2009 is my second full growing season with a greenhouse to aid in my high-altitude gardening. The season is SO short at over 8,000 feet that my results pale in comparison to Dog-Geeks mondo-garden. But, here it goes. All new “soil” using the Square-Foot Gardening soil recipe went in and seeds went down in mid-May (after it finally stopped snowing and getting so cold at night).
{I’m sad to say some of the photos for this post got lost in a great blog photo glitch.}
On the top level, I put in two kinds of lettuce in the end sections. In the middle, I’m growing spinach, and I snuck in some pepper plants. I got the peppers as starters because there is no time to grow from seed, but so far, they are not producing at all. They’re getting bigger, but no peppers yet.
On the bottom, I once again tried beets, carrots, and radishes, but they’re all getting pretty leggy. I fear that just like last year the root portions will be silly-small. Perhaps I should give up on root vegetables.
On the other side, I have a couple pots with peppers. These aren’t producing either and sadly are overcome with aphids. Otherwise, you’re looking mostly at herbs. I’m shocked to report that I managed to overwinter my rosemary inside. (I usually kill rosemary.) It’s back out now for the season. I planted parsley, basil, spearmint and lemon balm. A pot with four big tomato plants is in the back too. I bought those with blossoms and fruit already formed. We’ve had 2 nice tomatoes ripen so far.
You can’t see them from this angle, but I have pea pods and beans in a pot against the back wall, and I have zucchini, yellow squash, and pumpkins in huge pots on the floor.
After last year’s single-sex squash fiasco, where I NEVER had any female flowers at all, I’m happy to report that this year may be better. So far, though, I only have one little zucchini in process. Don’t laugh. I’m about as excited about this one sorry squash as I have been about anything in a long time. It’s a big victory for me.
I think I spied some female flower buds on the yellow squash, but so far only male flowers on the pumpkins.
I laughed when I realized that I must have brushed lettuce seeds off my hands, when a few patches of lettuce sprung up in the mulch outside the greenhouse. We’re not picking from these rogue plants, but I had hoped the wild bunnies would enjoy it. So far, no signs of that.
After nearly killing the rhubarb last year inside the greenhouse, it found a happy home in our front aspen tree bed, alongside the wild rose bushes. I worry about it not getting enough sun, but that’s where Tom decided to plant it, so I’m not saying a word. We can always get more and plant it in more sunny spots.
While I muddle my way through with vegetables, the natural state of our meadows/pastures continues to flourish with the bevy of rain. Both of these are new this year. We’ve never seen them come up before. Thanks to KB over at Romping and Rolling in the Rockies, I can tell you that the white one is a kind of lily.
And, since it’s the only showy flower we have, here is our annual poppy. Someone planted this in our back aspen tree beds long before we moved in. It comes up each year, with one or two flowers, which quickly get blown away by summer winds. We had this one for three days before it was ruined. I love poppies. I wish I could get them to come up in droves the way some neighbors in the canyon have.
Well shucks, y’all! If it makes you feel any better, we have had very few ripe tomatoes so far. The cherry and grape tomatoes are ripening, but we have hundreds of big huge juicy tomatoes weighing down our plants, refusing to turn red. Maddening! And I still get excited about every single zucchini, too – I picked 4 today, and for each one, I was like, “yay! Look – a zucchini!!” I probably did a little dance, too.
OK. I’m going to have to go check out Dog Geeks garden because I was darn impressed with your setup. I would so love to have a greenhouse as it isn’t easy growing things in MN either.
Yep. Total inferiority complex compared to Dog Geeks flowers and vegetable garden. Actually, there are many things about her farm and life that I often covet. :o)
Dog Geek … I honestly don’t even know where in the country you are, but it’s a fertile place for sure!
It’s going OK. I hoped to be harvesting more by now. I just need to find a way to plant much sooner. Neighbor says Walls of Water are the key because it still gets below freezing inside the greenhouse well into May, but the neighbor (Katie’s dad, actually) says I could plant from seed as early as mid-March, if I used the Walls of Water. We’ll see. He’s putting in a big garden next year, so I’ll what I can learn from him.
Yes, the outdoor lettuce makes me laugh. Though, to be fair, it’s not your typical mountain dirt. When we completely revamped our soil in the greenhouse, Tom dumped our amended mountain soil from last year outside the greenhouse and made me a little mulched ramp.
Remember, I bought those huge tomato plants, with blossoms and fruit already in place, so it was just a matter of maturation, etc. I can’t imagine EVER having the time to plant from seed up here.
Still, it is nice to have a fresh salad with dinner each night. I maintain high hopes of a bounty of squash too, but we’ll see.
Oh my goodness – I just looked at Dog Geek’s garden and it totally deflated me. Why do we even try up here? Can you imagine being able to grow so much amazing stuff?
It sounds like you’re doing well with your garden. I think that the lettuce that’s growing gangbusters outside in non-fancy soil is hysterical! I tried just tossing some lettuce seeds on the ground next to my fancy garden beds, and to my relief, they didn’t sprout.
Getting any tomatoes at all up, much less as early as mid-July, here is awesome!!!!