Last weekend, we cleaned the leaves out the front gardens. Not a moment too soon–the hostas were ready! They went from tiny sprouts to plants overnight! Today, I cleared out leaves from a side garden. Different flavor of hostas in the side garden but they look like they are ready to get going.

Some of my new gardening gear arrived from Gardener’s Supply including my upside-down tomato growing bags  (which seem much sturdier than other brands I have seen) and the Salad Planting Bag which is deeper and larger than I expected. I am going to try growing carrots and radishes along with some leaf lettuce. Last year, I bought seed strips for radishes and carrots (a smaller variety) that I didn’t use. ( These are seeds pre-spaced in paper strips–what can I say, I don’t like to thin seedlings!)

The seedlings look good for the most part–not sure what to make of the cauliflower seedlings but they seem to be getting true leaves now, so I am going to take that as a good sign.

I also bought some bird seed–it’s been a tough winter for our feathered friends. I think they can use a free lunch.

The grass looks like it could use a mow and I have a bunch of leaves to compost–sounds like a winning combination. I am looking for a supplier for large plastic nursery pots–the kind used for trees. These are great for container gardening and it looks like container gardening is my best strategy in this yard (both because of shade and the bunny factor–didn’t really have critter competition in my Reno garden).

Speaking of the Reno garden: we had the irrigation turned on yesterday and the pond will be cleaned and started up for Spring next week. I ordered a koi castle and a plantable floating island for the pond to give the fish some shade and protection while the plants grow and fill in. I also ordered a floating hoop with netting to corral floating plants (and keep my plant investment out of the skimmer).

I AM SO GLAD WINTER IS BEHIND US!! Happy gardening.

Just moved to the heartland after many, many years in the wild west. While in Arizona, I became a master gardener and learned that I had to UN-learn everything that I thought I knew about gardening in order to garden in a place that can be brutal to plant life. Then I moved to the foothills of the Sierras–the high desert of Nevada–and had to learn how to garden in an even drier environment! (Plus add in freezing temps, snow and wildfire to keep things interesting!) I am an experimental gardener in every sense of the word. I like a good challenge and I embrace the plant natives. I am also a sentimental gardener, bringing a small piece of each garden with me when I move from place to place. I make a lot of mistakes and there are some failures. But I believe in the law of big numbers: try many things and the percentage of failures inevitable drops.

Now I am Kansas City, Missouri where no one measures the precipitation in tenths of inches. This week I saw more rain than I saw in the past eight months in Reno.

It’s also cold-cold-cold for this former desert lizard. And the wet makes it feel even more cold. AND WHERE IS THE SUN?? Still, I haven’t had a home-grown beefsteak tomato in YEARS and I have been assured that they will grow here. And I love every place. It’s just the way that I roll.

I know the blog design is a little boring–I will get to that soon. But I wanted to put roots down now. They say that the fall is the best time to plant.

On Twitter? Me, too: http://twitter.com/IntrepidGarden

For my high desert gardening friends, I am maintaining the archives of my Northern Nevada garden blog.