Garden Tour: Hoser's Garden on the Edge

A few months back there was an article in the local paper about a young couple that just moved to Cache Valley. The young mom had grown up in a big family with a HUGE garden, and she was getting her new garden set up. The article talked about sharing knowledge and produce with neighbors, and I thought to myself: Man, I want to see her yard.




 So I sat down on facebook, tracked her down, and said Hi! Were you just in the paper? I live in ______ and I am trying to become a good gardener. Could I come visit your garden sometime? 


 Two days later she responds: I'm not really comfortable with that. But the USU Extension is a great resource for new gardeners.[insert condescending cheesy smiley face here] Good luck! 


 I'll admit I was a little sad, and embarrassed. I wondered if it was not normal to want to visit people's yards and see their gardens. So I just decided to start some garden tours on the blog for fellow like-minded weirdos. These aren't necessarily garden magazine gardens, but real people, with other lives, and what they're doing with the dirt. They're doing good things with the dirt. So here's my first garden tour. It's the garden of my dad in good old I-dee-ho.

Here's a view from the deck. Lots of intoxicating views of Idaho potato and wheat fields. In the distance, on a clear day, you get a glimpse of the Tetons. Gorgeous! That's just the backdrop to Hoser's dirt patch.

So here's the actual yard. The clean line of the lawn is edged with railroad ties, and then it slopes down down down and gets to the garden. For a good 15 years the slope had wildflowers - daisies, asters, lupine, yarrow, poppies. Sadly, those days are gone, but magic is still happening in the earth below.

uno. Nooooo! Don't take my picture. Can if I want.
 dos. Down the steep path.
 tres. Aspen and pine surround a firepit to the side of the garden.

This is why this garden is lovely. A) Because of lovable little Hoser, Coach, Daddio.  B) It's the untamed slope, meeting the edge of the fields, all teeming with weeds. But his garden path is clear and pure. I love it! It gives me hope that my raspberry patch can be good someday. I threw up my hands when it was surrounded by fields and canals and couldn't keep up.

 When asked why he gardens, my dad just kindof shrugged and said I like to eat corn. Notice the pines and aspen at one end of the garden, with the willow windbreak on the other end. The willows were so thirsty he cut some of them out to help his garden thrive. Oh, and I had to water every damn tree as a punishment for breaking curfew with a boyfriend back in the day. Welcome for the shade everyone. Is anyone reading this? Am I officially making my blog boring? I'm kindof obsessed with gardens right now!

Here lies the major trick with gardening - weed management! Gardens are manageable if you tackle weeds before you start. Compost, manure, tilling - there's lots you can do. So my dad's plot was CLEAN, and his management is EASY. Triangle hoe slices under any seedlings sprouting up. Not many sprouting up because he has a dripline only watering his veggies. Did you know that driplines don't work that well with secondary water? They get clogged up too easily. But when you conserve, you can more readily afford culinary water. That's what's going on here: Driplines with culinary water.