Good morning, it was back in the 60's while in the 4th grade that my Mother introduced me to gardening. Through the years it has always been a constant. Save for a few years in college, I have always had a garden.
I like to just observe things because I am curious. This has served me well too. This is why while in high school geometry was my favorite class. It helped me hone what would be "trouble shooting' skills.
Over the course of my life, I have lived in many different places. From living on both coasts and several places in between. This afforded me a living geography lesson. One of the most amazing drives I took several times while living in Kentucky, was driving Interstate Hwy 40. These days I find interstate highway travel boring but as a teenager I was enthralled. Starting in Ky and traveling west it was like a slow motion film of watching the countryside go from dense deciduous forests, to tall grass prairies, followed by short grass prairies, and then climbing into the mountains just to the east of Albaquerque, NM pine forests. This was a living example of the significance of the 100th meridian. To the east wetter and acidic soils, to the west drier and alkaline soils. Little did I know that just this simple action has helped me to interpret gardening books from any location in the country to where ever I lived.
Of course, like even with cookbooks, by following these gardening books you will be successful. By being observant you can adapt them to your location.
Most gardening books are written in wetter climes, This fact alone makes it difficult to adapt them to the Big Bend of Tx.. Besides being drier, our gardening seasons are also different that the rest of the country. Case in point, what are considered spring veggies in the rest of the country do very poorly because we really do not have a protracted spring like elsewhere. Once we get through winter (usually half way through February) the temperatures steadily and with haste climb. Our spring is usually a month and a half long. Then it turns to extreme winds with May and June being a blast furnace approaching the century mark with single digit humidity. This can be formidable for first time arid land gardeners. This has been where my trouble shooting skills have paid off. Trial and error along with making notes of what works and tweeking those things that have potential.
Gardening in far west Texas is difficult to master. No other place I have ever lived have I experienced the extremes that we have. Difficult does not mean impossible. Learning how to adapt affords greater success. There are many adaptions I have made. It is my intent to share these successes for anyone so that they can then tweek them for their specific garden. Every garden is different. I have no trade secrets and since the time my Mother gave me the gardening bug, I hope to inspire other would be gardeners. There is no reason to continually "reinvent the wheel". My only request is to pass on anything that a person may have discovered and works well for them. We are all in this together.
Such joy to see many blooms on the peas. One of our recent cold spells of 18 degrees burned all the blooms. I am optimistic that there will be peas very soon. spring planting is coming along with bot zucchini and cucumbers up. Lettuce seedling and chard seedlings are ready to transplant. Tomatoes are ready for the garden. It is a wonderful time pf year. with more "bounty" i should be able to fill all orders.
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