There’s ice in the bird bath which means that it got below freezing last night.  Does that mean that you have to have a greenhouse to raise any vegetables here in the high desert in the winter?  No.

In fact, you can raise just about everything except the tropical nightshade family (tomatoes & peppers) through the winter by using row cover to give your plants a little protection. Row cover is a lightweight, gauzy blanket made of spun polypropylene that is economical and easy to use and reuse.  It can be stretched over wire hoops in the field or clipped over PVC hoops in raised beds and secured with side berms of dirt and clothespins and rocks at the ends. Row cover can be thrown open during the day to plant, weed or harvest.  At night wrap up your plants again in their cosy nest.

Most small growers use Agribon AG-19 which provides frost protection down to 28 degrees F. It breathes and lets in rain and 85% of the sunshine as well as insulating plants from damaging winds, insects and birds.    

The most economical way to purchase row cover is in a 500 foot or larger roll, 83 inches wide, from G & M in Payson, Arizona. For more information go to www.GMAgSupply.com or call (800)901-0096.  However if you just want to try 25 feet you can buy it locally at Ace Hardware.    

According to grower Clinton Gray from the Garden of Eat’n in Palominas, the ideal wire for hoops to suspend the row cover is #9 gauge available in a coil at Sutherlands.  It can be cut with a metal cutting saw blade.

Timing your planting is also important when growing in winter under row cover.  According to backyard grower, Elly  Stavarek of Sierra Vista, whose 12-year-old-raised-bed garden many visit each year on organic garden tours, “The critical thing is soil temperature.  Some seeds like water melons need warm soils to sprout.”

However she says you can plant all sorts of cool season crops right now like lettuce, bok choi, kale, spinach, collard greens, broccoli and cabbage and even root crops like carrots, beets, radishes and spring onions.

To find suggested planting dates at various elevations in Arizona, you can consult the Vegetable Planting Guide and Recommended Planting Dates in the Arizona Master Gardener Manual On-line at http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/.

Stavarek also recommends the book, “Extreme Gardening: How to Grow Organic in the Hostile Deserts” by David Owens.  Although this Garden Guy, www.gardenguy.com, lives in the Phoenix area so deals with the low deserts, he has inspiring and practical things to say about irrigation and composting that apply in the high desert. 

An easy way to get started raising vegetables is to dig up the soil where you plan to put garden beds, remove the rocks and then mix what’s left with compost from the Sierra Vista Compost Facility.  It is located on Highway 90 at the Transfer Station and open daily except Sunday (520-452-7072).  You can get a pickup load of compost or one cubic yard for just $15.  The facility turns yard waste into compost by adding horse manure or liquid fertilizer and then watering and turning it weekly for 6 months to reach an internal temperature of at least 100 degrees, killing microbes and weed seeds.

Some of this compost is still not sufficiently broken down so Staverek and others sift out the large bits through a screen and then work it into the soil bed, water it and let it sit for a couple of weeks before planting.

This week I took some prospective growers to visit the Montoyas who raise food in Palominas for their family and both farmers markets.  Emma Montoya, (see photo above), threw back the row cover on her field rows of vegetables so we could sample her greens, carrots and even snow pea tendrils that taste like the peas. They are irrigated with drip tape which has slits in it that release water every 8 inches.  The Montoyas planted a lot of crops back in late Sept and October when the soil was warmer and there was a little more sun.  Now they are coming to market every other week with spinach, lettuce, mustard greens and shallots and will have carrots and snow peas soon.

I invite any backyard grower who wants help getting started growing vegetables for their families or to sell at the farmers markets to talk with me at an information table every Thursday at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market.  Stop by to ask questions and pick up free seed catalogs from Native Seeds/SEARCH, Seeds of Change and Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. A great resource for prospective market growers is “Growing For Market”, (www.growingformarket.com or 800-307-8949), a monthly news bulletin with articles from over 30 professional market growers.

This is the first year that the Sierra Vista Farmers Market has run weekly through the winter and we can’t supply the demand for fresh local organically grown vegetables.

This Week at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market

New crop:  Organic Medjool dates and two other varieties will be at the market from a small farm in California. Dates contain many vitamins and minerals including more potassium than bananas.  They are also great for satisfying your sweet tooth.  

Welcome back to Jenn Vallier and baby Eiler who will also bring two products made by her Tucson based food company, “Livity – Foods for Life.” One is the delicious raw organic fudge sweetened with these dates and made with raw organic cocoa butter, cocoa beans & local mesquite meal. The other is raw organic hummus which is great as an appetizer or spread, made with fresh organic ingredients (sprouted sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, lime juice, garlic, olive oil, celtic sea salt, cumin and black pepper.)

Jenn will bring fair-trade teas from the Maya Tea Company in Tucson which imports teas from all over the world, but mostly from China and India.  She will offer loose tea in herbal, green, oolong, black and white varieties as well as custom blends and flavored teas.

New Products:  New flavors of handmade soap by Desert Oasis include Citrus Spring, Pink Lemonade and Lime Coconut. To make retiring at night even more inviting, try their lemon grass and eucalyptus bedding and linen spray.

Fresh vegetables:  Montoyas (lettuce, spinach, mustard greens and shallots), Grammie’s Garden (green beans, summer and winter squash, their own greenhouse grape and Beefsteak tomatoes, Arizona citrus, Willcox Pink Lady apples, red bell peppers and certified organic produce from Mexico including great mangoes.)  Dragoon Marketplace (Tucson lemons, Sunizona low-acid yellow and orange as well as red greenhouse tomatoes, heirloom lettuce, Pink Lady apples & local pistachios.)   

Folks at the Wings Over Willcox birding festival this weekend were able to buy green chile burritos, roast beef and lamb chop plates and chicken soup all made with locally raised meats by farmers market producers raising meats in the Sulphur Springs Valley, San Ysidro Farm, Josh’s Foraging Fowls and A Bar H Ranch.  San Ysidro Farm will offer grass-fed beef and lamb, natural pork and Josh’s turkeys, chickens and healthy eggs.

Coyote Corners Eggs in McNeal will bring dozens of fresh eggs to market and welcomes egg cartons for reuse.

 

Also at the market:  Desert foods, Just Coffee, Azmira pet food, dried beans and soup mixes, Emmer grain baked goods, Adventure Coffee (cups of hot coffee, will grind your choice of 20 different kinds of coffee beans), Next Door Kitchen (hot home-style lunches & meals to go), wild smoked and frozen salmon and halibut, Dr. Hummus middle eastern food, salami, dried fruit, honey, jelly and preserves.

High  Desert Gardening Conference

Mark your calendars for February 15th & 16th when the Cochise County Master Gardeners present the 15th Annual High on the Desert Gardening & Landscaping Conference in Sierra Vista.  With over 20 sessions to chose from the conference benefits all gardeners, novice and seasoned, on the unique opportunities and challenges that gardening in the southwest has to offer.

Pick up a conference registration form at the Master Gardener information table at the Sierra Vista’s Farmers Market this week. You can also visit the Cochise County Master Gardeners website, www.ag.arizona.edu/cochise/mg, to read the conference and speaker information.

, the monthly “High on the Desert” Newsletter, access the Arizona Master Gardener Manual and publications, as well as ask questions on-line. (520)458-8278 ext 2141.