My farmer husband

Kevin, bless his heart, is not a gardener. All the garden work is strictly my responsibility. Granted, there are times his manly strength is welcome, like when he built the raised garden beds last summer or helped dig deep holes for some grape vine plants.

Kevin avoids anything that flowers, but when it comes to growing foods, he is right there in the garden with me.

"I only grow things I can eat!" he told me last year, adding that "I am a farmer, not a gardener."

So it was no real surprise when I talked to him last week about successful potato propagation: cut a tuber with eyes into one-inch cubes. Let these cubes dry out overnight, then plant in rich soil. Voila! New shoots will soon surface. The tubers will be harvestable once the plant dries out. Dig up the tubers, then save one tuber for the next crop and the cycle repeats itself.

Here in Arizona the trick with potatoes is to provide them partial shade during the day as potatoes do prefer cooler weather. Heat makes the plant dry up prematurely, or before big tubers can develop.

I have a box in the backyard with potato plants. I have what looks like eight plants growing from what was one cut potato a month ago. A used glass shower door leaning against the box keeps Sadie from digging in the dirt, or Vinnie from pooping in the soil. (I'll remove the glass when the plants get big enough). For really big tubers a 30-gallon tin garbage pail can be used as the bucket, with air holes drilled in the sides.

A few days ago I saw two more potatoes drying on the kitchen windowsill. Apparently Kevin wants to grow more taters! Which means I should get a few more boxes ready and place them strategically in the back yard near the pawlownia that will provide plenty of shade for the taters, blueberry bushes and strawberries.

Kevin has made it clear: he wants a continuous crop of potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and beets, all vegetables he buys the most often. Toms and Peps are hard to grow here year-round unless they are in a greenhouse (hint hint hint) but I did ok with the tats and strawberries as long as they were covered up with mulch during the coldest months. The pot of green peppers from last year survived the winter inside and is now flowering outside! Although some of the stalks are dead, the majority of the plants did live. They aren't as lush as this year's peppers but as long as they produce new edible crops, why bother with aesthetics?

Kevin has made so much progress helping me in the vegetable garden. Now that he's seen success and eaten beets and squash from his own garden, he helps out and listens to me when I show him how to do things right. I'm sure he will do just fine on his own this summer when I am away. He's even promised me he'll water my citrus trees in the front yard.

My nectarine trees are full of fruit this year. I am so delighted!!! Although I lost a few young fruit from the winds recently (more winds are due later today), the fruit growing this year is the best potential crop yet. The trees are approximately seven or eight years old (planted in the summer of 2005 when they were approx two years old). Most fruit trees take 4-5 years to even begin growing fruit, so these guys are a little late in maturing, but better late than never.

I have a nice amount of Contender beans coming up now, and even more snow peas. But the tomatoes are still stubborn and I blame that on the wide fluctuations of nighttime temperatures. Tomatoes are hard to grow when it gets below 55F at night; they need continuous warm soil to thrive.

One thing I would really enjoy is having a small strawberry patch. I have a location in the backyard in mind: the northwest corner of our house! The Quinalt variety has been very prolific and should bare fruit later this summer. Strawberries, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, beets, spinach and cabbage seem to be our best bets. I'm hesitant to try corn again this year, but Kevin is anxious.

I have a wild mint planting growing on our north side. Too bad it's growing right by the sewage hole!