It was cold, in the 50s daytime high earlier this week, and as windy as Wyoming, where the wind blows a good bit of the time. Now we are going to warm up to 80 degrees for several days, maybe longer, so spring is here in southern Nevada.

I planted some vegetables in peat pots and they are in a little greenhouse, expected to sprout in 7 to 10 days. They will get planted for the summer 800 miles east of here and 5000 feet higher above sea level. I hope some of seedlings survive the trip.

Some of them will get planted upside down, like last year's Early Girl tomato.



The chicken wire keeps out the deer, and being above ground keeps out the ground squirrels and chipmunks.

My other planter is a whisky barrel. This is last year's zucchini with a nasturtium blooming next to it. If you look closely you can see the chicken wire surrounding it. The ground squirrels could still get into it, but they didn't very much. Previous years when I had flowers in there they dug holes in that planter and we had a sort of war going on.



This year I have another planter that I can't find a picture of to post here, but it is meant to grow plants from the top, and plants to grow upside-down coming out of that same container. It sits about 4 feet tall, and I am going to put it on a wheeled platform so I can move it to catch the best sun. That is one of the challenges of growing in containers: finding a good sunny spot with strong enough support to carry the weight of about 4 gallons of wet dirt.

This time of year is very exciting, thinking of plump produce from the garden in a few months, but I know not to count too heavily on all of my agricultural dreams coming true.