Is anyone interested in an Intermountain regional forum?

Still cold here, 18 degrees this morning, also yesterday, and only up to 29 daytime, supposed to warm slightly and snow this weekend. We really need some moisture as the snow is the very dry kind, little moisture content. They gave the water content of snow in mountains around here as 45 to 60% of normal so far this winter. There is 10 or so inches of crusted snow on the ground now and my Lhaso Apso can walk on top if she wants to.

Donna

I've started a few veggies and flowers in containers. They are spending the days outside. I am dreading the winds this spring more than the cold nights. The windy season last year was much longer and stronger than usual.

I'm interested in participating in this thread.

Hi Everyone,
we have about 15 people interested so far. I have dmailed about 25 people and recieved responses from 10 of them. Please dmail people in you area who might be interested. You can also post a link in other forums since there isn't as much traffic on these 'nuts and bolts' type forums. Let's try to get 10 to 15 more people.
Janel

Hi from the Rockey Mountain Forum. Our members range from Canada to New Mexico and include WA, ND, OR, MT, CO, CA, NM and NV and we have members from other states that join in too. I see that some of you are RM participants already. I wonder have the rest of you folks considering joining the RM Forum and having threads that are specific to your regions and interests. Some of the areas you are from are already represented on the RM forum but I also see that there are other areas. Might it might be better to expand the RM forum to include your areas? Just a thought? Not to be quash your quest for a new forum but I wonder whether we could combine our areas to be a larger forum? Just a thought? Of course this is just my personal thought.

Well, what do the rest of you think? It's been a week and we haven't had enough responses to earn us our own forum. Do you want to try to maintain a thread or two on the Rocky Mountain forum? We could always try for our own forum later if we get more people interested.

On another note, woohoo! It's finally raining. This is the first moisture since we had a couple of inches of snow on Christmas. And it's real rain, not just a few drops that don't even get the sidewalk completely wet. It must be raining really hard in California to get this much on the east side of the mountains.

Raining here too, Janel.

I never did learn how many folks we needed to entice to earn our own forum..... I will say I visited over at Rocky Mountain just to check it out , thanks, Dahlia! It looks fun over there........ I would have piped up and introduced myself but it was real late and I postponed that...... I'm certainly willing to participate over there.

It might be interesting to explore what if any are the real ("real"?) gardening differentiations between the Rocky Mountains and the region(s) we have been delineating here. I feel there is something there but can't put my finger on it. One thing is, aside from Mt Shasta, absolutely nothing around here is anywhere near as genuinely majestic as the Rockies! But that isn't a gardening issue.

I can go either way. And happily will. ;-)

Kyla

Katlian- I love the rain:). From my office window most of Reno is hidden by the clouds, cant see the foot hills. Hope it keeps up.

As for the forum, I think it would be awesome to have one dedicated to our area and it's challages. I know that I'm fairly new to gardening in this area and still struggel to figure out what the heck I'm doing. But I'm also good with the idea of having some area specific threads on the Rocky Mountain forum and if interest builds we could go from there.

Dahlinut- I think it's nice of you to make the offer:).

Well welcome Kyla. Regardless of whether you all get your own forum or not, we welcome everyone to the Rocky Mountain Forum. Right now some of us are a little crazy with cabin fever but the gardening chat and photos should be starting up bigtime soon.

It was the crazy part I was most enjoying.

O good because some of us are a little crazy all the time. We just blame it on cabin fever ^_^

yes well at least no one will be throwing any glass houses, LOL!

Tee hee. Yes we need to use them to grow our seedlings in the frosty spring so throwing them is not a good idea.

Either way would be fine with me. I do post now and then on the Rocky Mtn forum, and find that it fits my growing conditions better than Pacific Northwest or California. Everybody has microclimates so we are all constantly tweeking our gardening methods anyhow. We could try it for a while and see if the shoe fits.

On the other hand, new forums have been started with less interest than I see on this one thread. Have you heard a number? And have you thought about posting on the General Discussion forum to see if there are others who have not been informed?

Mary,
I wasn't sure where to post since I don't follow those forums much. Kiln-Fired Arts (the newest forum) had more than 30 people signup in four days. I figured we wouldn't have quite that many that quickly since they were discussing the possibilty in other threads beforehand.

Dave is keeping an eye on us and will decide when there is enough interest to merit a new forum.

Well, you can throw my name in the hat. I love new forums. Will have to look at the kiln-fired Arts. Don't know anyone with a kiln tho.

Jeanette

Hello from the high desert of Bend, OR. I've been hanging out in the Rocky Mtn forum - great folks and lots of applicable gardening knowledge there. I'd be up for an InterMtn forum, if one evolves. I think there are other Bendites who would be interested, too. We might be able to attract eastern OR/WA folks by posting something on the PacNW forum. Just a thought....

Hey there. Checked out this thread that dahlia put in the RM forum.
Kylaluaz, I've grown miniature foxgloves quite successfully here in denver. 5280 ft, 14" of rain a year is a good year, and they get plenty of wind (unfortunately, for me- I hate wind) I have some under a silver maple that gets morning sun and a short blast about noon, which is the gap from tree to house. I have the others on west side of backyard that gets sun all day till about 4ish. Our summers are easily mid-upper 90s with some 100s, and VERY dry. About 4 miles east of me is the eastern edge of the populated Denver metro area. Out beyond is nothing but high desert plains (and I mean plains).

Before I start rambling, good luck on a new forum, I know I would watch it. Paul.

Hi Paul, thanks for the encouragement. I am going to try some foxgloves. Everything is new for me, as I am new to this area as of just last Sept and starting in a previously uncultivated area to boot....... at this point I can barely take the suspense! LOL~

Been enjoying the RM forum and still would love it if we had our own too. Just greedy, I guess. ;-)

Since no one has posted a link yet, here is the thread over on the Rocky Mountain Forum. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/945338/

Hey Kyla, going way back to your story of the leaf mulch. I had the same problem so last winter I piled up the leaves on my perennial bed and then used the bird netting from my little cherry tree and a bunch of rocks to hold them in place. Then of course it was an unusual winter and we had snow every week.

This winter I used some branches and laid them over the leaves to keep them in place.

Last year the wind cracked my Caesalpinia gilesii at the fork of the two main branches so I glued the cracked edges back together with super glue and tied the branches to braces. It looks like it's growing back over the wound but really healed yet.

I wish I had more room on the west side of my yard to plant a windbreak.

Hi Janel, thanks for the ideas. Rocks, I have plenty of and thinking of getting bird netting anyway -- next time I will be better prepared, probably all around. This year I just kind of plunged in, knowing I had little time and not much in the way of resources to start with. So, an experiment. ;-)

thanks for the link too. ~ K

Hi everyone, I live in Sacramento but my family has a house in south central Utah where my sister and I try to maintain a garden at about 5,200 feet elevation in pinyon, juniper, and sagebrush communities. I think there is merit to having a separate Intermountain forum as I think the Great Basin/Modoc Plateau/Snake River Plateau etc. have some unique gardening challenges. I don't know what degree of interest is required to start a new forum. There is overlap of course with the Rocky Mountain forum, especially perhaps in the higher elevations of the Wasatch, but the cold desert areas of the west probably could support their own forum. I would participate if there was one.

Hi Nasturtium (one of my favorite flowers, that did not do well on t he NC coast where I just moved from) ;-) As I am new to this region I would love to hear your perspective on how it differs from conditions predominating in the Rocky Mountain region..... And also say, the Rocky Mountain forum is very active and enjoyable, so please come over, if you like, and join in..... maybe we could have a thread about how we are different, how we are the same???? As I say, being new to the area, I do not have those fine distinctions clear at all, but feel they must be there! I am so interested, thanks for posting.

Kyla