Looking pretty good, there Steve. I'm still amazed at the amount of rocks you have. I've got big flat pieces of sandstone, but they stay hidden a little better.

Most of the rocks are granite and schist from higher up, David.

That is, unless you get up close to the hillsides down the valley near here. Then, it is basalt. You can almost see the basalt cliff there behind the Shady Corner garden.

So, it is kind of a river of metamorphic rocks coming down into volcanic basalt. Seems like it could have been especially dynamic if all that was happening at the same prehistoric moment . . .

Steve

Wow, Steve, that's a lot to keep up with. Envious of the space, but not the amount of work it would require.

My garden is pretty much in now too. Planted a few tomatillos and ground cherries down at the community garden yesterday, and that was pretty much the last of it. The cucumbers, beans, and zucchini that the kids planted there are up now.

Here at the house, the carrots, and radishes are up, and the pumpkins, popcorn, and melons are starting to sprout, so things are looking pretty good at this point. We even ate our first ripe strawberry yesterday. So much more tart than the bland grocery store ones!

Best wishes on your gardening season!

Bonnie

Thanks, Bonnie!

I've got those sorts of things growing (or, vegetating in the cool & rain). Don't have the popcorn, tomatillos and ground cherries, however. I've been harvesting radish and bok choy for a couple of weeks.

Getting most of the plants out of the greenhouse (even, including the bok choy) is how it is possible to have much green out there in the gravel. It just seems darn near necessary to have a greenhouse to me.

Steve

Hey Steve! I'm thinking a greenhouse is a real good idea too. Especially this week. Did you gt any frost damage Wednesday night?
I just knew it was going to freeze when I went to bed because it was so clear, but I was so tired I didn't cover anything.
Sure enough, everything was icy in the morning. Darnit.
All but maybe 5 of my 100 peppers are mush, and the storebought toms are probably toast. Fortunately I haven't had an opportunity to get my own starts in the ground, and they were up against the house and semi sheltered, just the tops froze. Going to freeze again tonight so I popped a bale of straw and covered everything. Hope it helps.

I hope your gardens fared better.

I'm ready for some heat.

It looks great digit! I think with the volume you're growing a greenhouse is necessary. I'd love to have one!

Thistlebloom, sorry to hear about your freeze and I hope everything bounces back. Steve, I hope you dodged the freeze bullet.

I'd love to send you some of our heat. My life right now is basically consisting of moving the sprinkler every 15 minutes of every waking hour that I'm not at work. The heat combined with the wind is making gardening a tough proposition this year. We had a nice rain Wednesday night, but it's gone from the soil already. Forecast looks like we might get some rain Tuesday or Wednesday.

My grasshopper army is back, I can't remember if this is year 3 or 4, will have to check. I've had nolo bait out for weeks and am pleased to see lots of hoppers happily eating it. In 3 - 6 weeks the bait should have spread through the hoards and knocked them down. I'm hoping to not have to use sevin this year.

Love the pics, thanks for sharing them!

Barb

Without heat, I think that a greenhouse does provide that oft-stated, 3-weeks at the beginning and 3-weeks at the end of the season. With heat, the sky's the limit . . . but of course, we get so little light up here that shoveling the dollars towards heat & light makes less & less sense.

I'm sorry that you had that experience, Thistle'! Some of the tomatoes that lost their growing tips, I went ahead and left or put out into the garden a few years ago and they did just fine. It surprised me how nicely.

No frost this time. Since this was another morning in the 30's, we must have had 3 morning lows in that range this month. We are now down in the record territory so, it has to get turned around . . .

Steve

I can never, ever--EVER, believe how much stuff you plant, Digit! It makes me tired just lookin' at your pictures!

The "little" veggie garden, huh? I don't think so!!! Your "little" veggie garden is ten--make that twenty, times bigger than my WHOLE veggie garden! I sure would love to see all your "little" gardens in person some day! This year is Yellowstone, and next year is back to southern Utah and Four Corners again--and maybe the year after that I'll redo Glacier/Waterton and make a run over to Coeur D'Alene for a look-see!

Sorry about your continuing "chilly" temps! I'm pretty sure absolutely anyone here along the Front Range would GLADLY exchange some of your cold for our H E A T! Dang, it's been HOT down here! Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to sort of even it all out!!! Your plants may be unhappy with you for sticking them outside, but I think they all look great--especially considering the weather you've been having!

Garden on!

Skybird

We are still on the cool side here as well..Gotta admit that most of our garden is in the greenhouse set to move out in the next 2 days.Supposed to be only 10% chance of rain instead of the down pours,,LOL.The temps have been so cool, toss in the rain the slugs are out in full force snarfing every thing...My kids had 2 inches of snow last week down in the missions,,,, here we have had freezing and near freezing temps have been here yet,,
Ya ya you know the cool stuff is all out and we have done a several plantings of some of them for season extension..
When everything does go out ti will be instant garden ,Everything is large enough we hope the slugs cannot clean out the plants in a night like previous years.. ugh yuck and oh well..
Skybird, if you make that glacier trip drop buy we are on the west shore of Flathead on your way to the cut off that goes to CDA...
Mary

Well, surprisingly, we had a very light frost last night. The predicted and actual lows = 37 degrees. Here at the house, up on the mesa, everything looks fine. A mile south of here, down in town at the community garden, several plants on the east side of the plot got hit. One Peach Habanero, some beans, and a couple of cucumber sprouts. Could have been much worse, but its still the latest frost I've ever seen, especially considering what a warm, dry spring we've had!!!

Bonnie

We were down to 35 F this morning. Durango was forecast at 33 F.

The latest I remember was 24 F on a June 20-somthing-ith, which happened about 12 years ago. That was the year the bears were down in big numbers since all the acorns were frozen.

Steve your garden looks great. I'm still getting the last on mine in. I spread mine out. The tomato plants going in now will be for fall production. Most years they are my most productive. Everything so far has done/is doing well. The onions I started from seeds is looking good. I've dug one variety of garlic and part of another. But the rest shows no sign of maturing yet. If weather/time allows I will plant another round of cukes,spaghetti squash and the last of the okra. I will attach a link to some garden pictures. Most of these were a few weeks ago. The tomatoes are really jumping now. I now have the cattle panels up and the pole beans are starting to climb. I'm also growing two varieties of ever bearing bush beans. Will be saving seeds. I will be taking more pictures and loading them on photobucket soon. I try to take pictures every 2-3 weeks. It helps me keep track of progress and when the season is over I can look back when problems started ect. There is also some pictures of some of my early tomatoes. I planted a Sungold cross this year. It is unstable. I have had 3 different sizes/colors show up. They are shown in the pictures also. I started two plum tomato plants in 5 gallon buckets back in late March. I have been eating from them for quiet some time. I would carry them out during the day and carry them into my lean to on cold nights. They aren't pictured. The Tazmanian Chocolate pictured is one of the dwarf varieties I'm growing this year. So far they have been impressive. A good choice for someone with space limitations or who just wants to grow a couple of plants to have fresh tomatoes to eat. I will be saving seeds from the varieties I like. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: 2012 Garden Pictures