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May 17, 2009
Hope Gardening: Flagstaff Style
Master Gardener Column 5/16/09
My father, Bruce McHenry, a retired naturalist with the National Park Service, tells of his father, Donald, also a naturalist, and his mother, Bona May, growing a victory garden along the banks of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal in Glen Echo, Maryland. Grammy Mac grew corn, beans, squash, collard greens, rutabagas, tomatoes, and Swiss chard. She preserved vegetables in canning jars, cooked with a pressure cooker, and even made green tomato marmalade. Everyone in the family were expected to help in the garden - no hands were too small, as Michelle Obama said, "like it or not."
During World War II, victory gardens were a way that ordinary Americans could help themselves and their country in a time of food shortages, labor scarcity, and fuel rationing. Some 20 million Americans established victory gardens, producing approximately 10 million tons of produce. Victory gardens typically contained vegetables and fruits including strawberries, raspberries, and melons. Although current times may not be quite as dire, the self-sufficiency provided by growing one's own produce is just as pertinent now as it was over 60 years ago.
Master Gardener Column 5/16/09
A prolific victory garden in Flagstaff requires tweaking our 90-day growing season. A temperature range of 30-50 degrees between day and night, intense high-altitude sunlight, a pre-monsoon dry period during May and June and erratic monsoon storms during June through September with flattening winds and pea to quarter-sized hail continually challenge our green thumbs. A few plants can be set out in the garden before the last frost, June 1-15, such as, onions and pansies. In reviewing my 2008 garden journal, we had at least two snows in April and May. The end of the growing season comes with the first frost around October 1-15.
When cruising through seed catalogs for produce suited to our tricky growing climate, look for three key pieces of information. The first is the hardiness or US Department of Agriculture (USDA) zone. A USDA zone is a geographical area defined by its average annual minimum temperature. Flagstaff's USDA zone is 5. Areas north along Fort Valley Road (Highway 180), like Baderville, are colder and below zone 5, possibly to zone 3. Other locales closer to Mt. Elden, such as Swiss Manor and Shadow Mountain, are closer to zone 6, with a growing season reported to be about 150 days. Downtown Flagstaff and University Heights are right in the middle at zone 5.
The second quality to look for is the number of days that it takes a variety's seed or transplant (seed start) to produce. It's possible to grow vegetables within 90-days using season extenders like cold frames, agricultural cloth, and Wall O' Waters, but success is more likely with varietals that are ready to harvest in fewer days.
A third clue to suitability is in the variety's name. For example, in the Totally Tomatoes catalog (http://www.totallytomato.com), tomato strains that thrive here have Canadian, Russian or Arctic-sounding names, like Manitoba, Siberian, and Glacier, indicating cold tolerance and shorter growing periods. The same also applies to fruits, such as melons.
Although many gardening companies carry vegetable seeds that meet the demands of a four-season climate, several seed and transplant sources are particularly popular among knowledgeable gardeners in Flagstaff. Pinetree Garden Seeds, High Country Gardens, Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply, and Cooks Garden all provide appropriately adapted products. To find numerous other sources, google "Rocky Mountain vegetable gardening" or "high elevation gardening." Flagstaff, Sedona, and Prescott all have local nurseries that sell gardening seeds and supplies. The Coconino County Master Gardeners' blog (http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/highelevationgardening) is an excellent resource for gardening updates, past master gardener columns published in the Arizona Daily Sun, and an upcoming listing of suggested vegetable varieties for Northern Arizona.
Whether we call our crop growing efforts freedom gardens (WWI), victory gardens (WWII), or recession gardens, growing our own produce can be economical as well as satisfying. As I cajole and dote over the newly planted seeds and transplants that I acquired through a recent Coconino Community College class, I decided to name my efforts a "Hope Garden," out of respect for the past, and optimism for the future.
Freddi Steele is a Master Gardener volunteer and a former naturalist with the National Park Service. Dana Prom Smith, a Master Gardener volunteer, is the coordinating editor for the Master Gardener Column. He can be contacted at stpauls@npgcable.com. For gardening questions, call the Master Gardener Hotline at 774-1868, ext 19, or visit the MG Web Site: highelevationgardening.arizona.edu.
Posted by maxmaddy at May 17, 2009 5:17 AM