Queen Creek Olive Mill

12/31/11

olive grove at Queen Creek Olive Mill

     This past week I took relatives visiting for the holidays for a tour of the only commercially producing olive farm and mill in Arizona.  This farm has 2100 olive trees of 16 different varieties, such as:  Frantoio, Grappolo, Pendolino, Mission, Arbequina, Manzanillo, Kalamata.  Queen Creek Olive Mill produces hand-crafted extra virgin olive oil (which means only mechanical means are used to obtain the oil) from olives that are pesticide free.

fallen olives

     The trees blossom in mid April, and by May the olives have formed and grow through the summer.  The olives are harvested in mid October by using vibrating combs that release the olives onto tarps spread around the base of the trees.  Olives that have fallen to the ground naturally are never used.

olive leaves

     The olives are pressed within 24 hours using only mechanical means, never heat or solvents.  First the olives are defoliated of twigs and leaves and washed with water.  Then the olives are milled to a paste in a hammer mill which crushes the olives, pits and seeds.  A centrifugal decanter spins the olive paste, separating the flesh, pits and water from the oil.  The oil is transferred to an oxygen-free steel storage decanter with a conical bottom where further water and oil separation naturally occurs.

mature olive tree

     Different varieties of oils are blended and then bottled to produce distinctive, boutique olive oil products.
One of their boutique products is a citrus oil blend which combines oil from citrus and oil from olives.  Another is chocolate olive oil.  Dark cocoa is added to olive oil, and this oil can be used for baking in cakes, or to top fruit or ice cream.  Shelf life for olive oil is one year open or closed with no refrigeration necessary.

     We all enjoyed this interesting tour, and got to taste several varieties of olives at the end.

      As this New Years Eve dawns, I wish BLESSINGS FOR ALL IN THE NEW YEAR! 

Waiting for Christmas

12/22/11

Lucy waiting for christmas

     The tree is up, the cards are sent and the gifts are wrapped.  Whew!  Now we have a few days to relax while we are waiting for Christmas.  My Christmas plants help span this time of the year while there is not much going on in the garden.

poinsettia

     Some people I know think poinsettias are so commercial and common.  But I love their bright red leaves.  I feel poinsettias give a feeling of warmth to the surroundings and brighten moods with their vibrant color.  I always have at least one at the holidays, and I keep it for months.  I just give it water every week to ten days.  One year I kept my poinsettia until well into June, but by then I had garden flowers to take its place in the house.

Royal Velvet amaryllis

     Amaryllis in bloom is spectacular.  My brother and his wife sent me an amaryllis bulb in a lovely blue and white porcelain pot.  It is a red Royal Velvet amaryllis.  I have been waiting for it to send up its stem, but it has been very slow to start.  I wanted to put it out into the sun every day to give it a jump start, but it has been cloudy and cold almost daily for the last two weeks.  So the dog is waiting for Christmas by the tree, and I'm waiting for my amaryllis to bloom.



  
                                                 MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Cold and Rainy

12/18/11

San Pedro cactus offshoot

     We have had more rain in the last two weeks than we have had all year.  And when it is not raining, there are heavy, dark clouds covering the sky.  It's been colder than normal, only in the 50's during the day.  We are having our normal nighttime temperatures in the 30's and 40's.

     This weather is a little early.  We usually don't get the winter rains until January or February.  But by midweek we are supposed to have warming temperatures and sunny skies.

     With the cold weather, growth in the garden and yard has really slowed down.  But surprising to me, one of my San Pedro cactus in the front courtyard has two pups or offshoots around the base.  It is growing more arms I suppose.

San Pedro cactus offshoot

     The only other thing happening in the yard is that the trailing rosemary is blooming again.  The last time it bloomed was six months ago in June.

trailing rosemary in bloom

     There was one more thing that happened in the yard.  My husband overseeded our bermuda grass that turns brown in the winter with rye that stays green here in the winter.  Well, that drew any birds right to the rye seeds.  The birds were having a feast when a hawk swooped down and killed one of the birds.  It stood there for a minute or two with the bird under its claws before taking off.  I so wanted to go out and rescue that bird.  But I knew it was too late, and that's just nature taking its course.  But it still sent a pain through my heart.

First Freeze

12/12/1

grapefruit tree

     We had three days in a row of below freezing temperatures this week for the first time this fall.  Last year the first freeze was in November.  I wrapped the orange, grapefruit and lime trees in sheets, and laid old sheets over the flower garden.

     Some plants did fine, others not so good.  I don't have enough old sheets and towels to cover everything that would benefit from covering.  I should invest in frost cloths, but I have such a large area to cover.  The citrus trees did fine.

frost damaged lantana

Some of the bougainvilleas do not look so good.  Last year most of the bougainvilleas were damaged, but I cut them back and all but three flowered again this year.  The leaves on some of the lantana turned brown and they will fall off.  When this happened last year, I lightly pruned them and almost all bloomed again this year.







     In the flower garden, some of the vinca and all of the cosmos are dead, but other plants did alright.  The blue maguerite is blooming away, as well as the gazania.

blue marguerite

gazania

The petunias are fine, and the pansies, of course, did not mind the cold weather.  The vegetable garden is done for the winter, except for the chard.  We had some with dinner yesterday.

rhubarb chard

Residential Irrigation in the Desert

12/5/11

computers for irrigation system

     Irrigation is a must in order to grow trees, bushes, plants, flowers and vegetables in the residential landscape in the desert.  It is a complicated, computer-driven undertaking, and one almost needs an engineering degree to set up and maintain the system.  My husband and I have spent countless hours reading manuals, adjusting the days and run times on the computer for each season, and adjusting the water amounts for individual plants.

close-up of computer task choices

     We have two types of irrigation in our yard:  sprinkler irrigation for the patch of grass in the back yard, and drip irrigation for everything else.  The front yard is on a drip system with adjustable dripper heads at each tree, bush and plant.  These dripper heads control the amount of water that flows to each plant.  The trees have three drippers that produce 5 gallons of water an hour.  Dripper heads are color-coded as to the amount of water per hour that flows through them.  The trees are watered for 1 hour three times a week in the summer.

tree drippers

     The bushes and plants in the front yard each have one dripper that produces 2 gallons of water an hour.  In the summer the trees, bushes and plants are watered three times a week for 45 minutes.  This schedule changes with each season.

bush dripper

     The drippers for the trees and bushes in the back yard are not adjustable as to water rate flow.  They produce 2 gallons of water an hour.  The amount of water is controlled by the amount of watering time.  In summer the trees and bushes are watered for 11/2 hours three times a week.



non-adjustable back yard dripper


     In the flower garden there is a dripper under or near each plant.  These dripper heads are truly adjustable as to water rate flow.  Each dripper head is a screw on head that can be turned up, down or off by turning it and will produce 2 gallons of water an hour if turned all the way up.  The flower garden is watered daily in summer for 5 minutes.

adjustable dripper at flower base

     The sprinkler irrigation for the patch of grass in the back yard enables the sprinklers to shoot the water across the grass.  The grass is watered daily in summer for 7 minutes.  All these schedules are changed every season.  I know it is not environmentally correct to have grass in the desert, but I (and the dog) had to have a patch of green amid all the brown rock mulch.

sprinkler irrigation for grass

     All of the piping for the irrigation systems was put in before any landscaping was done.  The drip system is the most efficient watering system because water is delivered at the base of each tree, bush or plant so no water is lost in evaporation.  The dripper heads all over the yard have to be changed periodically as they become clogged with not only debris but also mineral buildup from the extremely hard water here.

cut-off valves that control water pressure from the street

     Most homeowners use drip irrigation as opposed to hand watering which can be grueling in 110 F (43 C) in the summer.  It also allows the homeowner to be away from home on vacation, etc. in the summer when many plants would die without water for a week in the heat.  Oh, to live in a place where it just.....rains.

Harvesting Citrus

11/28/11

harvesting an orange

     We returned from our Thanksgiving vacation to find our grapefruit and orange trees ready to pick.  At least it looked like it.  We have been watching the fruit on them becoming more orange in the last month.  I know gardeners in California have bee harvesting their citrus for a month now.  Here the ripening schedule for grapefruit is mid-October through June, and for oranges it is mid-November through April.

Arizona Sweet Orange tree

     I have never grown citrus because I have never lived in a citrus growing climate until now.  The oranges on our tree are called Arizona Sweet.  I don't know the variety of grapefruit other than it is pink.  Many of the orange trees used as ornamental plantings on highway and curb medians are the Seville Sour Orange, which grows well here but are so sour they are not edible.  Citrus trees are evergreen and retain the majority of their leaves year round.  They can produce fruit for over 50 years.  And I discovered my orange and grapefruit trees have thorns!  Evidently younger trees produce more thorns.  I have read that there are thornless varieties, but not in my yard.

     Citrus should be fertilized three times a year.  But I have read that citrus can go for years without fertilizer and do well if correctly watered (17 gallons per week in mid-summer and 3 gallons per week in mid-winter).  I fertilized three times this year in hopes that the trees would grow better and produce more.  Nitrogen is low in the soil here and is the main fertilizer element needed.  The grapefruit tree has done the best with 27 grapefruits on it.  The orange tree has 10 oranges, and the lime tree did not produce any fruit this year because it was damaged by frost. 

pink grapefruit tree

      The sun can burn the tree leaves and bark.  Temperatures above 110F (43 C) may damage bark on young and old trees, leading to fungal infections.  It is recommended any exposed bark be painted with white latex paint.  Most of the citrus trees in neighboring yards have their exposed bark painted, and my husband painted our citrus tree trunks.  Salt concentration in the soil can be a problem here and can be reduced by heavy irrigation.  Citrus trees have no significant pests in Arizona.

bark painted with white latex paint

     We gave our oranges and grapefruit a taste test.  They were edible but not as sweet as we would like them.  So we will give the fruit another week or two on the tree before harvesting more.

first harvest - two grapefruit and an orange

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

11/21/11

Lake Caroline at Meadowlark

 

     I am spending this Thanksgiving week with family in northern Virginia.  In the town where we used to live there is an outstanding botanical garden called Meadowlark which we visited.  Meadowlark Botanical Gardens is a 95-acre complex with numerous plant, shrub and tree collections.  Besides lovely lakes and gazebos, it has walking paths, sculptures, benches for sitting to contemplate the surrounding beauty, bird houses, and bee houses.

a walking path

one of many sculptures

a bee house

     You enter through an architecturally pleasing visitor center which contains a library, gift shop, meeting rooms, and exhibits on the various garden collections. The day we visited there was a collection of different bird nests.

visitor center

      Besides annual and perennial flowers, other collections include native wild flowers, irises, daylilies, lenten roses, ferns, hostas, chrysanthemums, salvias, herbs, native wetlands, aquatic plants and a bog garden.  Shrub collections include azaleas, lilacs, hydrangeas, nandinas, hollies, peonies.  Flowering cherries and plum trees, crabapples, dogwoods, Virginia native trees, and conifers encompass some of the tree collections.

Tenderheart collection

daylily collection

 
      Some specialized areas include a children's tea garden, a picnic area, a Korean bell garden.

Korean bell pavilion

     Meadowlark presents workshops, on gardening and horticulture, conducts tours, field trips, moonlight walks, bird watching walks, and puts on concerts.  There is an additional building on the grounds called the Atrium that has three glass sides and that houses an indoor tropical garden that is a popular venue for weddings, corporate banquets, flower shows, nature photography exhibits, and gardening/horticultural workshops.

      A thoroughly enjoyable visit to a sanctuary of beauty and nature.

Tumbleweeds

11/13/11



dry, dead tumbleweed

      Tumbleweed or Russian thistle is an annual plant known throughout the American west.  Tumbleweeds are plants of the Salsola genus, part of the Chenopodiaceae family, that are now included in the family Amaranthaceae.  Although native to Russia, the plants grow in many parts of the world.

     Tumbleweeds were first reported in the United States in the 1870's in South Dakota, apparently imported in shipments of flax seed.  Tumbleweeds like the dry, sandy soil of deserts.  They need only a little bit of moisture and warmth to grow.




green, growing Russian thistle

      Inconspicuous flowers bloom from July through October in the junction between the leaf base and the stem and are pinkish-red and white.




Russian thistle flowers


     Leaf tips are sharply pointed to spine-tipped.  Mature plants generally grow to about three feet and are large and bushy.  The stems curve upward giving the plant an overall round shape.

Russian thistle leaf tips

     When mature in autumn, the mostly dried up Russian thistle plant breaks away from its roots, and is now called a tumbleweed.  Because it is rounded, it is rolled or tumbled by the wind.  There is a purpose to this tumbling.  A tumbleweed can produce up to 250,000 seeds, and the tumbling serves to spread those seeds.

     There are hundreds of tumbleweeds strewn across the desert floor out here where I live.  Because of their rolling motion, tumbleweeds can damage the protective soil crust, and this can lead to subsequent wind damage and topsoil loss.  Tumbleweeds can also be a fire hazard if many of the dead plants collect along fence lines, or if ignited plants blow across fire lines.

tumbleweeds along a fence line

     In moderate amounts, the immature plants are nutritious for livestock.  Phytoremediation, or the use of plants to clean up pollution, could be a possible use for tumbleweeds.  They are one of the best accumulators of uranium from the soil, and could be used to clean up soil contaminated with it.

      Tumbleweeds can also be a source of entertainment.  The song Tumbling Tumbleweeds was made popular by the Sons of Pioneers in the 1940's.

Water in the Desert

11/6/11

Roosevelt canal

It's odd to think of a drought in the desert, but we've had one this year.  We normally get about 8 inches of rain, but have only gotten about 2 inches so far this year.

But that's not to say there is no water in the desert.  The Phoenix area has 8 major canals running through it, and several minor ones.  We have a minor canal near our home called the Roosevelt canal.  Much of Phoenix was founded on a network of canals inherited from the Native Americans (Hohokems) who farmed this land from about 500 CE to 1450 CE.



 The Native American system utilized at least 1,000 miles (1600 km) of canals and irrigated over 100,000 acres of land.  Many of the canals running through Phoenix are based on the Hohokem system, and most of the early development of the Phoenix area was agricultural.

Most of the water comes from the rain and snow in the mountains to the east and north.  The runoff is dammed, collected in reservoirs, and released into the canals, so the three rivers that run through the Phoenix area (Aqua Fria, Salt and Gila) are dry except following downpours.




dry Gila riverbed

 In addition to the main canals, Phoenix has 924 miles of laterals, which are ditches that take water from the large canals to various delivery points in irrigated areas.  The major crops grown here are alfalfa hay, cotton, citrus, melons, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower.

lateral ditch

cotton field nearing harvest time

These canals also irrigate golf courses (over 150 in the Phoenix area), and, of course, provide drinking water.

The Phoenix area also has a superabundance of swimming pools (I would guess at least one million), and most of them are part of private homes.  There are pools in many of the backyards of our neighborhood.

Most people think we have no mosquitoes here with our dry desert climate, but because of all this water lying around in canals, laterals and pools, and because many older homes use flood irrigation to water their land, Arizona had the most cases (167) of West Nile virus of any state in the nation last year according to the Centers for Disease Control.
 

Waiting For Pansies

10/30/11

Mums

     While the northeast part of the US had a freak October snowstorm this weekend (with power outages again!), I wish we had some of that cold weather here.  This week should be the last week we have 90 F (33 C) days.  Hooray!  I'm ready to put my fall flower garden in.  I have many bare spots in the flower garden where the heat of the summer killed off many plants.

Petunias

   



 I bought petunias a week ago, as well as mums.  I put the mums in my patio pots which were bare all summer.  I never plant anything in these pots in summer because it requires so much watering to keep plants in the pots alive in the heat we have here.





     I spread the petunias out on both sides of the flower garden and planted them this weekend.  Now I'm waiting for the pansies to arrive at Lowe's or Home Depot.  They arrive about now, when the temps get below 90 F.  But neither store has any of the larger 21/2 quart size in; just the small 6 flats came in.

Petunias planted

     My vegetable garden is not doing well.  When I planted seeds three weeks ago, we had ten days of over 100 F (38 C) temperatures.  I think the heat killed most of the radish, carrot, spinach and lettuce seeds.  Only a few of the lettuce and chard seeds sprouted.  The tomato plant has two tomatoes growing on it, but the zucchini were infected with whiteflies.  I sprayed soapy water on them, and one may make it.



Early Girl tomato plant



Rhubarb chard

     The weather here makes gardening very difficult.  Although our last 90 F (33 C) day is supposed to be Tuesday, the temps have dropped into the 50's at night already.  So there was a vast 40 degree difference between day and night temperatures this last week.  Then after our last 90 F day, the temperature will immediately drop to the low 70's and stay that way for a few weeks with night time temps in the 40's.  Temperatures do no drop gradually here.  Last year we had three below freezing nights in November.  It takes about three weeks to go from summer to winter here.  There is no fall color here in the desert.  About half the trees are deciduous here, and their leaves (most of which are smaller than your little finger) just turn brown and fall off.  I really miss the beautiful fall color of the east.