Saturday, July 27, 2013

Sunday Start Sale - 8-9:30 am AND Gardening In A Box - By Jill Green - Sweet Life Gardens

SUNDAY START SALE 
8-9:30 am 
at The Simple Farm
Everything you can PLANT NOW 
in our desert climate will be for sale 
Sunday morning 
ONLY from 8-9:30.

Scroll ALL the way down for a sampling of what you can plant today!!!!!  

Grab your coffee and come over and buy your locally-grown organic starts 
and then go home and plant! 


If you are ready to put some raised beds in your back yard - 
Jill Green from Sweet Life Garden shows you how. 

See below!


  Ok . . .
beginning gardeners, 
gardeners needing more visual "how to" and 
gardeners needing some garden inspiration . . . 

my sweet, beautiful friend Jill - of Sweet Life Garden is our farm's guest blogger. 

HERE 
she share's the HOW and WHY her own garden is so lovely and productive.

We really want to help you move forward to grow your own food with confidence. If you have failed in the past - consider the failure as one more stepping stone to learn and growing.  If you only knew how often Michael and I have failed - but we have the attitude - it's like a science experiment at times. 

Jump in. 
Start to grow - your own food - for your family - then think about the neighbors around you who you can help - give to - care about - invite over to share in the fruit of your labor from your own gardens. 

Let's build community - over food - food we grow ourselves. 

I believe we can change the world - one meal table at a time - with food from our own back yard.


What You Can Plant Today!




- Peppers - Shishito, Jalapeno, Habanero, Cayenna 
- Tomatoes - Punta Banda, Taxi, Stupice 
- Basils - Mrs Burns Lemon, Amethyst, Genovese, Napoletano, Thai, Violetta Aromatico 
- Summer Squash - White Scallop, Striped of Napoli, Lemon, Romanesco, etc. 
- Winter Squash - Butternut, Buttercup, Spaghetti 
- Cucumbers: dark and light Mekti Armenian; Lemon 
- Hibiscus sabdariffa (aka Roselle) - tea variety 
- Red Burgundy Okra 
- Malabar Spinach

Friday, July 26, 2013

Soil Resources We've Used and Jill's Guide To Build Your Raised Bed

Now you have more questions and we want to pass on some of what we've done. There are a lot of places out there offering their services - and offering their planting devices. It's up to you to research.

The Simple Farm does not support any one system. We might have some recommendations - but that's all we can do.

Soil Resources
If we were doing only a few small raised beds, we love and have used (in the past) Square Foot Gardening soil mix. It's available at Home Depot and Lowes.

Here is another source - local - Zakes Farmacy. I've not used it - don't know much about them, but it comes with a nice recommendation.

If you are building a LOT of raised beds, like we have done - OR if you are needing to create in ground space - we have had happy soil from a valley company called Gro-Well. They have several kinds of soil so you need to speak to them about your needs.

Singh Farms is another resource for soil/compost.  They are off the 101 (Scottsdale) and Thomas Rd.

How To Build and Set Up Your Raised Beds
Hal and Jill Green have been building their raised beds for years. Here is Jill's system. Just do what Jill has done.

Michael's Secret Formula for Planting Starts
Michael has this "concoction" he mixes together when he plants starts. You can email him for the formula here.




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Start Sale Friday From 4-5:30 at The Simple Farm - Plant Your Garden This Weekend With These Starts.



Our gardening classes have been received and attended well. 

People are becoming inspired to grow their own food and walking away feeling more confident.

We want to add to the confidence by providing you some of the best organically grown starts.


So...we're starting Start Sale Fridays - 4-5:30 pm and Tracy from Vilardi Gardens is here to help you.

 ALL that is available now for weekend garden planting.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Simple Inspirations - The Meal Table



Check back...classes are being scheduled for some time mid-September

Your Meal Table
Herbs and How to Cook with Herbs
Culinary and Medicinal Herbs
How to Cook With Specialty Butters
How to Shop the Market
Simple 5 Ingredient Main Dishes
How to Make Goat Cheese
How to Make Bread
Be Inspired to Make Your Table Special
Gathering Friends Around Your Table
Solar Oven Cooking
Build Your Own Solar Oven
Basic Canning
Gifts From The Garden
Making Jams and Jelly

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Beautiful, Delicious Starts To Plant Now



We just started carrying Vilardi Gardens vegetable and herb starts at our farm and they are starts well loved and cared for by Suzanne, the proprietor of Vilardi Gardens. We're quite excited about the new relationship with her.

So, this is what's available now - and since it's available now - that means you can plant it now - but if you're not sure about the how-the what - or anything else - then sign up for one of these two Simple Inspirations - so you can feel confident.

All these happy/healthy/organic pots are $3 or 4 for $10. Stop by our farm Thursday to pick up your garden starts.

Herbs:
Holy Basil
and just about every other kind of basil you can think of....

Eggplant:
Black Beauty
Lunga Violetta
Ping Tung

Tomatoes:
Punta Banda
Stupice
Tax
Tomatillos


Malibar Spinach
Burgundy Okra
Winter squash
Summer squash