It was great to have several new members interested in market growing and since they’re all in Dolan Springs, we might have a meeting in Dolan in a week or so. Please email if you’re interested in joining us, we’ll mostly talk about bulk purchases, greenhouses / hoophouses and market gardening.
We also had several new members who don’t garden at all and are not interested in gardening at their home, but consider helping others. We hope to match up gardeners with health problems with members who can help dig holes, put up fences, etc. in exchange for part of the harvest.
We watched the 36 minute documentary “Greening the Desert” about growing under conditions far worse than in our area:
Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East from Craig Mackintosh on Vimeo.
We need to find more nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs that won’t freeze and will do well in our harsh climate. Palo Verde trees are nitrogen fixers, we just planted several and we hope they survive their first winter.
The prizes:
For grand prizes we had a 3′ Palo Verde tree, bamboo and a gift basket with gloves and pruners. The door prizes were very cool too, locally grown strawberries, books, pots, labels, …
We also received $22 in DONATIONS and seeds from LOCALLY grown bell peppers and yet to be identified local shrubs, thank you! I can’t wait to try the the bell peppers because we didn’t get a single bell pepper yet! We had planted several varieties and are very disappointed. Our Hungarian peppers finally set fruit and we have a few Anaheim chili peppers growing, but the peppers definitely were our worst crop this year.
I think the best part of the meetings is that members have so much to talk about. It’s all about sharing information and experiences and finding solutions to problems. I’m going to set up a separate gardening blog here so we can post resources and it’ll make it a lot easier to get organized.
The next meeting is on Monday, 10/17/11 at 1 PM, as always at the LMC Music Hall.
Hi, Sounds like great meetings. My son is here now and we harvested his garden before we left. I’m looking for recipes for green tomato salsa. Lots of peppers, tomatoes and onions to work with. He is a great gardener and very interested in growing here. Let us know when the next meeting is and we may drive up. Would like to give him a tour of your garden too. Anna
I’ll see if my son wants to drive up on Monday. We have been so busy. He has been rototilling everything and we are planting over that as he wants to stop the goatheads. He’s going to let it grow some and then till it under again. We’re going to start hauling lots of mulch over too. He’s still not unpacked completely and he has to get his room set up yet. He’s been enjoying sleeping outside even with the cold.
Yes, I think with his help we could have a nice market garden and he believes in organic. If we come up I’ll bring you some peppers and onions and tomatoes. Do you need eggs? He brought his chickens with him too, about a dozen. My son’s name is Earl. He likes to talk. : P More later. Anna Oh, do you have any tomatoe Plants? Are you coming in on Sunday for Azure pickup?
We didn’t order this month, having to go to town on Sunday is always such a headache, have to go in next week sometime, possibly stop in Dolan.
Remember it’s Monday in a week, the 17th.
We’ll have a couple short videos on cover crops and mulching.
And yes, have a bunch of tomato plants. Several seedlings, but I would suggest taking cuttings from the plants that have been doing so well this year. Crimson Sprinter for about 1.5 to 2″ tomatoes and I “think” it’s a Thessaloniki that’s giving us tons of cherry tomatoes.
Also, I want to look into a cool weather tomato for winter. Of course it is a lot warmer in GV.
And yes, I’ve been eating eggs. Love the local duck eggs, but they’re not laying right now, so we’re on our way to get some chicken eggs now.
Had some elk last week, that was a rare treat!
We’re looking forward to meet Earl, so I really hope you can make it to the meeting.
Also, I just transplanted most of our basil outside into pots (we were worried about frost) and if you can keep basil somewhere above 32 degrees they overwinter perfectly and then really take off when you plant them back outside.
And got loads of oregano seeds from ours that’s been doing so well and some HOT Hatch chili seeds.