Making a move

I watch out the window and still am amazed on the unpredictability of this Spring's weather. It's 38 degrees and the mountain ranges around are covered in snow....This year proves that planting your warm weather crop earlier than Memorial Day weekend is at best chancy or best be done IF you are ready to protect it.

Those that know me - have already learned that I'm making a move back to California. The vegetable boxes and paraphernalia attached to them have been broken down and moved to other gardens. I even managed to move and re-attach the tomato support system without too much trouble. All this just proved that container gardening - small or large- is movable and the effort placed in making/acquiring good soil is not wasted.

The soil in the boxes was dark black and very rich looking....and full of nice fat earthworms. Nice proof that one does not need to spend enormous energy or funds to start a garden of any type.

I thank all the friends I made while gardening and all the 'goodies' that were passed to me. I have in turn passed those on when feasible and am taking a few "Utah" transplants as well with me....the rarest to me being some 100 yr old rhubarb root stock.

Gardens are not made by singing "Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade.

Rudyard Kipling

It's still snowing...ready for solar greenhouses and cold frames?

It looks like the photos of April 22...and it's still coming down. More forecast thru the weekend.
Are we ready to adapt our garden boxes with cold frames....or better yet, a solar or cold greenhouse?
I already grieve with all of you that have lost whatever you may have planted.   Wonder if the French Tarragon can take another bout of snow? Will let you know just how hardy it's proving to be.

Ready to build those Garden Boxes!!

There are lots of plans available and I won’t inundate you with any of them. I am a firm believer and follower in recycling. If you have items readily available to make do – then use that – if not and have to buy the materials, then it’s a different matter. My only suggestion (well – it’s a little more than a suggestion) is the depth of your box.
But – before we go much further in actually building them, let’s review where you are going to put them.
Ideally – you will place it/them- in an area that get’s at least 6 hrs. of direct sun; South or East facing.
No Trees that will interfere or block the amount of sun it will receive. Trees on the west side of your garden are ideal out here in Utah – since they will block some of that really hot sun in late summer- you just don’t really want to place your garden where they might block sun in the morning.
I know that you don’t always have control of where you can place your garden- but remember – you can spread your boxes out to get the best location possible. You don’t have to group them all together if your site doesn’t allow that.
If you are designing a large garden area with more than a couple of boxes, consider devoting at least one to a leaf crop (lettuces, spinach etc) and a couple for herbs. I managed to get in 8 boxes in a relatively small area.