October 6, 2008
After the Deluge, The Promise
Master Gardener Column 10/4/08
Tired of all the talk of politics and bank bailouts, I went for a hike. I wanted to feel the sun on my shoulder and to give my mind over to the seasons, the birds, and the clouds. I wasn't disappointed.
Summer has been generous to the northland. The rains came on early and strong along western sections of the Mogollon Rim. Then, over the next week, they drifted eastward as Seligman's roadside sunflowers jumped to their full 6 foot height a good two weeks before Park's and Belmont's did further east. The monsoon took a break for a week in mid-July, only to come roaring back with a vengeance. By July 20th the storms were building daily again, and by August the region was sweating underneath a leaden tropical airmass. We were cocked and loaded for heavy rain.
On August 16 Mother Nature pulled the trigger. A cold, low pressure system spun down the eastern side of the Cascades and collided with August's Mexican airmass. The result was catastrophe. On the 16th, a single squall flooded the hills and valleys north of Williams. The miles-wide storm dropped enough rain and hail to fill every gopher hole and cattle tank from Kaibab Lake to the transwestern pipeline. All this upland water fought its way downhill to Cataract Creek and on its way washed away several miles of west county roads, exploded ages-old dams, and stranded new residents in Cataract's upper watershed.
Continue reading "After the Deluge, The Promise"
Posted by maxmaddy at 5:24 AM
October 3, 2008
Olivia White Hosice Garden Project
We spent most of our workday today in the beds on the corner of Turquoise and Switzer Canyon Dr. Northland Hospice has a large sign on that corner which was placed there even before the home was completed. Since that time the juniper and moonshine yarrow have grown taller than the sign which could no longer be seen. We moved moonshine yarrow and one juniper and pruned the juniper and the ponderosa just behind the sign. Next time your in the neighborhood take a look at the corner. Of all days none of our regular men showed up. Leslie Penick, Karen Kent, Linda Guarino, Nancy Palmer, Vicki Goodwin and Crys Wells did the difficult work of digging up the yarrow and juniper and using a pick axe to dig new holes in the rocky beds. We all got our exercise for the day, but the result was worth it.
Other activities for the day included some watering (mostly new beds and transplants), potting up front tender herbs to bring inside, and of course eating. We all brought a sweet treat today and after that difficult work decided that we would eat deserts for lunch.
Continue reading "Olivia White Hosice Garden Project"
Posted by maxmaddy at 5:29 AM
October 2, 2008
Water for the Rio de Flag
On October 21, 2008 Flagstaff City Council will vote on an agreement by which Arizona Department of Game and Fish, the current owners of Bow and Arrow Park in Flagstaff, will trade ownership of the park to the City of Flagstaff in exchange for a 20 year supply of water to the Rio de Flag. Under this agreement, the City of Flagstaff will supply a total of 200 gallons per minute of reclaimed water to 3 locations along the Rio de Flag: Frances Short Pond near Flagstaff Middle School and Thorpe Park, Picture Canyon downstream of the Wildcat Wastewater Treatment Plant and the I-40 Wetlands near Sam's Club.
It is critical that the City Council approves this agreement. City Council members may not be aware of the long, hard work that went into the development of this important agreement. Please write or call a City Councilperson and ask them to vote for approval of this agreement. In addition, please come to the meeting. Your presence will signal to the Council how important water for wildlife and the maintenance of riparian* habitats is to the citizens of Flagstaff and the rest of the state.
Note: The City of Flagstaff website (www.flagstaff.az.gov, city council, meetings, agendas) will have the agenda for the 10/21/08 meeting and any changes in the date for hearing the Bow and Arrow Park item, should that become necessary. State law requires publishing of agendas 24 hours prior to a meeting.
This information is provided by Northern Arizona Audubon Society and a group of individuals concerned about the health of the Rio de Flag and the wildlife dependent upon it: Bea Cooley, Celia Holm, Jim Logan, Collis Lovely and Kathleen Satterfield. More information is available from K.Satterfield@yahoo.com.
Posted by lunaticchick at 12:27 PM
September 28, 2008
Flagstaff Community Market
The Flagstaff Community Market season for 2008 will end on October 12th. The Market is open every Sunday from 8am-12pm.The Market features a wide variety of local and regional goods including:
Fruits and veggies
Flowers and plants
Jams and salsa
Baked goods
Tamales
Coffee
Honey
Pasta
Location;
On Phoenix Avenue 50 yards west of the intersection of Beaver and Phoenix, south of the tracks in Downtown Flagstaff.
Information:
928-774-7781 or ann@flagstaffmarket.com
Posted by maxmaddy at 8:26 PM
Beets: The New Spinach
Master Gardener Column 9/27/08
On Christmas Eve 1944, as a 17-year-old soldier, I was assigned to a unit of the Headquarters of the Army's Alaskan Department, which, among other things, tracked criminals and saboteurs in the unmapped Alaskan wilderness long before it became a state. We used the legendary "Alaskan Scouts" as mushers because only they knew the lay of the land.
As an 18-year-old buck sergeant with a squad of five, we once tracked a deserter and saboteur who had beheaded his wife with an ulu knife. After five days, we caught him, returning him to Fort Richardson. Our swagger stick lieutenant, hallucinating in a sub-artic winter night's swirling whiteout, envisioned the colonel sipping a martini in the Officer's Club and ineptly shot off a flare. A miniscule shard landed on my back, resulting, after years of operations to remove recurring benign tumors, in a hole in my lower-left back causing me to tilt to the left. The lieutenant was dispatched to the "psych" ward at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, later becoming a corporate attorney.
Wanting to give us a treat, the mess hall cooks made cherry jello laced with canned beets, fruit being rare and dear. The gastronomic shock lingers still, a pity because beets are a marvelous vegetable.
.
Continue reading "Beets: The New Spinach"
Posted by maxmaddy at 1:06 PM
Olivia White Hospice Garden Project
On Thursday our large crew was able to accomplish many tasks and yet enjoy our end of the season Harvest Lunch. Karen Kent and Linda Guarino used some of the rocks harvested a couple of weeks ago to create a small rock garden in the Native Bed. We found some great perennials (sneeze weed, Flagstaff penstemon, matt penstemon, mexican hat) on sale and they managed to find many other plants that are abundant in our gardens (lambs ear, coral bells, echinacea, pine penstemon).
Nancy also added some drip lines to some recently moved Shasta Daisy. Leslie Penick found a small amount of mulch at Ft. Tuthill, but the pile has been spoiled with aggregate pulled up from somewhere at the Ft. and piled on top. AA tree service has agreed to dump some of their wood mulch next week instead, so we can winterize our roses. David Hockman, George Bradshaw and Gus Delgadillo cleaned our north rock wall and added rocks for stability gleaned from the property. Gus also found time to care for the bird feeders and baths and moved a couple of plants as well. Carol Lease came for the last time before heading to the valley for the winter. She reorganized our shed which was a mess after a shelf came down. Nancy Palmer did some planting and watering. Gloria Bradshaw and Chrys Wells spent time weeding.
After all the work was done we enjoyed a delicious lunch with many vegetables and herbs harvested from the gardens. The menu included chili, roasted veggies, many different salads, muffins (corn and rosemary/goat cheese) and carrot cake and pie for dessert. We waddled around cleaning up after the big lunch, and managed to leave a few leftovers for the staff at Olivia White.
We did have a small crew on our Saturday workday. Cynthia Katte came and we had 3 master gardeners who tackled the very weedy area on the corner of Switzer and Turquoise. I spent my time harvesting herbs for drying and moving a few more plants indoors for the winter. We also did a little watering of some of the newly planted perennials. We harvested some more hollyhock for packaging for resident's families.
Continue reading "Olivia White Hospice Garden Project"
Posted by maxmaddy at 6:51 AM
September 24, 2008
2008 Arizona Highlands Garden Conference: Beating the Water Odds
Master Gardener Column 8/23/08
Even at second glance, casinos and gardening appear to have nothing much in common, but they do. It's chance. Both are gambles, one against the odds of the house and the other against nature, especially the Colorado Plateau. While the odds are always against the gambler and the gardener, the 2008 Arizona Highlands Garden Conference will help gardeners beat the odds, especially the water odds. So it's apropos that the conference will be held this year at the Prescott Resort in Prescott which amongst other things is a casino.
Each October for the last eight years, gardeners from northern Arizona have met, mingled, and shared ideas about gardening at northern Arizona's 3,000 to 7,000 foot elevation, beating the odds of short growing seasons, unpredictable weather, and a dry climate. In addition to fresh ideas, gardening tips, new techniques, and time-tested solutions for gardening in the high country, this year's conference will provide all that and much more, like water-wisdom.
Continue reading "2008 Arizona Highlands Garden Conference: Beating the Water Odds"
Posted by maxmaddy at 9:28 PM
September 18, 2008
Olivia White Hospice Garden Project
On Thursday, before the rain fell, we managed to thin some yarrow/iris/germander, spray some roses for aphids, move a bird feeder, fill the birdbaths, clean and organize the compost area, plant a shrub and a plant, water (if only we knew), and deadhead. Our regular crew was in attendance - Karen Kent, David Hockman, Gus Delgadillo, Vicki Goodwin, and Marcia Lamkin. One of our new comers Carol worked on the roses. Al Katte came early and cut a trellis for the gazebo and mounted it. It will help keep the bush clematis outside the gazebo next season. It also provides a little shade and privacy in the gazebo.
We are finally done thinning iris for the season and someone will bring what is left to the MG barbeque on the 28th to share with all.
Continue reading "Olivia White Hospice Garden Project"
Posted by maxmaddy at 2:44 PM
September 16, 2008
Calling all Weed Warriors & Thistle Thugs
Northern Arizona Audubon is having another work day on the east Rio de Flag. We will be picking up trash and digging up non-native, invasive thistle and other noxious weeds.
Date:
Saturday, October 4th
Time: 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. (or whenever you get tired and decide to leave)
Directions:
From Flagstaff, go north on Hwy 89 toward Page, past the Mall
Turn right onto Townsend/Winona road
Go approx 4.5 miles and turn left onto dirt road. (If you get to Slayton Ranch Rd, you've just passed us).
Go left at the fork in the road and follow it down to the Rio (you'll see all the other cars there).
We will have a banner and a couple of folks out by the road at 9:00, so we shouldn't be hard to find.
Please bring:
Gloves, hat, sunscreen, water and a folding chair or bucket to sit on for lunch. Shovels, spades and other implements of weed destruction. I also recommend wearing long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
County Supervisor Deb Hill has graciously offered to provide lunch for our volunteers, so PLEASE let me know if you are planning to come out and help, no later than Tuesday, September 30th, so we can plan for enough food.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Kathie Satterfield
N. AZ Audubon
Volunteer Coordinator
928-522-0375
k.satterfield@yahoo.com
Posted by lunaticchick at 1:16 PM
September 15, 2008
Vegetables That Work Well in Flagstaff
The Flagstaff Garden Club did a recent vist at Mark Chapman's home to see his vegetable garden. Many wanted to know the varieties he used, sources, and what worked well. Attached is a list of vegetables from his garden with a few that Jacki Hainsworth added. It is contained in a word file for you to print if you wish. Flagstaff Garden Club information.doc
Loni Shapiro
Posted by maxmaddy at 6:35 AM
September 14, 2008
Flora Was No Flora Dora Girl
Meine Überfrau's grandmother, Flora Ickes, was a Kentuckian and frontierswoman who once blew the head off a rattlesnake slithering into her kitchen. She grabbed the family shotgun from the kitchen wall and blazed away. Thrifty, as were frontier folk, she saved a roll of short lead pencils with a note attached, "Too short to use." She'd been raised on a farm where little, if anything, was ever thrown away under the rubric, "You just might be able to use that someday." Someday, she believed, someone might find a use for lead pencils too short to use. She practiced sustainability before anyone ever heard the word.
She pumped water out of a cistern, stored perishables in her spring house, and didn't much cotton to things "boughten." She also had a large pile of kitchen scraps and yard clippings in her yard a far piece from the house. Since the word "compost" hadn't been invented, she composted without knowing it. As a result, her vegetable and flower garden flourished with peonies the size of sunflowers. On her back stoop, she fed hoboes dinner topped off with a bottle of Dad's Old-Fashioned Root Beer. Small and thin, she must've weighed about 90 lbs dripping wet. She bore and reared seven children. She probably would've paid no mind to flibbertijibbets with cell phones glued to their ears practicing "sustainability" by buying expensive hybrid cars, telling them "to go get'emselves a horse." So Gretchen comes by her "onriness" with genetic honesty.
Sustainability isn't new. It's been rediscovered. Farmers have been practicing it for years as with people who work the soil, including gardeners. It begins by saving table scraps and yard clippings. In short, give that disposal a rest and save a plumber's visit and bill. If a reader isn't a gardener, the next best thing is to give those scraps, coffee grounds, and clippings to a gardener who does compost, but be sure to chop them into small pieces. They're lots of composting gardeners around town.
Continue reading "Flora Was No Flora Dora Girl"
Posted by maxmaddy at 3:50 PM
September 11, 2008
Olivia White Hospice Garden Project
On Thursday we had a large crew. Most of them headed out to A-1 Mountain to gather rocks for our planned rock garden, and a few stayed behind to continue to deadhead, thin, and move some plants.
The rock hunting crew included Nancy & Bruce Palmer, Karen Kent, Marcia Lamkin, Linda Guarino, Leslie Penick, Joe Hart and David Hockman. They managed to fill 4 trucks and a station wagon with rock in a little more than an hour. In a couple of weeks Karen and Linda will begin designing the rock garden, which will be planted in the spring.
The crew that remained at the home, transplanted some shrubs, deadheaded, thinned some iris, Shasta daisy and lamb's ear. Last year I transplanted a white snowberry. In the process I left some behind that continued to grow, so I decided to put it in our native bed. When I began to dig it up I was able to retrieve 3 good transplantable bunches. This is a great plant - I still had some deep root that I couldn't get out so will probably have more to transplant next year (sympocarpus albe). Crys Wells worked on major thinning of iris. Marcia, Nancy and Karen thinned some Shasta daisy and planted it in other parts of the garden. It was a very productive day.
Continue reading "Olivia White Hospice Garden Project"
Posted by maxmaddy at 7:42 PM
September 10, 2008
Mountain Meadow Farm Tour and Sale
Mountain Meadow Farm will offer a Tour and Sale this Friday, Sept 12, 5:15 to 6:15 with a Bee-keeping Introduction from 6:15 to 6:45.
Experience our small urban farm in fall on a guided tour of our greenhouse (bioshelter) and gardens. Pumpkins, squash and sunchokes are getting ripe and sweet and wild flowers frame our garden patches. The bees seem delighted with the prolific flower bloom - busy busy! The last 30 minutes is an optional Bee-keeping Intro with local hobby bee keeper and teacher, Patrick Pynes.
Cost: $5 adults. Children admitted by any donation to Flagstaff Youth Gardens. We support Flagstaff Foodlink's Youth Garden Project.
For directions, go to the Mountain Meadow Farm event website: Mt. Meadow Farm
Posted by hbraun at 11:27 AM
September 7, 2008
Provence in Arizona
Master Gardener Column 9/6/08
For our 40th wedding anniversary, my husband Dick and I gave each other a month long trip through France. We'd been there before, but not together. When single, working with the airlines, we traveled a great deal, but this was a different trip. We were taking it together. First, we spent a week in Paris, then a week in the Loire Valley, then another week eating and drinking our way from Dijon to Lyon on a barge trip, and lastly driving for a week throughout Provence from our home base in Avignon.
More enchanting than I'd expected, I'd read about Provence in Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence" and was surprised it hadn't changed much since he wrote it. Most memorable were the sweeping lavender fields, but the wonderful farm fresh foods and the wines unique to Provence were a delight, too.
Then, this June past, an old friend and fellow gardener came to town, suggesting we head to Concho for a Sunday visit to a local lavender farm. "Concho?" I asked. First of all, it's in the middle of nowhere halfway between Holbrook and Show Low. Secondly, the farm was called Red Rock Lavender Farm, a seeming oxymoron. Convinced of a hoax but without other plans, a two hour drive in each direction would give Laura and me time to catch up on our lives and gardens.
The farm was a surprise with fields of lavender against a backdrop of red rocks and aspen. A beautiful farmhouse with many chairs set amidst fields of lavender gave visitors an opportunity to sit and enjoy the colors, ranging from pink to blue to purple, and take in the aroma of the lavender. Provence in Arizona.
Continue reading "Provence in Arizona"
Posted by maxmaddy at 6:42 AM