The biggest travesty of not being able to take care of the farm this past year was the signature food producer of the farm…. the “big” garden. It is the first garden we put in and it has given us huge harvests year after year. This past year, nature got to keep it. When I got out there earlier this year I was heart broken. Weeds grow out here like, well, weeds. I was confronted with a field of weeds 3 feet deep. In my determination to get back to the farmer status I was not about to let this garden die. So I got out the tools, the work gloves and the machinery and we set to it. It was an immense amount of work but we kicked the weeds out and got it planted. As we now grow the vegetables in and by the greenhouse, this has been dubbed the “storage garden”. It is the stuff that we can put up for the year or root cellar without a lot of fuss. Currently we have Blackberries, Raspberries, Potatoes, 3 kinds of hard beans, Carrots, Onions, Sunflowers and Asparagus. I have worked very hard to stay ahead of the weeds and I think that we are now back in the driver’s seat.
This is what we were up against. SOB!
We won!
Potatoes getting planted! Woohoo!
JAZ Farm Blog 
The lack of any hills in the background still intrigues me. I know it has nothing to do with gardening there, but terrain is such an important influence to our gardens here. The Santa Clara Valley, which had been famous for stone fruit orchards, had an excellent chaparral climate. There are several climates in the Santa Cruz Mountains just a few miles away, with much more rain on the ‘outside’ slope that faces the ocean.
The high eastern plains of Colorado is a sea of grass and wheat. Of course head sixty mikes west of me and we have those little bumps they call the Rockies. The mountains through us some very violent weather. Especially in the spring. Our issues are more about very high heat, intense sun, and hail.
What?! I thought you were in Oklahoma!
Now I can not find where you are. I am sorry that I got your location wrong. I really thought that I knew where you are at.