DesertChris' High Desert Extreme Gardening Glog

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

Sawyer said:
Wow, sorry to hear that. Good thing you planted a few extras.

So I can now add Crazy Dogs to the list of extreme conditions for gardening here...LOL

I am thinking losses may be around 12-20 seedlings....not too bad, but not acceptable either.
That darn 2 year old Springer is lucky I like him more than pepper plants....hahahahhaha

And now for the Extreme Update of the year.....
It is as windy today as I have ever seen it here.
Dust in the air so thick that visibility is 1/4 mile or so....
Looks like brown fog, but if you happen to brave the wind, and go outside, you get a mouthfull of sand

And yes, I have had to go out there several times today....feeding animals....checking plants etc...

Devv · Apr 8, 2013

Damn when it rains it pours, well dust anyways..

Liked the dogster pics, too bad when your proud of 'em they decide to, well be dogs...since it rained here mine have been hole diggin' dogsters!

Sorry for your plant loss, but I'm pretty sure the reserves will fill the gap.

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

Devv said:
Damn when it rains it pours, well dust anyways..

Liked the dogster pics, too bad when your proud of 'em they decide to, well be dogs...since it rained here mine have been hole diggin' dogsters!

Sorry for your plant loss, but I'm pretty sure the reserves will fill the gap.

Yep, I had just posted those photos, and my gal called to tell me what happened!!
Maybe he was mad, since he is one of the 2 that didn't get their photo posted...hahahaha

Luckily the losses seem to be of plants I have several of....It just sucks to lose them to my own dog...lol

That is the whole reason for so many plants though. With the conditions and wildlife here, I wanted to be sure to have enough survive

WalkGood · Apr 8, 2013

DesertChris said:
OK, just counted 1031 + 39 in the trays now, makes 1070

LOL!! I wish That would be awesome, but I fear I may just be supplying myself and the family with way mpre than we need...

I may end up supplying the rabbits and ground squirrels an all you can eat hot pepper buffett...lol

I figure I should mention that....
Say I did have 1,500 plants/seedlings
Then perhaps 500 lose the natural selection contest, leaving 1,000
Those 1,000 survive the wind, heat, sun, rabbits, squirrels etc. but are maybe half the size the could potentially get to.

So in reality that would be equal to 500 good plants.....right?....right?....right?.....

I am going to use that line of reasoning to justify the insanity.....lol

I agree with your reasoning, no not insanity … it’s insurance

Just caught up, I’ll return with my next batch of “like this” not sure how long that will last as I was out in my first half hour back this morning, lols.

Sad to read about the poor germ rate of your Hot Red Jamaican’s, if you want I can send you some of my JA Hab seeds, they’re good producers and the tastiest peppers that I like. I keep reading about you’re windier than anywhere situation and wonder if you have tried to build any wind deflectors in the past. Something like an air spoiler design but more vertical or even properly designed sand mounds to deflect the wind upward. If you go sand, I’m sure you’ll have to cover it with something or the sand would just blow away. I'm not sure what you can find around there but I often find people discarding wood, pots and all kinds of things that I occassionally repurpose. If you can get scrap wood for free, you might want to experiment building some staked down wind deflectors, I can think of a design in my mind but I'm sure you can too, might be worth a small trial or test.

Great updates and pictures, sad to read about the dog dancing on the seedling table :/ but the dog pics/pack is killer … keep up the great grow

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

WalkGood said:
I agree with your reasoning, no not insanity … it’s insurance

Just caught up, I’ll return with my next batch of “like this” not sure how long that will last as I was out in my first half hour back this morning, lols.

Sad to read about the poor germ rate of your Hot Red Jamaican’s, if you want I can send you some of my JA Hab seeds, they’re good producers and the tastiest peppers that I like. I keep reading about you’re windier than anywhere situation and wonder if you have tried to build any wind deflectors in the past. Something like an air spoiler design but more vertical or even properly designed sand mounds to deflect the wind upward. If you go sand, I’m sure you’ll have to cover it with something or the sand would just blow away. I'm not sure what you can find around there but I often find people discarding wood, pots and all kinds of things that I occassionally repurpose. If you can get scrap wood for free, you might want to experiment building some staked down wind deflectors, I can think of a design in my mind but I'm sure you can too, might be worth a small trial or test.

Great updates and pictures, sad to read about the dog dancing on the seedling table :/ but the dog pics/pack is killer … keep up the great grow

Yep, wind deflectors are vital!!!

Garden #1 has tight weave shadecloth on the west fenceline...that really cuts even the crazy wind to a manageable level.
Garden #2 the goat pen has solid metal fence on north and west sides...perfect to block the wind.
Garden #3 The far back garden has nothing yet....but i'll have to figure out something for it.
Garden #4 The future location of the Red Bhut Army of plants has a Barn wall on the west, and another on the North.

Hmmmmm, I just might take you up on the Jamaican seeds. Still had only one germinate, and who knows if it will survive this place....
I'll pm you

Thank You!!!!!!!!!

"Kissyface" the Pepper Stomping Spaniel....lol
Hopefully now that I posted his photo, he won't ever do it again!!!

And here is the other one "Squishy"

Ok, now all 8 are famous within the confines of my GLOG....hahahahha

Oh.....Since I was distraught over the seedling stomping event.....
I figured I deserved a present to myself...LOL

So Today I ordered some "Fatalii Gourmet Jigsaw" seeds from Finland

2 five seed packs....and they were only about $26....LOL

Most I have ever paid per seed....by far.... But the pods look insane, and he just started selling the seeds.

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

OK, just had to go pick ur kids up....just a few miles away....DANG!!

It got so bad with sand in the air, at one point I couldn't see past the hood of the car. I have never seen it this bad here.
There are apparently lots of accidents happening, and even the freeway is closed down in several places too.....

I am going to hide inside as much as possible until tomorrow, when the wind is supposed to go back down from gusts up to 70+mph to a manageable 15-25mph

Thank Goodness the peppers are on the porch where they are sheltered from all this craziness!!
And thank goodness the roof is indestructible compared to the tar shingle style roofs!
This kind of wind will peel the shingle roof right off of a house......

WalkGood · Apr 8, 2013

Sounds like you could start a sand blasting business with little work included, hehe

Great pics of the hounds ^_^

DesertChris · Apr 8, 2013

WalkGood said:
Sounds like you could start a sand blasting business with little work included, hehe Great pics of the hounds ^_^

Hahahahaha!!

I went to get the mail earlier, and was completely sandblasted myself!!

koskorgul · Apr 9, 2013

Thinking I am going to do the Fatalii jigsaw and the Carolina Reaper next year.

Glad to see that your plants are sheltered from teh sandblasting you guys are getting. Hope it died down for ya today.

P.S. Added some new pics over in my glog, check it out

Devv · Apr 9, 2013

I was surprised how much damage the steady 20 and and gusting into 30's did 2 Sundays ago. I can't imagine having it blow like you're experiencing.

Hopefully it will calm down and stay calm..

sicman · Apr 9, 2013

great update! plants lok great and the dogs look happy :dance:

Awesome! keep up the great work love your place.

DesertChris · Apr 9, 2013

Devv said:
I was surprised how much damage the steady 20 and and gusting into 30's did 2 Sundays ago. I can't imagine having it blow like you're experiencing.

Hopefully it will calm down and stay calm..

100% agree with you!!

It was so windy, for so long....it was actually giving me a headache from the noise!!
Luckily it has calmed waaaay down!!

That is why I plant everything super close together! I would rather have smaller plants in a hedgerow, rather than zero plants because the wind destroyed them...lol

sicman said:
great update! plants lok great and the dogs look happy Awesome! keep up the great work love your place.

Thank you!

The plants looked better before Spitfire (figured out it was him) went pepper stomping....I also figured out that he smelled a mouse, and was on the hunt....dang mouse hunting bird dog!

I ended up putting a puppy pen fence around the potting/seedling table, and that should keep him off of there.

Crazy thing is I had some really nice tomato seedlings up there, and he worked them over worse than the peppers!

If I take the 13 that I transplanted from the germ tray today, I figure I still have around 1,100 pepper plants/seedlings/hooks.
Maybe he was just weeding out the weaklings for me..... lol

DesertChris · Apr 10, 2013

I dislike pulling weeds......

DesertChris · Apr 10, 2013

I deweeded the entire 1,600 sq ft garden #1 today... whew...might sow some lettuce, chard, etc tomorrow

Also, I am seriously considering putting some tomato and pepper seedlings into the ground, just a few, still haven't decided if it is too soon yet though.....

Also, I am out of "likes" for today...lol

Oh, and my turnips are really starting to grow leaves now!! I love turnips

Turnip patch

I can't wait to eat these! I really like Rudebeggas (sp?) But didn't see any seeds in any of the places I got seeds from this year. So Turnips it is.

sicman · Apr 10, 2013

nice i have 3 rows of okra and 3 of snap beans that i put in the ground a week ago. almost every thing is sprouted! going to try to have enough of like 5 diffrent vegies to can and pickle that will last a whole year. we shall see how it turns out?

looking great!

DesertChris · Apr 10, 2013

sicman said:
nice i have 3 rows of okra and 3 of snap beans that i put in the ground a week ago. almost every thing is sprouted! going to try to have enough of like 5 diffrent vegies to can and pickle that will last a whole year. we shall see how it turns out?

looking great!

Awesome!

We are doing similar things...grow enough stuff to last a year.
Last year I made enough spaghetti sauce to last a year!

Devv · Apr 11, 2013

DesertChris said:
Awesome!

We are doing similar things...grow enough stuff to last a year.
Last year I made enough spaghetti sauce to last a year!

Spaghetti sauce, I live for it! It's the main reason we grow maties.

To tell the truth and call me crazy I'm not a fresh tomato eater kind of guy unless it's in hot sauce!

DesertChris · Apr 11, 2013

Devv said:
Spaghetti sauce, I live for it! It's the main reason we grow maties.

To tell the truth and call me crazy I'm not a fresh tomato eater kind of guy unless it's in hot sauce!

Heck yeah! Pico De Gallo

I do like fresh tomatoes too, but nothing beats homemade pasta sauce!!
We used some for a lasagne the other day, and the time before that, I made gnocchi from scratch

Devv · Apr 11, 2013

Do you have a good meatball recipe?

IMHO it's half the process

I use a recipe from my Grandpa who immigrated here from Italy, and landed on Ellis Island in 1917, used to make on Sundays...he always had the "red sauce" ready...hmm yum :party:

edit: I decided English was best...

DesertChris · Apr 11, 2013

Meataballas......lol

In college, I cooked for a crazy old italian lady from naples at her restaurant.
Her favorite thing to say was "Dirty a'stinking'a hippies I'a hate em all" bwahahahahaha

Nothing was ever measured......ever..... LOL!!

We did the meatballs with....

Ground chuck (equal amount to the sausage)
Italian sausage
Breadcrumbs (a biga handafull)
milk (add to consistency)
eggs (2-3}
salt (an italian pinch which apparently meant a small handfull...lol)
pepper (an italian pinch)
Basil (another italian pinch)

Roll it into balls and bake in oven.

After cooked, add them to the red sauce and voila....

I had a couple room mates after college that loved those dang things!
They would beg me to make them, then buy all the ingredients.
I would make 100-150 at a time, and we would gorge on them, then freeze the other 100 of them for later....lol

Oh, my red sauce.... I cheat on that

I take tomatoes...whatever kind are ripe (tons of cherry tomatoes last year!} and run them through the blender whole.
Put some olive oil in a pot, and start adding the blendered tomatoes.
With the last bit of tomatoes, I throw in a bunch of garlic cloves and fresh basil and blend it too.
Get it all simmering nicely, add salt, pepper and a bit of sugar.
Then when it is all cooked nicely I start adding corn starch to thicken it up (Cheating big time LOL)

Cool it, and freeze it in either 2 cup or 4 cup portions....the freezer is chock full of that stuff...lol

OK....

Here is another recipe...lol

9 Springer Spaniels + 12 new Tennis Balls = Total Mayhem!!

(Our 8 Springers plus 1 Springer that we are babysittimg for a couple days

)