Oh husband, how I love thee...

And the masterful way you wield that table saw, that drill, that 

<insert any name of a tool you would use to build my never-ending wish list>

Winter is long...and cold. While there is nothing but snow and presents from the dogs blooming in the yard, let's talk projects. Besides the daily gardening, I always have dreams, dreams that may be too big to accomplish without manly help. 

But here's a little trifecta of honey-do just in case...

1. Pergola

They're so pretty!! This one is a little above and beyond, but *gasp* the stone fireplace! The cozy furniture! The twinkly lights! The stone patio! Insert me, the husband, some dogs, and a couple of cold beers. Heaven achieved.

A couple of great tutorials:

http://www.diynetwork.com/how-to/how-to-build-a-pergola/index.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/pergola/3352816


2. Fire pit

We've always gone the Home Depot instant fire pit route. They tend to rust and get piled over with snow in the winter, which means we never use it beyond the couple of months of summer we get.

photo credits: www.diynetwork.com

A concrete square topped of with sandstone tiles

A simple but pretty fire pit using paver stones

Rectangle pavers in a staggered pattern. 

3. A stone patio...on which to put the pergola and the fire pit of course. I lean towards the natural stone, as we may also have a donation of stone coming our way. 

Love the seating on this one.

Photo credit: http://www.myerslandscapes.com/photo_10.html

The website also has great before, during, and after pictures of this project. 

We don't have this much space, but I love the flagstone walkway leading up to the patio and the built in flower beds. 

Photo credit: http://kimberlynurseries.com/hardscape/flagstone-patios-and-walkways/

Enjoy winter and whatever garden dreams you're having while the snow flies!

Gardening under fire...and VICTORY

No, literally. A fire broke out across the highway from our home on 9/8/12 (yes, this is recent news due to the fact that I am a very slacky blogger). Here is a link to my Pinterest tribute to the Horsethief Canyon Fire: 

http://pinterest.com/wyodawn/horsethief-canyon-fire/

Helicopters and planes have been a part of my gardening life for weeks now. I've occasionally had to invent an errand and leave the house to escape the constant drone of engines above our house.

The view from our driveway about an hour after the fire started

A helicopter over the garden

Day 1 of the fire from the top of our neighborhood (P.S. huge thanks to firefighters who kept ours and many other neighborhoods safe. These are some seriously hard-working people)

Smoke still fills the valley, but the 3000+ acre fire is almost fully under control now.

(those are my neighbor's sunflowers. Here is an unofficial Teton Gardening trophy to her for the biggest freaking sunflowers in the neighborhood. Go girl!)

A picture I took today from above the valley 

And, now...on to the VICTORY part. It's the little things that make me jump up and down in the driveway, causing the neighbors to stare. But, when I tasted my first tomato of the season (finally!!) it was worth it.

See that?? Yeah, that's a tomato, sans blossom rot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was told I over-fertilized, under-fertilized, over-watered, under-watered. Finally, through the power of the almighty Google, I came to the conclusion that my tomatoes were calcium deficient.

CALCIUM CHLORIDE, people. Get ya some.

I now have the delicious, rot-free tomatoes I knew I could. I started spraying them once a week with calcium chloride. Tips on the bottle that seem to ring true: 

-once a week

-at dusk (so as not to cause burning)

I did still apply fertilizer once a month-Happy Frog organic tomato fertilizer is my favorite, but be warned *dogs love to stick their faces in this fertilizer*

Heaven

Who can help but smile when it's summer and the garden is going crazy?

We started our raspberries two years ago, added more last year and got about 5 berries, and finally...

YES!!! This is our second batch, but we ate the first one too quickly to share a picture with you.

Tonight's dinner: chard, spinach, salad greens, and raspberries. I was home alone, but I resisted the urge to eat all the raspberries myself, because my husband loves them. And I'm not a jerk. 

A second batch of garlic scapes - the real reason I grow garlic.

(ooh, and that's the new wildflower bed behind the fence...more on that later

Here is what I made with them the other night. I'm not really a measuring kind of girl unless I'm following someone's recipe who is a measuring kind of person. Sorry about that. But if you try this, you may want to adjust your amounts to your taste anyways. This is a super fast and really delicious dinner. The teenager had three helpings. 

Ingredients

1 box of angel hair pasta

A few tablespoons of olive oil

Grated parmesan cheese

5 or 6 scapes

Thyme

Basil

Tofu (if you're into that)

Chop scapes, thyme and basil together (can be done by hand, I used a Cuisinart chopper). Prepare angel hair according to directions. Toss scape/herb mixture, olive oil, and parmesan in with the pasta and serve. I served with a side of spinach from the garden. YUM.

(If you choose to use tofu): drain and press tofu and saute in a pan with seasoned salt, italian seasonings, whatever floats your boat. I like to pan a flat pan lid on top of the tofu while it cooks. It speeds ups the process and gives the tofu great texture.

Happy gardening and eating! 

*!#$^&* Tomatoes!!

I know, my last post was SO upbeat! SO "you can do this Wyoming gardeners!" Well, I have failed at my own advice. I think I have blossom rot. A gardening center employee told me she doesn't think so, but in her defense, this was after I told her I had 2 beautiful tomatoes hanging on beside all the dead blossoms.

I only had 2 tomatoes on my Big Beef plant. As a friend was admiring them today, I made a sad discovery.

One second I was all "look at my beautiful tomatoes!"

And then I turned one over. Aw hell....day officially ruined.

A (blurry, sorry) picture of one of the bad blossoms. They are drying and falling off.

The hope I'm holding onto - healthy blossoms and buds about to bloom.

Here's my theory, based on my recent, very (un)scientific research: 

TOMATOES DO NOT LIKE HUGE FLUCTUATIONS IN TEMPERATURE. 

Our temps have been going from 40 at night to sometimes 90 during the day. As stated in my last blog post, I believed 45 degrees was when the plants should hide in the garage. 

I was wrong. There, I said it.

60 degrees, Wyoming gardeners, 60 degrees. So, the plants are coming into the garage every night now. I'm also going to try calcium chloride, as recommended for blossom rot. I will pick some up and report back.

Sigh...

The Elusive Wyoming Tomato

I know a few people who have given up on growing tomatoes in the Teton region - some for lack of desire to deal with it. It indeed takes some effort.I usually buy my plants around the beginning May. I always have good intentions to start from seed, but...we know how good intentions go sometimes. 

Here is the awesome tomato cart my husband built that renewed my desire to grow tomatoes. Generally, if the weather will be below 40 degrees, I roll the cart into the garage. Sometimes in May and October, the cart doesn't leave the garage all day.

I don't know anyone here who has had good luck with growing tomatoes in the ground. You may be able to cover them every night and be successful that way, but I haven't tried.

 

Some of this year's crop.

Some of the bounty from last year. I don't remember what the variety was called, but they remained orange/yellow. They were delicious but didn't do well due to some kid of disease. So I went back to the standards this year: Sweet 100s and Big Beef. I have also done well with Patio tomatoes and Early Girls.

I just think tomato plants are about the best-smelling thing on earth and you can't beat the way home-grown tomatoes taste. For months after I run out of my own, I can't bring myself to buy a store-bought tomato. They kind of taste like cardboard after you've grown your own. 

Some things I've learned about Teton tomato growing

• it only takes one cold night to lose months of tender loving care of your tomatoes
• rumor has it that tomatoes are tastier if they do not get below 40-45 degrees
• prune off suckers (the little shoots that grow in the middle of the "Y" of branches) early. Then the plants can concentrate on the tomatoes and not a bunch of unnecessary leaves.
• buy good, organic fertilizer that also helps with blossom rot
• all the dogs in the neighborhood enjoy being snout-deep in said fertilizer. Nothing you can do about it.
• you can enjoy tomatoes until January or later by saving them in a clear container. They will ripen from the top down.
• you will have more friends when the tomatoes are almost ripe
• It is totally worth it, yum!

Neglectful gardener returns

Poor, neglected blog. The good news is, the garden is not as neglected. Before I left on a 5-day trip, I bought 4 tomato plants and planted seeds (cilantro, basil, oregano, johnny jump ups, poppies, marigolds, sweet peas, snap peas. It could have been a foolish choice before going out of town, but the family came through for me and everything is alive!

Strawberries, tulips and chives

  

The rhubarb before and after. Blooms popped up while I was gone. In this picture, I have trimmed the blooms off of the left side. Here is a nice, simple article on why you should not let the blooms stay.

http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=415

Raspberries! (We're excited, can you tell?) These were transplanted from my neighbor's yard over the last 2 years and this is the first year they have really taken off. They already have blooms and if my husband has anything to do with it, he will have those berries before the birds do.

This catnip and the pansies returned from last year. I may dig up the catnip and put it in a pot underground before it totally takes over. Of course, the cats will not complain about over-abundance. Last week, I planted poppies in the corner, johnny jump ups between the pavers, and basil and oregano in with the catnip.

The tulips are done on the south side of the house, but the north side is amazing right now. I get all my tulips and daffodils from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn, Oregon. When we lived in Portland, we went to their Tulip Festival every year. It's an amazing place.

This is the new bed I made this weekend. I've been wanting to extend the bed around the corner of the house, and we've been wanting to not have to mow around the dogwoods anymore. Win, win!

Next blog post: addressing my tomato addiction and sharing some tips for growing tomatoes in the Tetons

A little garden humor

Careful out there friends - digging is a gateway drug!*

*from www.faceyourfarmer.com

Speaking of digging - the salad greens, spinach and chard seeds went in yesterday after a beautiful trip down the river. (our first ever April river trip - oh, blissful, happy, early spring!!) The greenhouse frames' windows are all fogged up - good things are brewing in there!