Gardening At High Altitude

2012, mid June. Yes, we can have a killing frost even in mid June. This delicata squash plant doesn't look too good but it did recover and produced a few squash.

2011, Late June. Plants sense temperature with their roots. Here, I have tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos growing in IRT mulch - the mulch lets the sum's infrared rays through but weeds can't grow under it. I also have tomatoes and peppers planted in the temporary greenhouse - to protect them from hail and to keep them warmer. I keep the flaps open as a closed greenhouse in the summer sun gets to hot for anything to grow.

1995, early September. Here's my father picking corn after an early snow. We can have snow in any month, including July and August.

1990, July. When you situate your gardens, think about drainage. Several times over the years, we have had storms drop over an inch of rain in less than 30 minutes. We were surprised to see our west meadow drains a huge area and, after such a rain, a 10 foot wide stream runs through the meadow.

1990, July. Our driveway was not well planned and this storm washed away a lot of dirt, especially on this slope. We did fix the drainage problem after that wakeup call.

2014, early August. As a gardener, there's little worse then standing in a window and watching the hail pour down. Here is lettuce damaged by hail.

2104, early August. Hail will shred corn leaves until they look like ribbons.

2014, early August. And smush a spinach crop.

2104, mid September. However, don't dispair and pull out the damaged plants too quickly. Many will recover and grow just fine. Here's the corn, recovered.

2104, mid September. The spinach recovered enough that I canned several pints.