Our second summer of 2009

[sparkles2307]

We got robbed in Colorado too. It is trying to snow right now...

Yeah my dad in WY tells me that it doesnt look like it will be a warm weekend out there!!!

 

[injunjoe]

Ya'll need to pack up your plants and head down here.

I could not imagine frost so soon let alone snow. So sorry for you!

 

[digitS']

Yikes Steve! Good luck keeping your garden going. You have more energy and determination than I do this late in the season! I hope your efforts pay off!

I've got some awfully nice Italian sweet peppers this year ! And, I'll get some more!!

I get very frustrated to not be able to grow my favorites. . . Okay, avocados are a favorite but they are in the realm of "fruit that come from somewhere exotic" - so I don't mind not having them in my garden.

When I lived where there was just a little more than a 90 day growing season, I was one frustrated gardener. Puny little sweet corn and tasteless tomato varieties were all I could have ripe from the garden. A melon? Forget about it!!

It has taken me a long, long time to come up with varieties that have good production consistency where I am now - with nearly 2 more months to the growing season. Still, some years the big cool down can come in August!!! Frost may happen in June!! Then I feel cheated . . .

I wouldn't be happy living in Wyoming . . . no sir! The weather service gives probability of frost-free days somewhere in their webpages. !0% 50% 90% . . . Do you know, there are quite a few communities in Wyoming where there are frost-free days of ZERO, with that 90% certainty!! Why?? Do people!? Live there!!?

Steve

 

[prism]

Montana has had weird weather too. It's been cool when it should have been warm and now when it should be cool it is hot! In the last two weeks of August, I was getting a little nervous with night temps falling to 40ish. Days were only reaching mid 60's. Only the cool weather crops were happy. The others appeared to stop growing. September keeps getting warmer as it goes on. We've had 4 days in two weeks that hit around 90 degrees. Lows have been between 55-65 and a couple of nights ago, I saw the temp at 72 at 3:00am. huh? Mid-summer nights don't even stay that warm very often.

It's very perplexing but I'm not complaining. It's buying us some time to enjoy vine ripened tomatoes through September and for other things that got a late start to mature better.

It's nice not to have a heat bill yet but I'm afraid that when it decides to get cold, it's going to get REALLY COLD. Keeping my fingers crossed for a moderate winter.

 

[sparkles2307]

Do you know, there are quite a few communities in Wyoming where there are frost-free days of ZERO, with that 90% certainty!! Why?? Do people!? Live there!!?
Steve

Hey now! I live in Minnesota and would go back to WY in two shakes if I could! No bugs, at least not MANY, hotter summers, milder winters...theres a reason Buffalo Bill liked WY so much...because yes, it may snow, but a few days later a Chinook Wind will always blow thru and melt it all away. Of course, then it snows the next day but still...I miss not having to wear more than a hoodie in the winter...

 

[HiDelight]

do you have any photos to share ? I would love to see how your garden grew!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

HiDelight . . . not sure, but is that question directed to all of us or anyone in particular? I'd like to see everyone's best garden shots. Maybe we should start a thread?

I took a photo of my tomatoes back in . . . early July? . . . when they were outrageous, but since then they have toppled over and look a bit scraggly. They are just starting to send up some new stems with new flowers. I'm not sure if those will bear anything this year. Everything is looking past done and overgrown right now. Yes, I am hiding from my garden. I won't get caught back up with it until the cool weather sticks around for a while. I could take some photos of the little green raspberries that are forming, if you'd like . . . .

Steve -- I had no idea there were spots in WY where frost is that prevalent. I guess that is where people live who do not have green thumbs? Since I garden in a typically mild area I have just decided that I require a greenhouse to grow any hot weather vegetables. That way I don't have to complain about the (typical) long strings of cloudy days in June. Well, that sort of back-fired on me this year!

Prism -- That is an interesting report on Montana weather. Our September was similar in that it seemed to get hotter as the month progressed and we had a couple 90 F or near 90 F days this week. I hope it doesn't get REALLY COLD for you this winter. I'm afraid the same might happen here, but they say it will be drier and milder.

 

[digitS']

Hey now! I live in Minnesota and would go back to WY in two shakes if I could! No bugs, at least not MANY, hotter summers, milder winters...theres a reason Buffalo Bill liked WY so much...because yes, it may snow, but a few days later a Chinook Wind will always blow thru and melt it all away. Of course, then it snows the next day but still...I miss not having to wear more than a hoodie in the winter...

Sparkles, you must have lived in the zone 5 or zone 4 part of Wyoming. And, I have to admit - even as a life-long Westerner - I've never been to WY. For folks from other parts of the US, you gotta realize, there's a lot of territory out West.

It is probably the communities above (what?) 6,000 feet where frost can be expected in any month of the summer . . . I've enjoyed living in the jack pine forests of northern ID but too much freezing weather would have ruined a lot of fun for me.

Pictures of my gardens? You can click on my Personal Page and see them - except the "little veggie garden" is hidden behind that big bush along the west side of the cutting garden. The photo's were taken about 3 years ago but things don't look a whole lot different. I'll get pictures of the little veggie patch and put them on there real soon. It's in 2 parts but totals about 1,600 sq. ft.

Steve

 

[DrakeMaiden]

You maniac, Steve! That is a lot of garden to tend. I love it.

I've been to Wyoming in the winter. I kept recalling how odd it was that after a few days you could adjust to that sort of cold. It made me laugh at myself when we only got barely below the 20's this past winter and I thought I was cold. Remembering that sure stopped my whining.