- Thread starter
- #11
digitS'
Garden Master
I imagine that it is best to "lead with our strengths" in the garden.
This valley has farm fields of sweet corn and pumpkins. They may be mostly for local sales but in this age of loading trucks and sending them 100's of miles down the highway - I'm not sure. There is a farmer not far from my big veggie garden who grows a field of zucchini every year. I have a hard time believing that those acres of zucchini are just for stores around here
.
Of course, zucchini grows well lots of places and it could be that the farm is just in a cheap contract deal with the food industry. He will grow them for less $$ than someone, say, closer to Seattle.
Now, Idaho & Washington State are known for growing potatoes. But, this valley must be a hundred miles from the nearest potato field in Washington and probably 400 miles from those in Idaho. (Idaho is a big state, ya know). Still, we are probably "lined up" right in some way.
We are also a couple hundred miles from the onion fields of Walla Walla. It is kind of funny but I've learned after quite a few years of growing both - that, Utah Sweet Spanish onions grow better in my garden than Walla Walla. Doesn't much matter, I like both.
It was important for me to learn the value of a high-N fertilizer for onions. Think of them kind of like lawn grass. And yes, sweet corn is a grass. And yes, this was once a very important place for the grass seed industry. I even worked on one of those silly farms back in the day :/. Anyway, organic lawn fertilizer is appreciated by grass, sweet corn and onyuns!
Steve
This valley has farm fields of sweet corn and pumpkins. They may be mostly for local sales but in this age of loading trucks and sending them 100's of miles down the highway - I'm not sure. There is a farmer not far from my big veggie garden who grows a field of zucchini every year. I have a hard time believing that those acres of zucchini are just for stores around here
.Of course, zucchini grows well lots of places and it could be that the farm is just in a cheap contract deal with the food industry. He will grow them for less $$ than someone, say, closer to Seattle.
Now, Idaho & Washington State are known for growing potatoes. But, this valley must be a hundred miles from the nearest potato field in Washington and probably 400 miles from those in Idaho. (Idaho is a big state, ya know
). Still, we are probably "lined up" right in some way.We are also a couple hundred miles from the onion fields of Walla Walla. It is kind of funny but I've learned after quite a few years of growing both - that, Utah Sweet Spanish onions grow better in my garden than Walla Walla
. Doesn't much matter, I like both.It was important for me to learn the value of a high-N fertilizer for onions. Think of them kind of like lawn grass. And yes, sweet corn is a grass. And yes, this was once a very important place for the grass seed industry. I even worked on one of those silly farms back in the day :/. Anyway, organic lawn fertilizer is appreciated by grass, sweet corn and onyuns
!Steve
