It's Almost Spring...

In spite of the snow storms the past two weeks, we actually have had some wonderfully warm and 'Spring-ish" weather. The trees in the back yard have beautiful tiny green leaves and huge buds about to burst into color.

We've still been skiing about 3 or 4 times a week...but we are arriving a little earlier in the morning and leaving right after lunch due to slushy, sun-warmed snow. As a matter of fact, last night, Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe received 2" of fresh snow last night....it's about 25 minutes from our door to the lifts!

We decided to stick to our usual seed start schedule that we used in Klamath Falls, Oregon...the climate here in the 'Great Basin' of Carson City/Carson Valley, Nevada is eerily similar to the Klamath Basin...300+ days of sunshine, lots of snow, very short growing season.

We don't have very much room to garden in this rental house, so we had to really cut back on our garden plans! The landscaping is beautiful, but it's all about bushes and trees. I might have to sneak in some flowers after the last frost.

We planted vegetable seeds on March 1....

And I had to transplant the kale, zucchini, yellow straight neck squash, and spaghetti squash on March 4...

And I transplanted the Black Prince, Prudence Purple, Fireworks, Sungold, and German Giant tomatoes on March 6...

Here's the squash plants today, March 11... (and a parsley plant from Trader Joe's...I needed some fresh parsley)

They are huge!!! I keep turning them every day- they are leaning into the sun so dramatically!

I just checked the other peat pots, and it looks like I am going to have to transplant the basil and Bright Lights Swiss Chard in the next day or two.

Kevin is going to build a raised bed planter so I can plant the beets, radishes and green beans right in the soil in April...but that's another project for later!

We are going to put all the other veggies in half-barrels on casters so I can move them into the sun around the yard and out of the crazy wind!  After talking to the Extension Office and Head Master Gardener for the area we decided that half barrels would be best for the plants. We've experienced the 100 MPH gusts when the wind whips down the mountain- and it will make it easier to protect the plants. It also gets extremely hot in the summer 100+ degrees, so we will need to shade the plants so they will continue to flower and ripen during the short season.

It will be a challenge, for sure!