Greetings from the Inland Northwest!

Thank goodness for that first Google search that introduced me to this delightful and informative site! I had been visiting frequently to collect info for my first vegetable garden and to maintain the existing flowers and shrubs, and just subscribed today.

I'm a relative newbie to the Inland Northwest; spent the first 20 years in Missouri and the last 20 years jumping between Arizona and Texas, so you can only imagine how very different this latitude is for me. And with the help of my fiance and his son, I just tackled creating and planting an 18x20' plot comprised of a lil bit of a lot of things... so ya'll might start seeing a LOT of this nick bouncing around Forums. ;)

Welcome TuttiFrutti.

Isn't this a wonderful site? I got some really valuable tips and tricks and I joined only a week ago.

Welcome to Davesgarden and to the great northwest. Your climate is similiar to mine, hot dry summers, cold winters with snow and low humidity most of the time. I can grow some things here that didn't do well on the wet (west) side of the mountains, like 3 crops of early season corn, and some tomatoes that ripen in the garden. It's a challenge to keep things watered and weeded. I hope your garden is successful. We all love to look at pictures if you can post some.

Welcome from Ia. Glad you joined us!

Welcome from another Iowan. Hope to see you in the forums and get to know you very soon.

Shirley

Welcome to Dave's Garden. Have fun looking around, but BEWARE....this place can be addictive! :)

Hi from Utah, we're high and dry here. Getting more n more into natives. Welcome to Dave's you'll be glad you came in

FINALLY! Someone from Spokane! Welcome to Daves! I love this site! Where abouts do you live? I'm on the South Hill.

Karrie

welcome from new york

WOW! What a wonderful greeting from ya'll!

I meant to come back yesterday, but had things to attend to before it started raining as predicted (and delivered!) this afternoon. And I haven't had a chance yet to check out anyone's prof but Karrie's, but ya better believe I will.

drop - Lucky you, being a lil ahead of me here. It's nice not being the only newbie subscriber. :)

Mary - I *LOVE* the Northwest! And thanks for the tips and warnings. I just may bring out the digital camera to snap a couple of pics when my garden starts 'showing'... but not before. LOL

kooger and Brugie - Hello you Iowans! Thank you for stopping in. :)

smiln - Thanks again for the personal note and boost of confidence! *HUGS*

Blooms - Hi! Ummm, I guess I'd better look up 'natives'... one of about a zillion things I probably need to learn about. :)

Karrie - I'm just down the hill from ya, and, perhaps unfortunately, way too close to Lowe's and Home Depot and CostCo. ;) Kewl website you have of your own; I only stopped in for a sec there, but I'll be back when I have time to enjoy it. You have me wondering what my zone *REALLY* is, though! Yours is 5b, I thought I was 6a/b; is there a difference in hardiness maps? *scratches her head in confusion*

Herbie - How nice to get a welcome from the other side of the continent! :)

I think I'm gonna like this place. *GRIN*

hi welcome . everyone is very kind and helpful here.

A big welcome to ya from almost due south of ya here in southwest Idaho. I am about 90 miles from MaryE in the hot dry valley of the Snake River.

Just look around in the forums and if you want to jump in a conversation just go ahead and jump. I am quite sure you will love it here! Have fun.

I sure am glad I don't live near a Home Depot, Lowes or Costco. LOL

Tutti- here is the link the the USDA Hardiness Zones. If you zoom into it, you will see we are 5b, but close to 6a. With some of the global warming we've had, it probably won't be long before we are 6a. I find that the zones are so close, it only makes a difference when we have tough winters like this last one, which only seem to come every 10 years or so lately.

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

I don't live that far up the hill - 13th - so you'd be very surprised how close we actually live, lol! We go to Lowes, Costco, Home Depot, NW Seed & Pet, quite a bit! Welcome to the neighborhood!

Karrie

This message was edited May 21, 2004 9:55 AM

*grins and waves hello to Hope and Ponditis*

Have ya'll checked the Spokane forecast today? Talk about a new gardener's "weather event"! My fiance said he didn't EVER remember such a spring storm as this before I moved up. LOL

We've been experiencing thunderstorms all day with torrential downpours at times, and had nearly pea-sized hail *FOUR* times this afternoon. To top it off, a funnel cloud was sighted just south of us; fortunately, it never made it this far. :)

I gotta tell ya... I've never fretted so much about anything as my seedlings and plants in the gardens as I did today! Yeah, so I'm babying my first gardens, but most of the plants weren't yet big enough to withstand such heavy raindrops, so off I ran to my lil garden shed to gather up clay pots and gallon containers to cover them all in the interim... and just before the first round of hailstones came down!!!

I am *SO* grateful to my wonderful mother-in-law for allowing us to glean so many pots from the garden house when she moved from the old homestead. She said, "Take as many as you like, dear, in case you think you might use them", so I took all I could pack in the bed of my lil truck 'cause *I* didn't know what I might need. Who'da thunk I'd be using as many as I did?! *giggle*

And the straw we used to cover the non-planted strips of the garden seems to have kept the good soil from running off in a floodstream. We merely added it to help control watering needs and limit weeding, along with providing mulch for next year's garden...

I feel so lucky right now! :)

*crosses her fingers in hopes that Karrie's yard fared the storms well, considering she is alongside of the hill...*

Oh, now I need to change the zone on my prof. Thanks for the explanation and link, Karrie! :)

Our gardens did ok - thank goodness! They actually sited two tornados yesterday afternoon to the west (Airway Heights, near the airport, on the West Plains) and did an alert on the emergency broadcast system yesterday, saying they were headed our way. Russ and I went out to watch. We do get tornados here, but they are not only very rare, they are not the magnitude, ferociousness, etc..... of the ones in the midwest and south. The last one they'd reported was up in the Riverside area, 7 years ago, which tore apart a trailer park. Sure was creepy yesterday, though, wasn't it! It rained cats and dogs almost all day and all night. Our gutters were flooded so the man across the street went out and pulled out the debris and that helped clear them up real quick (intersection was like a little wading pool).

Just want you to know that this type of weather isn't typical here, and you'll only see this every 7 to 10 years, usually, and in the 16+ years I've been in Spokane, this was the absolute biggest and worst storm I've seen yet. Bet the National Weather Service (that is located near Airway Heights) was sure having a hay-day yesterday! Russ has some buddies that work there. Hopefully this weather pattern will change soon and we'll be back to our normal and dry weather that I like (even though we DID need the rain).

Tutti Welcome to Dave's. This is such a friendly place filled with tons of info and help if you need it. Thanks for joining us in the garden!

A real smart idea you had covering your baby plants with clay pots! Quick thinking! Good thing you had lots of them.

Hello TuttiFrutti!
I'm Shellie and just joined the site this am, I lived in olympia twice and miss it so much! I have a lot of questions so I am sure you will all be hearing from me soon!

Hello, llily and Shellie! And thanks for the boost, Mary. :)

We tented the tomatoes and bell peppers (used some extra PVC pipe and draped it with plastic sheeting), and had lil pots all over the rest of the yard. Here's a pic of the vegetable garden... not pretty, but hey, it worked! *giggle*

I think it looks like you are caring for your garden! :)

I'd call that beautiful on a frosty night!! If it saves your plants it's beautiful no matter what your neighbors might think.

Hmmmm - I didn't know we were in danger of frost! Were you protecting it from the downpours and hail we've been getting? My tomatoes are up against the house and under an eve, so I haven't had to worry about mine. They made it through that whole mess just fine. Some of my tiny annuals (like love lies bleeding) look a little squished - not sure if they will make it. Everything else looks ok. I think the "worst" is behind us now. I'd pull that plastic off, at least while it's nice, so they get some air.

We removed the plastic completely early yesterday morning (and certainly aired the plants out between downpours the previous day or so), but left everything around for a few more days, just in case. I was protecting from the hail and downpours as you surmised, Karrie; have not seen frost warnings here for a while.

Here's a pic I just took so ya'll can see there really *ARE* some plants out there... only thing is, I inadvertantly lined up the handles of the tiller such that they block some of the tomato plants from view... lol

you are so lucky to have that kind of vegetable garden space! The only way I could do that is dig up the backyard, and since we have a pre-teen and teens, can't do something like that (not that they ever go outside and play, lol!)

I see you changed your location to Spokane Valley, WA - the "new" city! :)

Okay, I'm so excited about my first veggie garden that I have to show off a lil; this photo was taken yesterday. The corn plants are 36" tall, the broccoli is 20" and we've cut off our first couple of bunches (1 ounce each... lol... but more to come!), and the tomato plants (24-36") got so large that we literally had to cut the cages off them and string up a 'fence' for support. I dunno if anyone ELSE has ever fenced their tomatoes, but we tend to improvise based on available resources. *giggle*

Lesson learned: Do NOT plant two or three tomato plants in one 'hole'! I was afraid I'd hurt the plants while transplanting if I broke them apart (just lucked out that I got two or three in a couple of the pots that I bought). :)

P.S. Karrie, who said you could switch zones on me?! *wink*

This message was edited Jul 7, 2004 12:25 PM

That'll be yummy food soon! If you have lots of tomato plants, just snipoff the weaker one at ground level. Sometimes you can tease them apart carefully, slowly, if they are quite wet.

Well, Dave posted a new zone map on this site, and it shows us as 6. (no a's or b's, just 6). So I changed mine, and then later found out that that new one isn't official yet - it's a draft. Doesn't really matter to me - I know what I can plant around here, lol!

3 maters in one hole? Did you ever get them apart?

We'll have to meet up one of these days! :)

Karrie

*smiles up at kooger*

Thank you for the tip! My experienced gardening neighbor/friend told me that when I shared the story with him, too. We like to meet at the fence between our gardens to admire each others and swap stories. In fact, we gave the first cuttings of broccoli to his wife 'cause she loves it while he just thinks it's okay... lol... probably the ONLY vegetable he doesn't get excited about, though! How blessed we are to have such wonderful folks so close!!! :)

We just posted at the same time! Scroll up! :)

LOL... great minds, eh?

The seedlings were about an inch or so apart in the pot, and I figured one would likely overtake the others. Turns out they were all in the running!

If ya ever see a lady in slightly dirty jeans and a white cap with a slightly graying brunette ponytail at Lowe's or NW Seed who is your height (I'm 5'8"), that'll probably be me! In fact, I might even update my profile to show a pic... and yes, it would certainly be fun to meet sometime. Maybe after the harvest?! *wink*

I'll be at Home Depot either today or tomorrow! Going to go buy me a wagon for dragging around my Brugmansias as I was dragging them and pulled the muscles in my back (OUCH)! I slept outside lastnight on a lounger! I'm a tad shorter than ya. You can see a pic of me on this thread:

http://davesgarden.com/t/440887/

I'm the one holding the fish.

Great for you, Karrie! We have a metal wagon that my fiance got for certain jobs he does (holds 1000+ pounds), but when he's not using it, I use it to carry stuff all over the yard! Holds a weed bucket, trash bucket, garden tools, garden soil, pots... whatever I think I might need that day. Definitely saves on back strain and/or frequent trips to get yet another tool. :)

Cute pic! BTW, I updated my prof pic without all the copyright info on my face... LOL

Take it easy, now, okay? :)

Cute pic! And you do look familiar - I've probably seen you in one of those places before. In the Spring I'm at NW Seed alot, and we've made several trips to Lowes in the past few months.

Time for the monthly update. :)

(all photos were taken on 08.06.2004)

My early corn (Lilly Miller, Early Sunglow - Hybrid) in the front half of the corn row mostly grew up to the 4' height per seed packet instructions, and we're harvesting now! Note the shorter plants in the lower right-hand corner... an obvious indication of where the soil was not so good... but we'll enrich it all further this fall and spring.

(SO1 didn't point out the secondary growth on the corn right away; I think he wanted to watch it develop to surprise me with the comment that 'we might have more corn from this later in the fall'. WHAT?! I thought two ears/stalk was the norm, and hoped I would get at least one. Twas a nice surprise for which he got a happy gal giggling in glee!)

My late corn (Lilly Miller, Golden Jubilee) in the back half of the corn row passed the 7' height per seed packet instructions about 3' ago... lol... don't they know when they're supposed to be done growing up? And no, we didn't use Miracle Grow, just a little steer manure over the whole veggie garden plot before planting.

The gorgeous gray-leaved plants are my broccoli, which we pulled up shortly thereafter despite the lovely foliage. Didn't want to take any more nutrients from the soil now that they have done their job.

Part of the tomato row is along the left side of the pic... and we've begun harvesting from each of the five different varieties daily as they ripen.

Here are the partially submerged washing machine tubs that I read about in another Forum and decided to try out when I found a spot for them. Russet potatoes (SO1 calls them "Netted Gems") are on the upper left corner, Mama Piggie is in the middle with one of her young 'uns, and Yukon Gold potatoes are in the bottom center (with another piglet on top of the 1-gallon pot I overturned to cover the center hole when we filled it with dirt). The Yukon went in much later than the russets, else I imagine the plants would be the same size.

The marigolds in the pic are on the left (west) side of my main 18'x20' plot. The scrawny ones are Little Hero dwarves I picked up at Lowe's in pony packs for 29 cents each with the intention of using them elsewhere, but had to get them into the ground before they keeled over. The larger ones (which I adore!) are a nice short hedge of color which I started indoors from seed (Lilly Miller, Sparky Mix). Each bush is 10" in diameter; very compact, very green, very prolific with flowers!

All the other green stuff needs to be pulled. LOL

Last pic for now, from the area cleared after pulling down the 'lean-to' (as I affectionately called the old garage that was falling down on the back of our property).

The previous owner dumped engine oil and such in the ground at various places, so this was truly an experiment on which areas might be able to sustain plants. This is evidenced from the 18 sunflower seeds I planted along the back fence precisely a foot apart... lol... do ya think perhaps a critter found a few, instead? ;)

The main feature is our buttercup squash (umm... if ya ignore the weeds), and I call this our "Squash Marks the Spot!" pic. When my DMIL surprised us with the seed packet this spring, SO1 said we'd need a lot of room to grow them, and boy, was he right!!! The vine on the lower left corner is 11' long; the shortest of the 3 remaining vines is 5' long. And all have at least a couple of very healthy fruit with hints of more to come.

Life is good!

*HUGS*
Donna/TuttiFrutti

Hi TuttiFruitt from another Donna. I have been gardening all my long life and know I am old enough to be your grandmother or something. It is so great to read posts from someone who is so interested in gardening. If I can be of any help will be glad to answer any questions I might be able to.

Our climates are about the same. I am west of you straight north of Wenatchee and about 25 miles south of the Canadian border. I don't use straw just because I would have to buy it and I have a nice neighbor who gives me bales of hay. Some hay is much weedier than othere just depends on whether it is from a first cutting which many times is full of cheat grass seed which I hate

I try to be as organic a gardner as I can, use very little commercial fertilizer. And am now trying not to cultivate the soil before planting the seeds or whatever. My corn has done very well this year. I actually planted very small squares , maybe 8 or 9 feet in diameter. I made plantings of 9 varieties in and area about 25 feet by 25 feet. The first 3 varieties are just finished. I know I am pushing the season, and the last may not have time to ripen before our first frost.

It is still 98 degrees outside, toooooooooooo hot. Donna