Hello from Oregon

[britesea]

Hi everyone!
I've been fairly active on SS, lurked on BYC, and now I'm here as gardening is the main thing I do on my little half-acre almost-farm.

My husband, adult son and I live in the Cascade mountains, near Klamath Falls. The area is classified as "high desert" and snow has been documented in every month of the year at one time or another, but most times we have a growing season between May 30 and September 30. Gardening is more of an art form than a science in this area, and if you can reliably get tomatoes every year you are regarded with awe.

I have raised beds as it was easier to amend the soil in just those specific areas, and I use weeper hoses for watering. I'm trying some home made "Earth Box" type planters for tomatoes this year.

I grow mostly the cool season veggies, as they have a better chance of surviving the occasional cold snap; but I also try to grow tomatoes, peppers, squashes and cucumbers, beets and chard, and green beans.
I also try to grow a wide variety of culinary and medicinal herbs, and I encourage our local mason bees by putting up bee houses for them and making sure there is always pollen and nectar producers from early spring to late fall.

We also have a couple of apple trees that were here when we bought the house 12 years ago-- one is a Delicious but I have no idea what the second one is-- it is excellent for pies and sauce though. We have 2 greengage plums, which tend to only produce plums every other year or so... I planted some hazelnut trees this spring and look forward to hazelnuts someday (and possibly squirrel chili if they get too obnoxious).

We have ducks that free range- their job is to keep the insects down- especially the grasshoppers that plague us every summer.

I guess that's enough about me. Now I'm gonna go see what's happening in the rest of the forum!

 

[so lucky]

Hi, Britesea, good to see you here! I am on SS occasionally, too. I have always enjoyed reading your posts, and know you will fit in here very well.
Are the hazelnut trees you planted the old-fashioned type, or the new variety? (New is relative-----new in the last 60 years) Do the old ones even exist anymore? Or maybe I am confused.....
I remember hazelnuts growing along an old road bed in my childhood.

 

[britesea]

I'm not sure, but I think they are a couple of new varieties that are resistant to the blight that nearly spelled the end of hazelnut/filberts. I know it's only been recently that I could buy hazelnut trees in Oregon again.

 

[baymule]

Britesea! So glad to have you here!! Gardening does sound like a challenge for you. Only 90 days? There are a lot of Nawthurners here and they share your pain. I started a 2014 Corn Thread in which I planted Painted Mountain corn which was bred for a short growing season. It tasseled in 39 days. Have you ever grown it?

http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/corn-thread-for-2014.15230/

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome. Glad you joined and good to see you are already active.

 

[britesea]

@baymule, I haven't grown corn because I haven't much room. Is that a sweet corn, or a cornmeal type?

I have to completely fence the garden area to a height of 8 feet to keep the deer out, then add another layer of 1" mesh about 2 feet high at the bottom to keep the rabbits and hares out. Currently the fenced area is 30' x 60' which sounds pretty good except with such a short season it's hard to succession plant.

I have another question: I planted radishes in spring (about 2 weeks before last frost), but they took over 6 weeks to form bulbs- twice as long as they're touted (these were Cherry Belle), and of course the early heat made a lot of them bolt before I had anything big enough to harvest. Why would it take so long? I've never had this problem before. They came up well, they were regularly irrigated. Was it the shade cloth I put up to try and retard the bolting?

 

[baymule]

Painted Mountain is a meal type. I also planted Anasazi sweet corn which I pulled for dry corn (seed) yesterday. I planted it on April 15 and pulled it for sweet corn June 24. That's pretty fast, maybe it would work for you.

There is another variety that gets down to business and there was recently a discussion on it.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/looking-for-gaspe-flint-corn-us-supplier.15686/

On the radishes, I can't tell you what happened. A lot of us got weird results this year on various things with the crazy weather we have had.

 

[digitS']

Welcome to TEG, @britesea !

K Falls? I grew up in Medford. @peteyfoozer may be along to say "hi." She is over near Lakeview, if I remember right.

I will tell you about being a kid in Medford. I remember looking at Mt. McLoughlin with a friend of my dad and him telling me that Klamath Falls was on top of that mountain. Ha! By the way, that mountain was known as Mt. Pitt when I was a kid. I thought I knew what a "pit" was but ... I was pretty seriously confused as a kid and Dad's friends didn't help none!

Later in life, I have had radishes completely fail to bulb. I have blamed crowding and shade.

Steve

 

[britesea]

I'll bet you would never recognize Medford now... it's grown so much! When I look at Mt McLoughlin I find myself thinking about ash... and prevailing winds and stuff like that, lol.

I'm thinking the burlap shade I put up may have been a bad idea for the radishes, although the lettuces and mache are doing well in there. When it gets extra hot, I wet the burlap down to reduce the temp a few precious degrees for them.

 

[digitS']

Oh, I used to go back real regular.

We only lived in town for a few years. Most of the time, we were on 3 separate farms, one a little past Gold Hill and the others north & south of Medford. I have cousins in the Grants Pass area.

Yes, it was right at 20,000 people then and I thought it was too big. Now, Wikipedia says 75,000 . . ! I like their picture of the city. It shows low clouds. Dang it was a terribly smoggy valley when the orchards used smug pots!

I'm afraid we had the good (upwind) view of McLoughlin and you have the scary downwind location. Be ready for a vacation about 1,000 miles away if there is danger of it erupting. I was about 300 miles downwind of Mt. St. Helens eruption . . . it wasn't fun.

Steve