Links

I am really looking into edible landscaping. I just have the hardest time with figuring out how to do the front yard.

So here are the sites I have looked at so far, I wish there was more information out there on this.

http://www.communityrootsboulder.com/gardens.html

Spring

So, I have a bit to do now in the garden.

A while back I started Rhubarb, tomatoes, and lemongrass indoors. They will soon be ready to plant in their planters (earth boxes from my father).

In December or so, I started two cherry tomato plants in a large planter indoors. They are now my height and beginning to produce fruit, though none are yet ripe. However I seem to have fungus problem, so I got some spray and things seem to be getting a bit better. I would hope after the next application I will see and improvement.

The compost pile needs to be moved to make way for the herb garden and I need to install the pergola type thing and the fire pit. Then we need to get the trees in, which I finally have measured and marked out. Because of difficulty with cherries in this area, we are planning to do peaches and plums.

I will post more later, and some pictures as well.

Min and Max

Well with a new son, work, and life in general; not everything I want to do will happen. So here is the list of minimum to do and maximum to do for this year, and some thoughts for future years.

Min:
Tomatoes: Red, White, and Cherry
Fruit Trees: Cherry, Peach, Plum
Mixed baby greens
Some Herbs

Max: As above and
Grapes
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Cabbage
Broccoli
Bell Peppers
Watermelon
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Strawberries

The big difference between the min and max, is infrastructure. I have several large containers for the tomatoes, spots for the trees and a raised circular bed in the back yard ready for herbs and microgreens. So most of the remaining items will need a new bed created. With that is a modification of the sprinklers from being inground yard sprinklers to drip lines etc. Then the grapes require a trellis and I want to have them grow up and over a back porch overhang type thing, which will need to be built.

In future years I want to also grow some winter squash varieties, amaranth, corn, beans, snap peas, potatoes etc. I also need to figure out how to plant some more edibles in the front yard. Perhaps a strawberry ground cover with paths on the side of with the large tree. Because I am a bit unsure of sewer line placement and watermains, I don't want to plant any trees in front and it needs to be presentable to people.

The region is a semi-arid desert but next to several waterways, which makes the area a bit of an odd micro-climate. So a type of desert grass feel might work, with mixed in corn, amaranth, bean bushes, etc. That is in the future however.

Garden

Ok, so I have found no blogs about gardening in the Mid-Columbia. So I am going to create one.

I live in West Richland and live on a quarter acre plot. We just bought the house, and so I will chronicle my efforts to garden.

What is interesting about the Mid-Columbia is that it is hot, sunny, dry and in the winter cold. So when people talk about gardening in washington state, they tend to refer to the rainy portion of the state, or at least in Spokane.

Over the next few posts I will outline the plans and then the process of gardening that I have gone through.