Hi Suzanne!
Full sun, meaning 8 hours at least. You need to take into consideration all
the plans that you have for your backyard: swimming pool? extended
patio/BBQ - covered or open? an area for lawn or children activities? You
have a few years before any newly planted trees in your neighbors yard would
cause any large amount of shade over the wall. I would likely site it to
the west of center someplace. If a garden is to get shade late afternoon is
the best time for it during the hot summer season. One thing for sure - not
up against the north side of the house, because it will be in shade all
winter long which makes growing any veggies impossible! Go to
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs and you will find several publications on
gardening, but especially AZ1005, the Vegetable Planting Calendar for
Maricopa County. You can purchase books there too, written especially for
our area, or they are available at the Extension Office about 40th St. and
Broadway (602)470-4341.
Have fun!
Michelle Anderson
Maricopa Master Gardener
On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:47 PM, <> wrote:
> Suzanne
> 85249
>
>
> We just moved into a new subdivision in Chandler, AZ, and the backyard is
> just dirt right now. Our home is on the north side of an East/West street,
> and the backyard is on the north side of the lot, and is surrounded by 6-ft.
> cinderblock wall. The backyard is 30 feet deep (from house to back wall) and
> has 10-foot side yards on each side of the house. My question is: where is
> the best location to put in a large raised bed garden box given the lot
> location and AZ sun/weather? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
> I look forward to many yummy artichokes, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, herbs,
> strawberries, etc.
> Thank you,
> Suzanne
>
>
> _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Posted on the Arid_gardener mailing list. Go to http://ag.arizona.edu/mailman/listinfo/arid_gardener to subscribe.
I've had the best luck gardening so that the bed gets morning sun and
afternoon shade. My first successful garden was in the front yard of
a duplex that faced the east. So the garden had sun in the morning
and by 2pm it was getting shade from the house.
I have been thinking about trying raised beds. However, I've always
read/heard that raised beds don't do well here in Arizona, so I have
steered clear of them. I have heard that raised beds allow the dirt to
get too hot and the dirt dries out quickly (my one experiment with
raised gardening proved the dirt dries out quickly - I was having to
water twice a day just to keep the plants alive).
I am seriously considering trying raised beds because of the gophers
that plague my garden. My question though, what do you use to fortify
the bottom so the gophers cannot chew their way in? I feel like I
need to dig a 24" pit and lay concrete. I fight a constant battle
with one critter after another out here in Maricopa (south of the city
close to Interstate 8). My garden is covered sides and top with 1"
chicken wire. For the past three years I have been digging out one
foot of dirt and underlying each bed with chicken wire and enclosing
the bed with 12 inches of chicken wire along each side to keep out the
gophers - this works partially because they still dig up to the level
of the chicken wire so I have to hand water and carefully watch to
make sure the water isn't rushing down into the gopher hole. We haul
our own water out here, so I can't afford to put hundreds of gallons
of water into gopher holes.
I've tried trapping the gophers - they just spring and bury the traps.
I would rather not use poison. Although I guess if it will really work
I may consider it.
The gophers weren't bad enough, the round tailed ground squirrels
figured out that they could get in through the chicken wire on the
sides of my garden, so I put sheets of metal around the entire outer
perimeter. They were still getting in somehow and eating my squash
blossoms off the infant squash. I don't get any squash unless I hand
pollinate so every morning I would go out there before I left for work
only to find that the squash blossoms were being eaten. The few
squash that survived ended up getting half chewed up before they could
grow much bigger.
Anyway, it just seems like every year I fortify against a new critter
and before I know it another one figures out how to get in. First it
was the birds, then the cottontail bunnies and jackrabbits. Enclosing
the garden with chicken wire stopped those two, and then the gophers
started in. I underlaid all the beds with chicken wire (that is
really hard work, and the chicken wire rusts out after two years so it
has to be done again) and then the round tailed ground squirrels
realized there was good food just inside that chicken wire so I put up
2 foot tall sheet metal so they can't get into the garden, they are
still getting in somehow.
I had MUCH better luck gardening in a tiny bed in Phoenix, than I do
out here with a 400 square foot garden.
2010 has been a very frustrating. About a month ago I just stopped
watering because my tomato plants and eggplants were covered with tiny
black spots which I couldn't figure out what those were. I am really
not looking forward to planting cool season veggies only to see them
all eaten by the beasts that attack my garden. At the same time I
can't wait to have home grown Swiss Chard and Collard Greens. I look
forward to fresh greens throughout the summer (they don't taste
anywhere near as good from the grocery store).
I guess this is the life of a gardener... constantly battling critters
for the good stuff.
So... sorry for the tangent. Can you all provide some information on
raised beds, how to go about using them in Arizona? I've been
gardening for 20 years now and I'm tired of battling these critters
for my food.
Starlene
Maricopa, AZ 85139
On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 7:21 AM, Michelle Anderson <> wrote:
> Hi Suzanne!
> Full sun, meaning 8 hours at least. You need to take into consideration all
> the plans that you have for your backyard: swimming pool? extended
> patio/BBQ - covered or open? an area for lawn or children activities? You
> have a few years before any newly planted trees in your neighbors yard would
> cause any large amount of shade over the wall. I would likely site it to
> the west of center someplace. If a garden is to get shade late afternoon is
> the best time for it during the hot summer season. One thing for sure - not
> up against the north side of the house, because it will be in shade all
> winter long which makes growing any veggies impossible! Go to
> http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs and you will find several publications on
> gardening, but especially AZ1005, the Vegetable Planting Calendar for
> Maricopa County. You can purchase books there too, written especially for
> our area, or they are available at the Extension Office about 40th St. and
> Broadway (602)470-4341.
> Have fun!
> Michelle Anderson
> Maricopa Master Gardener
> On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 10:47 PM, <> wrote:
>>
>> Suzanne
>> 85249
>>
>>
>> We just moved into a new subdivision in Chandler, AZ, and the backyard is
>> just dirt right now. Our home is on the north side of an East/West street,
>> and the backyard is on the north side of the lot, and is surrounded by 6-ft.
>> cinderblock wall. The backyard is 30 feet deep (from house to back wall) and
>> has 10-foot side yards on each side of the house. My question is: where is
>> the best location to put in a large raised bed garden box given the lot
>> location and AZ sun/weather? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
>> I look forward to many yummy artichokes, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, herbs,
>> strawberries, etc.
>> Thank you,
>> Suzanne
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Posted on the Arid_gardener mailing list. Go to http://ag.arizona.edu/mailman/listinfo/arid_gardener to subscribe.
On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Starlene Stewart <> wrote:
> I have been thinking about trying raised beds. However, I've always
> read/heard that raised beds don't do well here in Arizona, so I have
> steered clear of them. I have heard that raised beds allow the dirt to
> get too hot and the dirt dries out quickly (my one experiment with
I agree, I'm in Phoenix and I don't like them. The previous owners of
my house made a sort of rock garden (really just a raised bed inside a
rock retaining wall) along the west-facing wall of the garage, which
is OK for drought-tolerant plants, but I tried to grow a garden there
a couple of times. Indeed it dried out too quickly, besides just
being too hot with sunlight reflecting off the wall. (Even though the
wall is mostly covered with cats-claw.) I'm having much better luck
this year with a strip of yard along an east-facing fence, even though
there are trees shading that area. At least there wasn't shade early
in the spring before the trees leafed out, so the garden got off to a
good start; and by the time they did leaf out, the shade may even have
been beneficial, although the garden still gets some full sun in the
mornings.
I'm not quite sure why you'd want raised beds anywhere, except just
not to have to bend over as far? or maybe if you have really terrible
drainage, as I've heard can happen some places with heavy clay soils.
Or maybe to keep the grass from encroaching, but that doesn't work
here either if your grass is bermuda - it's pretty much going to get
in, no matter what you do. It's a little better if the raised bed
walls are solid masonry with a deep enough footing and no cracks; I
have one flowerbed like that, and only occasionally have to pull out a
stray wisp of grass. That flowerbed also tends to dry out, so again I
have trouble growing tender stuff like petunias and pansies.
Snapdragons do a little better. Some types of wildflowers can
actually survive the summer in there.
_______________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Posted on the Arid_gardener mailing list. Go to http://ag.arizona.edu/mailman/listinfo/arid_gardener to subscribe.
