Garden Update
We have been pretty busy here at TPR and it feels like everything is "in progress," without too much to show for our work. We've started building a climbing wall and started landscaping around the house, but our little garden has gotten most of our attention lately. With some late season cold weather (and even a little snow!) in May, we rushed to finish our irrigation and build cold frames over our newly planted raised beds.
Cold frames in process (the chickens were very curious about what was going on!)
Finished, just in time! Hopefully we'll find a better solution than duct tape in the future, but as it was, we got the irrigation installed and the cold frames up just before the first of several cold storms blew through.
A peak inside at the little tomato, pepper, and basil plants. We grew most of the tomato and pepper plants from seed, so it would have been particularly sad if we'd lost them. But the cold frames worked perfectly and they all survived!
After about a week the weather improved and we could remove the plastic (we have rolled up next to the beds... just in case, because you never know in Northern Nevada!). Here are the lettuces, kale, radishes, and potatoes (in the bag) enjoying the sun on May 29:
Here's the same bed, today, on June 4 -- we added pinwheels to keep the birds out and there was quite a bit of growth:
We were also really glad to have saved the strawberry plants. Here they are on May 29:
They seem to be thriving and the first berry is starting to turn a little red today:
Unfortunately, we couldn't save everything. We'd planted corn in the ground (rather than in a raised bed) and it isn't look like enough will survive. Our brand new blackberry bushes (twigs, really) are looking pretty sad. And I thought we had lost one mint plant, but it's starting to throw up new shoots, so there might be mojitos in our future after all! (phew!)
This is our first high desert garden and it's been a really fun learning experience so far! Hopefully, by the time I post my next garden updated we'll have fruits and veggies to show for all our hard work!
Cold frames in process (the chickens were very curious about what was going on!)
Finished, just in time! Hopefully we'll find a better solution than duct tape in the future, but as it was, we got the irrigation installed and the cold frames up just before the first of several cold storms blew through.
A peak inside at the little tomato, pepper, and basil plants. We grew most of the tomato and pepper plants from seed, so it would have been particularly sad if we'd lost them. But the cold frames worked perfectly and they all survived!
After about a week the weather improved and we could remove the plastic (we have rolled up next to the beds... just in case, because you never know in Northern Nevada!). Here are the lettuces, kale, radishes, and potatoes (in the bag) enjoying the sun on May 29:
Here's the same bed, today, on June 4 -- we added pinwheels to keep the birds out and there was quite a bit of growth:
We were also really glad to have saved the strawberry plants. Here they are on May 29:
They seem to be thriving and the first berry is starting to turn a little red today:
Unfortunately, we couldn't save everything. We'd planted corn in the ground (rather than in a raised bed) and it isn't look like enough will survive. Our brand new blackberry bushes (twigs, really) are looking pretty sad. And I thought we had lost one mint plant, but it's starting to throw up new shoots, so there might be mojitos in our future after all! (phew!)
This is our first high desert garden and it's been a really fun learning experience so far! Hopefully, by the time I post my next garden updated we'll have fruits and veggies to show for all our hard work!
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