Brrrrrrrrr!

It was 24 degrees below zero this morning! Ouch! Even so I'm about the happiest gal around. I have received my garden seeds and have begun plotting my garden. We moved from the Missouri Slope country about three years ago to the flat and fertile Red River Valley of the North. Well, to say the least, growing conditions are a lot different here and I am trying to get used to it. The soil 'back home' had to be enriched periodically and the garden always seemed to be needing water, but by the time we left our home of 25 years that little garden spot on north 11th street was rich and soft and easy to work! Coming to the valley was an eye-opener. The soil here is hard, hard, hard. There's generally no need to water and slope of the ground anywhere around here is only about 1 % so drainage is slow, slow, slow. The growing season is much shorter here. Back home I usually had my garden in by the 1st of May, the 10th at the latest. Around here....probably the end of May.

But the big plus here is this soil is incredibly rich! You can grow anything (at least anything I've tried!) and it will produce large crops. We have row upon row of canned goods to prove it.