Gardening is beginning to consume our lives as always in the Spring. We are giving time and energy to something that usually ends up kind of hopeless in our climate and altitude. (see Hail and more Hail) We always have grand ideas about how it will work better this year, but it almost never does. Now you get to hear how we are going to make our gardening wonderful yet again!
First, we are moving most of the garden closer to the house. Now we can see it and watch for problems earlier in the process.
New Garden (see frame for greenhouse)
Second , we will again be using grow boxes, but they will have a hardware cloth bottom down about 2 feet to keep out the gophers. (Who managed to eat EVERY SINGLE BEAN LAST YEAR)
Third, we drove to Albuquerque to buy truck loads of soil for our boxes. They say it meets soil tests and maybe that will give some of our things a chance at being healthy enough to resist some of the many bugs and diseases we have had.
Fourth, we have a makeshift greenhouse affair to protect those things like tomatoes that like to be warm and out of the worst of the wind.
These are the babies to go into the greenhouse
Fifth, I have bought yards and yards of bridal illusion to keep insects out from the other beds.
Sixth, Terry is working on a drip system, to deal with our dry, dry air and dry, dry, wind, so that maybe we can get enough water to everything even when we can’t be there.
Seventh, I will make an much better effort to really use our compost maker. I have a pile, but I haven't kept it wet or turned it.
There are a few bright spots. A few flower beds are starting to look happy with the warmer weather. We had a lot of winter kill, with the exceptional cold and dry, dry year. However, most things are recovering even if slowly.
This is my old rose that Br. Builta trimmed for me to get it under control. It is starting to look really good.
Here is a quick PS that I forgot to post about Dad's birthday. We did sing and light candles even if we didn't wrap the presents.
Wow mom your flowers look gordeous! I'm excited to see how things work in the garden. its true that every year we have lots of optimism, hope Springs eternal or else we wouldn't try again. I love your good ideas for this year and feel like you should get some results. will you need to fertilize blossoms by hand?
ReplyDeleteDad always looks good in pictures. I especially like his gardening clothes to work on the drip system. Who knew you needed top secret clearance to get to work in the garden.
ReplyDeleteJared totally stole my comment. I noticed that yard work badge right away. Mom, thanks for the photos. BTW, I am really impressed at how much the bark fines added to our soil have helped "lighten" it. It really allows the air to get in and avoid compaction problems. It does require adding more nitrogen because the bark "steals" it as it decomposes. Thank you for the update.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like alot of work. But it looks beautiful! I need a garden.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Dad! I like his shirt :-)
The flowers look lovely and I bet that this year you will have tons to eat out of your garden. Can the gophers chew past the cloth?
ReplyDeleteBethanie, we had only landscape cloth under the little bed close to the house and it worked for 2 or 3 years and then started to break down and the gophers were immediately there. This stuff is a metal mesh with 1/2 inch squares. We hope it lasts for a long long time.
ReplyDeletePS for those interested. Dad likes working on his projects so much that when he comes home for lunch he always has to do a little and that is when I got the picture of him working on the drip system.
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