Walking around the place –
And I am trying out grow bags for tomatoes and squash this year. The horse washing station is not used so thought instead of pulling weeds all summer maybe all I will have to do is sweep! We’ll see. Suppose to freeze tonight which would be bad, bad, bad. That’s the Gardener’s life!
Another Picture On The Wall 
Wow, your gardens are beautiful, Gary! You put mine to shame for sure. What’s your secret? Fertilizer, compost, both? I hope it doesn’t frost, how would you cover all those tender plants?
LikeLike
The soil is pretty tough out here, ancient river bed, soil dries out on top fast and hard. We’ve brought in and tried different soil mixtures for the beds. Down the road a guy has a huge walnut shell composting operation. After 3 years, it breaks down pretty. we do fertilize later in the season. sometimes things just up and die, like the English Laurel I’ve tried for 3 years to grow. The panting beds, in raised beds, I do start with bagged planting mix and then top off with chicken coop poop and pine shavings in the fall….It has been very windy out here, 45 mph at times the past 3 days, there is nothing I can put on the plants that will stay on. They’ll be a mile down the road. I had a Santa Rosa plum tree just loaded this year and after 3 days of severe and constant wind there are baby plums everywhere on the ground. Most of the pluots and other plums didn’t set because it got down to 26 degrees in the middle of their blossoming. apricots look fairly good, peaches look great so far and so do the nectarines. instead of planting vegetables out back, this year we’ve planted bulbs and seeds for cut flowers. I want family and friends to be able to pick a flowers everyday! Love watching Bridget wander about gathering flowers for the house. Also, this year, I am going to try to grow my crenshaw melons vertically along some hog fencing, to get them off the ground and out of the weeds. I will support each melon with something stretchy tied to the fence. I lose so many melons in the tall grass, to chickens, to rabbits, etc. We’ll see. Strawberries are beginning to ripen and set very well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sounds wonderful (except for plums and pluots), at least the other stone fruit is promising. I hope you post some of the floral bouquets!
LikeLike
The garden color is like a beautiful natural painting. As I read your explanation of your gardening situation, that is mine too. When I put in plants in our very hard soil, even though they seem like tough plants, they died. I have yet to do anything in my tiny garden because it’s still freezing at night and our winds here are fierce, and have been blowing for days. We did get some rain last night which was welcomed but it’s still really windy today. My sister who lives in Wyoming is still getting snow, so she hasn’t sown any seeds in her veggie garden yet, she said she’s never seen a spring like this in the over 30 years she’s had a garden. I hope things get better for you, your garden is so expansive and inspiring for me. I’m planning a trip to the nursery to get my seeds and get outside as soon as I can, I keep thinking of your garden and all of the work you do that keeps me motivated. Great idea for the horse washing station, looking forward to more gardening news from the McMahon Family Garden.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my the winds were crazy in the valley-45 mph but nothing like at your elevation. We barely missed the frost last night – hooray! We’ll see how the tomatoes do in the grow bags. Just got done pulling weeds around the raspberries and blackberries this morning. Now have to fix a couple of drip lines and then get the weed whacker fired up. I have use it one hour a day of it all gets out of control. The weeds are here must go back to the dinosaur era. They are ferocious and not good for dogs with lots of fur. Love those trips to the nursery! Hopefully your weather warms up soon! Tell your sister I said hi!
LikeLiked by 1 person
awesome, Gary – would love to visit one day and see the flowers, man x
LikeLiked by 1 person