Think Spring

Wow- Seed catalogs from: Gurney's, Burpee, Henry Field's and the Territorial Seed Company all in one great day - yesterday. For a gardening junkie like me it's Christmas all over again.

What should I plant and how much? Something new? Time to sit back watch the fire in the fireplace and dream of green.

Below are three wildflower photos from June in the park - Think Spring!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas with wishes for a wonderful garden next spring and summer.

My All New Wyoming Onion

My northern sweet onion experiment has been a success. Although the Granex Hybrid 33, (from Texas) is considered a southern onion (This is the seed used in Georgia to grow the Vidalia) and not particularly suitable as a northern onion I have had great success with them the past two years. Sweet onions are known to be notoriously bad as storage onions. Maybe it’s the northern climate but these have done pretty well in storage.

I harvested my onions in August and am still enjoying them. Four months is a good bit of storage for these. Sadly I now have only a few left. I gave quite a few away, wish I would have saved more as it looks like they will go another month or two.

Unlike the fall started sweet onions in the south, I planted my seed in February and set the plants out 10 weeks later. My secret? Even water and I give them quite a bit.

The Onion pictured below will be my all new, Wyoming Hybrid Happy Face Onion, on sale in all great vegetable markets near you soon – just kidding, but I thought this was a pretty cool looking onion.

The smile is created by the onion reaching near the end of storage life

Winter Time and Spring Dreams

End of the Green

Winter looks like it has made it to Wyoming. Had a great gardening year and am already looking at seed catalogs for this spring. I will start my first indoor seedbeds in February. Below find a few of my winter photos taken over the last couple of weeks.

River Ice Starting to Form

Wyoming Flowers in late October

It might be October 25th but I still spend some time watering flowers outside each day. We have had some light frost but not enough to kill the flowers or my last cherry tomato. Loving the fall.

No Frost Yet

People often ask me how it is possible to garden in Wyoming with such a short growing season? Depends on where you live. I live in an area of Platte County Wyoming that has a surprisingly long growing season. I started planting outside the first week in May and am still picking green and yellow beans from that planting. How about tomatoes? the photo below is of tomatoes picked Friday and Saturday.

Love gardening in Wyoming. will try to post some flower photos later this week.
Happy gardening.

No Freeze For My Garden - Not Yet

Well, well, well, the garden didn't freeze. Got nipped just a bit but is looking good and the next ten days will be warm enough to keep it growing nice. Tomatoes, onions, carrots and beans have been exceptional this year.

August 21 Garden Update

I haven't posted here for a few weeks. Why? Too busy with visitors, the garden and everything else, summer. The garden is doing great the heirloom tomatoes are terrific and bearing heavier than expected - that is a good thing.

Doesn't seem that long ago, middle of February, when I planted my first flats of flowers, tomatoes and onions. Now that was half a year ago, and it will not be long until the process starts all over again.

Love those garden veggies and the flowers too.

Garden is Producing

Garden is looking great.

I think the hot weather we are finally getting is helping. Gardening in Wyoming can be a challenge but the rewards are worth the effort. As I write this the temperature is 100 degrees and the humidity is too low, under 10 % to measure. Takes a little extra water to keep the humidity up during these hot days to keep the veggies growing nicely.

 

 

Happy Gardening - I hope the warm weather stays for a while, but not too hot!

 

Garden is Growing and Looking Good

Some people believe that gardening in Wyoming is too difficult. You know the, too dry, too windy, too little rain, too much rain, too much of too many bad things. But all the gardens in our neighbor- hood look very nice. Here is ours on this fine July day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers looking good also

 

 

 

Garden and the Storm

Wow - thought my gardens might be goners tonight when a big storm rolled in.

But all is well, no damage but we did get .40 of rain in a short period of time and are still in a watch until midnight. I turned off the sprinkler system for tomorrow, it's mowing day anyway.

My little woodlands gardens in front took a little hit from the wind but look fine now. When I took this photo I noticed a very nice Guernsey Wyoming, post storm, sunset.

 

And in one final note, I have two tomatoes (Better Boy's) turning color. The goal is my first tomato before July 1, looks like I have a week left. We seldom eat bacon, but when that first tomato ripens it will be BLTs with lettuce from the garden and homemade French bread. Can't hardly wait

Garden Update

The garden is up and growing, doing quite well despite the cool nighttime temperatures here in Wyoming. The weather guys said, hot next week, several days in the mid-90s but when I checked again today, it says mid-70s. Darn the luck!

 

We are eating radishes and green onions from the garden, with the first tomato and strawberries about three weeks away, maybe two, with some good growing weather.

 

I have discussed my onion planting on my blogs before but it might be well worth another look. I plant onions one to one and a half inches apart, yep, one or a tad more inches. I thin by pulling to eat the green onions, eventually ending with onions having enough room to grow into large storage onions. I plant mostly sweet varieties and have found that they store better than many people think.

 

We are fast approaching my favorite time of year – fresh stuff from the garden time!

 

Location, Location, Location

Over the past two years I have blogged several times about one of my all-time favorite western humorists, Bill Nye. Nye started a newspaper in Laramie, Wyoming, a paper with possibly the most unusual name for a paper in America, The Laramie Boomerang. (Named after his mule that no matter how many time he sold it or gave it away it kept coming back).

Am I going to get around to something here? Well, yes. Nye was a humorist who reveled in poking fun at himself and Wyoming. Living in Wyoming the weather is at best unpredictable, went to bed last night as it started to snow, yep, snow in May. Still snowing when I got up this morning and been snowing on and off most of the day.

On June 10, 1880, Bill Nye wrote in his book, Forty Liars and Other Lies, about the weather. “It has snowed a good deal during the week and it is discouraging to the planters of cotton and tobacco very much. I am positive that a much smaller area of both these staples will be planted in Wyoming this year than ever before. Unless the yield this fall of moss agates and prickly pears should be unusually large the agricultural export will be very far below preceding years, and there may be actual suffering.”

I feel about like that today looking out at my garden covered in snow and dreaming of sometime actually planting on a warm sunshiny day. Nye, later in the article went on to say, “Again the early frosts make close connections with the late spring blizzards, so that there is only time for a hurried lunch between.”

Warm weather and summer will come, I am just not sure when. So why would an old gardener like me live in a tough to grow state like Wyoming? Well, as real-estate agents are happy to point out, “its location, location, location. And location, to me, is all about the view.

Elk last evening in Sybille Canyon

 

Our little town from Powell Mountain five miles away

The garden, on the other hand, will need to wait, at least a few more days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden Update

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted anything about my garden, not much has changed - but it is looking a bit better. My garden soil temperature is up to the middle 60s, not great for growing but at least it will not freeze anything. I like to get into the 70s before becoming too serious about putting seeds in the ground.
Onions can be set out with soil temps as low as 45, but don't expect them to grow much. I will wait until next week to set onions with soil temps closer to 70.

Radishes trying to grow

Still looking to me like it will be a late garden planting year for my Wyoming garden. I have some radishes up, but it took two weeks.

Peas breaking ground-can summer be far behind?

 

Peas are just pushing through also but the unreliable growing weather is getting them off to a slow start.

Tulips and other early flowers are looking good but a prediction for snow tonight will not help.
In the meanwhile I will keep my veggies and flowers in my little greenhouse shelters, bringing the flats inside when need be.

Temperature 45 outside and 60+ in the mini-greenhouses

I am thinking about May 22/23 as my, tomato and flower setting out date.

Despite the cool weather flowering trees, this year, are magnificent, as good as it has been for several years.

Happy Gardening

Looking Like Spring

Looking more and more like I will soon be able to get started in the garden. The weather was difficult for a while but looks to have stabilized now. I did, just like the old farmer I sometimes believe I am, plant my potatoes on good Friday. Minister at sunrise service said this is as late as Easter gets, that means my potatoes are in as late as they should be also.

Growing nicely - one yellow pear tomato and one cherry - planted Feb 17

Will plant peas tomorrow morning (April 22) along with some radishes and carrots. Ground is still pretty cold but a few more days like the past week and it will warm fast.

Looking good for spring

Wyoming Garden Setback

Looks like it might be a few days before I put in peas and potatoes.

Every thing that goes out into the little greenhouses stayed inside today.

 

Ready to re-pot
 

Spring will get here - eventually!