High Altitude

[digitS']

This post may be of little help to most but the article linked and the entire scope of the ideas inspired me to put it here on TEG.

I like mountains and enjoy living where I can see them, most any old time. It's a challenge enjoying gardening at higher elevations and yet, I don't live at a very high elevation, at 2,000 feet. Still, the proximity to mountains and the northern latitude provide some challenges.

Some places like Colorado really look difficult to me. Sun exposure, with all those mountains and the possibility of sudden, often localized, often severe "weather events." Hail, snow, wind storms - all may occur throughout that up-and-down terrain. The thin air means that there is often a great deal of difference between day and night temperatures. "Mile High?" You know, officially Denver has warmer growing seasons than here (by a few degree days). But, I have a slight advantage - my hours of darkness are a little shorter because of latitude . (Now explain to me why I have trouble with marmots but they only live above 6,000 feet in Colorado .)

I was looking at an article in Planet Natural (Montana company) yesterday morning and came across this: https://www.planetnatural.com/high-altitude-gardening/ That gardener is at 7,000 feet in New Mexico.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

That is a really good, comprehensive introduction to vegetable gardening. Although written for high altitude gardeners, most of those principles can be applied almost anywhere. I use many of those concepts in my slightly more hospitable Wisconsin climate.

 

[digitS']

Could it be that flat raised beds are not the best?

Thinking about this drawing from that pdf file made me wonder. I've known about this idea for warming soil for years. An intriguing idea was using a bed that would be the exact opposite of a raised bed. Dig a trench, say 4' wide and about 6" deep. Continue digging on the south side for another 6" but only about 2' wide. All soil is piled on the north side of the trench.

The deeper part of the trench is your path. The higher part (still a little below surface level and protected by the additional mound of shoveled soil) is for the plants.

Below the soil surface would protect the plants from frigid air temperatures, somewhat. The piled soil would catch the sunlight and warm during the daylight hours. Hmmmm?

Less radical would be a raised bed that sloped to the south. I think of a raised bed as either framed or unframed. The U of W diagram would narrow my definition and the other figures would also really narrow the idea of a trenched bed. I thought I'd share.


Steve