Hi! Just stumbled on this thread. Joined GW in January. I live in Jerome- between Twin Falls and Sun Valley. Every thing I get in the mail says z5, but it seems almost z6 to me. I've been here 5 years from Texas. A definite gardening change-- I tell my sister I'm about to transplant tomatos and she tells me she's about to harvest hers!!! I've got a 121/2D, a 11D, a 4S and one on the way- due in June. Don't have nearly the energy to garden as much as I want so I end up on the net. We bought a house and 5 Ac a year ago during the winter. Last spring and summer were full of surprises! Things I'd never even seen before much less thought of growing. Now I see that they are all fairly common. Most of the acerage is in pasture for animals. Which is OK now seeing as I can't presently catch up with the pruning in the yard now. I do not have a water pond, but gravity irrigate the whole place every 9 days for 3 days. My bulbs are starting to come up. Crocus past thier prime, daffadils starting to bloom and tulips growing inches everyday. Some shrubs starting to bud out. Well, that's enough about me. Hope to hear back!
Amy-aggieinid

Hello high mountain desert gardeners. We have a 20 acre farm/vineyard on the eastern slope of Emmett. I installed a drought tolerant garden four summers ago and still have lots to learn (so many plants, so little time, etc.) This year we were inundated by MICE and (waahhh) rose bores. Things are now leafing out way too early, but you can't stop Mother nature. Let's all pray for no late freezes.
lizzy m.

HI fellow,
Idahoans!

I just read Lizzy's comments and have already written Amy.

Lizzy, I can't believe the weather we're having. 88* for the past few days and now it will cool down to 81. Not what May is suppose to be.

I hope we don't get a freeze either. My plants are blooming way too soon and the bulbs don't last as long in this heat, me either! LOL

Right now my pond guy down the street from me is back in action in my yard and is doing concrete and mason work.

He'll continue putting river rock I collected from the Salmon river and various places. But I mainly like to collect the green, turquoise, blue, burgundy, white quartz looking and different rocks with white veining in them.

He, my mason and neighbor is putting them on the walls of my waterfall and pools, and making a stream bed with them. They bring special memories to me, especially since the son that helped me gathered much of them died last year at age 15 1/2. My gardens have been my therapy and I have been also working on a Memory Garden in his name and also one of my pond's are dedicated to him with his name also.

His name is David.

Anyway, I better move on. My mother had a terrible stroke on Tuesday and I saw her for a bit at the St Luke's hospital in Meridian. This time her stroke is very serious and can only be fed through her stomach. My 6 other siblings and my dad need to make some decisions on what to do next. The siblings all live out of state.

As she cannot swallow or drink, and her speech is not good either. Anyway, sorry to lay this on you, but I'm stunned myself and in a fog. The doctor said she has had many little strokes for the past year or so which explains her memory failure and Childish behavior.

Let me know when you are in the Boise area you two, I'll show you my gardens and ponds.

Karalyn

Nice to see other people from Idaho on here...what forums do you usually hang out on? I have such a hard time trying to figure out where I fit in. Not really PNW climate but I have almost none of the problems the people on the Rocky Mountain Forum talk about either. It's not as cold as they get or as wet as the PNW forum people get. I live in Nampa we bought a new house 2 years ago so our gardens are nothing to brag about(yet) we spend more time trying to make the soil better and find things that will tolerate the soil that new constuction leaves behind. We do have a small formal pond 2000 gallons in our front yard that we mostly did to keep the goldfish we had in a container watergarden alive. I really prefer my perennials to my pond and most of my attention is in that direction right now.

Jenn,

I think I know you. Didn't you have a 3 acre house with a large fish pond and horses? My screen name is different from my real name.

I live in Meridian and have a few fish ponds as well as perennial flower gardens.

As for our climate. I just go with zone 6 and then try to recreate more moisture if it is PNW or if it needs more warmth, I plant next to my east facing wall of my house or a fence. If it is a tropical, I bring it inside to my LR until hubby gets me a greenhouse built. LOL

Karalyn

Nope that's my father-in-law and his wife JJ if we are talking about another Waskow. My little house and lot would fit in one very tiny corner of their pasture... but that is where all of my fish and most of my pond plants and my irises, lamb's ear, some columbine etc....come from. I have the same problems my office turns into a greenhouse about october and then a potting bench in about January. But I do have some unusual thing surviving outside Verbena Bonearis, Cardoon, Several zone 7 ornamental grasses and this year a couple of Cannas and Dahlias I forgot to dig up.

Hi Jenn,

That is amazing that your cannas and Dahlias are still doing great. There is a Idaho Water Garden club member that lives in Payette that keeps her cannas planted outside. I was amazed when I saw them. They are growing great for her. I think she buries them deeper. Plus isn't Payette warmer?

She will be having several Idaho Water Garden and Koi Society activities over there at her house. There is going to be a Canyon county pond tour and I don't know if JJ is going to be showing her pond or not. I've been wanting to talk to her a bit about my son, which I did about a year ago, she was very helpful.

Plus I like the grass they planted out on their land. Thick and doesn't creep into flower beds, like my crummy lawn of various kinds of grass that might not have been here originally.

I would like to see your Verbena Bonearis, and other plants that made it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to plant the Verbena B or not.

Well, my order from Van Bourgdien's has arrived. I'm disappointed as far as them just being all roots. I'll have to pot them all up instead of chancing putting them directly in the ground. Been there, done that and they don't SURVIVE! Learned the hard way with clematis of which I'm addicted too. LOL

Hey, if you are able to get any more of JJ's waterlilies let me know. She always said I could have a piece of a real pretty one that I think might be a Georgia Peach or Colorado or something like that. They don't know the names. LOL

Karalyn

Amy, if you still live in Jerome, you might be interested in seeing some very unusual gardens in Twin Falls. They are Fantasia Gardens on Filer Road. You can find it by googling on-line with that name and/or contacting the owner LaMar Orton. You would love it. Hope you have adjusted to southwest Idaho.