March Gardening In The Low Desert

It's spring in the low desert! Now is the time to plant all those warm season vegetables and flowers. Annuals to plant now include celosia, gomphrena, lisianthus, marigolds, portulaca, salvia, zinnias, and any other warm weather flowers.

Now is also the time to set out perennials such as asters, autumn sage (Salvia greggii) chrysanthemums, coreopsis, feverfew, gerbera, helianthus, hollyhock, penstemon, Shasta daisies and statice. Also summer bulbs - caladium, canna and crinum can be planted after the soil warms to 65 degrees. Plant dahlias and gladiolas after danger of frost is past. Irises are available in cans. Gaura lindheimeri (Desert Orchid) is native to southwest deserts and higher elevations and is well suited for desert gardens, requiring little water or maintenance.

If you don't have fruitless olives, spray the flowers with a growth hormone such as Florel to prevent pollination. Spray every two weeks until the tree stops flowering and be sure to cover plants beneath the trees with plastic before you spray.

Ground covers such as aptemia, calylophus, dwarf rosemary, Mexican evening primrose, verbena, vinca, and lantana are good choices and can be planted this month.

Plant warm weather vegetables as soon as there is no chance of frost. Recommended varieties of tomatoes include Heat Wave, Miracle Sweet and Sun Master. For cherry types, try Husky Cherry Gold and Husky Cherry Red; also Lemon Boy for a yellow type. For pasta and drying : Italian Gold, and Viva Italia. Italia Gold makes a great golden salsa. Peppers of all kinds may be planted now - bells peppers, chile peppers of all kinds. For a chile-like bell pepper, try Fajita Bell - not too hot and great for stir-fry, fajitas, mild salsas and stuffing. For okra, try Cajun Delight and corn, Peaches & Cream, Sweetie and How Sweet. For zucchinis, Spacemiser and Aristocrat are good ones to try and for melons, St. Nick Christmas Melon; also Cal Sweet and Sugarbaby watermelons. Cantaloupe varieties include Touchdown, Orange and Fast. "National Gardening's Top 10 Vegetables for 1999" The top 10 veggie picks from this magazine include: 'Benchmark' Bush Bean, 'Cherriette' Radish, 'Shade' bush bean, 'Zephyr' summer squash, 'Green Vision' romaine lettuce, 'Tendersweet' cabbage, 'Hungarian Semi-hot Stuffing' hybrid pepper, 'Crispy Frills' lettuce, 'Diva' eggplant, and 'Brilliance' hybrid sweet corn. These were general recommendations, not necessarily for low desert planting but may do very well here.

Unfortunately, many of the new varieties can only be ordered from garden catalogs; see the Jan. 1999 Low Desert Gardening article for links to ordering many of these. Desert gardeners should keep in mind that we have basically a three season planting period. Summer is the only time in which we won't want to be out planting, the plants don't appreciate summer either. So, if you order seeds for your garden, think about what you will want to plant in the fall and winter: lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peas and other cool weather vegetables as well as some flowers.

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