Mary Ann Newcomer - The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Mountain States

THE TIMBER PRESS GUIDE TO VEGETABLE GARDENING

in the

MOUNTAIN STATES

MARY ANN NEWCOMER

Timber Press

_________________

Portland London

For my grandparents, John D. and Catherine Norton, my first garden mentors. And to everyone who loves to grow their own food.

Copyright 2014 by Mary Ann Newcomer.

All rights reserved.

Chapter opening illustrations by Kate Giambrone and Julianna Johnson

All other illustrations Julia Sadler

Published in 2014 by Timber Press, Inc.

Book design by Kate Giambrone and Julianna Johnson

Composition and layout by Will Brown

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Newcomer, Mary Ann

The Timber Press guide to vegetable gardening in the mountain states/Mary Ann Newcomer.1st ed.

p. cm.

Guide to vegetable gardening in the mountain states. Vegetable gardening in the mountain states.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60469-594-6

1.Vegetable gardeningRocky Mountains. 2.Vegetable gardeningWest (U.S.) 3.VegetablesRocky Mountains. 4.VegetablesWest (U.S.) I. Title. II. Title: Guide to vegetable gardening in the mountain states. III. Title: Vegetable gardening in the mountain states.

SB321.5.R6N49 2014

635.0978dc23

2013030867

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

The beauty of the vegetable garden lies in more than one of the senses. It feeds the body as well as the soul.THOREAU

Growing your own food is a remarkable experience. I am fascinated to know that a seed the size of a freckle can produce pounds and pounds of tomatoes. A seed the size of a fingernail can yield a 300-pound pumpkin. A pencil-sized twig will give you baskets and baskets of raspberries! Our geographic region is well known for its stunning scenery, but did you know its also the home of the famous Walla Walla sweet onions, Idahos legendary potatoes, and Green River and Hermiston melons? You can grow these mouthwatering vegetables and fruits in your own garden. In fact, you can plan on eating deliciously from your Rocky Mountain garden twelve months of the year.

The edible garden season of the Rocky Mountain west starts slowly in late spring with tender new salad greens, crimson red rhubarb, and luscious fat strawberries. Crisp new peas, scallions, and raspberries are ready for the table mid-season. By late summer, with our long, hot, dry days, home gardeners can sit down to tables overflowing with sweet corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and melons. The region boasts some of the finest growing conditions for abundant harvests of late-season vegetables and fruits. Squash and pumpkins enjoy the dry heat, and can be tucked away for a winters store.

It takes some forethought and planning to reap these tasty rewards from your garden. You will need to have your garden game on in this remarkable part of the country. Its amazing topography of skyscraping peaks and vast sagebrush steppe offers up weather conditions as dramatic as they are variable. The mountain states region (also called intermountain west) addressed in this guide includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, as well as northern Nevadaalmost 700,000 square miles. To the north, weve also included 400,000-plus square miles of southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan because plants and pollinators are not restricted by national boundaries.

Growing seasons can be as short as 60 days in high mountain towns, while banana belt areas at lower altitudes can have almost 150 days. Intermountain gardeners deal with lean and mean soils and serious water issues; late frosts and early snows; hot deserts and nippy mountain nights; and lots of grazing creatures with and without spines.

I begin the book with a discussion of what the home gardener needs to know to start and maintain a vegetable garden in the intermountain west. This high and dry region presents unique challenges for the gardener, with its widely varied topography, extreme climates, and surprising ecoregions. And so I explore these issues for you, by state or province, and provide tips on how to accommodate them. Then I guide you through designing your own garden, figuring out what soil type you have and how to work with it, learning about seeds and plants, and choosing what to plant in your area and how to cultivate each selection. By the way, Ive included some fruits in the book. Although we refer to eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers as vegetables, in fact they are fruits, since they are the ovaries bearing the seeds for future plants. Annual fruits, such as melons, are a delicious and time-honored tradition in the food garden. Berries, such as raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries are at their very best right after you pick them.

In , I outline a yearlong plan for keeping nutritious, delicious, homegrown food on the table. Each month has a plan of action for creating your own successful garden, with detailed to-do lists, recommended varieties of vegetables and fruits for your particular area, seasonal charts for sowing and harvesting, and tips for getting an early start and extending the growing season as long as possible. Beginning in the short days of January when seed catalogs fill the mailbox, and steadily progressing through the gardeners year, this month-by-month guide helps you grow an abundance of the finest and freshest vegetables, herbs, and fruits.

In you will also find helpful charts showing approximately when to plant and harvest, depending on where you live.

If you dont have a patch of ground to set aside for an edible garden, no worries. Follow my suggestions for creating raised beds, container gardens, or tucking edibles into borders. Tomatoes climbing upward against a warm fence? Strawberries thriving in fruit crates? Carrots popping up in pots? Of course!

Your garden, your food, your table: Delicious!

Acknowledgments

Growing your own food is truly a labor of love. Its a deeply satisfying feeling to be able to stand in your garden, eating your fill of golden raspberries or bright red tomatoes, both warm from the morning sun. My grandparents started me on this gardening path, and I will always be glad they did. My husband has (for the most part) always humored me and worked alongside or way ahead of me in our garden. And I am lucky that most of my friends, by nature or design, happen to be fond of gardening and even fonder of a great meal produced from the garden. They are my support system.

Being able to share my love of gardening, via this book, with new and seasoned gardeners is a gift. Thanks to the team at Timber Press for making this possible.

GET STARTED

OUR UNIQUE MOUNTAIN STATES REGION

Our part of the planet is picture-postcard beautiful. As states and provinces, we share the backbone of the continent, the Rocky Mountains of the American west. We are indeed surrounded by purple mountain majesties, amber waves of grain, rugged vistas others may only dream of, and a quality of light that makes it all breathtaking. Yet most of the Rocky Mountain west is characterized by one scary word: dry.