June Classes

We had a small turn-out on Sunday for the Container Garden class. The wind was horrible, so we appreciate those who stayed. Our next class will be on Sunday, June 12 at noon. This class on Composting,  will be given by Ralph Anderson. He is an Albuquerque Master Gardener, a Master Composter and a member of the Mountain Garden Club in the East Mountains. He will discuss the best ways to compost here in New Mexico, and will answer all your composting questions!!

OPEN MEMORIAL DAY

We will be open Monday, May 30, Memorial Day, from 10am - 5pm. We have all the veggie plants out, plenty of annuals and hardy perennials. We also have vines, grasses, shrubs and trees. Check out the bag goods area, there is potting soil, composted cotton burr, humax and wood mulch. If there is something you are looking for that we don't have, we will try to find it for you.

May in the Mountains

May is always an unpredictable month. With the snow and freezing weather, it's hard to tell customers when to plant. Our next class will be on Sunday, May 29 at noon. We will be discussing container gardens. It will be a hands on class, so feel free to bring your pots or containers and we can help you decide what to plant.

Opening

APRIL 30 ***  SATURDAY *****  10:00 am
We will be opening for the 2011 season April 30.
We will have a full supply of soil amendments, potting soil, garden supplies, a few veggies, row cover, shade cloth and lots of good advice for planting in the East Mountains. We also want to hear all the great stories of how everyone made it through the really cold winter. Hope to see all of our old customers and lots of new ones.  Happy gardening!!

March 22--Spring?

It's been trying to be spring. We've gone from the sub-arctic to several weeks of positively balmy weather. But spring comes with a price in the mountains--wind. Yesterday it took the plastic right off greenhouse number 4. It was a frantic, whipping race to get another piece on before dark. Try holding onto 50 feet of sail in a 40mph blow! If it weren't still dropping to freezing (and below) we'd have left if off, but the plants are leaping into growth with these 65 degree days...not dormant anymore. And last night it was cold enough for grapple to fall. Would a little rain be too much to ask?!

We've been pleasantly surprised by the recovery the plants are making. It looks like that -30 didn't do the damage we were expecting. The fruit trees look hopeful, tulips, dafs, and crocus are coming up all over--even things that froze to the ground (like my 4th of July rose) are showing some green. What else is showing signs of life--catmint, of course, enormously tough up here. The dianthus planted outside stayed green, soapwort is greening up, little leaves coming out on the strawberries, big green leaves on the hollyhocks and oriental poppies. The lilacs have fat little buds. The barberries are leafing out. Potentilla and delphiniums too. The peaches in # 6 are flowering! No more arctic freezes, please!

We got #3 & 4 lashed down with line to keep the plastic from billowing. Tomorrow we'll get 6 & 7 roped down. Should of done it last fall...oh well. Can't spend every day dabbling in the dirt.

...later in the month

   It's been several weeks since the last post, and since then we've had a storm that dropped us to -30 (and that's not windchill)! Records were set all over the state. We're still waiting to see what the damage is on the fruit trees outside. It looks as though most of the hardy natives in the unheated hoop houses came through fine, but the heater in greenhouse two failed, and some of the annuals we're getting ready for spring didn't make it. We had just received our big shipment of fruit trees and gotten them potted up. Early to say, but most of them look very good.

And the last several days have been lovely! Except for winds gusting to 50 yesterday--that's New Mexico.  the days warm up--we're longing for spring. Half the gardeners (who know better) start planting, then zing! We get hit again.

We continue to plant seedlings--we've started the onions, tomatos and peppers, and are about to put some greens in the grow box. I had half a dozen flats of leafy greens from last year in number two (I'm cutting them for the chickens), and was surprised at how much cold they took.

It's always a pleasure to go into one of the greenhouses and see something in bloom. Right now, the amaryllis, winter jasmine, bougainvillea (still!), cyclamen, and the fuschias are showing their color. And I brought in a pink daisy today to make cuttings from--it was covered! The days are getting longer, more light (sometimes more heat) is coaxing plants out of dormancy. Many of the potted fruit trees are starting to show buds.

Tomorrow, we give a talk at the local garden club on "What Not to Grow in the East Mountains." Many people get confused because, though we're so close, many of the plants they admire in Albuquerque won't grow well (or at all) in the mountains. ABQ is a heat island--zone 8. In the mountains, we're zone 4, zone 5 sometimes with protection.

Less Snow!

February roars in with about 8 inches of snow and near zero temps. Is there anything more exciting than raking a foot of snow off the hoophouses?! Or plowing a half mile of driveway?  Or hanging plastic over breezy cracks in the greenhouse? Or fussing with the generator when it's only 2 degrees out there? Cold, cold, cold, a wind chill of -12...and another storm front sweeping in tomorrow. Sure glad we topped off the propane tanks we use to heat one and two. The heaters, usually off by 7or 8 am, have been going strong all day. The cisterns are probably going to freeze again too. Ahhh, winter in the mountains...