Garden Magic in Kanab, Utah - Phase 1

What a wonderful RV site, especially for frustrated gardeners! One of the things I've really missed while living in a motorhome is the lack of space for gardening. While in Kanab three years ago, I did try. However, the results were less than successful, and I wrote a blog about the attempt back in November 2008.http://piecingalife.blogspot.com/2008/11/eat-your-veggies.html

However, this year we have a 40' x 40' blank canvas to work with. Yes, it's in the middle of the high desert and the soil is plain old red dirt. Yes, it's been really cold for two months with lots of heavy winds, snow, and frost. But, it's our GARDEN through the end of October and we're having a wonderful time.

Here's how our canvas looked the first week of April. The whole area was covered with tumbleweeds and snow. Doesn't look too promising, does it?

I waited for the snow to melt, then cleared away all the tumbleweeds that blew down from the hills behind us. That looked a little better. Now it was time to design a branch fence to mark the back of the garden area and hopefully also keep out some tumbleweeds. Here's the beginning of our first fence.

We collected branches from everywhere we went. And, the fence started looking pretty good. But, there was a slight problem---the wind. But that's later. 

Next was making a path. Luckily I found lots of tree limbs and mulch from some tree cutting on the property. It was a simple thing to just lay out a path, load up buckets with the mulch, and spread it out. I first made one path. 

A couple of tree stumps marked the beginning of the path. So far we hadn't spent any money on this garden, but now it was time to collect things. Both Marcie and I love yard and garage sales as well as thrift shops so we looked for what we term, "junk." I found a couple of things to hang on the fence. Then we drove out to Glendale, UT and discovered this little rowboat at a yard sale. I think we'll eventually plant something in it, but right now it just graces the back of the garden, in case of a flood.

 I was getting itchy fingers to plant something and really started too soon. On a trip to Wal-Mart in Hurricane, UT one morning, I bought some herb plants, including some basil. After planting the herbs in the herb garden former workampers had made, I got really excited about all the great pesto I could make. Well, that was mistake number two (the first was not burying the fence posts deep enough.) Although it was the middle of April, it wasn't done snowing yet. Even though we covered all the little plants with plastic containers, the basil curled up and froze. However, the lavender, chives, cilantro, rosemary, and oregano still look pretty good.

So, that was the end of phase one of the garden making. Stay tuned for phase two.