Group for high-desert gardeners

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Permalink Reply by Catherine+2 on May 23, 2008 at 10:52am

Hi, Heather

I'm Catherine, and my kids and I garden in Los Alamos. I have one bed, 3 ft by 7 ft, near the front door that is my "show" garden of winter vegetables. In past years I have had lettuce, carrots, and spinach in that bed in the fall and winter, deeply mulched and covered with a low tunnel. This past winter I didn't get seed into it in time, but I found fall transplans for kale, Swiss chard, and lettuce. The kale was by far the winner for as late as I got the plants in, so we're doing that again. The chard has become a great spring vegetable, so that is going in again, too. But I need some more room, so I'm clearing another 4ft x 4ft bed for lettuce and carrots. My 6 yo twins were very vocal about the lack of carrots over the winter.

Then I have about 200 sq ft of strawberries, half in a newly renovated bed with compost and manure and a deep mulch of pine straw, half in need of all that; and another 200 sq ft, scattered around the back yard, for vegetables. My son owns the bean teepee, and we have lots of tomatoes, some potatoes, lots of garlic, peas, lettuce, radishes, all the usual suspects.

I really like the idea of a four season harvest (from the book of that name by Eliot Coleman), but I have rarely succeeded with a late winter/early spring planting because of the high spring winds that hit my yard. My compromise is to plant the summer garden on Memorial Day weekend (last year earlier, this year later), and start the fall/winter stuff in July to catch the Monsoon rains. Every year I try more of the cold-hardy vegetables for the fall/winter garden. Last year, of course, the new plants were kale and chard. This year our new plants are Brussels sprouts and sugarloaf chicory. Year before last we found that turnips and radishes worked well in the fall garden, and could get quite large without getting woody or hot. This year we are trying some different varieties of winter radishes.

Tomatoes are a challenge in Los Alamos, as our summer night time temperatures are cooler than you get in Albuquerque. When I first bought my house and had a yard I could garden in, I picked up a bunch of Siberian varieties and other short season toms, and have developed a few favorites. I have one yellow tom, Amber Colored, one pink, Maritime Pink, and one red, Glacier (either American or Canadian bred for that one). Those are my sure things. Then I like to grow Striped Cavern and Yellow Stuffer for stuffed tomato salads, but I usually only get a few ripe ones. Oh, and I have cherry toms in two large pots on either side of my front door, red Peace Vine cherry on one side and Yellow Currant (not really a currant tom, just a cherry) on the other. The tomatoes in the beds out back will have row covers on them most of the summer to help them withstand the cool nights and hurry the ripening. The ones out front are on the south side of the house, so they don't need the extra help.

My son and I have failed with pumpkins three years running, but we have 6 more plants to try this year. This time we will put row cover on them right away, along with deep pine straw mulch and a soaker hose, and see what we get. Watermelon, too. And one zuccini plant.

My daughter is in charge of flowers and corn. I was supposed to help her plant her flower maze a month ago, but the winds blew us back indoors. I think it will now become a corn maze with cornflowers and dwarf sunflowers in the rows.

Last fall she saw me piling the pine needles on the strawberry bed, and she decided to pile mulch on her gladiolas, too, instead of digging them up. Fine with me, if they didn't make it through the winter they aren't too expensive to replant. But six inches of pine straw mulch on those gladiolas was enough to bring them through the winter just fine! Thanks to her mulch we never have to dig gladiola bulbs in the fall again! She also thinks jonny-jump-ups are the best flower in the world, so we have them in all the beds and between pavers and in the grass.... Creeping thyme and violets make a beautiful combination.

Well, I've run on long enough. I hope to see more people here, and more activity as the spring and summer progress.

Catherine

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Permalink Reply by Heather Wood on May 24, 2008 at 11:31am

Keep us posted. I was interested to hear abou all your container growing. I'm pretty space-limited here too, and use lot of half-barrels and pots, and last year my husband got me three of the one-meter-square self-watering raised beds from Gardener's Supply and put them across the top of the driveway. They work nicely and added 27 square feet of growing space where there was noly concrete before.

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Permalink Reply by Catherine+2 on June 23, 2008 at 3:21pm

I just harvested a bunch of garlic, mostly rounds that came up from the little topsets, bulbils, from last year's garlics. They were starting to lay down, so my daughter and I dug them before they got lost. The plants that grew from mature cloves planted last fall don't look ready for harvest, they probably need a couple more weeks. This fall we'll plant the largest of the rounds again and next summer they should be full heads. It takes two years, but it was a way to increase my planting while still being able to eat part of the harvest. ;-)

I have a 6-pack full of lettuce that I have been tucking in here and there. Now I can put them in the finished spots in the garlic bed. Oh, and I can also put in some of the left-over tomato plants. Hmmm, in fact, it sounds like that's the space for the pizza garden we never got around to this spring for my son. And then, come fall, I'll bury the beds in leaves, cover with pine needles to hold the leaves down in windy weather, and plant the garlic there again. They really seemed to like that treatment last fall.

Catherine in Los Alamos

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Permalink Reply by Pamela Rogers on March 2, 2009 at 8:51pm

Hi, Heather,

Say, do you know of anyone who has an herb spiral? I want to redesign my garden to utilize more space for veggies.

Thank you,
Pam Rogers

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Permalink Reply by Heather Wood on March 2, 2009 at 9:25pm

I don't know of anyone who has a formal one. I've seen a few informal ones, made by grouping pots from very large to very small in a rough descending spiral. I grow most herbs in large pots now, and reserve the in-ground space for veggies. Have a look at my websire, www.localfoodalbuquerque.com, for more about front-yard gardening. Where do you live, and what are you growing?

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Permalink Reply by Pamela Rogers on March 2, 2009 at 10:02pm

I live at Wyo. and Comanche. Mostly I have grown plants, flowers, herbs, herbs, herbs, ha ha and different types of bell peppes, eggplant. Now I want to grow all my own veggies for my husband and myself. They just taste better! Did I read that you worked at UNMH? If so, I am a Chaplain there.

I did find a spiral that looks good and my husband said he will construct it! Your website is inspiring, Heather.

Thanks,
Pam
293-1127

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Permalink Reply by Janet Yagoda on November 4, 2009 at 8:40pm

Hi Everyone

I haven't made a posting in a long time. I live in 4-Hills and have 4 very large raised bed vegetable gardens. Right now I am busy cleaning them for the winter. This year rather than bagging the waste, we ran it through the chipper -filled the composter and have a big heap waiting for the next cycle. Just got a veggie grower for the winter. Basically it is a small raised bed with a lid. I am looking forward to growing leafy vegetables throughout the winter and starting my tomatoes plants there in the spring.

Best

Janet

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