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I live in Boise, which is essentially a semi-arid high desert. Our winters are cold (Zone 7a) and are summers get really hot and dry (high 90s low 100s at it’s peak). I’m really determined to grow some iconic Pacific Northwest edible plants as my little hobby project, like Salmonberry and Thimbleberry, as well as some pretty ferns and perhaps some redwood Sorrel. In the first 3 photos, you can see the setup I had last year with the 70% Aluminet shade cloth. Then you can see some of the changes I’ve made this spring, like the rock wall on the southwest facing side.

Building a greenhouse is NOT an option right now. I’m pretty new to gardening, so I’m not even sure if what I’m trying to achieve is even possible. I would love some advice though 🙂

Is there a way to introduce nitrogen fixing bacteria after the plants are growing? I have a lot of legumes but none of them have the nodules.

I’ve never grown broccoli before so I am not sure if these are ready? They’re not super big or anything so was looking for input.

I’m asking because I have acidic soil and are the leaves contributing to the acidity? I can’t find anything on google, but AI.

I work in a spice factory and there ends up being a tremendous amount of spice that is wasted every day. For instance, we run a massive machine that takes things like paprika, pepper, oregano, etc and puts it into little bottles. At the end of a shift, there may be 20 pounds of whatever spice that has slowly spilled onto the base of the machine. This gets vacuumed up every day and thrown away. I have talked to management and am able to take this if I want. Assuming that I stay away from anything with salt, would massive amounts of pepper, garlic, turmeric etc be good to dump in the garden? Any thoughts?

I posted about my baby wheat a while back. Some folks were skeptical about whether it would reach maturity. I wanted to show y’all that it’s doing just fine. It was really easy to grow and doesn’t use much water. Would recommend growing.

My poor yard was thoroughly abused by its last owner, and the small front sliver of yard is mostly bare dirt, and I’m in a hurry to solve the erosion and the spring flooding issue there. Mostly sandy soil, we are pretty close to bedrock here. I spread some dutch white clover seed around right before a good spot of rain, but I am skeptical seeing it just sitting on top of the dirt still. Can I rake it in, or is patience the key here? It’s not overly wet, but not bone dry either. We have more rain coming in patches. I could also spread a thin layer of compost?

Thanks for your wisdom!