Intro
Hi. I rather rudely just jumped in and posted a couple of times without introducing myself. Sorry about that. It's just that all of you were talking about...gardening. Hard to resist. ;)
After renting in town (small city, actually) for several years, we are back on the land in a home we're trying to buy. I've been container and planter gardening during the years that we rented and now I'm ready to begin planting in the dirt again. I garden in the high desert of California, an area with challenges to be sure. We're at a bit less than 4000' with a type of four-seasons climate. It's more like we have winter and summer with a few weeks of spring and a longer fall. Plenty of wind. Little rain (well, it's a desert). Coldness. Heat. Weird soil. Weird critters. Changeability. Sometimes I think I must be crazy.
One of my next projects will be trying out some Native American heritage food plants. These plants (some corn, beans, squash, peppers) have been developed for high desert environmental stresses over thousands of years. It's exciting to think about getting going on this. On the other hand, I still have most of my container plants cloistered on my patio, only a few cacti and succulents in the ground along with a few young trees - conifers. I have to plant a windbreak around the house - but haven't installed the necessary drip irrigation for that yet. Lots to do. Oh, and rabbits. Big problem here, the rabbits. And the desert ground squirrels will come right up onto the patio to see what's for lunch. I have to either plant enough to share or figure out some good fencing techniques.
After renting in town (small city, actually) for several years, we are back on the land in a home we're trying to buy. I've been container and planter gardening during the years that we rented and now I'm ready to begin planting in the dirt again. I garden in the high desert of California, an area with challenges to be sure. We're at a bit less than 4000' with a type of four-seasons climate. It's more like we have winter and summer with a few weeks of spring and a longer fall. Plenty of wind. Little rain (well, it's a desert). Coldness. Heat. Weird soil. Weird critters. Changeability. Sometimes I think I must be crazy.
One of my next projects will be trying out some Native American heritage food plants. These plants (some corn, beans, squash, peppers) have been developed for high desert environmental stresses over thousands of years. It's exciting to think about getting going on this. On the other hand, I still have most of my container plants cloistered on my patio, only a few cacti and succulents in the ground along with a few young trees - conifers. I have to plant a windbreak around the house - but haven't installed the necessary drip irrigation for that yet. Lots to do. Oh, and rabbits. Big problem here, the rabbits. And the desert ground squirrels will come right up onto the patio to see what's for lunch. I have to either plant enough to share or figure out some good fencing techniques.