Yesterday my husband and I spent the whole afternoon in our garden. My hands are a bit worse for the wear and I was tired and cranky last night but it was well worth it.
For those of you who garden, you will really understand the joy of watching your seedlings come up and urging them along.
We face several challenges gardening in the Rocky Mountains at 8000 feet. First off, you can get frost up until the middle of June and as early as late August. We have set up a system to cover the garden this year. Last year we had several tomato plants with lots of green tomatoes and corn and zucchini we lost to the frost. We are much more prepared this year. I also learned you can pull up the tomato plants and hang them upside down in a sunny spot in your house and the tomatoes will continue to ripen.
Then there are the critters. Ground squirrels, rabbits, prairie dogs, deer and elk all menace my garden. We have a garden that has been dug underneath at about 4-5 feet and with heavy-duty mesh wire sheets laid down so the burrowing creatures cannot help themselves to our crops. The garden is actually above this mesh with dirt about 4 feet high over the mesh. This wire mesh continues up the sides of the fences and the fences are 7 feet high to discourage the deer. Now as for the Elk we just have to cross our fingers that a huge bull elk does not decide to push the fence over to get at our goodies. It has not happened yet! Cross your fingers for me.
My husband spent about a week this spring re-building the door and reinforcing the fence around the outside so there are not any holes for ground squirrels to get in. I had a lovely crop of cabbage and collard greens that the ground squirrels enjoyed last spring because we had a hole in the fence.
It is such a gamble to try to garden under these conditions that the chance we will succeed with gardening is pretty small but we also learned a lot last year to help us protect the garden this year. If this project fails at least we had fun doing it. I loved hanging out with my husband in the quiet mountain air and listening to some classical music on his smart phone while digging in the dirt. Yesterday afternoon was priceless.
Before we started out to the garden plot we sat down for a tasty and light salad for lunch. We talked about how fun it would be to eat our own salad greens. The ones we were eating came from Whole Foods. Our salad rows are looking like they have been chewed on by the moths that come out in the early evening. Do any of you experience gardeners know how to deal with this?
Spring Salad with Chevre, Chicken and Red Onions
Serves 4
1 lb Mixed Spring Salad Greens
1/4 red onion sliced thinly
1/2 carrot grated on a box grater on the small holes
1/2 lb Laurels Chanel Chevre crumbled
8 chicken tenders
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken tenders in a roasting pan and drizzle 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and 1 tbs olive oil over the top. Season with sea salt and cracked pepper.
Bake until cooked through but not tough on the outside. About 15 minutes or until internal read thermometer reads 160.
Cool in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Toss salad greens, grated carrot and sliced red onion together.
Top with shredded chicken, crumbled goat cheese and 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Season to taste.
Very interesting to read the different techniques and challenges from other gardeners. When we planted our orchard we made huge baskets out of chicken wire, dug 4 foot holes, dropped the baskets in the holes and then planted the trees – our attempt at keeping the gophers from eating the roots. It’s worked, too, but turns out Oklahoma is not Washington State… Oh, and this year we also had heavy moth damage on our greens. Never have seen that before.
We are going to plant more crops by the house and use the chicken wire lined hole method. Stupid moths….
Delightful post! Rabbits are topping my zinnia seedlings much to my frustration! There is something so wonderful watching something grow. Recipe looks delicious!
Good salad and colorful. I want some
I hope you have good luck with your garden this year – sounds like you have lots of challenges.
We planted ours in between a corn field and a winter wheat field- the deer can’t find us. That, and the coyotes seem to keep them away.
There are many deer here at Cal-Wood. I tried to count them one day…no luck. I got to 25 before I quit. They love it up here because somehow they know there is no hunting. At least that is what I think.
The coyotes don’t seem to bother them at all.
Gardening is new for mr, and I do it on a very small scale. Even so, I am thrilled to go outside and gather what these hands have grown. Fortunately, not many critters interfere.
Looks delicious Connie! BTW, made the brownies yesterday and they were a huge hit! I added some white chocolate to them to make them extra decadent. I didn’t even have time to take a picture of them, they were devoured immediately! Great recipe!
Yay! Thank you for telling me this. Love the idea with the white chocolate.
“If this project fails, at least we had fun doing it.” What a great attitude. Amazing to me that someone would think repairing a fence and digging four feet down is fun.
It’s fun what ever I am doing with my hubs.
I remember the elk from our visit last Autumn. Until your post I had not thought of them as a gardeners’ problem!Great tip re tomato plants. So glad you have fun gardening despite the challenges – puts our battles with the slugs in the shade!
My husband spent the past two days in the garden. We have high hopes also. In 2011 and in 2009 we got hit with a mid-summer hail storm. The 2009 one wiped out everything, the 2011 one wiped out a few things and stunted the progress of our tomatoes by 1-2 months. Good luck with your garden and yummy salad. I’m glad the plate was licked clean
Hopefully we can avoid hail. If it comes we have large sheets of plastic to lay over the plants. Not sure if that will work but we are keeping our fingers crossed.
Looks like the perfect salad for summer!
It was yummy.
It looks yummy, and what I like about it is that it is low calorie. I’m in favor of low calorie meals and losing weight.
Great salad, Connie!
The only way to battle flying pests like the moths is with a floating row cover…given the kind of winds you’re subject to up there, you’d need to anchor it really well – they don’t call it”floating” for nothin’! Growing greens in containers (big pots) with freshly-purchased potting soil can help combat the insect larvae that might be living in your ground. I suspect they’re probably your culprit, rather than the adult moths.
What a fantastic and fresh salad!
Beautiful spring salad! I like how the chicken is baked. Using the oven to cook is my preferred MO because it leaves my stovetop clear for other things.
Hi there – thanks for visiting my blog! You really do have some challenges, living so high in the Rockies! I have given up on a veggie garden here in my corner of Africa, until I can get it going under cover – too much competition from hungry african noo-noos, birds like the hadeda ibis ( a garden bird the size of a small dog, very partial to young lettuce) and the local vervet monkey troupe (daily visitors to the guava and mango trees). I loved hearing about your ‘critters’ – they sound so exotic to me! Love your wire mesh lined and covered beds – brilliant idea!!! Take care – Linda
Thanks Linda,
Looking forward to trying some of your campfire meals.
My favorite was when the chickens snuck into the garden and had a go at the freshly straw mulched, tender pea sprouts like the baby you’ve got in your hands. On the verge of tears, I would replant the little strewn about shoots. Just when you finally thought you had the four leg beasts under control (aka deer… or elk)
But somehow it is always worth it in the end.
Healthy, fresh salad you’ve got there
dang critters…things are doing good so far!
This salad definitely sounds like the perfect and very fitting accompaniment to a day of gardening!
Yes Thank you!
This is such a great post! We try to garden organically in our backyard, and more than half our crops get eaten by bugs and slugs. But the great joy is in the process, as you’ve said in your post. Thanks for sharing a bit of your story with us!
How I wish I had a garden instead of a deck off the back of the apartment! This salad sounds delicious, too!
Container gardening can be fun!
I do have some herbs growing out in pots — my mom promised me some tomato plants, as well! and it is our goal to purchase a house in the next year, and then gardening will really begin
Nominated you for an illuminating blogger award, really enjoying your blog! http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/comment-page-2/#comment-2133
OMG. Thank you very much!
Never gardened before but I can imagine the joy of watching your seedlings grow!!
I love gardening! The salad look great!
Such a nice post! Makes me wish I had more time for gardening!
Scrumptious! I really enjoyed your post…
Hi, Chef Connie, thanks for dropping by my blog the other day. I’ve always had problems growing plants in containers while living in a condo in Honolulu. The daytime temperature would average 90 degrees, not good for the roots! I also had major infestations of bugs, which probably came from the packaged soil (we were on the 9th floor, so that was my best guess.) I now live in Upstate NY and started growing a few lettuce plants and easy herbs in REAL soil (woo hoo!) No rabbits eating my lettuce, though I’ve seen them around. Only slugs eating the catnip plants and something else attacking my chocolate mint (but not my lemon sage or pineapple mint.) My shiso and curry plants also seem to be unharmed.
In my yard its SQUIRRELS!!! Nasty little rodents dig up everything! Then, next year I have oaks and pecan trees growing in places they’re not supposed to be. We also get our share of bugs but who doesn’t. No deer, Elk or other large animals. Of course, garden space is severely limited and you make space where you can but we still get fresh chard almost year round, fresh parsley, cilantro, leeks and onions, eggplant, arugula, lettuce, potatoes, an occasional tomato or two, asparagus and an assortment of herbs. It’s so much fun to cook the things that come out of your garden. I love it. As always, enjoyed reading your post.
Living in the Rocky Mountain region myself and trying to always improve the quality of our meals, yours is a perfect blog for me to follow. I love it!
thank you very much!
+Living in a condo prevents me from having a gardon but I am committed to eating healthy. I happen to love salads also.
Frost is always an issue, here in Tasmania, too. We can get days on end of frost. When we planted a lemon tree, everyone told us we’d never grow lemons hereabouts.
Well, with judicious use of shade cloth during the winter months, three years later we’re finally starting to get a reliable crop of lemons!
Great job. I am not sure how much effort I want to put in gardening this year.