HOWDY FROM 8000 FT - N CENTRAL NEW MEXICO

Hey, everyone! - Recently, thankfully, retired HS biology teacher here, getting ready to make a go of SFG on my deck. It's the only place, other than my leach field and part of my driveway, that is LEVEL. I'm about 20 miles outside of Santa Fe NM, on five acres of juniper/pinon forest, all at about a 30 degree slope.

I think my area is 5b... but that morning I stuck my head out the back door and got hit with 24 below zero is one I will never forget!

When I started The Book, I was hooked immediately by NO DIG, NO FERTILIZER, NO AMENDMENTS. EVER. The clay here is good for nothing but bricks and forest. It took me 2 weeks to hand carve a ditch wide and deep enough to fit a RR tie just under my driveway gate (escape artist dogs). So to find such a grand idea as SFG... WOOHOO!

Linda

Glad you found us. There is a lot of information and help on this forum. Hope you have a copy of the All New Square Foot Gardening book. It spells out everything. In fact, you sound like an ideal candidate for tabletop gardening, bad soil, hard rock and uneven land. There are many examples of tabletops on the forum where folk have used them to solve a variety of problems. Run a search on tabletops or TT. I use them because my knees just can't take it anymore. Check out the regional forums for problems more specific to your area and Happy Gardening.


Kay

Good Morning Linda! We are so happy to have you join us here on the forum. SFG is the perfect answer for situations such as yours. Actually, it is the perfect answer to a lot of gardening situations!

Those 24 degrees below zero days are quite something aren't they? LOL! I live in central British Columbia so am very familiar with them.

Best of luck with your high altitude garden. Make sure to share your progress with us and don't forget pictures!

Gwynn

Linda.

The beauty about table top beds I think would be that you cut the legs to size. You can have four different lengths if needed. It may mean that one end is waist-high and the other is ground level but at least you would have a level bed.

I wonder if anyone else has uneven length legs?

Happy SFGing.

Kelejan

Table tops would be a great idea when you inevitably decide to expand your sqaure footage. I even have a few dining tables I tried to level myself that would likely fit perfectly on your slopes...lol.

In all seriousness, it's great to have someone here from so high in the sky. I hope to learn more of your climate as time goes on. I didn't know you even had oxygen up there? I mean, do planes buzz your house on a regular basis? Can you see the people as they whizz by?

I'm in a sarcastic mood today. It's great to have you here. Hope to see much more of you soon.

It's so nice to feel welcomed by such a helpful group! Kay, my NEXT bed will most likely be a TT. I'm too eager to get started on the one I have to go find 'legs' for it. I got a 4 x 8 (half of it doubled to be deeper) 'composite' (read: recycled plastic) bed from HD last weekend.

And yesterday I got enough MM (Lowe's - $16.41!) to get the 4 x 4 started. They had only 100 foot rolls of 4 ft weed barrier so I went to HD. Not only did I find a 50' roll (more expensive) - I FOUND MM FOR $12.97! I'd even searched their site the day before and nothing came up. So I went BACK to Lowe's to inform them of the price diff. The gal said 'prove it'. I was about to walk out (not going back to 'take a picture'!) when she said 'we're not supposed to do this' but she matched the price. Earlier, I also played the 'match price' game between HD and Walmart on Miracle gro organic potting mix. (which I got before I discovered SFG).

Gwynn - how long/short is your growing season in BC? I found out last week my last frost date is May 25. May as well start bundling my plant babies in longjohns....

Kelejan - what great idea! uneven legs! That reminds me of my college student trip to the cloud forests of Costa Rica. I was a sponsor. The finca where we stayed was totally mountainous. The cattle had worn very narrow paths on the practically vertical slopes. I told the college group that this family had bred cows with 2 legs shorter on one side so they could walk the trail without falling down the mountain. They believed me! One boy asked, "how do they get home?" I told him - they back up.

BBG - when I first moved here, I had frequent nosebleeds due to the dry air (yes, air though not much). People with compromised lungs very often have difficulty breathing. They get altitude sickness. My mom sure did (she was a smoker) - she couldn't do much but sit for 3 days while she acclimated. Even then, she got tired really quickly. I've learned that athletes come here to train in the 'thin air' and that those who live here actually have a slight advantage at sea level because 'our' lungs are larger - not that I'm an athlete... Planes do buzz by but so far not close enough for me to see faces. Except for spotter plane pilots looking for forest fires. Which is our bane.

Ok, I'll stop yapping now. Going to check on my 2 experimental Kennebec seed potatoes that I planted in tall cardboard boxes 5 days ago...

Thanks again, all, and I look forward to learning tons from you!

Linda

I hiked in Colorado for 6 days. We covered almost 60 miles total. We slept above the tree line most nights and crossed several 12k passes. We weren't ever below 7k to my knowledge. That first day was extremely rough on us, as 14 year old VERY competitive swimmers. So, it's not like we weren't in shape. We were used to swimming 3k yards per day, 5 days a week.

However, when I got back home, I ran over to see my grandparents. They lived about half a mile away. I ran faster than I had ever "jogged" before. I got their in about 2 minutes and change. My grandparents barely had time to hang up the phone and sit back down. They both made the comment that I couldn't have driven over faster.

And, they were shocked that I was hardly out of breath. However, after two weeks back home, it all went away.

I will never forget that feeling of invincibility and "fitness." I have never achieved the same feeling again. I doubt I ever will.

Just something about that mountain air. Love it!!

Wow!! I'm jealous, I've never been above 3,300' (except in an airplane of course). I'd love to breathe mountain air sometime in my lifetime.

Oxmyx1: Welcome!! Good luck with your SFGing.

Weatherkid

Linda, where I am, in central BC our last frost date is around the 6 to the 12 of June. It seems to coincide with the full moon in June. But people in Kelowna area have a last frost date of about the 14 of May. They get at least three more weeks of frost free days in spring than I do and of course at least a couple of extra weeks in the fall too.

You sound like the kind of person who will get along well here. Telling those poor innocent students that the cows were bred to have shorter legs on one side. My!my! I totally love it!! Is there any kind of penalty for professional educators who do that sort of thing? LOL!

By the way, I have planted Kennebec potatoes two years in a row. I am very pleased with them. They keep really well.

Gwynn

Welcome, Linda!

-24..... try -35, gale force winds and an outhouse! That will wake you up. LOL

Glad to hear you guys talking about Kennebec potatoes. I live not far from the Kennebec River! I'm considering growing potatoes just for the fun of it. I saw potato growing bags at a local garden center. 2 for $15. They collapse for storing AND they have flaps in the side so you can reach in and pick potatoes w/o hurting the plant, so it can keep growing more potatoes. Isn't that neat? We eat potatoes about once every other month... so even if I don't get many, it will be plenty! If I have extra MM after I fill my boxes, I'm going to try the potato bags.

Tril wrote:-24..... try -35, gale force winds and an outhouse! That will wake you up. LOL

I couldn't concentrate, if you know what I mean. I would never make it in the outhouse....lol.

Weatherkid, you are welcome in NM any time if you can find a way to get here. I am active in dog rescue and transport; just about any weekend there are long distance transports of dogs just about anywhere in the country. Maybe you could hitch along! Would you fit in a travel crate?

Gwynn, when I tell (told) kids things like the 'uneven cows', it's part in fun but also (ssshhh! Teaching Moment!) to get them to THINK. And apply what they know to 'new situations'. For me, it's the fun part - watching their faces as they try to visualize the poor cow... they learn from me very quickly to be skeptical! Question authority! Don't believe everything you hear, kiddo!

Gosh, it's the kids I miss - the adults, definitely NADA.

Hey, Tril - what a gorgeous avatar! So now I have to ask, have you ever read the sci fi Trillium books by Andre Norton, Julian May, Marion Zimmer Bradley? I think there are 4 of them now. First one was Black Trillium.

I know, I know, Off Topic! My bad! tee hee

So, dumb Q - is your river there the inspiration for Kennebec taters? Can you post a photo of potato bags? Never heard of them...

I'd never heard of that series so I looked it up... sound interesting. The trillium thing, apparently, was due to the three authors and each story having three main characters. The Black Trillium was the only one they wrote together... then each of them wrote one story. That's why there are 4 books in the trillium series. Are the stories any good?

I live in Kennebec County. The Kennebec River runs through our county.

I found this online:

"The Kennebec potato is a hybrid variety produced by the USDA in 1941. Its parent varieties are Chippewa and Katahdin. Similar to the Onaway potato, the first Kennebec seedling was selected from a farm in Presque Isle county, Maine. It was introduced into the commercial marketplace in 1948. It is one of the most widely grown and known varieties in the United States today." (There is no Presque Isle county in Maine. PI is a city in Aroostook County.) The name Kennebec came from the Abenaki word for "large body of still water, large bay."

Here's a picture of the potato bag I saw...



Amazon sells them for $13.02. That's for TWO of these.

http://www.amazon.com/Gardman-7505-Pack-Potato-Tubs/dp/B002RB8ZZC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1305459386&sr=8-7

oxmyx1 wrote:Gwynn, when I tell (told) kids things like the 'uneven cows', it's part in fun but also (ssshhh! Teaching Moment!) to get them to THINK. And apply what they know to 'new situations'. For me, it's the fun part - watching their faces as they try to visualize the poor cow... they learn from me very quickly to be skeptical! Question authority! Don't believe everything you hear, kiddo!

Gosh, it's the kids I miss - the adults, definitely NADA.

Linda, I didn't pick the nickname "old hippie" for nothing. Question authority!! YES!! Oh I love you already!! I am almost ready to start making placards again. My Mennonite upbringing is full of stories of our ancestors who managed to escape from more than one country with little more than their lives for questioning authority. Skepticism, stubbornness, (I call it determination) and a strong work ethic is bred into me. When I rebel against authority, I am being true to my heritage!

Teaching moments! LOL! I know what you mean about missing the kids. Before I worked in the paint store, I ran a daycare for years. Kids so incredibly precious and have such a wonderful way of looking at life in general. They take my breath away.

@BBG.........while I don't actually miss the old outhouse, you haven't LIVED until you have experienced using one for a couple of years. Dang, but you young uns have such molycoddled backsides with your flush toilets and fancy Charmin toilet paper that doesn't leave fluff behind. (You are the same age as my kids so I can call you a 'young un'.)

Gwynn

Did I just highjack another thread? And on a Sunday morning too!

I always enjoyed Andre Norton when I was a kid so I went back to her books a while back. They don't seem to be as good as when I was 12! I'd say middle of the road good. I enjoyed them. My library doesn't have the 4th one.

Cool on the Kennebec! Thanks for the info - will add to my 'potato lecture'!

Seems to me the potato 'sack' is expensive. Give me dirt! Or with straw you can just pick it up and woooo there's the spuds. (speaking of, there's a story behind the word 'spud' too - I'll have to go back to my notes on that..)