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Years ago, I used to garden. I had several large garden spots and I grew and froze all the vegetables we would need for the year. Gardening on the High Desert is not for the faint of heart. The local joke here is we have two seasons: winter and August. Three, if you include fire season. It can rain, have temps in the triple digits, hail, and frost all in the same 24 hour period here. Gardeners use all sorts of methods to protect their gardens from frost. Plastic tarps, watering at 4 am, bargaining with God, or the Devil..doesn’t matter. We all do it and we cry when the frost kills our zucchini.
Then, there are the critters. Sage rats, rock chucks, gophers, deer, cows..and yes, poodles, all created a challenge. Pro-tip: Holstein cows jump. High. Over 5 foot high woven wire fencing, a foot away from a pregnant woman trying to tack up the fence they just pushed over. They waited, patiently for me to finish repairing the fence around the pond. And then they leapt over the fence and right into the pond. You see, they had broken into the shed with the molasses grain and had a party. They were drunk. They used to be adorable, following me around the property while I irrigated the pasture. Cows apparently like pregnant women. Everyone thought I would be devastated when it came time for them to meet their maker, but I assure you, that was not the case. I even waived at them and wished them well as they drove off with the nice gentleman from the meat packing place.
I suppose the poodle needs some explanation. We had a poodle. Apparently he was a vegetarian. I would find carrots on the ground half eaten, beans hanging from bush bean plants that were half eaten, chew marks on the zucchini, and other strange things out in the garden. Finally, one day, I caught the little thief in the act. There he was, helping himself to a wide variety of veggies. He was fairly neat about it..didn’t leave too much of a mess, other than the half-eaten carrots on the ground. At least he made healthy choices. Better than my boys did..
Last year was our first year of retirement. It wasn’t our goal or anything to retire at this point, but it’s what happened, so what else was there to do but to reclaim our home and property. Which we did. And we began to garden again. We used the greenhouse we had built years ago, and we grew beans up in a platform in a tree by the pond. That was my husband’s idea..moving everything upward that there wasn’t room for in the greenhouse. That way, the deer couldn’t help themselves. We grew lettuce hydroponically outside which was fantastic. So fantastic, that we’re doing it again, up in the bean tree.
We added two additional greenhouses this year, one for the herbs and the other as the main greenhouse. So we have three now. We built raised beds in the original and the new main greenhouse to avoid using containers for everything. I started herbs, veggies, and flowers inside under HID lighting to get a head start on the season. Some plants I bought, but for the most part, we used seeds. Lastly, we have begun reclaiming our original large garden spot. We put in a 7 1/2 foot fence around half of it and planted corn, sunflowers, calendula, more tomatoes, carrots, onions, and bush beans. Next month, I’ll plant broccoli, cauliflower and bok choy, to finish out after the first frost. The frost sweetens cole plants nicely. I also bought some raspberry plants and we’ll be planting them soon. It’s amazing to look out the window and see a garden out there again. But that’s as far as it goes..no livestock.
This is the newest greenhouse. It’s 10x20x8 and we built raised beds inside. I planted tomatoes, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, flowers, carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale, onions, potatoes, and radishes. The watermelon I bought from the store isn’t doing as well as the watermelon I planted from seed. It may be the soil mix in the bed that’s causing the problem. We had top soil hauled in and it had manure and other things in it, and we added perlite and compost. So we don’t really know what’s all in the top soil. It may be too hot for the transplants. But they’re holding their own, so who knows? Another watermelon plant has come up that I planted from seed, so we may actually get some this year. Everything else is doing fantastic. I use Tomatoes Alive on the tomatoes and Vegetables Alive on the veggies. Gardens Alive is a really great place online to get fertilizer as well as other things. They have a granular fungus gnat substance that you mix with water to control fungus gnats. It works great and doesn’t hurt people.
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| new greenhouse |
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| the reason for the greenhouses |
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| tomatoes |
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| the first cuke |
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| tomatoes |
I’m growing the peppers – Thai and Cayenne – in the original greenhouse. We have such wacky weather here that I didn’t want to take the chance of frost killing them. I bought two additional blueberry plants and added them to the other three. One isn’t doing well that I bought last year, so I’ll watch it and see what happens. We also put in a raised L-shaped bed for tomatoes..because you can never have too many tomatoes..or so my husband says..
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| Thai peppers |
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| Cayenne peppers |
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| original greenhouse |
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| Beans, cukes, watermelon |
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| lettuce, spinach, radishes, kale & onions |
These are in the new greenhouse..the spuds are insane..and yes, those are petunias in the spud bed..
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| spuds!! |
But my herb house is my favorite. I like mixing dried herbs together to make my own incense. I burn it on incense charcoal for ritual work and it’s more meaningful when grown myself. I use them as well for medicinal oils, salves, and lotions, as well as for cooking. Growing in the trough are several varieties of thyme, rosemary, hyssop, St. John’s Wort, feverfew, echinacea, mugwort, varieties of oregano, tarragon, sage, and chamomile. Strawberries, various types of basil, pennyroyal, lavender, anise, caraway, parsley, flax, stevia, lemongrass, and lemon balm round out the rest of the herbs in the herb house. Some flowers are scattered around as well as a pot of spearmint and peppermint. It smells like heaven!
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| herbs grown in an old stock trough |
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| new raspberries |
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| outside garden space |
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| Herb house |
Between the original greenhouse and the outside garden space, I’m creating a labyrinth to walk. It’s going to be a fun summer in the garden!
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Thank you... Jan Erickson
