Welcome! Class starts May 9 - come say hi
Hi everyone, Debbie here. Glad you're in. Week 1 we're going straight at the frost problem, since that's what kills most first gardens up here (mine included, RIP six tomato starts, year one). We'll go over last frost dates for our elevation and how to actually read them instead of guessing. Before May 9, introduce yourself below. Name, where you're at in Riverwood, and why you signed up. I read every one.
Daniel Fritz here.
Sarah Wolf here, station district in American Fork.
Kami Andersen here, downtown AF. not a beginner either, my beds do fine but I straight up guess on frost every year too Sarah 😅 so tired of losing tomato starts to some random cold night. excited for May 9th
Blake Hood, Cedar Hollow area.
Kyle Madsen here, Quail Ridge area. total beginner lol, ive been messing with garage builds and 3D printing but zero garden game whatsoever. blake same my tomatoes lose the bet every single time. figured Id finally fix that before Hudson's old enough to help out
Welcome and all but Im gonna push back a little already lol. every "at altitude" gardening class I've sat through acts like the elevation is the main enemy and for me its always been soil and water timing, not altitude itself. ive done raised beds in Legacy North for 3 summers now and the stuff that failed wasnt failing because of elevation, it was failing cause I was overwatering or planted to early thinking the "extra sun exposure" would fix it. curious what the class is gnona claim causes the problems before I get excited about it... not trying to be a downer, genuinely asking Thanks!
So my tomatoes went in the ground two weeks ago up here in Greenwood and they still look stunted, like barely grown at all... is that just an AF thing with the altitude and cold nights or am i missing something. i garden mostly to keep the grocrey bill down at this point with 6 kids so if theyre not gonna produce i need to know now and switch strategy. anyone else dealing with this or is it just my patch 😂
Watched a YouTube video last night at like 11pm (per usual, ADHD brain doesn't sleep) from some guy in Colorado talking ABOUT altitude gardening and frost dates and it knid of wrecked my confidence before I EVEN started 😂 he was like "if you're above 4500 feet throw your calendar out the window" which, GREAT, thanks, love that for us here at whatever elevation UTAH county SITS at. Guy at the hardware store ALSO told me not to trust the little seed packet INSTRUCTIONS because they're written for like, Sacramento or something. I guess im winging it this year like always. Weather's been weird to, it was almost 70 last week and now it snowed AGAIN THIS morning, my poor tomato starts are just sitting in the garage looking confused, Lisa syas im anthropomorphizing plants and she's probably right. Anyway excited for May 9, hoping someone in here actually knows what
Station district, huh, nice. Sarah I'll be curious to compare notes with you cuz everybody in taht new part of AF seems to have great soil from what I hear, all that topsoil they trucked in for the development. Mine's the OPPOSITE story, out here we're basically gardening in what I lovingly call "glacial rubble" 🌷 and every single class or youtube video acts like altitude is the only enemy you GOTTA plan around. IT'S not altitude for a lot of us, it's the darn soil underneath it. I spent two whole summers fighting my dirt before I gave up and just built raised beds full of bagged stuff, and heck yes that solved it way faster than any of the "amend YOUR native soil" ADVICE ever did. if anyone's out THERE nodding along thinking altitude's their only problem, might wanna dig a hole first and see what you're working with
The tomato thing at altitude usually isnt a beginner-error problem, its a soil temp problem. everyone blames their own black thumb but ive had years where I did everything "right" and still got nothing til July because the ground wasnt warm enough yet. black plastic mulch or wall o waters help more than any technique tweak does, IMO. before you assume its user error just check if your soil's above like 60 degrees when you plant, thats usually the real culprit up here not lack of garden game lol also random but since you do 3D printing... i made these little soil thermometer stakse as a project a while back, way more satisfying than staring at tomatoes wondering whats wrong with you 😂 anyway welcome, this class helped me stop guessing and start actually measuring stuff which changed more than any "beginner tip" ever did