A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion New Members New member saying hello!

HI!! I'm a new member here, obviously, and I thought I'd take just a moment to introduce myself.

Online I'm usually known as Serrin, but r/l name is Amy. You can call me either and I'll probably answer! :)


My husband Denny and I live about 30 minutes west of Spokane, Washington, making us a solid zone 5 for gardening purposes. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be at least a zone 6. But, we love it here and wouldn't trade our shy 11 acres for anything in the world.

We're currently in the process of building a log home from scratch and we're currently in our second year of construction. These things take a long time, especially when you're doing it by the seat of your pants and trying to accomplish the whole thing without taking out a mortgage! We have the complete shell done at the time of writing this, with only 4 more windows, 2 doors and the shingles to be put up on the north gable end before we have the outside done for the most part. There will still be covered porches to build, but that's a project for next year as we're rapidly running out of time. We plan on finishing the interior this fall and winter, and with just a little luck and a lot of hard work, we'll be living in the house in time for Christmas.

We have one 16 year old grand daughter who lives with us and I don't know what I'd do without her. She's the best helper on working on the house that anybody could ask for as well as helping me with every day domestic chores. She's a straight A student and will start college this fall through a program called "Running Start" for high school junior and senior students. We couldn't be more proud of her if we tried!

We have one dog, (Jasper) one cat, (Deedaa) and currently 12 egg producing hens. (you don't really want me to name all of them do you? ) The girls give us on average 6-8 eggs a day. Talk about yummy!! Fresh eggs with fresh fried taters in the morning! It doesn't get any better than that!

We currently have four gardens going. If we had more viable soil areas on the property, and more time to tend them, we'd probably have a lot more of the grounds under cultivation. (We grow rocks better than anything else! ) As it is, these four gardens keep all three of us pretty busy.

The first garden, and longest running is now 10 years old. We started it long before we ever even moved to the property full time. Putting the cart before the horse? Maybe. It's just the way things went. Anyhow, Garden #1 is where I grow most of my crops that are "fresh" crops, meaning nothing in there is for future canning. Just yummy eat it that day kind of things. Raspberries, strawberries, and asparagus beds, with rows of lettuce, shard, spinach and the like.

Garden #2 is for squash, pumpkins and gourds. It needs to be MUCH bigger I have discovered. Everything is bursting out of the short fencing we put up just to keep the girls out of there.

Garden #3 is currently potatoes, turnips, beets and carrots. They're all doing pretty well except the turnips. Darn wire worms! I was hoping they wouldn't show up, but they have found the turnips. I really didn't want to have to resort to something inorganic to treat them with, but it looks like any future plans for turnips will have to include some kind of controls for such pests. If anyone has any good suggestions of an organic control method, I'd very much like to hear them.

Garden #4 is a mish mash of mostly corn, with some varieties of squash, pumpkins, watermelon and cantaloupe that I ran out of room for in garden #2 So far, knock on wood, the corn crop looks to be the very best we've ever had. Abundant and healthy looking so far.

Well, that's pretty much us. Any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm pretty easy going and love to share ideas and thoughts on just about everything. About the only topics that are taboo for me are politics and religion. And only because I usually end up shooting myself in the foot with either!

OK, now that I've gotten my introduction out of the way, I hope you'll pardon me while I go explore this wonderful new find I've made! Have a great day!

Serrin

Welcome, Amy. glad you found us.
you sure have a lot growing. we look forward to hearing more.

Serrin,, we're happy to have you here!
Glad you found us and let us know a little about you!
Sounds like you have an awesome granddaughter there,, and well on her way to success!

I love Washington,, ( I have visited) nearer to Seattle But I love the views and the Air, so I envy you graciously for all God's wonders at your enjoyment.
I love your happy Hour,,,,, I think I'll use that line on my boss!

Amy---I am carol---Nice to meet you.

I KNOW you will be happy that you found this forum.

There is a wealth of information to be had here, plus a variety of people to answer questions!!! Enjoy!!!

Gracious. Sounds like you've got it under control.