Sidetracked Charley

Hoop House 2018 When I first moved to Black Lake it was a zone 3 and had only about a 90 day growing season. I wanted at least 120 days so I could grow lettuce. At that time the local market only sold Iceberg Lettuce. I do not call it lettuce. But it seems the Moreno Valley was famous for it at one time. Some old timers even claim it developed, raised, and popularized it. And so began my experiment on how to stretch my growing season. The use of pvc for hoops to support 6 mil plastic over raised beds promised to give me ten days on either side of summer. In its last season 2021 I planted in the beginning of May and continued to harvest through September.  Essentially I had lengthened my gardening season to 150 days. But not without trauma. As in late heavy spring snows which required going out and pushing the snow off the plastic every hour all night long. When the snows begin the plastic came off This year we had the snow squall in December. It overturned the garden shed. And then...

On the Edge 30 x 18 Mixed Media on Canvas $1350           I began the Dark Times Journal when Trump was sworn in as president pretend of our country but years before I began my End of Days series of paintings which continues one by one to be added to. I believe our country, our world, our earth could end. We are on a cusp and the outcome is not certain.     But the human species cannot live without hope. Even if it is just for tomorrow. We go to sleep believing we will wake up even on days we might desire not to. Yesterday I opted for hope in a longer future. I have decided to move forward on plans, some from before Covid, some from just yesterday.      I have ordered seed for next year's garden season, but concentrated on seeds which I could grow in the studio in case there is not a summer. And I have been developing a plan for the redo of the hoop house. Part of the collapse problem was the pvc pipe which forms the hoops is past i...

Inside my hoop house My garden journal, an actual physical sketchbook, in which I record my successes and failures in edible gardening at 8250 feet since 2011 served as my reference when I was urged to enter a State Garden Club contest. And the same journal is also my record of first frosts and last frosts, the late snow which brought the hoop house down, and the hail storm which shredded the 4 mil plastic covering. I now use 6 mil. And am a firm believer in climate change. My photography has recorded the development and growth of the hoop house which once covered two raised beds and is now 11' x 16'. Every year I add refinements because every year I challenge, not always successfully, the hail and snow and winds in an effort to extend my gardening year. Or should I say eating year. I eat what I grow. And I grow what I like to eat. This year it was the new back wall. My contest entry was already submitted with last year's successes and failures.  The rigid front wa...

I really have been an accidental gardener. I moved around too much to really put down roots outside of containers. And if I chanced, for a short period of time to have a plot where I could work the earth I was haphazard in what I would grow. Or attempt to grow. Now and again I would be wildly successful at something like horseradish in North Carolina. That started a war with my neighbor. She was also not fond of my shredded computer paper mulch. Frankly, I found that funny because all the birds favored it as nesting materials for blocks around. I learned to cook Zucchini because it was the only plant I was successful at in my rocky patch in Sandia Park, New Mexico. I even wrote a cookbook, and for years did a cooking column titled Goats Don't Eat Zucchini .  And they don't. But skunks eat corn. They even know when to do a midnight raid on your about ripe corn. In Questa I discovered why chicos. It is a labor intensive corn product made with corn a week from ripe or before...

Dog Gone Alley Last year the big expansion of the "garden" was the poppy bed on the front of the deck. This year the new flower beds have been in Dog Gone Alley, a double gated entry to my backyard, and dog camp. It seemed a perfect place to put at least one raised bed for flowers. And as it has better sun for Iris than other locations I decided to make it an Iris bed. To which I add Italian Garlic (garlic has gotten lost in my hoop house) and most recently globe thistle. That left me with the other side of the walkway through Dog Gone Alley. I resisted doing another raised bed and instead yesterday went for the natural sowing method often used for wild flowers. I scattered seeds of Mexican Hat over the varied low vegetation (dandelions and a couple other creeping weeds) topped with potting soil and then mulched with straw. I also mulched the other side. And while I still had lots of mulching straw in the bag I bought (I bought two so much more to mulch) I mulched ...