Arcadia Edible Tour: Part 2

Earlier this week, I shared with you the first garden on the Arcadia Edible Tour.  It was just wonderful to see the Sweet Life Garden in person.

However, we had to tear ourselves away from the first garden because there were more to see...

We stopped by Larry's "Living the Dream Micro Farm".  

Like many of the gardens we visited, Larry had chickens.

But, what really caught my attention was his row of trash can compost bins.

Each trash can was filled with compost in a different stage.  The trash cans are re-purposed by the City of Phoenix and are available to their residents for $5 a bin.  

Other cities offer free or inexpensive trash cans or compost bins.  Check your local city's website under waste management to see what they offer.

Larry loved talking about his composting.  He primarily uses chicken manure, coffee ground and leaves.  It takes approximately 2 1/2 months from start to finish according to Larry.

Larry had huge tomato plants growing, heavily laden with fruit (yes, tomatoes are technically a fruit).

After leaving Larry's garden, my mother asked to stop by Baker's Nursery, which is her favorite place to buy vegetables.  Baker's is the favorite nursery of locals and is located on 40th Street, South of Indian School Rd.

The problem with me going to a nursery as nice as Baker's, is that I become like a child in a candy store.

I always come home with plants and seeds.  In this case, I bought more bush beans for my garden along with some perennial flowers and Angelita Daisy.

Back on tour, we saw some great examples of vegetables being grown.

Eggplant.

Aren't these cucumber vines impressive?  The trellis is made up of rebar and wire mesh.

I think cucumber flowers are so pretty, don't you?

I do love the bright colors of blanket flower, which attract pollinators to the vegetable garden.

I think vegetables are beautiful.

This may look like a green tomato - but it isn't.  It's a tomatillo.

Zucchini is so impressive in the vegetable garden. They grow so quickly and get so big.  I have them growing my garden too.  Now, I just have to get a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake so my kids will eat it ;-)

I haven't grown strawberries in my garden, although they are my favorite fruit.

I spent time in Germany as a child with my grandparents who had a huge strawberry garden and one of my favorite memories is chasing the rabbits away.

I may have to try growing some next year.

In addition to fruit and vegetables, we did see a beautiful lily pond...

And something quite unexpected...

That's the thing with garden tours, you never know what you will see...

As you can tell, we were enjoying ourselves very much.

There was so much to see, that I still have one more post showing you some of our favorite parts of a few more gardens.

So come on back....you hear?

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Arcadia Edible Garden Tour: Part 1

I love visiting other people's gardens, particularly if they have fruit and vegetables growing in them. So, I was thrilled to be able to go on a tour of local 'edible' gardens earlier this month.

This is the second year of the Arcadia Edible Garden Tour, which is made up of a collection of residential gardens in the 'Arcadia' area in east Phoenix.  I used to live in this area and it is one of my favorite regions of the Phoenix metro area.

Because my mother loves gardening almost as much as I do, I decided to buy her a ticket too and take her with me as a Mother's Day gift.

Our first stop was to see Jill's Sweet Life Garden.  I made sure to visit there first because I had been following her blog and couldn't wait to see her gardens in person.

As we entered the garden, We headed straight for the raised vegetable beds.

My mother and I love to grow leaf lettuce, so we had to see what varieties were being grown.

One of the reasons that I was excited to go on this garden tour, was to get ideas to use in my own garden.  

Like, using regular wire mesh over the garden.  This would be great to use as a support for shade cloth in summer or frost cloth in the winter.  It is much more attractive then PVC supports.

The trellis is made of rebar and wire mesh and provides an attractive support for vining vegetables.

As many of you know, I love to grow nasturtiums alongside my vegetables.  They aren't only pretty, they help to keep bad bugs away from my veggies.

This bed had a variety of nasturtium that I was anxious to try 'Cherry Rose Jewel' (I found seeds at Botanical Interests).  I will definitely be planting these next year.

As I was busy admiring the raised beds, my attention was drawn upward by a massive trumpet vine that was growing up a Phoenix date palm.

Talk about an unexpected support for a vine - I loved it.

I have been growing a special variety of corn in a half wine barrel.  

Sweet Life Garden had cucumbers growing in a barrel with a beautiful trellis.  

Baker's Nursery had these wine barrel trellises available, but I'm not sure if they still do.  You could certainly make your own.

In addition to cucumbers, sunflowers were also growing in a barrel.  I may have to try this.

I love growing herbs in pots, but I think Jill's look better then mine because of the half barrels.  I think I need to get more for my garden.

Tomatoes were growing like crazy with some beautiful heirloom varieties ripening.

Wouldn't this look beautiful on a sandwich or on a salad?

I think it is important to have seating areas scattered throughout the garden, which invites you to sit and enjoy your surroundings.

Here is another example of the wire mesh being used as a trellis.

For those of you who mourn the fact that they cannot grow leafy greens for their salad in summer - let me introduce you to Malabar spinach.  

Okay, it's not exactly a spinach but tastes great in salads and tastes like spinach when cooked.

It loves hot temperatures and needs a trellis for support.  I have seeds, but will probably wait until next year to plant mine.

The seeds can be a little hard to find at your local nursery, but you can buy some through Amazon.com for under a $1 - just type in Malabar spinach in the search.

Why limit yourself to growing just vegetables?  

Fruit on shrubs and trees is also fun to grow as you can see from the large peach tree, above and the espaliered apple tree, below.

I especially enjoyed seeing the peach orchard.

My peaches are almost ready for picking :-)

I have been busy picking the blackberries off of my vines and have been thinking of adding more next winter.  

After seeing the berries at Sweet Life Garden, I will definitely add more to my own garden.

Did you know that there is a thornless variety?  I have one thorny blackberry bush and the rest are thornless.  Guess which kind I like best?

It was time to wrap up our visit because there were more gardens to visit.

Did I mention that they have chickens too?  

On our way out, we enjoyed seeing a variety of products offered by Sweet Life Garden and local vendors.

I had already eaten breakfast, but that didn't stop me from enjoying a few samples.

The three-cheese black pepper bread came home with me.

We had a great time visiting Jill, at Sweet Life Garden.  

But, our adventure didn't end there.  There were more gardens to visit.  I will give you the highlights of the other gardens in my next post.

**You can find information about the Arcadia Edible Garden Tour on Jill's blog, Sweet Life Garden.  Be sure to order early next spring, when tickets are available.

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My New Garden Equipment and a TroyBilt Giveaway

Wouldn't it be great to have one basic tool that you could attach a different gardening power tools to?  

This may look like an ordinary string trimmer, but it is so much more...

Leave it to folks at TroyBilt to create a line of string trimmers that can be interchanged with a variety of gardening tools such as a cultivator and a pole chain saw (pictured above with the string trimmer attachment).

But TroyBilt didn't stop there - they also created turbo leaf blower, lawn edger, hedge trimmer, broom and brush cutter attachments as well.

Earlier this year, I was asked to be a part of the 'Saturday 6', which is a group six of garden bloggers from around the country.  As part of TroyBilt's Saturday 6, we have been asked to evaluate a number of their products and give our honest opinion about their performance.

I must admit that my favorite attachment has been my new cultivator.

Of course, my husband would differ and say that our new TroyBilt string trimmer is his favorite.

I have been waiting patiently (not really) to use the cultivator in my vegetable gardens since my TroyBilt equipment arrived in March.

But, I have had to wait until my lettuce was done for the season and then harvest my garlic before I could cultivate the soil.

Finally, the day arrived for my TrimmerPlus Add-On Cultivator to make its debut in my garden.

Before using the cultivator, I had to start it first.

 One complaint that I have with using power equipment is the pull-start.  It can be very hard for women to use a pull-start (me included).  In the past, I would call a crew member over to start equipment for me.  Since I don't have a crew anymore, I often ask my husband to help me if I can't start it myself.

Well, I don't have to worry about pull-starts anymore, thanks to TroyBilt.

They have created the JumpStart, which is an electrical starter that easily starts most of their power equipment without using the pull-start.

All you need to do is to fit the JumpStart into a special portal...

And it starts up easily!  The JumpStart is battery powered and can be plugged in to re-charge.

The equipment does have a pull-start, so the JumpStart is optional.  I have had no problem using the pull-start of my favorite TroyBilt cultivator/string trimmer, but the JumpStart is easier to use.

Before cultivating my soil, I added compost, manure, blood and bone meal to my vegetable garden.  Now, I was ready to mix my amendments in.

The cultivator was lightweight, easy to use and tilled my soil perfectly without going too deep.

One of my vegetable gardens is rather narrow, which makes my new cultivator easy to use because it can work in narrow spaces.  Unlike larger tillers, this cultivator is perfect for smaller spaces and is easier to handle.

After I was finished tilling my vegetable gardens, there were some left over bits and pieces of plants that got caught up in the tines.  It was easy to remove them afterward by taking the tines off and cleaning them. 

In the past, tilling soil using a rake or shovel always took me a lot longer and I was a tired, hot, sweaty mess afterward with a sore back to boot.

With my new cultivator, I can till my soil quickly, without the negative side effects ;-)

As a Certified Arborist, I am often instructing my clients how to prune and care for their trees.  While I don't prune their trees for them, I do like to prune my own trees whenever possible.

I had a little pruning to perform for my Desert Willow, so the cultivator attachment came off and the TrimmerPlus Add-On Pole Chain Saw was attached (no tools are needed to add the different attachments).

This branch had suffered damage in a wind storm when part of it peeled off.  It left the branch weak, so it needed to be removed.  I started by pruning away the top part of the branch first.

The pole chain saw worked very well for me.  It comes with an additional extension pole for when you need to reach higher up (up to 11 feet), but I didn't need it for this limb.  It is self-oiling, which keeps the bar and chain lubricated.

Using a pole chain saw saves you from having to climb a ladder to prune branches that are high up and it is lighter then using a regular chain saw.

My husband has been using our TroyBilt 4-Cycle Gas Straight Shaft String Trimmer for weeks now.  His initial impression was that it was more powerful then our old trimmer.  It also has a larger cutting width (18") and as a result, edging our lawn goes more quickly.

There is no need to mix oil and gas - it runs on regular gasoline.  One of the most frustrating tasks when using a string trimmer is to having to refill the string - not a problem with TroyBilt's string trimmer, which has the 'Click N Trim' Pro cutting head. You can simply thread the line through the eyelets and twist to wind up the line.  No more taking apart the cutting head.

The string trimmer can be started with the JumpStart, which I mentioned earlier.  But, the pull start is surprisingly easy to use due to the 'Spring Assist Starting Technology'.

(I must admit that I like to use the pull-start, because I am thrilled with how easy it is to do with all my TroyBilt equipment, compared to the pull-starts of other equipment that I have used in the past).

Do you have a garage or shed full of garden equipment, with room for little else?  Wouldn't it be great to have a string trimmer that can be used with a variety of attachments? 

Think of how much room you would save!

Okay, here is the part you have been waiting for...

**TROYBILT GIVEAWAY** 

for readers of my blog.

Would you like to have a TroyBilt string trimmer with your choice of attachment for your garden?

The wonderful folks at TroyBilt are giving away a their top-of-the-line TB6044 XP Straight Shaft String Trimmer.

Plus, your choice of one of the following attachments:

Broom

Brush Cutter

Cultivator

Hedge Trimmer

Lawn Edger

Pole Chain Saw

Turbo Blower

Now, if that isn't enough, TroyBilt will also giveaway their JumpStart cordless engine starter to the winner along with the string trimmer, and choice of attachment.

1. To enter, simply leave me a comment with your choice of attachment.  (Be sure to leave your email address if it's not on your profile, or I won't have any way to contact you.)

2. For a bonus entry, become a new follower of my blog,  'Like' me on Facebook or 'follow' me on Twitter - (be sure to let me know in your comment).

Let your friends know about this great giveaway and I will select a random winner in one week!

**I am paid for my involvement with the Saturday 6 and the equipment, described above, was provided to me at no cost by TroyBilt, who wanted my honest opinion - good or bad.  I can honestly state that I am very impressed by the quality and design of their power equipment.

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