Tons of peppers and the garden looks great.

   Things are really growing at the Shumway garden my brother does a fantastic job. The Tomatoes are running a couple of weeks behind but they are really coming on. The Peppers on the other hand are a month ahead of schedule and are going absolutely bonkers. lol We have a ton of Bannana Peppers, and Jalapeno's, the bell peppers are huge and the fish peppers are coming on to, in about two weeks they all should be putting out and we will be overwhelmed with peppers. lol good...

 Soon it will be time to do a segment on bottling pepper relish. This is one of our family's favorite things we use it on so many things from roast beef to hotdogs and hamburgers.

 Peppers grow great in containers like this 55 gallon container cut in half.

 Here is another pepper bed. In this bed there are mostly jalapenos and fish peppers

  As you can tell we grow more jalapeno's than anything else it is our favorite pepper. We like to eat them fresh bottled dehydrated and smoked. yum....

  A favorite of my friends is this apple tree growing around the chicken coupe.

  The apple trees are loaded and with over a hundred apple trees were going to be very busy I am thinking...lol I hope everyone likes apple sauce, apple jelly, apple leather, dehydrated apple chips....

Soil Mix for Container Gardeners

   A very easy mix I use for my Tomato plants as well as Pepper plant. First of all this is a standard mix it is nothing I came up with it is just a good basic mix for most veggie's.

 I use 2 five gallon buckets of a good compost then 1 five gallon bucket of peat moss, next 1 five gallon bucket of Azomite or some other kind of rock dust like cinder sand or granite fines, last a five gallon bucket of Vermiculite or Perlite that is it. Mix well add water and just about any kind of veggie. Your good to Grow...lol

  The thing that makes this mix work great for me is the Azomite or rock dust it will give the soil a great texture and the soil microbes will go nuts with all the minerals the rock dust brings to the party and that is huge for taste and flavor for tomatoes as well as for peppers.
  This year I am growing about 25 tomato plants in 20 gallon containers.  The smallest I suggest growing a tomato in is a five gallon container. I am growing a few tomatoes in the five gallon containers. I don't suggest growing larger tomatoes in the five gallon containers but I have seen people do it successfully using lots of love and care.
  The tomato plants I used for my small containers are Dwarf tomato plants designed to grow in small containers. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and in containers you will need to feed them often at least every two weeks, that is because the soil will leach out the nutrition that is in the soil very quickly so keep feeding those maters. Now good luck to everyone I hope you have great weather and huge maters...later dayz Dusty
  I would also suggest reading a old blog of mine on rock dust  http://dustyrivergardens.blogspot.com/2011/11/growing-your-soil.html

Jalapeno peppers are looking good

  All the peppers are looking very nice the peppers here are being grown in Shumway Az. We should have lots and lots of all kinds of peppers. The peppers pictured here are a Purple Jalapeno and they are looking very healthy. 

We have several variety's of peppers growing including this the Purple Jalapeno,  Jalapeno M, the Habanero  Jamaican Hot Chocolate , Fish pepper, a really good Hatch type of Green chile and a few sweet peppers. 

Harvesting the Garlic

   Garlic it is probably the easiest thing to grow and one of my favorite things to eat...
If your not growing garlic it is time to start.

   I like to plant garlic right after my tomato plants freeze and most of the time it is the very next day. Usually that works out to be around the first week or two of October...

  I do add compost and some bone meal then I plant the cloves of my biggest and best garlic from the year before.  I plant them about 2 inches deep and then I water them in.

     I really don't do much else but add water when they start growing in the spring and maybe a good dusting of a compost or manure.

     I harvest right around memorial day usually but this year was a week early. I do have some beds of garlic that we are still waiting on at are garden in Shumway Az it is close to 6000 ft elevation about 800 ft higher than our garden in Holbrook Az so I figure they will be ready very soon probably in a week maybe two.
 I have the garlic out but now it is time to plant the Tomatoes so it is back to work busy busy....until next time later Dusty...

Soil mix for Raised Beds

  I have two beds that have just been put together. Both beds are the same size 4 foot by 16 foot long and empty ready to be filled. I like to start filling them with peat moss I add a 3 cubic foot bag in each bed.

 

 Next I add some good compost.

 Then some rock dust. This is granite. I purchased this granite at a sand and rock company it is a finely sifted granite. Five to Ten percent of the bed will be filled with rock dust

 Next a few bags of manure. Mix well and keep adding manure, peat moss, compost, rock dust, vermiculite or perlite until filled.

 When I fill my raised beds my formula is 10 percent rock dust 5 percent will work but I like 10 percent best and this you can get at your local cement company or rock and sand company if you have your own truck it is very affordable about 10 to 20 bucks for a half yard I like granite or volcanic cinder sand but river rock crushed and fine screened is good. Next 40 to 50 percent will be compost. Then comes the other 40-50 percent I suggest peat moss and vermiculite or perlite a good mix of both would be best.

 And thats it add water and a good heirloom tomato and you will be rocking some killer tomatoes... lol later dayz...   dusty... In the next few weeks I will mix up my container mix. It is very simular but with a little more vermiculite or perlite and I use azomite as my rock dust in this mix at about one pound per square foot.

Dusty River Gardens Tomato List 2012

 
Here is a list of our tomato starts that we are selling this year. We will also be at the Snowflake growers market on Saturdays starting in May. We only have two hybrids on the list and the rest are open pollinated.
Chocolate Cherry- Exceptional tomato flavor 1 inch round dark almost chocolate in color.
Sun Gold F1 hybrid- Heavy yields of golden cherry tomatoes... a favorite of mine
Liam's Brandywine- better than average production from a brandywine great taste. 1-2 pounders!
Carbon- among the darkest of the black tomatoes 8-12 oz tomatoes delicious
San Marzano Determinate- famous tomato for Italian sauces this is my choice for a paste tomato.
San Marzano Lungo #2- a newer selection heavy producer another great one for sauces.
San Marzano Ravello F1 hybrid also known as Mini Marzano- excellent fruity flavor. loads up...
Berkley Tie Dye- Green fruit with yellow and red stripes 8-16oz great acid tomato...yum
Sweet Carneros Pink- Rose pink with gold stripes 2-4oz sweet flavor
Trenton's Tiger- egg shaped fiery red with green stripes that turn gold when ripe. 2oz wilt gene
Solar Flare- Beef steak 6-10 oz red with gold stripes a sweet tomato flavor good producer.
Golden Gates- Yellow gold stripped roma shaped. plant has the wilt gene. 2-4 oz
Pink Berkley Tie Dye- portwine colored beefsteak with metallic green stripes 8-12 oz average.
Spot Yellow- clusters of canary yellow spotted 3-5 oz round tomatoes with a citrus note.
Pink Boar- portwine colored with metallic silver green stripes very good. 2-4oz.
Black & Brown Boar- dark earthy tones rich flavor originated from green zebra. 3-4 inch fruit.
Mr. Stripey- large bi-colored beefsteak tomatoes excellent tasting. good producer.
Giant Belgium- pink beefsteak large very good grower did very well in my gardens.
Siberian Pink Honey- oxheart shaped produces many over 2 pounds very early very good tomato.
Plum Lemon- canary yellow tomato looks just like a lemon.
Homestead- 8 oz red tomatoes produces well in the heat.
Margarets Favorite Tommy Toe- cherry tomato sweet good disease resistance.
Green Zebra- beautiful chartreuse with deep lime green stripes. wow factor. 3oz
Bradley- excellent slicer pink variety globe shaped very good producer on a compact plant.
Coyote- a tiny cherry tomato ivory turning yellow when ripe the flavor is superb.
Indego Rose- the darkest tomato so far. green to purple red when ripe. 2oz
Evan's Purple Pear- purple pear shaped fruit good producer good flavor. 2-3oz
Green Doctors- large vines huge yields green cherry variety good sweetness lots of flavor.
Dwarf Mr Snow- light yellow beefsteak compact 4 foot plants grows great in containers.
Rosella Purple (dwarf)- purple tomato beefsteak 3 foot tall plants great in containers.
Dwarf Beryl Beauty- green tomato beefsteak 4 foot tall great in containers.
Brandy Sweet Plum- elongated pink cherry excellent sweet flavor.
Gajo De Melon- beautiful bi-colored cherry fruity sweet.
Green Zebra Cherry- no relation to the green zebra strong producer of green gold striped tomatoes.
Sweet Beverly- excellent sweet taste light yellow to deep orange. very good producer.
Black Mauri or Black Moor- chocolate brown grape sweet and crisp hi yields even in hot weather.
Violet Jasper- violet purple fruit with iredescent green streaks! great yields. 1-3 oz
Snow White- one of the few white cherry tomatoes. small ivory colored.
Dr Carolyn- pale yellow cherry tomatoes. very sweet 1 oz.
Morning Sun- yellow grape shaped tomatoes bears clusters of 8 sweet fruit.
Costolute Genovese- old italian heirloom heavy ribbed great producer 4-8 oz red fruit.
Black Pineapple or Ananas Noire- multicolored green yellow and purple mix. a pound and up.
Striped Roman or Speckled Roman- long red fruit with orange stripes paste tomato.
Black Sea Man- medium sized brownish pink fruits with olive green shading. good in containers.
Principe Borghese- italian heirloom 1-2 oz plum shaped red. a great tomato for dehydrating.
Opalka- 3 inch by 6 inch red paste tomato. excellent flavor. from Poland.

There are some incredible tomatoes here stop by and get a few... lol   later dusty...

RAISED BED GARDENING

 Raised beds finally done....almost....they still need filling....
 Breaking my ankle put me so far behind but thanks to a couple of friends we finally have the beds together.  I really have to thank my friends they took a lot of time out of there weekend to give me a hand...a real big thanks guy's.
  So far I have nothing invested in this raised bed except for gas to gather the materials. The wood that I am using are recycled telephone pole arms that I was fortunate enough to get for free. I did have to take some hardware off of them but for free the price was right.

    In this photo you can see I have finished one bed now to the next...

  Here we just laid out the wood cut to fit..

  Here we are drilling holes through all three pieces of wood and securing them down with a long length of re-bar.

  And woo hoo we have them complete now here comes the pricey part of the overhaul adding the peat moss, compost, vermiculite and of course rock dust...

  I am thrilled to have the beds this far they are sixteen foot long and four foot wide each. But I need to get the soil in and going and so this week will be a busy one. I do have the peat moss and the rock dust but I need to buy some good compost and vermiculite... Wow it has been busy, my tomato starts look great and there growing fast...I will check back soon....later Dusty....

Garlic in barrels and I am starting some compost.

 It is a busy time for a gardener but I thought I would show you a few photos. I love this flowering apple tree.

   Growing garlic in barrels it is pretty easy.

 The garlic looks great this year. I planted some in these half barrels and there doing excellent.
This is my daughter and she just loves helping her dad shovel chicken poop and straw. lol She is tossing it on a pile to make some compost. A layer of greens a layer of browns about 4 inches thick and several layers of it...

  Add a little water and turn in a few weeks add more water and turn and before you know it we will have some more compost...woo hoo..

  Well two days later and the compost heap is starting to heat up nicely....

tomato and pepper up date...

 This is what makes gardening fun watching and hoping your seed is good and that you will get good germination. I planted my seeds in a seed starting mix called pro-mix Bx with Mycorrhizae. It is my favorite mix for tomato seedlings.

About half of the varieties are up and that is a good thing.lol I really have a hard time not checking on them every few minutes because that is all it takes and a few more are up.

   The pepper plants are doing great growing like a weed. I am excited to get a few Jamaican hot chocolate habanero peppers because I only had a few seeds left and I had eight germinate I was extremely happy with that.
    The mix I use to start my peppers is different it is the jiffy seed starter mix I have always had better luck with this mix on my peppers. Who knows why? But it is the one I use to start my peppers.

   Hope your seeds are popping up also see ya later Dusty....

Tomato seeds are in...

  Well after months of going over seed catalog's looking at the beautiful new tomato seeds for sale well all that Tomato Porn was getting to me. lol   The tomatoes are in there tray's.  I ended up with 55 varieties wow talk about restraint.

   Very exciting year for me there are a lot of tomatoes that I am really interested in. I am hoping to sell a lot of these at the farmers market and get some locals fired up on heirloom and open pollinated tomatoes.
  More photo's to come... later Dusty