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Showing posts from June, 2019

Front Range Gardening Challenge - Hail

The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but they tend to bring some particular challenges to those of us who brave growing fruit and vegetables on the Front Range. Hail is a particular concern, as is late season snow. I was able to protect my garden from a May snowfall only to see it all destroyed by two hail storms of dime-sized hail that came from the south the night of Memorial Day at 2 and 4 am. Not even the plants on the south side of the house that are usually protected were safe. But we were able to replant with new plants thanks to local area nurseries so we will still have tomatoes and peppers and other good things. We have a mature tart cherry tree in our front yard that produces every third year or so. It would every year except for the hail and late snows. Last year was phenomenal and it's a good thing I canned a bunch of the harvest because this year the hail got most of the crop. For the first year I've seen a squirrel enjoying cherries. I'm guessing since everyt...

New Blog

When Sean and I moved to Merced, California after I finished my PhD with our two huskies, Kodiak and Iliamna, many people would ask us why we moved to Merced. These were people in Merced. We moved there when I accepted a position at the University of California, Merced, but there were many other reasons we wanted to live there. My friend Heather and I would chuckle about folks' confusion, and then I decided to do something about it. So I started a blog: ThisIsWhyMerced.blogspot.com to share all the cool stuff about the area. Now we live in Denver, Colorado with our huskies Willow and Juneau. And literally no one asks us why we live here. But lately I've been feeling a bit sad with the way things seem to be headed and I need more reminders than I used to that there are wonderful, kind people doing things that bring them joy and help others as well. One way I've found to help connect me to nature, support local, family farms, and reduce the carbon footprint of my food consu...