Hello
I am completely new to gardening. My girlfriend however has been in the hobby to one extent or another for a couple of years now. I thought it would be neat to join her.
I am kinda food oriented and easily distracted, so I figured a good way to keep my attention was to try and grow a salsa garden. Here are the plants I am thinking of.
Tomtatillo
Cilantro
Tomato
Onion
Garlic
Anaheim Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
These will likely all be in containers as we don't really have all that much room.
What I am looking for is general advice, any threads on this forum or others that I should look at, any specific books I should buy or website articles I should read. Keep in mind the following.
1. I am a newbie to this. I have no idea what I'm doing really.
2. I am a little lazy, I am not totally unwilling to do some work on this, but if its too hard with too little reward, I will likely lose interest (I just know myself and am trying to be honest with my limitations)
3. I live in arizona, this means it is noticeably sunnier and warmer than pretty much anywhere else in North America, I am not certain what affect this will have.
4. I will probably not be starting till mid-october, the local botanical garden has there fall plant sale around this time and this is probably when I will pick up most of the plants.
Any general tips? suggestions? Please point me to the proper sources of information.
Thanx in advance
Rayston
Hi Rayston,
It's good that you are honest about how much involvement you are willing to do. Most of your work will be the preparation of the garden soil and attention to seedlings if you grow from seed. Since you seem to feel that less is more for you, I would suggest you start with purchased plants. If you find you enjoy tending to veggies and herbs then you could attempt seeds another year. Your first priority is the soil. Fertile and healthy soil will produce healthy plants that can more easily resist pests, disease and drought.
https://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel1550&site=
Arizona has hardiness zones 5 to 10, so what you can plant this late in the fall will depend on which hardiness zone you are in. If you are in zone 9 or 10 you might be able to plant most of these veggies. Garlic should be planted now (in the fall) and overwinter in the garden as they are bulbs. You can actually purchase a garlic bulb at the grocery store and use the outer and larger bulbettes to start yours.
https://www.thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/howto.html
Onions need 12 hours of full sun to develop properly. If you are going to plant from seed, now is the time to plant. If you use 'starts' (small plants), then spring is the time to plant.
https://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/onions/oniongro.html
https://www.innvista.com/health/foods/vegetables/onions.htm
Cilantro (the leaves) aka coriander (the seeds) is a short lived herb and you'll probably need to plant succession plantings so you will have some when your other goodies are ready.
https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/corian99.html
https://muextension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/hort/g06470.pdf
https://www.savvygardener.com/Features/herbs.html
Hot peppers like hot weather and so do tomatoes. I'm including a site for growing tomatoes from seed in case you want to try it.
https://howtogrowhotpeppers.com/
https://nctomatoman.topcities.com/Off_The_Vine_ByCraig/OTV4SEED.htm
Here's more helpful growing info on your choices, most of which need to be planted in spring.
https://www.uga.edu/vegetable/
https://www.explore.cornell.edu/scene.cfm?scene=home%20gardening&stop=HG%20%2D%20Find%20a%20Vegetable
For tomatillo scroll down at this first site about halfway to 'Production'.
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/V1-407.html
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html
Your local extension service is a great place to get info too.
https://ag.arizona.edu/extension/
Newt
It's good that you are honest about how much involvement you are willing to do. Most of your work will be the preparation of the garden soil and attention to seedlings if you grow from seed. Since you seem to feel that less is more for you, I would suggest you start with purchased plants. If you find you enjoy tending to veggies and herbs then you could attempt seeds another year. Your first priority is the soil. Fertile and healthy soil will produce healthy plants that can more easily resist pests, disease and drought.
https://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel1550&site=
Arizona has hardiness zones 5 to 10, so what you can plant this late in the fall will depend on which hardiness zone you are in. If you are in zone 9 or 10 you might be able to plant most of these veggies. Garlic should be planted now (in the fall) and overwinter in the garden as they are bulbs. You can actually purchase a garlic bulb at the grocery store and use the outer and larger bulbettes to start yours.
https://www.thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/howto.html
Onions need 12 hours of full sun to develop properly. If you are going to plant from seed, now is the time to plant. If you use 'starts' (small plants), then spring is the time to plant.
https://plantanswers.tamu.edu/publications/onions/oniongro.html
https://www.innvista.com/health/foods/vegetables/onions.htm
Cilantro (the leaves) aka coriander (the seeds) is a short lived herb and you'll probably need to plant succession plantings so you will have some when your other goodies are ready.
https://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/corian99.html
https://muextension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/hort/g06470.pdf
https://www.savvygardener.com/Features/herbs.html
Hot peppers like hot weather and so do tomatoes. I'm including a site for growing tomatoes from seed in case you want to try it.
https://howtogrowhotpeppers.com/
https://nctomatoman.topcities.com/Off_The_Vine_ByCraig/OTV4SEED.htm
Here's more helpful growing info on your choices, most of which need to be planted in spring.
https://www.uga.edu/vegetable/
https://www.explore.cornell.edu/scene.cfm?scene=home%20gardening&stop=HG%20%2D%20Find%20a%20Vegetable
For tomatillo scroll down at this first site about halfway to 'Production'.
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/V1-407.html
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html
Your local extension service is a great place to get info too.
https://ag.arizona.edu/extension/
Newt