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We've already been up to 70 and it's supposed to be in the mid-70s all week... what with winter being in October and February, and summer in January, stuff here is confused. Most years by now the Nanking cherry is done blooming already; this year it hasn't even budded up yet. Crocus are late too. But the mini iris bloomed last week. Trees are all still "You want leaves when??" but the grass is greening up. Back pasture could sure use some rain.
Anyway... been digging weeds already, think I'd best get to turning dirt in earnest and get the spuds and cold-happy stuff in... by June it's too hot for beets and lettuce. Today I see the elephant garlic is on its way up and the Canadian rhubarb is thinkin' about that first leaf. Strawberries cheated and kept some leaves green all winter.
Anyone who can't find seed potatoes, I've got like four buckets of russets that decided December was a good time to grow, way more than I need...
The local store has some Yukon gold's, that's what I like best. Good keepers.
Just barely see a green tinge to the hayfields. None of the berry bushes in the ravine look like they've come out of hibernation yet.
We haven't hit 70 yet although we did get low 60s a couple times in March.
Yeah, I need to get something besides russets... they're good potatoes (and normally keep well, dunno what's with everything deciding to grow in December -- onions did too!) and produce reliably, but I prefer reds and Yukons when I can get 'em. My reds have sort of petered out and the last of the leftover Golds didn't do anything, so I need to find some fresh starts.
Would like to find scab-resistant varieties, tho... scab doesn't affect the eating (just makes the skins ugly, and I peel 'em anyway) but does seem to go along with goofy shapes, which are a nuisance.
If you can find them, King Edwards are a great eating potato. Flaky baked, smooth mashed, roast really well too, probably the best roaster I've ever found, but not my favorite for French fries. A little too soft.
They're an English heritage breed of potato so are well suited for their style of cooking. Bangers and Mash anyone?
Yukon Gold have a great flavor and store forever. Good all purpose spud, other the best baker, but man do they go well in soups and stews!!!
Love my onions, petty much all of them, haven't tried growing garlic, might put that on the list.
I'm going to try and get some rhubarb started in the ravine where it's mice moist but not wet ground, and it's protected from storms and deep freezes.
Since rhubarb grows forever, it would be a nice addition to my wild edibles patch especially since it's high in vitamin C which can be difficult to get in a country that doesn't grow citrus well, unless you like wild rose hips or spruce needle tea.
I like growing wild natives when I can. No pesticides, no replanting, very little weeding.
Garlic will self-perpetuate. My next-door neighbor planted a row some years ago and the babies they make up top (like walking onions) have made more ever since; if he didn't rototill his garden they'd take over the whole place. I planted some elephant garlic (really a big fat leek) last year, just cloves from the store, and tho it's supposed to take a few years to get going, I see it's already pushing into the air and looks like it's started multiplying.
The Russet potatoes I have fry well, and are good stewed, but tend to be dry and fibrous baked. I prefer 'em smooth and soft inside. Yukons are better bakers, IMO (especially given I bake 'em in the microwave). The few Yukons I had (since petered out) were from a storebought that had been forgotten in a corner for close to a couple years and was STILL unsprouted and in an edible state... yeah, that's serious keeping ability.
If you want french fries with more oomph, just cut 'em thinner and the higher crust-to-innards ratio stiffens 'em up.
There are seed potato outfits in western MT that carry all sorts of weird varieties, and one of 'em will even deliver (minimum order 25 pounds) tho they may have already gone out on their rounds.
Rhubarb doesn't care how cold it gets; in Great Falls we planted it anywhere and it took off. Mine is Canadian Red rated Zone 2, don't think winter bothers it much. However, it tends to quit and go dormant when summer heats up; seriously does NOT like the heat. It's a bit happier since I moved it (resulting in first three, then a dozen plants) where it gets afternoon shade. It likes water, but yeah, wet feet will make it rot. I let one bloom last year and saved the seeds, tho no idea if they're any good.
There exist citrus that can routinely handle Zone 4 if the roots are sheltered, like next to a warm basement wall. Sour enough to take the paint off your roof, tho... And strange exceptions: We grew lemons from seed in Great Falls, planted 'em outdoors around 1970. They never got more than a few inches high, and didn't bloom, but they were still alive when my mom moved out of that house several years later, and tho they were sheltered by a juniper, they were 3-4 feet from the house, and it had no basement, so not getting much ground heat. And I've been told back in the 1970s there was a super-productive lemon tree growing wild in an alley in Bozeman. Citrus grower friend also told me that own-root are MUCH hardier than grafted. So it's worth planting random lemon seeds in sheltered places, just to see what you get. Also, they do well as a potted houseplant, so long as you don't overwater 'em. Attractive and smell good too.
I've got a rock-walled bank a couple feet high between my built-up front yard and my sloping driveway, and enough warmth comes out of the rocks to melt channels in the piled-up snow even during deep cold. Should plant a couple lemon seeds there and see how they do. (Not really suitable as a tree spot, but they'd probably stay fairly small.) Seems to me you could grow one in a pit and cover the pit in winter, and get the same effect. The seeds don't keep, so plant 'em fresh from the fruit.
Need to start a spearmint patch, that being my favorite tea.
Tomatoes will go wild and self-seed, and are really good about not coming up til after the last frost. I get productive volunteers all over the place, and these self-seeders produce just as well completely neglected.
Garlic will self-perpetuate. My next-door neighbor planted a row some years ago and the babies they make up top (like walking onions) have made more ever since; if he didn't rototill his garden they'd take over the whole place. I planted some elephant garlic (really a big fat leek) last year, just cloves from the store, and tho it's supposed to take a few years to get going, I see it's already pushing into the air and looks like it's started multiplying.
The Russet potatoes I have fry well, and are good stewed, but tend to be dry and fibrous baked. I prefer 'em smooth and soft inside. Yukons are better bakers, IMO (especially given I bake 'em in the microwave). The few Yukons I had (since petered out) were from a storebought that had been forgotten in a corner for close to a couple years and was STILL unsprouted and in an edible state... yeah, that's serious keeping ability.
If you want french fries with more oomph, just cut 'em thinner and the higher crust-to-innards ratio stiffens 'em up.
There are seed potato outfits in western MT that carry all sorts of weird varieties, and one of 'em will even deliver (minimum order 25 pounds) tho they may have already gone out on their rounds.
Rhubarb doesn't care how cold it gets; in Great Falls we planted it anywhere and it took off. Mine is Canadian Red rated Zone 2, don't think winter bothers it much. However, it tends to quit and go dormant when summer heats up; seriously does NOT like the heat. It's a bit happier since I moved it (resulting in first three, then a dozen plants) where it gets afternoon shade. It likes water, but yeah, wet feet will make it rot. I let one bloom last year and saved the seeds, tho no idea if they're any good.
There exist citrus that can routinely handle Zone 4 if the roots are sheltered, like next to a warm basement wall. Sour enough to take the paint off your roof, tho... And strange exceptions: We grew lemons from seed in Great Falls, planted 'em outdoors around 1970. They never got more than a few inches high, and didn't bloom, but they were still alive when my mom moved out of that house several years later, and tho they were sheltered by a juniper, they were 3-4 feet from the house, and it had no basement, so not getting much ground heat. And I've been told back in the 1970s there was a super-productive lemon tree growing wild in an alley in Bozeman. Citrus grower friend also told me that own-root are MUCH hardier than grafted. So it's worth planting random lemon seeds in sheltered places, just to see what you get. Also, they do well as a potted houseplant, so long as you don't overwater 'em. Attractive and smell good too.
I've got a rock-walled bank a couple feet high between my built-up front yard and my sloping driveway, and enough warmth comes out of the rocks to melt channels in the piled-up snow even during deep cold. Should plant a couple lemon seeds there and see how they do. (Not really suitable as a tree spot, but they'd probably stay fairly small.) Seems to me you could grow one in a pit and cover the pit in winter, and get the same effect. The seeds don't keep, so plant 'em fresh from the fruit.
Need to start a spearmint patch, that being my favorite tea.
Tomatoes will go wild and self-seed, and are really good about not coming up til after the last frost. I get productive volunteers all over the place, and these self-seeders produce just as well completely neglected.
I tried pear trees from a local nursery in Helena when I lived there. In 20 years I got 1 pear about the size of a ping pong ball.
I'll stick to chokecherries and service berries, although I'm strongly thinking of planting in some elderberry in my wild patch.
Elderberry is a superfood, has medicinal properties, makes excellent jelly and brandy too.
Might transplant some wild buffalo berry in as it does very well in this area.
Love the rhubarb. Planning on a patch of wild nettle too. Nettles have far superior taste to spinach, higher nutritional value, and a lot of medical uses as well.
I'd like to start some mushrooms down along the creek in the cottonwood leaf rot, but I have a feeling the deer would make short work of them. Maybe I could start some tree mushrooms like chicken of the woods or oyster mushrooms.....
Already have some cattails and wild rose, a few wild gooseberry too.
I'd like to get some arrowleaf balsamroot or biscuit root, but they tend to like higher elevations.
Got some greater sagebrush which is the best fever killer I know of. Some Mullin, some wild millet, even some yucca for both food and soap.
I think a patch of wild onion would be great if I could find some to get seeds or starters, and a patch of wild growing garlic would fit in nicely too.
Got a lot of wild mint growing up by the cabin. You can't believe the wonderful scent as you walk around up there.
Walla Walla onions naturalize well... plant the growies, or cut the center out of one you eat and plant that. They don't suffer from male sterility and they'll overwinter well. I had a bunch of Sunion seeds but something got into 'em, so will have to try again. But they sure did make a lot of seed, and they're so good you can eat 'em like an apple. Kinda ruined me for other onions.
Had a lot of wild spearmint around Bozeman, but what's around here is some sort of catnip and doesn't smell like much of anything. I suppose over by the little ditch would be a good place for spearmint.
Tasting better than spinach is a low bar... I'm somewhere waaaay out beyond supertaster, and those bitter veggies, wild or otherwise, are a hard
I've got a dormant serviceberry bush... where's the good place to plant that?
I like mushrooms but can't bring myself to trust any grown in the wild... too many near-identical that ain't safe and could get into 'em.
Dunno about pears, but apples do great here, I just need some that are better apples. There used to be a seed-grown apricot in Bozeman and it had fruit by the bushel.
Anyone making tree syrup, and are you using maple, birch, boxelder, ??? anyone tried air-evaporating in flat shallow pans instead of boiling?
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I'm somewhere waaaay out beyond supertaster, and those bitter veggies, wild or otherwise, are a hard 
