeds/SEARCH www.nativeseeds.org/ 

5. Rose Society of Tucson www.rosesocietyoftucson.org 

6. Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society http://www.tucsoncactus.org 

7. Tucson African Violet Society  www.tucsonavs.org 

8. Tucson Area Iris Society  www.tucsoniris.org 

9. Tucson Orchid Society www.orchidsocietytucson.org/ 

10. Tohono Chul Park  www.tohonochulpark.org 

11. Community Gardens of Tucson www.communitygardensoftucson.org 

• Pima County Master Gardener Facebook Page:   https://www.facebook.com/pimamastergardeners

• Pima County Master Gardener Website

• Arizona Master Gardener Manual:http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/   A searchable edition of the textbook used to train Master Gardeners.

Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Jeffrey C. Silvertooth, Associate Dean & Director, Economic Development & Extension, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona. The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation in its programs and activities.