if you have a huge pot you can do artichokes get the biggest start u can find cause you're running late shoulda started back in november so don't get discouraged if you only get a couple buds as long as u maintain it it'll come back next year biffer and better and every year after that but remember these things ar huge and take up lots of space could grow to 4' x 4' or bigger

@Hellbound that's very helpful, thanks so much for your reply!

Welcome to AZ and the forum. I love the sound of your garden. Pics, pics, pics??? :)

I agree with Hellbound, you can definitely do artichokes here in pots, but use gigantic, embarassingly large pots. A half-wine-barrel wouldn't be too big at all. You can easily find plants at this time of year too.

Let us know if you give it a try, and how it works out. You'll love Zauschneria californica, by the way. I grow lots of the tall types (plus some self sown seedlings), but there are quite a few dwarf cultivars like you mentioned, High Country Gardens website/catalog has several varieties.

Keep us posted, and post often! :)
Take care,
Grant

Thank you Grant! I've spent so much time admiring your Picasa gallery photos. My garden is small and humble compared to yours and I am prepared for complete death this summer! But I will post photos as soon as I have some nice blooms I promise!

Unfortunately, my space is so limited I may just have to pass on an artichoke plant I'm thinking. Thanks for the size warning.

One silly thing, I was so excited to learn that the large tree in the front yard was an olive, and then I was informed that it is non fruit bearing and was so dissapointed. I had already consulted with my foodie friends on how to process the olives properly! It is interesting as a newcomer to read about how (sadly) the non native plants have contributed to allergies here in Arizona.

Thanks for your reply!

Heidi

True about those allergies... and it is primarily because of the industry pushing fruitless varieties that produce only tons and tons of pollen. You can still find fruiting olive trees here and there, so don't give up on being able to process some. Very few folks are into that, and would gladly give you their olives, or you can pick to your heart's content if you find trees in a park or other public area.

Thank you @fabaceae_native! I will keep a sharp eye out for unwanted olives, including legally urban forageable versions :) Have a great weekend.

Heidi

Hah, fun and funny replies. Thanks for the nice words on my picasaweb albums too, I appreciate it. My garden is quite small, so I have to try to keep myself reined in, LOL. While small, my garden DOES have a fun key-hole shape, so I love it even if some trees are too large for my place.

Too bad your olive is a fruitless one since you would actually process any fruit. I don't know anyone who does that but I'd love to see/hear it firsthand from someone. There are a lot of mature fruiting olives around town, you should have no trouble foraging, LOL.

This is a great time of year for leafy greens--I've got leaf lettuce coming out my ears, so if you've got the itch to grow some edibles, lettuce in a moderately sized pot or in the ground will produce nicely for you.

A lot of my leafy plants die in summer (like they do in winter in cold winter places, so it all evens out), so I just replace them (pansies, geraniums, petunias) with heat lovers like zinnias, celosia, and vincas, so no need to prepare for UTTER death in the garden in summer, LOL.

Have fun, post often, and keep us posted on what you're doing and how it works out!

Happy gardening all,
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Grant's garden pics (so far) January 2012

I will represent -- I processed olives this year :) It was my first try and next year will be better, I think. Most of the fruiting olives here are manzanilla, and I would agree with Grant that it seems like the fruit is a pain in the butt to most people, instead of free olives. I think QC Olive Mill picks in Nov/Dec? So olive season is over for now.

If you are interested in edibles also consider opuntia (prickly pear), dragonfruit, velvet mesquite, and pomegranate. For figs there is a potential concern in the "sour fruit beatle" so it is recommended to get closed eye varieties. Apparently this excludes Brown Turkey.

I just planted a kadota today, got it at HD a few months ago. And I also am planting 2 poms (sharp velvet, kara gul) and a few more figs that I got from the Phoenix Permaculture plant sale. Apparently you can also eat the beans of palo verdes & ironwoods, they supposedly taste like soybeans.

Grant, your pictures make me drool! The flowers are gorgeous, the cactus are great but I especially like your fish pot. Thanks for sharing.

savorytv - Buy Sunset's "Western Garden Book" ... it has tons of plants with very good information on whether it will grow here or not. It's not cheap, but $25-30 for the book will save you hundreds in dead plants.

@greyongray,nice work on the olives, I'd love to taste them! A pomegranate tree would be amazing, wondering if they come in dwarf sizes? Do you have a vendor that you prefer?

@Lazygardens, thanks for the book tip, I'll take a look on Amazon for it!

they do come in dwarfs but the fruit are inedible so you're better of buying a regular one and pruning it they're more like a bush then a tree anyway. another good one is a guava.

Oy well this year was quite a learning experience at the whole olive thing. For one, I learned that I only like what they call "California black olives," which are made with lye.

I started out doing some water cured (September olives, a little too early I now think) and even after 2+ months of water changing they were still too bitter for me. So then I tried lye around December but my olives were pretty soft for curing at that time. I ended up with California-esque but too-soft olives. Next year should be better.