Here at 7,000 feet, our "frost free" date is June 15th. Last year I risked it/didn't know what I was doing and planted tomatoes and more about mid-May. We had a frost, the plants all died. And then I was... busy [that Rwanda episode...] ... and didn't get to replant until almost July. So the short growing season was made even shorter and we ended up getting some tomatoes and a lot of squash and peppers that would have done great if they had had another month or so to grow. My green thumb is only getting greener, though, and today I got these guys- the wall of water. They're supposed to protect the plants down to 16 degrees. They're basically like a circle of pouches filled with water to insulate. So they sit on the spots for a week, warming the dirt, and then next weekend I can plant tomatoes inside them. It's exciting (a relative term, I know) and I have plans for all kind of other veggies- asparagus, onions, potatoes, peppers-- and raspberries. We're even thinking of growing hops in case we ever want to take the homebrew to the final level of hominess.
I'd heard and last year proved true, that gardening up here you really only need to worry about watering through June. There are these crazy weather things I had no idea about with this area, one of them is the "monsoon" where it rains heavily every afternoon. Inconvenient for some things, convenient for the lazy gardener!
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