Gardening 1 A In The Central Sierra Nevada Range.

Good Morning Froggy. This little one was sitting on the screen on one of my bedroom windows this morning in a small space of  sunshine on a 51 degree morning.  48 hours earlier he wasn't there as the low temperature for Saturday at 5:30 AM was 72. I am certain he was out and about looking for breakfast. Today he just wanted to stay warm.

I thought about blogging on the new generator but since gardens are the number one topic in blogland I decided to jump in with the rest of you .  I am grateful to be able to pick the brains of multiple seasoned gardeners and/or homesteaders to bounce ideas off of. I as some of you know was not the gardener of our family. I dappled and did a few small gardens on Ash Creek (the off gird homestead) the last year or two prior to Geoffrey passing. I also did two small raised beds last Spring of 2019 to occupy myself while selling our 42 Acres of Paradise after he passed. But Geoffrey was the official "master" gardener for  all the years the children were at home and after. I was the "master" food preserver and goat herder.

Last Fall I got a wild hair and grew some snap peas, kale and spinach. With fairly decent results and since our winter was without snow on the ground and no days of continuous freezing I pretty much had fresh goodies through until mid spring when I evicted them with thoughts of a summer garden taking their place.

During a long weekend visit with a my friends middle daughter Moriah we constructed these 2X8 foot above ground containers of shelving the seller had left in the shop when he moved out. They went together nicely. I put a layer of hardware cloth on the bottom to gopher proof them before I filled them with soil. I also put to use the two 60 gallon stock tanks that were left behind as they didn't hold water well .

In the beginning when the plants were littles.

A cart that was used on the left behind riding mower became a herb garden when the mover died and it was left by the side of my barn road since I could no longer pull it to move yard waste and more. 

There has been funky weather periods of Spring is here and no it is not . Winters back wood stove is chugging along and then opps summer is here. Another several combinations there of until we pretty much have stabilized in  a moderate zone or so "they" say. Let us not forget the most recent 21 degree differential in only 48 hours.

The plants went in late April and early May. So were are we now almost in July? 

Tomatoes Indigo Rose getting bigger daily and the plant is full of different stages.

A stock tank full of happy mixed beans. Life is an experiment! 

My favorite basil Lavender and it grows in a perfect dome shape. Co-existing with a honey dew melon . I may have to move the basil soon to give the honey dew more room. Another crazy experiment.

Lemon grass a first for me and I guess I need to brush up on my Thai recipes.

Sun Gold plant loaded and the first almost fully ripened tomato.

Below is the top of the same plant just going skyward.

What I didn't picture a fully loaded eggplant, zucchini, cucumber and a pumpkin. I figure I will get what I get but learn a lot and spend some quality time with the plants. So much fun to go out in the morning and see them grow exponentially overnight!  I am finally beginning to understand the Jack and the bean stock concept lol!