Mother Nature is a supreme teacher and gardening gives unending opportunities for learning, letting go, going with the flow and resting in what is.

In no particular order:

• “plant seeds before your last frost”: so the package says. Trouble is that there were three or four “last frosts!” So, anticipating mid-May to be the last possible killing frost, appropriate seeds were sown in early May. No bueno. This Spring, the last killing frost was May 23rd. Thankfully, the plum trees were past blooming and the apple trees had not blossomed yet. The strawberry plants were flowering and potato plants vigorously establishing leaves above ground, and … friol (cold). Yet, Mother Nature provides plants the below-ground fortitude to spring back. Strawberries are flowering again and potato plants sending up new leaves from the tubers below ground. None of the seeds, however, produced. Gratefully, I had some left of most of the various crops and flowers.
• “cold weather crops” means the cold of Fall not necessarily the cold of early Spring. The learning curve was about soil temperatures. Cold crops extend the season’s produce and are typically seeded at the end of July or first week of August. The soil temperatures are warm for germination, established plants shade the new shoots when they break ground, and then as the established food-plants are harvested the cold-crop plants have room and light to grow gang-busters well into the Autumn, even into November. BUT, I tried growing these crops early – planting the starts I had grown and hardened off in late April and early May. Most survived but did not really grow. Now they are. (broccoli, brussels sprouts, collards). The Japanese greens planted at the same time are flowering to set seed, which is being encouraged. They will self-seed and produce through the summer, flower and set seed on more time for October eating. So, with them, the first planting was still to early for food productio  but planting that early will  produce two more harvests before November and will seed themselves for next Spring -without any work on my part.
• the proof is in the soil. My garden is, for the most part, little till and fully organic. A variety of flowering plants, mostly ones that locals consider “weeds,” are let grow and managed in quantity. I figure they know how to grow here and the soil needs their microrhyzome (sp?) and nitrogen fixing capacity. In addition to the benefit that they bring through living, those that are thinned or cut back are used as mulch. Compost is made year-round plus a worm bin in the kitchen is fed organic vegetable scraps that would otherwise be composted. The worm castings are, then, harvested twice annually and used with the compost in the garden beds as well as when expanding planting areas. Since the unamended ground is not much more than pebbly, lifeless sand that fire ants would be all-too-happy to take over, adding that which Mother Nature would if she could  turns sand back into soil which it once was before over grazing, beavers killed off, and water in the creeks and aquifer highjacked. Working with Nature’s natural processes such as making compost rather than kitchen waste to the landfill or having a worm bin  provides what the land needs until it can regenerate itself. The proof is in the soil. Soil is an alive collective Being that holds water, transfers nutrients, and produces life abundant. Dirt is dead, killed most often by human activity, does not hold water, blows away in the wind and -being lifeless- cannot bring forward life.
• cover crops, leaf mulch, wood chips, and broad leafed produce plants like summer and winter squashes shelter, cool, and protect the soil and its microbial and small-being life forms. The proof is in the soil again. This season is the 4th for this garden (I think). It is amazing to see that where broad leaf plants grew last year, the soil is the softest and most hummus. Each season before this has constituted the incremental rejuvenation of the tierra, but the feeling is that this year several beneficial components are now dynamically at work. We’ll see what the season brings!
• starting plants indoors too early is not necessarily wise. Some of my tomato plants were a good 18 inches tall! They were beautiful and happy in their pots but were in shock for several days after planting out, even though that is done in the waning afternoon. So, my bad. Later indoor plant starting next year.
• secondly, in the shock category, the sun has gotten more intense each year. Has it where you are, too? At 7800 ft, the sun is already intense. Standing in the sun can feel 20+ degrees hotter than the ambient temperature. So, although I brought the plants outside as frequently as possible, they were rarely out more than a few hours. The wind would pick up by then. Bottom line is that they need some shade but the naturalized dill and native sunflowers will be weeks before they can provide it. Ah. We’re all working with climate change.
• thirdly, our May was cold (remember three frosts!). Result: the ground did not warm. Thus, not only was planting out the weekend of June 1 done with more mature and larger plants than usual, but the soil was cold under the mulch and in general. Another conditioning cause for plant shock. So, I talk to them, encourage them, and trust that -like the strawberries and potatoes- they’re sorting it out.In the meantime, mountain spinach (orache), quelitas (lambsquarters), walking onions, and asparagus have been the daily picking and foraging. Self-seeding cilantro and dill are ready for thinning and eating. Amalio laughs each season and says that my garden is “sunflowers and cilantro!” “Yes, the birds and bees are happy!”