Sunday, January 7, 2018

John Kohler and Jake Mace Garden Workshop

John Kohler of Growing Your Greens.com YouTube channel, speaking at the gardening
workshop on Jan. 6th, 2018 in the pecan groves at The Farm at South Mountain.
Jake Mace and John Kohler pulled off an excellent gardening workshop this weekend at The Farm at South Mountain.  Jake started out the workshop with the top 6 or 7 trees that new gardeners should start with.  John followed with his top 6 or 7 leafy greens every gardener should grow.  Both focused of course on plants that can thrive in the desert.

Being both a "gardening-geek" AND a "bird-nerd" I was totally distracted
when the very large hawk pictured above showed up on the fence
right behind Jake while he was speaking.
Jake's top trees for beginning gardeners include Date Palms (Sphinx is great), Olive trees, Moringa trees (plant seed in ground in April), Native trees (PaloVerde, Mesquite, Ironwood, and Desert Willow), female Mulberry trees (Pakistan is a favorite), Citrus trees, Fig trees (Tiger-striped Panache, Brown Turkey, and Black Mission are faves) and Pomegranate (Parfianka very sweet and Pom Wonderful).  This is great advice as all of these trees do well here in the desert southwest and don't need quite as much attention as stone fruits and tropicals.  After you have had success with these starter trees then you can move on to the stonefruit trees, and later tropicals.  Another great point Jake made was that here in the desert, in the summer months, the all-important "Afternoon Shade" needed by many plants starts after 10:30 AM!  Yes, 10:30 AM!!
About 100 people showed up for the workshop, many copiously taking notes.
John's top leafy greens include Water Spinach ((kangkong) loves heat, needs evenly wet, nutrient-rich soil), Ashitaba (grows all year, takes full sun, likes warm, wet, humid summers and cool winters, hardy biennial), Okinowan Spinach (needs shade, leaves are green on top, purple on bottom, easily grown from cuttings, available locally in Spring at AZRFG plant sale), Egyptian Spinach, Longevity Spinach, Tree Collards (green takes heat better than purple, grow from cuttings), and microgreens (something easily grown indoors when it's too hot to venture out into the garden!).  Another interesting plant John recommended is Papalo - a substitute for cilantro which tends to bolt early here.

Jake could not have picked a more beautiful setting for the workshop.  The Farm at South Mountain is a hidden gem in south Phoenix.  The old pecan farm is still producing pecans, and now also has 3 restaurants - Morning Glory Cafe (breakfast), The Farm Stand (lunch) and Quiessence (dinner),  and a gift shop. Above is a garden bed of greens and herbs used by the restaurant's chefs. Now THAT is Farm to Table dining.
There are also fields of greens and veggies growing amid the pecan trees, the produce available every Saturday at the Soil and Seed Garden Market.


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1 comment:

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