Staying ahead of the heat

Update: June 7 - the gardenia. A moment of silence, please. Need I say more?

Why do I insist on trying to grow things that don't really like our climate? Well, I did enjoy the gardenia while it lasted.

I seem to be taking more things out of my garden (dead) than I'm putting in now. Oh well, have to have material for my composting, too! But that is another article.

For the next couple months here in Yuma, we will be trying to maintain what we do have in the garden.

You have to admire the plants that do survive the Yuma summer. Check out the picture of the cat's claw on our patio. It is planted along the back wall. This is a new shoot coming up between the flagstone floor and the slump block that is around the flowerbed.

I've pulled it out several times thinking that would discourage it. I've decided I shouldn't discourage it if it wants to grow here in the summer. So now I'll see what creative thing I can come up with for it to climb on.

Now that the humidity has moved in, I'm taking advantage of the slack season outside and working on garden things inside. I try to keep a current list of all of my plants. I also keep all of my plants labeled and I'm also trying to become more familiar with the scientific name of my plants, so I am trying to make new labels this summer with the common and the scientific name.

I have a lot of signs with garden sayings or poems that I've written in my garden. So this is a good time, too, to make up new ones and have them ready to replace the tired ones come fall.

You are probably rolling your eyes as you read about my various quirks. But let me tell you about my brother and you will then know for sure that gardening insanity runs in the family!

My brother, Mike, lives in Kansas. Like many of us, he has limited room and even more limited are the really good spots. The last couple of years, he's had trouble with his tomatoes not doing as well as they had in years past. Many of us have been there and done that.

Well, it sounded like maybe the verticillium wilt had moved into his good spots.

Verticillium wilt is a problem here, too, but in the wintertime. It is considered a cool season disease because the fungus grows only at temperatures between 70 and 85 degrees. Plants are infected when temperatures in soil are within this temperature range.

Mike knew he needed to rotate his crops and give that perfect spot for tomatoes a rest. So he decided this year would be a good year to experiment. Check out the picture that he sent to me.

He said he made these half-barrel containers and set them on the west end of the garden that gets afternoon shade. He used potting soil in the containers so there "should NOT" be any verticillium present. He was also careful this year to select only verticillium-resistant plants. All the planters water from the bottom, so once the plants get established, all he's got to do is make sure the reservoir (in the middle) is full.

But the instructions said that tomatoes are full sun, so he then made some more containers and put them in a sunny spot. He used some 35-gallon barrels and some 55-gallon ones. He put 2 inches of rock in the bottom and a drain hole.

I liked his ending statement: "All this will be a minimum of work once I get the barrels made."

I think it is an interesting experiment and something that might work here, too, in the winter. We'll let him try it first this summer. I'll let you know.

Thought for the day: Gardens and family must be tended daily.

Ellen Gardner is a master gardener and writes this column for the Federated Garden Clubs of Yuma. For further information, call 343-4020 or e-mail: gardner@digitaldune.net