Dig It Urban Gardens Nursery - I Dig It!

The remains of a member of the Blue-Man
group who refused to eat organic veggies.

  I am really digging it at Dig It Urban Gardens Nursery!  This is a nursery in a class by itself.  I was agog the minute I left my vehicle.  The entire north side of the nursery is a beautiful lush edible landscape, on the OUTSIDE of the fence.  The nursery storefront has a gorgeous street-art style mural painted on it.  My photos don't really do it justice.

Once inside the Dig It store I found myself looking all around and just repeating "WOW!".  One area had awesome vivariums and terrariums loaded with plants.  As I stared into one of the vivariums I suddenly saw two bulging eyes staring right back at me - a tiny green and yellow frog!

Another corner of the store had the biggest display of air-plants that I have ever seen!
  Dig It carries over 40 varieties of these crazy soil-less plants.

Another view of the uber cool Dig It storefront.

An amazing selection of organically grown plants starts!

Fabulous selection of pots!

Dig It has more butterflies than any garden center in the Valley.  Its no wonder why - they sell a huge variety of milkweed including one I've never heard of - Sodom Apple.  They also have on display butterfly cages that you can fill with milkweed plants and butterfly caterpillars, then wait to see the chrysalis form and the butterflies emerge! The large leafed plant in the butterfly cage below is the Sodom Apple Milkweed.

"Butterfly Cage" is actually a chameleon screened cage with
the bottom cut out, a great idea!

  Since opening in October 2015 Dig It has held a number of classes
including classes on herb gardening, composting, summer gardening
in the desert, butterfly gardening, creating a vivarium,
growing and caring for aloes, container gardening, and rose gardening,
To keep up on what is happening next at Dig It, stay tuned to their FB Page.

You can even shop in their greenhouse, but be careful not to disturb the young plants starts and seed start trays - not everything is for sale yet.  Ask before you grab :-)

More beautiful street art, featuring our endangered honey-bees!

Dig It's generous edible landscaping, lining the street outside their garden center.

If you haven't been to Dig It Urban Gardens Nursery you are missing out on a real treat.  I could spend hours here, there is so much to see.  Dig It is truly a community-based nursery, filling the void created when Baker's Nursery closed.  Be sure to shop local this holiday season, and head out to Dig It, at 3015 N 16th St. Phoenix Az  (602) 812-7476

To see more about Dig It and its owners Tim Bishop and Ryan Jerrell
(self-described plant nerds)
watch this great interview by McKenzie Steuber-

The Urban Farm Tree Tour

  Last Friday I attended The Urban Farm Tree Tour to hear the Valley's guru of desert urban farming, Greg Peterson, discuss the process he has gone though in planning and planting his own Urban Farm in central Phoenix. Over the years Greg has inspired many desert dwellers to be bold and dare try to grow fruit trees in our arid unforgiving heat, and with great success!

The tour is just part of the Urban Farm's Fruit Tree Program, and is in it's 17th year!  The program offers classes, online and in person, to help you in planning your orchard layout and in selecting the trees that will best thrive in our climate.

Local media was there interviewing Greg Peterson about the
Urban Farm's Fruit Tree Program, helping to spread the gospel of
good sustainable urban farming!

Greg pointed out a number of things I wish I had known BEFORE I planted my fruit trees.  First is to plant fruit trees with a short ripe period (like peach and plum) close to where you hang out in your yard so you can easily spot the ripened fruit before the birds do.  Fruit trees like citrus and apples which hold their ripe fruit much longer can go towards the back recesses of your yard.

Another thing I never knew was that its good to thin the fruit on your trees.  Greg's method is to just shake the tree :-).  Thinning the fruit allows the remaining fruit to fully mature, and grow a bit larger, that way you don't end up with an over-stressed tree full of half-grown fruit.

Greg also pointed out that if you are low on space, you can successfully plant 3 trees in one hole.  You will want to do some research on which trees are compatible, consider varied ripening seasons, and do plenty of pruning to not let one tree dominate.

I love that Greg saved and re-purposed the dead grapefruit tree
that had originally supported a single grape vine, using it now to support
one side of a now sprawling grape arbor.

The bare root fruit trees will be available at The Urban Farm's pop-up nurseries through January, February, and March, right at the time you need to plant them.  I'm running out of room in my yard so I had to restrain myself and only buy 3 trees - a Pakistani Mulberry, a Bearrs Lime, and a Tango Mandarin.  If you are ready to order or just want to check out the selection, go here. 

Another tidbit of info before you order - if you are an orange lover and want to extend your harvest, consider planting a Trovita Orange, they ripen in February and March!

The next hands-on class is Fruit Tree Pruning on Saturday Dec. 10th from 9am to 11am at The Urban Farm.  To attend sign up here.

Special thanks to Greg Peterson and his crew at The Urban Farm for an awesome tour and for helping us desert rats grow fruit in the valley of the sun :-)

Hand Pollinating Passionfruit

My Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) vine's first bloom!  I'm not sure its necessary
but we went ahead and hand pollinated it per the instructions
in the video farther down below.

The flower was closed in the next day or so.

A week or so later we spotted the fruit!  Since I've had trouble with birds,
squirrels and insects attacking my figs and pomegranates I went a bit overboard
and protected it with a drawstring organza bag.

60pcs White Organza Bags 6x9 inch available on Amazon