The Experimental Garden - Stage One

Living in the midwest presents a series of difficulties to someone who grew up in the southwest.  Although there are many topics I could discuss here, I'll restrict myself to chile - a topic of great importance to any native New Mexican.  Growing up in NM where chile in all forms is ubiquitous, then moving to a place where it is unknown, provides an untenable situation.  At first, I tried growing it, but the mid-western climate and NM chile varieties just don't mix; the plants seem to need higher temperatures and less humidity.  After three years of failed garden experiments (tiny fruits with none ripening to red), I gave up.  My sister, who lives in WY, has a similar similar situation (i.e. no chile), but caused by a short growing season.  Enter the crazy long distance chile solution! 

Before the vegetable garden - just native grasses and "stuff".

Just north of the orchard and east of the house is a perfect spot for a veggie garden.  Because the orchard is just 10 feet away, it would be simple to add a drip line over to the veggies.  I had my contractor, Kenny, deliver a load of sifted soil (fantastic - no rocks!) and I built three raised beds with rock walls.

Wrapped and ready for the suitcase

The next step was to start the plants.  I purchased five varieties of seeds and started them at my home mid-March.  At the beginning of April, I loaded all the young plants into a suitcase (yes, you read that correctly!) and flew them out to NM.  I packed them as carefully as I could and surprisingly, they survived without any squashed leaves.

Plants with drip irrigation system on

The chile children were planted along with some corn, beans and pumpkin seeds. Everyone was watered well, the automatic drip system checked and re-checked, then I left for home! 

Chile bed #1 - note the cage to help protect the plants

The beds were covered with hogwire to deter deer predation.  In the end, if the deer want in,there's not much I could do.  The plants were checked during a visit in June, but I don't know how things look now. The whole chile thing is an experiment, so if I get a reasonable harvest, I'll consider a sturdier fencing system next year.  I'm going for a visit soon, so we'll see how everything did.  Updates coming soon.