This is the second year we've grown potatoes in the Reno garden. After reading several stories on the sorry plight of the commercial potato, we decided to improve our health by organically growing some varieties. So, early this past spring, after hearing that the potatoes had arrived, we stopped by Dry Creek and picked up a couple bags of potato starts.

After talking to John Strickland about last year's harvest, he suggested that we plant the potatoes in trenches. Since they are nightshades, like tomatoes, you can bury the main stem deeper than intuition tells you, which helps grow more roots, and with the potatoes, helps grow more potatoes.

So, we dug trenches in the raised bed two feet or so apart, placed the potato starts at the bottom, covering them with a few inches of top soil. Once growing, as the stems emerged, we kept filling the trench, little by little until they were completely filled in to regular ground level. Since then the main stems have grown several feet. We added bamboo cane tripod supports to help the plants stand tall.

The flowers have been developing through June and should start to open in the next week or so. The greenery and the delicate white flowers make potatoes a nice ornamental feature for the garden, as well as a good producer of food for the table.

In the photo you might be able to pick out some collard leaves. The collards this year have been wonderful, too. There has been very little insect damage, and the leaves grew broad and tender and delicious. We've been sautéing them with turkey bacon and onions. Delicious!

The fence creates a very visible place to show off some shade loving summer plants. The deep purple Choral Bells is such a beautiful contrast to the light glaze of a twelve inch pot. This plant has been living in the space, year round for several years. We add a bit of new soil and about half an inch of organic, composted Chicken manure as a top layer. The blooms are a couple weeks later than the bright pink Choral Bells in the yard, but those plants get some sun. These flowers are soft white.

The Jacob's Ladder would like more sun. It seems that last year, the plant enjoyed this spot much more than this year. Last year the plant was more compact, more upright. This year it's more leggy, moving all over the place looking for the sun. It still looks great and is blooming.

We waited until now to plant the Coleus out side in its shade corner. Around this yard, Coleus enjoys some morning sun that quickly turns to dappled late morning shade, then deep shade for the length of the afternoon. This one gets full shade.

The purple flowers are abundant and long lasting on the Dalmatian Blue Bellflower. This easy beauty is a type of Campanula and a good choice for the semi-shade or dappled shade garden. This plant (pictured) has been moved several times, looking for its favorite spot and this spot seems to be the one. It gets some early morning sun, with long afternoon shade and flowers for several weeks this time of year. The flowers form a soothing patch of purple color.

Quick color solutions are easy. There are many different types of plants, both annual and perennial, that can be planted in June for immediate color and texture. Plants planted now can be full and in crazy bloom by July.

Annuals mixed with perennials can insure color all summer long. Annuals and perennials in containers, too, allow you to move color to different places in the garden for changing accents, adding interest, and setting the stage for every summer dinner party.

Even if you plan to grow lettuce and cabbage from seed, it's always fun to plant a few six packs of beautiful spring lettuces and cabbages to set the garden in motion right away. In just a few days, the plants establish themselves and begin responding to the spring sunshine, and especially with lettuce, the leaves are delicious when young and tender and are ready to eat pretty much as soon as you put the plants in the ground.

Early April is the time. Setting these cool weather plants into the ground early gives a quick sense of accomplishment, and inspires even more planting as the days grow longer and the nights warmer.

Onions and potatoes, too, can be planted now. It's time!

Happy April!

It's been a surprisingly dry winter for the Sierra and Great Basin. So dry, in fact, that gardeners needed to compensate for lact of rain and snow by watering their trees, perennials and lawns from time to time during the cold winter months. But if your watering efforts were too little, too late, damage and die back, especially with plants that are strangers to the desert to begin with, are probably the inevitable results.

Some plants will survive and recover. Some will die. As the soil begins to warm with night temperatures rising, the damage will become more evident. Many drought tolerant plants -- the yucca, agave, hardy cacti and others -- will probably be just fine. Plants with deeper root systems might send up their new spring growth like nothing strange happened at all. Time will tell.

If you keep a gardening journal with maps for locating and tracking your plants, it will be easier to tell what's been lost. Whatever the case, this is the time of year to work on preparing and improving the soil for the typically hot, dry growing season to come. If there was little water in the winter, we can most definitely expect more of the same for summer.

Right now, though, as the lack of water continues, it's important to add moisture to your soil, especially for your large trees and shrubs, as well as your less drought tolerant perennials. For large trees and shrubs, twice a month, slowly soak the dripline areas (away from the trunk toward the outer edges of their branches), at least to a depth of 8 inches. Do this slowly so that the water does not run off, but rather soaks in.

It's time to plant and what a wonderful time it is. It's such a beautiful day for gardening. The morning light coming from the window wakes us to cool morning springtime air. It's such a draw to the out of doors. Hot coffee. Sierra morning light. Plants waiting to be planted. You can feel the day's warmth beginning. The unstable weather is exciting. May is that way.

These containers are on a backyard deck that receives excellent sun throughout the growing season. The larger pots are tomato and eggplant sized capacity for over twenty plants. The smaller containers in the background are pepper sized, enough for sixteen different type peppers. Tomatoes and peppers combine for a traditional recipe, tending enough plants to fulfill the famous Barbarella's Hot Pepper Salsa (12 out of fourteen peppers picked randomly, fresh off the plants. That combined with cilantro and any number of some twenty different tomato types, enough to temper the peppers and achieve the perfect hotness).

With new soil comes the question of water. Watering routines begin to be revived in May. Late autumn and over winter, watering had ceased, but now the warm winds are blowing and it's time to take an assessment of your garden's water needs. The air can turn hot and dry in May, so check the soil. It might be time to start a regulated watering schedule.

Garden vegetables to plant in May include beans, beets, brocolli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, collards, kale, leeks, lettuce, peas, potatoes, radishes, onions. Most herbs can be potted in May as well. Oh and don't forget to process and rededicate compost production.

Each year Drycreek offers great vegetables, and to elaborate on the list above, Drycreek supplies Reno backyard gardens with delicious Wala Wala Onion sets. There are at least fifty little onions in each set, ready to grow. One or two sets will insure great tasting onions all summer long, into autumn and winter. It's a great feeling to be able to offer home grown, freshly picked onions to the visiting summer chef. Definitely, growing your own food conjures up a feeling of being in place, where plants you tend give back nourishment, besides pure beauty, bringing us closer to ourselves where the place of the self becomes the garden.

According to the National Public Gardens Day Web site, "National Public Gardens Day is an annual celebration of the nation's public gardens to raise awareness of the important role botanical gardens and arboreta play in promoting environmental stewardship, plant and water conservation, green spaces, and education in communities nationwide."

Pictured here is Reno's very own public garden, the Wilbur D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden. The May Arboretum is a living learning center for novice and professional gardeners and landscapers. Its location represents the unique challenges we face as gardeners

What can we learn from a stroll through our local public garden? We get to see the time-tested adaptation efforts of the experts using both native plants and plants able to adjust to a variety of arid to alpine microclimates. We get to see modern, efficient watering practices installed and working as models for backyard applications. By studying what the experts have tried, we can jot down landscaping ideas, general growing tips and gardening inspiration for our home designs. Springtime is always a productive and fun time to visit, but the May Arboretum offers itself as a living encyclopedia of seasonal advice throughout the year.

So, happy National Public Gardens Day! Find yourself soon at our local public garden. Why not today? Or this weekend? The weather is supposed to be perfect, good reason to take mom on a walk at the May Arboretum on Mothers Day. Then after that, drop by Drycreek Nursery to spot many of the very plants you will have seen in the Arboretum.

There are nearly three hundred species of Iris. Whether rhizome or bulb, this handsome, easy to grow hardy perennial signals the wonderful days of our typically short lived spring, the perfectly warm days of May and early June. Garden Party conversations speak of the incredible Sierra light articulated through word and image once by Ansel Adams and now by every handy digital camera. The party in the garden reflects that light, adding the experience of the sensational arrival of warmth. With grape vines and blueberry budding, the Iris unfolds and will do so now through the next few weeks. These and other awakening plants seen at dusk, dawn, and mid-day bind us to the feeling of Earth and life.

Yesterday and today are perfect spring. This week and hopefully the next four or so weeks. Perfect spring for planning the garden, for choosing suitable plants, and planting and watching the emerging garden and enjoying that. The earth under one's feet, the sky, the light, the warmth. The soil. The desire and ease of going outside again to be with the birds and the plants.

This group pictured has been living at this house for a decade. They were originally planted in a southern slope receiving full summer sun. They were fine there, but it was obvious they would better enjoy a western, northern or eastern exposure. So they were divided and replanted at the base of walls to the west and the north. Both groups take the pose each year at this time and make all the human onlookers happy.

But Iris in the process of blooming today, this spring, is the result of past planting and followed garden plans. If you have no Iris in your garden, be sure to plan to plant this coming fall. Think about your favorite colors because Iris means literally all colors. And here they come! The Iris tells us spring is here with all sorts of plants ready for planting right now, today. This week. Plants for blooming this summer, this year.

Heading to the nursery...

Pansies and other cold hardy annuals provide instant color. If you have yet to plan your springtime garden, hybrid pansies, pansy violets and other types of Violas are good choices for early color. These plants can take the late spring cold nights, they are easy to plant, easy to grow. They will produce flowers in early spring and continue all summer long. Pansies are usually considered to be cold weather annuals, and they should probably be planted as such, although they can last much longer than you might expect, and some varieties will self-seed.

The plants are non-spreading and low growing, so they are great for your garden edges. They do very well in containers, too, for both early and late season color. This time of year, it's fun to plant pansies in pots around the garden for hiding Easter eggs. And speaking of youngsters, pansies are an excellent choice for teaching children about gardening. Besides their ease of care, they often have happy cartoon faces.

Another advantage to having pansies in the garden is that if you grow them without pesticides and other poisons, their flowers are editable and do wonders for summer salads.

According to the experts, there are hardly any naturally occurring honeybee colonies left in the wild. Now almost all colonies are maintained by beekeepers, but even these are threatened. The consensus seems to be that the honeybee is under attack by deadly viruses, the source of which is not completely understood. But the bees have no built in defense to this new threat, so humans need to do all we can to help them survive.

What can we gardeners do? We can stop using pesticides and purchase foods that have not been grown with the use of pesticides! We can plan our gardens and landscapes with plants that attract honeybees. Bees love flowers, so to encourage the bees, make sure you plant a variety of flowering plants that will ensure blooming all season long. Fruit trees are a good source of nectar and pollen for spring. Vegetables, herbs, hollyhocks, foxgloves and all types of sunflowers will keep the bees happy through mid to late summer. Plan for autumn blooming plants like Asters and Chrysanthemums. Drycreek also offers desert wildflower seed mixes.

Other helpful tips: Take up beekeeping. Or at least buy local honey. Its fresher and the purchase supports the local economy. Even in Nevada, there is local honey being produced and sold at market. And if you find a swarm of bees in your yard, don't panic. Don't squirt them with water or spray them with pesticides! Even though it might look like a horror film in the making, swarming bees are relatively passive and not likely to sting, unless you act like a fool. Instead, contact a local beekeeper and swarm collector.

Everyone knows springtime bulbs are great for mass plantings in beds and borders, but they work great in less conventional areas of your garden as well. Perhaps you don't associate tulips, daffodils, crocus, hyacinths and other flowering bulbs with rock gardens, but in the high desert, you get to see these springtime flowers poking their leaves and flower stems up between the rocks of xeric gardens quite often. And they look great.

If you have not thought of this, plan for next spring by planting springtime bulbs in the crevices between the rocks of your rock garden about six inches deep. Give them full sun and well drained soil. The rocks will act as a ground cover over the winter, giving the bulbs their needed moisture.

Once the flowers are spent and the leaves begin to brown, you can cut them back to the ground and fill the space by planting some shallow rooted sedum above the deeper bulbs.

If you haven't tried this before, write it as a plan for your fall gardening projects.

Homemade Friday night pizza is always threatening to become a tradition, a delicious delight, made with miniature yellow pear tomatoes that were grown in 12 inch containers on a sunny deck in the Old Southwest section of Reno. There were plenty of yellow pears for summer salads and kabobs, and plenty to freeze for many winter evenings when comfort food seems to make the fires glow brighter.

Plan for some space for tomatoes. We do contend with a short season, so John and Nancy make it a yearly goal to provide several short seasoned heirloom tomatoes. Several varieties do very well here.

Yes, it's always fun and usually very productive to grow tomatoes. Some years are better than others, and some plants enjoy our climate more than others, but they can do quite well, especially if you give them the basic, loving attention they deserve.

It's not too early to start dreaming about tomato plants. It's not too early to sketch them into the garden plan. Be sure to come visit the nursery when the tomatoes begin their arrival. It will be soon. Dry Creek always has a divergent selection of heirloom and short season varieties. Get the plan ready. The tomatoes go fast like the pizza.

It's just not true what some local gardeners will tell you about not planting anything until Peavine Peak is free of snow. It's a confused notion because while it might be true that tomatoes and eggplant and peppers should wait, nevertheless, there are lots of plants and starts that can go into the ground right now.

It all depends upon where you plant and the degree of protection you provide. Some plants will need to harden a bit before spending a chilly night out. With these starts, we hardened them by first letting them feel the cool evening air until bedtime, then we brought them in. Then we let them spend a few nights on an open air, though covered porch. Then we planted them in the raised bed, covering them at night with a clear plastic frame.

Lettuces, beets, cabbage, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, brocolli spinach, onions, leeks, chives, parsley and other hardy herbs and vegetables can take some cold at night. We cover the box as a precaution until the roots have settled in and the leaves get used to the microclimate of the backyard. During the day we remove the plastic cover to let the sun shine in and to make sure they new plants don't overheat.

It's all fun. And in the high desert, each season is different; each planting is experimental. It gives for good writing in the garden journal.

Right now we have in stock all the vegetable and herb starts mentioned above. This week, too, we've received shipments of hardy perennials that can also be planted before the snow leaves Peavine Peak. Some are early flowering natives. This is also a great time to plant shade trees like the Norway maple and the honey locust. Certainly, if you're itching to start work on the garden, turn your back on Peavine Peak and drive down to the Reno nursery. We're in the gardening mode already; we'll show you what can be planted today.

Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox! And if we couldn't actually feel the intersection of the equinoctial points or the fact that night and day were almost equal in length and that the center of the sun passed vertically across an exact point on the Equator, it sure did feel like a day for planting!

This year, our plan for this raised bed is to grow salad vegetables. We will get a head start by planting some six packs of various lettuces, cabbage, beets, leeks and onions. We will at the same time plant seeds of lettuce, kale, spinach and carrot.

To stay organized, it's easy to mark the rows with a straight edge, then place a yardstick next to the line drawn for spacing the plants and seeds. The straight edge and ruler combination can also serve to draw the seed lines to their proper depth.

As we plant the seeds, of course the local song birds watch from nearby branches and ledges as if this yearly springtime ritual is for them. But, we will cover the frame to allow the seeds to sprout and to protect the starts from any sudden dips in nighttime temperatures.

Happy Spring!

As much as we love the winter life, staying cozy warm, the beautiful white covered mountains, the deep snow covered slopes for skiing and the pathless solitude of snowshoeing, still, as the warm days begin to edge their way into March, we begin to dream of spring.

And we start thinking seriously again about garden plans, new ideas for growing, future experiments.

It's a great time of year! It's a time of renewal; a time when we find ourselves hoping for another year of good life, good health, good food, good people.

And the birds are chirping again, building nests; cottontails are hopping, looking for new homes; the spiders are building their webs -- just as the humans are once again turning and preparing the soil. Just like instinct, just in time!

Happy Spring!

To get things started, early orders of beautiful vegetable six packs have arrived. Several types of lettuce, beets, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Broccoli, onions, leeks, parsley, cilantro and more! We also have beautiful pansies and violas.

For those who love to grow early plants from seed, we've received a shipment of many types, a wide assortment of wildflowers and many types of organic vegetable seeds.

To welcome the wild local songbirds, we have some beautiful bird baths this year. And we've received some unique containers for patio gardening.

Happy Spring!