Garden

“Though I do not believe a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” Henry David Thoreau.

My current home is new, large, lovely, and not landscaped at all. Extremely rocky soil pounded down by home building equipment dictates that I build raised beds to plant anything. A task not yet tackled. The garden category here details the meager progress I’ve made. This map from Sunset’s Western Landscaping gives you an idea of the challenges of the “arid west”. I’d be somewhere between the SF and LA amount – generally less than an inch from mid-spring to late fall which, with weeks of high 90 to 100’s Farenheit in summer, is virtually nada. The eastern half of the U.S. mostly sees 20’s in inches, some 30’s and we’ll leave Florida out . Even Phoenix and Reno see substantially more rain than us. You can water and drip – but other than the coast – the air itself is bone dry and sucks the water from leaves. This is why we must plant permanent plants in fall – so they can develop enough of a root system to stay alive through our summers. Nothing wrong with our nurseries, but 4 inch and 6 pack style pots will just keel over and die in the heat of summer.Average Inches of Rainfall May 1st – Oct 31st.

Average Inches of Rainfall May 1st - Oct 31st

“Below is a gallery from my previous garden. You can also search for posts in the category “garden” on the blog homepage. The vast majority of the garden was seed and cutting grown. I love the mountains and my new home, but look at my Fall Equinox post to see my current back property: the deer and turkey; brown ground with trees. My rampantly packed backyard was a secret garden, only visible if nosey neighbors stood on a ladder to see over the 6 foot fence.