Wild West Gardening

[wifezilla]

High altitude? Arid region? Both? Spring snow followed by 90 heat common? Ever got a sun burn and frost bite on the same day? Trying to garden in that wackiness???

This thread's for you!!!

Post questions, comments, helpful hints, and plant recommendations...or just vent about how your drought ended with a hail storm and now your plants are shredded....AGAIN




To start off the thread, I have a question for you fellow wild west types. I have open garden beds due to hail, duck attacks, hungry bugs, etc... and want to see if i can squeeze in another crop. I usually have until around Halloween before we get our first hard freeze with lots of nice weather in between. I know Asian Greens of some sort sounds like a good idea, BUT...it will be stinkin' hot here well through September. If I try planting them in August, wont they just bolt like they did on me this spring? We went from snow to 90 in a week and EVERYTHING bolted so I don't want to do that again.

Anything else that matures quickly and is weird weather tolerant?

 

[wifezilla]

Sometimes it is lonely out here among the scrub oak

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

heh, wish i could say i live in a 'wild west' area, but i could call it the 'wild east'!

 

[thistlebloom]

Sorry Wifezi,..... heat?? Don't know whatcha mean...supposed to start getting in the eighties someday......
Bush beans have about a 50 day maturity, and they like it warmer, maybe you could put some of those in.
Me? I'm urging my itty bitty watermelons and cantaloupes on, even put large nursery pot collars around them to trap heat and shield the breeziness, but they seem to be in a holding pattern.
btw, did those Black Hungarian peppers ever germinate for you? I got zero germination after two attempts.

 

[digitS']

Bush beans are my first choice for summer planting (altho' we passed my drop-dead date, yesterday ).

The summer-planted pole beans are just starting to vine. I got a nice (short) crop from them by planting in July, last year.

Seed for Asian greens sown in August is a good idea here for the fall. However, with your longer wait for that first frost, maybe you should really not put the seed in the ground until the end of that month, Wife'. I am sorry that spring turned out so Wild for you there. I understand that your corner of the world has had some hellacious storms along with a lot of heat, lately. Making the national news isn't usually a good thing, you know.
. . . just planted some arugula seed this week .

Steve

 

[Kassaundra]

No high altitudes here in the heart of green counrty OK, (now brown and crunchy country) but, heat, drought, hail, bugs, tornados, we got!!!!!!! in spades!!!!!

We are in the middle of a record breaking heat wave over 100 for almost 1.5 months and in that time we have got exactly 3/10 inch of rain. This is the same year as 2 blizzards hit! Our spring/summer transition also gave us whiplash this year, I think we had one day of spring I planted corn 3 sisters style w/ southern peas and tiny sweet pumkins. Don't know yet if it will work I planted them a couple of days ago and our first average frost is Oct 15th so the numbers are right, but who knows.

 

[wifezilla]

I think I have some bean seeds left. I can plant those tomorrow. I just planted cukes last week. Squirrel rampage took out all my little plants 3 times. I HATE SQUIRRELS!!!! I have the latest batch planted in wire milk crates lined with hardware cloth. So far the squirrels haven't broken in and this will also work as a hail protector. Yes. I have to wrap my plants in chain mail to keep them alive. How sad!



My 3 sisters garden is going well. I have huge pumpkin leaves and male flowers. Female flowers should be showing up soon. The corn is waste high and the pole beans (which I forgot to plant until a few weeks ago) are starting to climb the corn. I had the corn planted in nice little hills and morning doves scratched up all the ground. I thought they ate the seeds, but they just moved them over closer to the path. Between the corn and the pumpkins the path is unusable, but I can live with that if I actually get some produce out of it.

 

[wifezilla]

The thermometer in my window (full sun) said 104 today. It was only 98 in the shade.

On a happy note, I harvested my first tomato today!!! It was a little yellow heirloom plum tomato I even shared with hubby. Aren't you proud of me?

I actually prefer a little more acid bite in my tomatoes, but these are great in salads with a raw apple cider vinegar based dressing. Mmmmmmmm.

 

[digitS']

You are a good Wife'!

I'm finally finding enuf cherry tomatoes to share with DW, myself .

Got the first, slightly larger, tomato today - Buisson. It isn't quite ripe but maybe will be after sitting in the kitchen for 24 hours, or so!

Steve
ETA: suppose to be 92F tomorrow! that will be the warmest so far this year.

 

[wifezilla]

My "big" tomatoes this year are marglobes and black krim. So far the marglobes are looking to be the most productive. LOTS of green tomatoes all over the plants. When I bought the seed packet I had no idea marglobes were the ancestor to many of the new varieties and they were so disease resistant. Not to mention very productive. The final test of the marglobe will be the taste. We are still a few weeks away from ripe tomatoes, but if it passes the taste test, this variety may win a permanent spot in the garden