Is anyone interested in an Intermountain regional forum?

Where do the rest of you northern desert dwellers like to post? For me, California is really close geographically but a completely different world climatically. I think it would be nice to have a place to talk to others in the same climate (hot, dry summers and cold, dry winters, and lots of wind of course) and geographic area. I know we're pretty scattered out here but I thought it's worth a try.

This map shows my concept of the current regions. The region I am proposing would cover the Great Basin and the Snake and Columbia Plateaus. It includes USDA zones 5, 6, and 7 though it might be colder if you live on a mountain. (Yes, I made it sagebrush green)

Katlian, sadly I cannot load your map there so not sure if I qualify for your idea -- t hough I may. We do get some snow/rain but not that much in winter and usually quite cold and of course hot dry summers. Elev. 2900 plus something......

I was just t hinking I have not seen a place that focuses on this kind of climate. The Pacific Northwest is a lovely clime but not mine own, LOL! and the California forum seems largely quite a bit south of here......... so.

Um, this is Siskiyou County, beneath Mt Shasta, we are north of Mt Shasta by a bit.

I'll keep my eyes on this for interest or response. Would be good to be able to share about the particular challenges of this kind of gardening (which I am new too.) Thanks for raising the question!

Kyla

Hi Kyla,
I know Weed quite well. A few years ago I got stuck there in an awful blizzard and a few years before that my kayak almost got blown off my car near there. I also seem to remember a large area of sagebrush around Weed so I think the climate is definitely similar ☺
Janel

Uh-huh, wind and scrub is just what we got. Mostly...... Cool!

Okay, anyone else????

Nice to meet you, Janel. ;-)

Kyla

Sounds good to me, even without seeing your map. Our annual precip is under 10 inches.

I'm not sure what happened to the map. It looks fine in my web browser but when I save it to my computer the colors are all screwed up.

How odd, I just tried to look at the map with Explorer and it won't load at all. Opera and Firefox load the picture just fine. Weird.

Here's a new version. I hope it works better.

This message was edited Jan 14, 2009 10:12 AM

Glad you thought of this. I'm in the middle of your map. I'll send a d-mail to a friend who lives along the Idaho/Oregon border.

This is a great idea!

oh goodie.

I will say, on the map, the gray Intermountain does not quite reach where I th ink I am in CA -- but this is more appropriate to my climate than any other region I know of -- not sure if I am quite High Desert here, but not sure what else to call it either, LOL!

anyways, if this one does happen I will for sure be in on it.

;-)

Kyla

I was wondering where I fit in. I'm in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. Some consider it to be Rocky Mountain Foothills, some Desert SW. On the minus side of things I don't think I will fit in your new Intermountain region either but on the bright side it is very unique here. I love the color of sagebrush green so I'll probably visit your forum if you get it ☺

Hi Kyla, I know I didn't quite hit Weed but that little plateau you're on is sort of isolated from the rest of the Modoc Plateau. But that doesn't really matter, I figure any place with lots of sagebrush fits right in.

If you guys know anyone who would be interested, please d-mail them. It's kind of difficult to reach everyone who might be interested because we all follow different forums.

Thanks! Maybe you can tell me what the Modoc Plateau is one day. ;-) I am aware this little area has a real different micro climate to some of the surroundings......

Maybe we should all just post on the various forums (I resist saying "fora") where we are active like they do for coops.

I will do that.....

thx,
Kyla

Modoc Plateau:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/projects/ecoregions/m261g.htm

Thank you. Near as I can figure, this is the region that includes where I live: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/projects/ecoregions/m261d.htm

Closest mountains (real close) are called the Eddies (not mentioned in here that i find so far). We are at 2900 plus feet.

don't understand the temps listed in there though, but cool info!

Kyla

Thanks for letting me know about this. I got two dmails so was well taken care of. We get only 9 inches or less of moisture yearly and have plenty of sagebrush too so don't fit with the Pacific forum and have plenty of cold weather so don't fit the California forum. I would love a forum for our dry, hot and cold windy climate in the desert west. I hope we have sufficient numbers to get a forum since it is far different gardening in this type of climate.

I will go alert a few others to this thread.
Lani

I'm in the Great Basin High Desert - lots of sage brush, lots of sand, lots of wind, a tiny bit of snow and at least one good thunderstorm a year. Of course, the year I moved here, they had the most snow in 99 years or something. We're back to normal drought conditions (I really think drought is the normal state and every now and then we get a few wet years) 9*F the other morning in the chicken coop. 109*F in the summer (or more, occationally). I've been hanging out on the rocky mt gardening formum http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/region_rm/all/ and they have been pretty helpful and are also an interesting and welcoming group.

I've lived in Georgia, Texas and several parts of California. I thought I knew how to garden... then I moved to Nevada. Ha, ha - whatever I thought I knew about gardening blew east with the first sun blasted 75 MPH wind that first summer here! I'm learning. I can at least get zucchini to grow, now!

I've been through Weed, CA. Looks like High Desert to me :-)

Why, thankee, I feel right included now. LOL!

That wind...... I tried twice to mulch this little patch out back I am with great hopefulness prepping for gardening. Raked leaves, nice leaves, neighbor doesn't want them, raked bags of them, spread, watered watered etc etc. "Rot, leaves, rot!" I told them. Later on, big wind, leaves all gone.

Did the whole thing again, it snowed, I thought oh good gotcha.

Nope. Thawed, dried out, and here comes more big winds. Well, leaves stuck on the low parts anyway this time.

Previous to moving out here last September I was in coastal North Carolina and gardening in big pots on a deck. Here I also have a big deck and plans to do the same, or equivalent.

So, how many interested members do you think we need to get a forum going? I don't see a standard posted anywhere (haven't looked real hard either.......)

Kyla

I think I am right on the edge of your Intermountain Regional map. I live above the Okanogan River valley at 1450 feet. Receive 7 to 9 inches of precip per year. Zone 6b-7. Have lived in this general area all my long life. I bought this particular 5 1/2 acre spot in 1995, all that was here was sagebrush and grass. My little spot is about 25 miles south of Canadian border.

I would be interested if a forum specific for here should take place.

Donna

Well,
so far we only have eight people interested. I was hoping for 25 to 30. I know a lot of people don't have time to check their d-mail during the week so I'll wait and see what happens this weekend.

yup. 14 degrees out this morning. 100 PLUS in the summer. Frequently start that hundred degree nonsense in early May, always by Memorial Day.

we've had snow but the wind ate it. I'll def be here.

~Blooms

Donna I was thinking of you when I read this. I don't think I am what Kaitlian is thinking of. I'm not in the desert type area. Now, if I were 40 miles west, in the Colville area I would be.

I qualify as part of the north Idaho area more than desert, and don't get any winds. We are very lush green in this valley.

Sure sounds like an interesting forum tho. Good luck you all and if you don't mind I would love to lurk.

Don't give up Kaitlian. You will get them yet. What about MaVie? She is high desert.

Speaking of which, I thought there was a high desert forum. Must have dreamed it.

Jeanette

This message was edited Jan 16, 2009 12:10 PM

I'm for it. I'm not sure that everyone in the area has the same climate, but it's definitely different here (I'm in Peck, Idaho, which is 30 miles east of Lewiston) than in the Rocky Mountain area, and different from the Northwest. I'm in zone 6 here, and possibly in one of the warmer parts of this area, but I think we do have similar problems: not a lot of rain, especially in the summer, and fairly cold winters. Also, at least where I am, I'm plagued by lots of deer. I'm only about 1000 ft here, and it is definitely more extreme up on the Palouse or on the Camas Prairie where the elevation is higher, but I think we are similar enough to have lots in common.

Oops, I guess I need to update my information. I'm in Idaho now, not in Alaska anymore.

Well, in the meantime, I have a question for those assembled here in similar climes -- and on a side note, it occurred to me that maybe we are sparse in numbers because that is kind of what our environment is also, sort of sparse ...... stray thought.

Here's the question: Has anyone in dry high windy places successfully grown foxglove? This just came up in the Winter Sowing forum from someone in AZ -- and I have avoided WS-ing foxglove cause I felt it just would not be happy in these conditions, as it seems to thrive where it is quite a bit wetter (like coastal Oregon).

Just thought maybe someone in this thread might have some experience with this.

thanks,
Kyla

It is quite windy here. Blew over half of my 14 yr old Fraxinus Raywood, and my whole tree of Purple leaved Thundercloud, last summer. Sure hated to lose them. Had several Foxgloves of different types growing in same area all survived nicely. And it is very dry here. I irrigate 7 or 8 months of the year.

Donna

Well, thanks, that is encouraging! About the foxgloves, anyway, but real sorry about the others, I know that hurts.

Kyla

Foxgloves here will only grow in part shade areas sheltered from our winds. That is about the only places I have seen them here other than one person who had them up on a hill beside their pond. They had a huge clump of them all growing together so they probably helped each other stand up to the wind.

Thanks -- yes I'm sure that "strength in numbers" helped, makes sense to me.

If I try this I will be putting them, at least at first, in a container on my deck. I am going to have other stuff that may need partial shade so may try to rig something, haven't gotten that far yet in the project. But it does sound worth trying some foxgloves. Can't find the durn seeds now, may have even gotten rid of them as a lost cause.... (they were old and few anyway, no great loss.)

Kyla

Kyla, I have seeds for 5 different digitalis, as they are one of my favorite plants. Last year I bought a packet of T & M Candy Mountain digitalis, they are very attractive. Most foxgloves reseed easily. I did plant one foxglove in the middle of a good sized pot last spring and it did very nicely, don't remember which one it was tho.

Donna

Welp. I could offer a trade, but not sure if I have anything special enough, though at this point have accumulated quite a lot of seeds. Perhaps I will send you a Dmail later on. ;-) Thanks for the info too, very helpful and encouraging.

Kyla

Kyla, I understand they are bi-annuals. I.e. they seed down and the new ones bloom one year and the old ones the next etc. I guess that is why I never liked them. They were taking up space without producing anything. LOL

I think they call that "instant gratification".

Donna were you offering Kyla some seeds, a trade, or what? I wasn't sure. I don't think she was either. Not that it is any of my business.

Jeanette

LOL Jeanette! She wasn't offering; I was hinting. But not in any very committed way either..... I will say someone posted a photo of a very successfully WinterSown and germinated container full of digitalis seedlings in the WS forum earlier, so that was encouraging....... And I believe (?) some dig. are perennials, maybe depending on where grown. I used to have them reseed in the containers they were in, and neighboring containers as well. But honestly, I have so much stuff started, and planned, and it is a new gardening situation, I am slowing down (finally!) in my eagerness and acquisitiveness!

On another perhaps more topical note, I just ran across a very neat website called Calflora with extremely detailed info about CA native flora and site maps and photos of plants, who found and when, etc etc. My jaw kinda dropped. Definitely bookmarked it. It is CA specific, but one funny thing was I went to the map search function, got it to go real specific to my actual location and tried to select for basically any native flora at all and got no hits at all. It said, No Plants Found.

Gee.

Of course, all that means is no one has done any field surveys that locally or, if they have, not reported results to this site. There was quite a bit of interesting material though when I widened the field to the whole zip code area....... the way it is organized is extremely detailed and informative. I love finding stuff like this.

Kyla

I am surprised that your map does not include us here in Golden Valley (near Kingman) AZ. We are always included in the Southwest but we get a lot colder than most of the Southwest. We are DRY and windy and hot and cold :) Sounds like we might just fit into this forum nicely. From what I can tell we are zone 8 a or b. Our elevation is between 2900 and 3000. Whadayathink? :)

Kyla & Jeanette. Sorry didn't make myself clear, I was just offering info. I have only a few seeds left in each variety. Because of financial reasons and health reasons, I am cutting back severely in seed and plant ordering. I won't be able to afford hiring the fellow who has been working for me for more than 20 years, for more that a day or so each week. And he probably won't want to work for that. So I will pretty much only have what garden I can take care of myself.

It is still foggy here not quite so heavy as every day the past week. Electricity just went off and right back on, just enough to make my motion light at end of garage come on. I will have to go out and click the breaker and leave it off for 15 min or so then reset it.

I'm wishing for an early spring for all.

Donna

I'm with you Donna, I wish the weather would either get nicer (my first choice) or get worse. Our weather has been exactly the same every day for two weeks. Warmish in the afternoon but very cold at night. If it wasn't so cold in the morning I could ride my bike. I've been watering the trees and shrubs every weekend because we haven't had any moisture since Christmas and that was the first real snow of the winter.

Kyla, if you would like some foxglove seeds I have a bunch from a wintersowing packet that I'm not going to use. I have a regular foxglove in front of my house where it gets shade most of the day and extra run-off from the roof. i also have a digitalis obscura that grows in the shade of my mock orange. It hasn't produced seeds yet or I would share some of those too.

Daylily, I say anyone who wants to hang out with us is welcome. I must admit that I don't know Arizona geography that well and there are lenty of places in the west where the microclimate is a lot different from the region. I'm sure there are places in the intermountain region that are more similar to Rocky Mountains.

Donna, please, no need to apologize! And I truly hope your downsizing turns out to be a blessing in some way.

Janel, sure, I would love to accept! I will D mail you later on and see what I might offer in exchange too. Or just send postage if you prefer. Thanks!

Our weather here has been like you describe yours, rather ominously the same day after day, 40s and creeping toward 50s some days, 20s low to high at night, and dry dry dry. We are hoping for some precip. later in this week, I honestly don't care if it's rain or snow, just something!

I'm in:) Soudns like an awesome idea and we really don't seem to fit elsewhere. I'd love to hear about how others do things, tips tricks, and just chatter would be cool.

Katlian- I hear you on the weather. It's warm enough that I'm supper ichy for spring but cold enough to get stuck inside in the evenings. We seriously need the water too. Sigh. It's going to be a long winter.

Donna your helper probably will make room for you in his schedule if you have had him for 20 years. How often has he been coming over? I would love to have him for even one day a week. LOL wish we weren't so far away. I can't get anyone to come this far from town.

Maybe your 'helper' will start a business based on his experiences with you. Wouldn't that be nice.

I'm with you in cutting back. My problem is I don't have any will power when I look at the seed catalogs. I go in with my sister to buy seeds from some of them and that helps, but I can fit only so many on my decks.

I will take that early spring you speak of.

Jeanette

Albuquerque, NM is 5000', cool for the SW, warm for Rocky Mountain - I'd support a intermountain forum! : )
-Amy

this sounds better and better... we're well past the yr ten in what is called a ten year drought. Didn't get a lot of water before the drought sets in. DS and I joke about praying for clouds, that we've given up praying for rain. figure the Diety is upset with this section of Utah. LOL

even the pinyon and sagebrush is suffering over an immense area here in Southeast Utah. I water with seep hose and direct small spray
heads for the new fruit tree basins.

But the soil loves roses and the roses love it here. and tomatoes, especially cherry tomatoes are prolific. I'm pretty alone in my 6b area, tho there are a coupla members in the Salt Lake City area - our grwing situation is verrry different. ~Blooms