Whether it’s veggie gardening, flower gardening, or any
other form, at this elevation gardening is a challenge and as the climate
changes, the challenges become even more pronounced.
We begin our gardening tasks in late March in the
orchard since the apple and cherry trees
must be pruned while they are still dormant. In April Don pulls the mulch back
from the trees and adds more aged compost. Early May will find Don starting the
various natural sprays which are based on the development of the year’s growth.
The early spray, just as the trees start leafing out, includes liquid fish,
neem oil, kelp, and horsetail. The
horsetail which we collect along the stream and dry the previous year adds
silicates that help strengthen the cell walls to resist freezing temperatures. A
second application occurs just as the tiny flower buds appear in their pink
stage. The apple and cherry trees are now in full bloom and the only spray Don
uses is bee scent to attract the pollinators. Even though it is the end of May,
several mid-30s evenings are predicted so our fingers are crossed.
In early April I start tomatoes, peppers and squash
indoors and mixed greens outdoors in tanks with covers (more about this
shortly). Once they are up and it is starting to warm outside, I take the
seedlings out to the greenhouse for the day. This year April and early May were
quite cold and wet so the seedlings spent more time inside than out. By
mid-May, the plants were able to spend nearly every day outside and late last
week I planted them in their final locations. Because the summer squash plants
get tropical in size and take up too much space in our small greenhouse, I
plant them in old stock tanks with covers. The covers are created by using
fence wire hoops covered with bubble wrap and secured with a strap clamp. I can
adjust the covers depending on the day’s weather to vent one or both ends or
remove them completely. Once we stay above 50 degrees at night, I take the
covers off for good.
I planted onion sets in late April and seed potatoes in
mid-May. The onions are up about 4 – 5” and I’m still waiting for any sign of
the potatoes. In the old days, this Valley was a major producer of potatoes so
I expect a nice crop from my small plot (in another stock tank). The garlic I
planted last fall is over a foot tall and should mature in late July or early
August.
It’s taken ten years to realize (apparently I am a slow
learner) that our soils are very poor consisting mainly of ground up Rocky
Mountains. While full of minerals, they are very weak in organic matter and support
neither growth nor hold water. Every year I supplement the soils with compost
and other organic materials only to discover by the end of the season that I am
gardening in ground up rocks again. Raised beds were useless because the main
problem still existed – my added nutrients were disappearing down into the
soils below the summer crop root line, moved there by earthworms and leaching. Then it dawned on me that if I could prevent
the constant loss of nutrients, I might have better luck and all those old
stock tanks we were no longer using for horses might just be the answer. Three
years into the experiment and I am convinced that having a bottom to my garden
beds is the ticket. Now the added organic matter stays put which feeds the
plants and holds the water. Plus I can garden standing up which my aging knees
appreciate and I can add covers as necessary (like with the early greens and
the squash). Since I have the same soil problem in our greenhouse, last fall I
added some tanks to one side to see if this will improve production in there.
If it works as well as I expect, I’ll add tanks to the other side this fall. I’ll
keep you posted.
And now for the great summer squash recipe. Since there
is no way you can eat your way through all the summer squash during the growing
season, I roast and freeze a lot of the crop. I cut the squash into ½ to ¾ inch
cubes, roast it on the grill and freeze it in quart bags. Then, as we did last
night, we take out a bag, cook it with onions, garlic, seasonings and a quart
of stock (either veggie or chicken), run it through the VitaMix blender and
have a great squash soup. With a couple of slices of toast made from Don’s
whole wheat bread, we have a wonderful dinner and reminder of last summer’s bounty.
