Thank you Mother Nature...

Another night of glorious rain!!!  Thank you Mother Nature for watering my garden!
No new photos today... hasn't change much!

OK, if you live in an area that gets rain regularly... you probably think that I'm crazy making that comment!  But... we live in the high desert Wyoming plains where 6" of moisture is about all we normally get... for the year!

Actually, it's kind of amazing what we can get to grow here... in the desert!

We are so totally blessed to have irrigation water!

If you visit Wyoming in the months of about October thru early April, you will be greeted by various shades of beige... beige beige beige... Being a transplanted New Englander... this color gets old fast!!!!

But all that changes with our Spring rains and our irrigation water!  The desert blossoms... and once beige fields turn a luscious green color!  The contrast is very beautiful actually!  Beige & Green!

Here's a photo of one of my favorite places! This is my "backyard" playground!  I hike & kayak here.

Gardening 2015!

Greetings from beautiful Wyoming!!!!

I got a lot of planting done on Memorial Day!

Into my Square Foot Garden:
40 Tomato, mostly Roma... but a few Cherokee too.
36 Pepper Plants, Jalapeño, Habanero, Bell
8 Kale
4 Eggplant

Recently, I've also planted:
20 squares of Royal Burgundy Beans

Because root vegetables do so well here, we decided to dig up the ground, amend it a bit with compost, and plant a bunch of Potatoes!

Next up... Radishes & Greens!

Potato Garden

Brilliant Irrigation!

A friend posted a link for this site on Facebook... What grabbed my attention was the brilliant irrigation system!

We live in the high desert of northern Wyoming where garden irrigation is a challenge.  I've been struggling with it for years!  I love square foot gardening... but my boxes tend to dry out rather quickly.

I just had to share this brilliant system with you!  We've got to give it a try this coming season!
http://gardeninminutes.com/shop/garden-grids/4x4-garden-grid-watering-system/

Potatoes in Feed Bags

I had a few empty feed bags hanging around... so I decided that I'd try growing potatoes in them!

2014... waiting for Spring!

Been a long hard winter here in northern Wyoming!  We had weeks of subzero weather.  I was so cold that I was about ready to fly south!!!

I've been spending a bit of time cleaning and prepping the garden.  I left the corn stalks in all winter... got to get those all pulled up!

I was to the co-op the other day and I just COULD NOT resist buying some seeds!
Radish, Crimson Giant (Olds Seeds)
Parsnip, Javelin Hybrid (Olds Seeds)
Lettuce, Oakleaf (Olds Seeds)
Eggplant, Chinese Long Purple (Olds Seeds)
Snap Pea, Super Sugar Snap (Olds Seeds)
Garden Pea, Little Marvel (Olds Seeds)

I'm going to cover my garden beds with black plastic to help the soil warm up.  And I'm thinking of creating hoop house covers for some of my beds.

Will post a picture later!

Your gardening friend in northern Wyoming (zone 4), Toni

Mandan Corn

I planted it just a few days ago... And it's beginning to sprout!  Yay!

Painted Indian Corn

My son created a small traditional garden space for me and fenced it in to keep our ducks out.  I originally thought that I'd plant potatoes in this new garden...

But then I started thinking about growing corn!

A few years ago, I purchased and planted some Indian Corn.  The ears are so pretty!  They're multi-colored or "painted".  I didn't have a large crop from my first planting but kept the ears and dried the corn.

I was trying to remember the specific name of this Indian Corn... so I went to google for help.  While searching I found Painted Mountain Corn!  It's a beautiful painted corn developed to grow in high altitudes, poor soil, thru harsh weather like wind, hail, and drought.  So... I ordered some!!!

As I continued reading about this Painted Mountain Corn, I came across the name of the Indian Corn!  It's called Mandan Indian Corn!

So... I'm getting this seed in the ground LATE!  It matures in 90 days, which translates into 9/20!  I'm hoping the weather stays nice thru the end of September!

I will consider this year's Painted Mountain Corn crop, an experiment!  

I have a large pasture south of the house and would consider planting a significant crop of Painted Mountain Corn (oh my gosh... I'm turning into a farmer!), if this experimental crop works out for me!

Goal: Grow my own corn feed for my Ducks!