Hi Beca!

My name is Michelle and I'm fairly new to gardening. I think I'm getting better but that's only because less things died last year than the year before :P

I live in Reno (Old Southwest area)I have two raised veggie beds where I grow heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, crook necks, patty pans, eggplant, artichokes, horseradish, lemon cucumbers, cabbage and asparagus.

Other than that, my garden/yards are in experimental mode where I see what's surviving with my novice skills. Peonies, lavender, euonymous, russian sage, rhodedendron, periwinkle, lilac, poppies, sweet willian, bleeding heart, hellebore, black elderberry, tulips, dahlias, narcissus, boxwoods and other "cottage garden" plants.

My front and back yards are actually rather bare right now (even though my list of plants seem long). It's all trial and error with the clay soil and river rock I keep trying to amend or work around.

I am such a newbie at all this that I don't even know If I am doing right or not. I live in Sun Valley (suburb of Reno) in a house that we bought one and a half years ago. There were already a couple of maples, a peach, and a plum tree planted as well as two little blue spruces, and a pine of some sort. Nothing is very big yet. We have a few butterfly bushes, tulips, daffodils, a hyacinth, irises, lilies, and a plethora of volunteer marigolds and morning glories. Oh, and lots and lots of weeds. This year we are trying our luck at a veggie garden. Raising the bed tomorrow. I have tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, zucchini, pumpkin, corn, cantaloupe, yellow squash,chives, sage, green beans, and carrots started inside. And yes, I know many of those are not ones typically started indoors, but I wanted to get as much of a head start as possible. Last year I couldn't even grow zucchini, and everyone says it's so easy. I am in the process of hardening off the seedlings and hoping that they will survive the transition. My 2 year old daughter is loving it and calls the seedling "my pants" (ie plants). It's been fun so far. I'm just hoping I can keep things alive.

I'm getting in here a bit late. I'm in Spanish Springs, not quite sure if we're actually Sparks now, the city limits have been inching toward us for some time.

I don't do raised beds, did years ago and when DH moved them, but didn't put them back up LOL, I gave up. This year we have our usual lots of tomatoes, so far one lonely bell pepper, some cilantro and chives, sunflowers and chard. That's it. We have so many quail and bunnies in and out of the yard everything has to be caged or else it's eaten. Even then, last year I would go out and find quail sitting on top of the tomato cages eating every leaf (and later some of the fruit) they could reach.

We have our old fruit trees, but living out here we've accepted the fact that actually ending up with any fruit is a nice suprise. Last year was bad, but the year before we had lots of huge peaches. Some years we get some nice little plums, and if we're lucky we get a handful of apricots.

I really don't garden that much, but I love my patio pots and my tomatoes. We always start our tomatoes from seed, and put them out in Wall O'Waters. Just before this heat spell we're in, we uncovered them. Funny as we had a touch of frost damage just a couple of weeks before, the tops of two of my Early Girls froze. All the tomatoes look OK now, we have little fruit on the Yellow Currant but yesterday I didn't see any other tomato with fruit set on yet. Some years I can get tomatoes in June, this year I'll get at least the Yellow Currants by early June.

We also have a little fish pond at the patio, I do a little water gardening, cat tails, mint, and water lilies that come back up every year. Sometimes I buy a bog plant but I don't have much luck keeping them over the winter.

Oh, we also have lots of hen and chicks. I like to have them in pots with other things, right now I have them with petunias, daisies, chives (which are blooming and gorgeous right now), and we also have several potted clematis, three of them blooming right now.

I'm Lisa. I live in old-ish Sparks (about half way between Western Village and the Nugget) in a very protected part of town. I don't grow much in the way of vegetables (six tomato plants just planted yesterday, in containers) because where I have good sun, the soil is lousy, and where the soil is good, it's too shady. I do grow lots of bulbs, flowers (perennial and annual), shrubs and small trees. I have an above-ground "pond" the size of a large bathtub. I especially like Old Garden Roses, Clematis, Japanese Maples, Hostas, Lilies, Antique Daffodils, Antique Tulips, Epimediums, Heucheras, Peonies (tree AND herbaceous) and Hellebores. Okay, and just about anything else that photosynthesizes.

This year I'm experimenting with windowboxes--so far so good. I hooked up a drip watering system to keep them watered adequately.

Hi all. I'm in Elko, home of Cowboy Poetry. Way north of you guys. Alkaline silt soil, low winter temperatures, high winds, low rainfall. Lots of challenges.

We have three equine manure factories that contribute amendment. No lawn, lots of gravel. Raised beds supported by garden block. Austrian Pine, Amur Maple, Aspen, Mount St. Helen's Plum, Bechtel Crabapple, Wichita Blue Juniper, Purpleleaf Sand Cherry, Cotoneaster Peking, Blue Star Juniper, Virginia Creeper, Honeysuckle, Clematis, Elijah's Blue Fescue, Blue Oat Grass, Cheddar Pinks, Sedum Autumn Joy, Threadleaf Coreopsis,Salvia, Dianthus, Purple Coneflower, Wooly Thyme, Peerennial Allysum.

That's a list of things that have survived. I don't even want to think about the list of the ones that didn't !