Home! A place of my own! What is it about a home and yard that makes it yours? Is it just a place to hang your hat or is it the one place where your deepest needs are met? Living in the Rockies, residents find their outdoor needs have a way of connecting to the peaks and valleys of the mountain elevations and temperatures where they reside. Outdoor areas seem to be where personal needs differ and the garden is where they can be satisfied.
Outdoor Need #1: Edible Gardens
Gardeners are passionate about growing their own food! Growing edible gardens in the high Rocky Mountains presents overwhelming challenges with short cool summers and frost often occurring every month of the year. Mountain homeowners, as they always do, have discovered creative methods that circumvent the temperatures. A Utah homeowner with a small shaded back yard “needed” to grow tomatoes for Utah tomatoes grown in alkaline soils and water are unsurpassable in flavor. Tomatoes require heat for as long as they are growing, so this is how this gardener makes sure his vegetables are the best:
The hottest spot in the garden just happens to be along the south foundation of the home so grow boxes for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers were built. Notice the dripper system and bug distracting marigolds in the corners. Needless to say, he always wins the award for the earliest tomatoes in the neighborhood.
Root Cellars
Where seasons are short, choose cool weather, quickly maturing edibles like radishes, leaf lettuce, onions and peas. In Idaho where they are famous for growing potatoes, underground potato pits dot the landscapes. Potatoes are frost sensitive so must be stored where they won’t get damaged and these root cellars storage units are excellent for storing potatoes as well as other crops. The underground pits keep items naturally cool, in the dark and the humidity remains relatively high so vegetables stay fresh. Root edibles like carrots, squash, parsnips, turnips or cauliflower will stay as fresh as the day they were harvested as long as they were rescued before the frost hit. Many potato pits have turf roofs planted with self-sustaining perennials like sedums and sempervivums that provide extra insulation for the roof.
Cold Frames
Wyoming gardeners know that trying to grow tomatoes without a long season of high heat is never really successful for tomatoes stay small and the skins will be tough as leather. Cucumbers and peppers also require summer sun and heat. Many gardeners will compensate by using a section of their yards for a low structure called a cold frame that can be quickly covered if frost is forecast. Cold frames are designed in several ways. Some have hoops that cover a row crop. Others are lowered into the ground while others are made of solar plastic that can be closed in cold and opened during sunshine.
The cold frame is made of a solar plastic covering a wooden frame. The enclosed frame keeps the growing area warmer and frost cloth adds an additional ten-degree heat factor. The frost cloth can be tucked around the plants at a moment’s notice of freeze warnings. Compost clippings like fall leaves gathered and chopped with the lawn mower along with manure and soil are mixed in the cold frame. The decomposition of the mixture produces heat that also boosts the length of the growing season and ensures great soil for planting a great crop.
After the metal excesses on the doors were removed, a plastic solar covering was placed on the door frame with lath metal screws. The solar plastic really heats up the interior of the cold frame when they are placed on the frames. The door frame coverings are so lightweight that they are easy to slip into a top grove while the bottom of the door is held in place with bungee cords. Veggies will eventually freeze but will have had plenty of time to mature so they are A # 1, prime plants. Not all growers have these needs but cold climate gardeners have found ways that “needs” are easily met to successfully grow vegetables.
Outdoor Need #2: Storage
Too much “stuff”! I hear this all the time. I hardly have space for my flower garden with all the “stuff” that needs a place to call home. Organization takes a great deal of time in the beginning but once it’s done it saves homeowners more time than they thought possible. So just bite the bullet and browse these ideas to see if any of these organization tools would work for your “stuff”
Outside garage walls are prime spots for storing all kinds of items but to look good and stay useable “stuff’ needs to be off the ground. Lean-to sheds can be built against the garage wall for cabinets to store bicycles, garbage cans or firewood.
Garage storage units multitask to meet a homeowner’s needs. There are overhead storage units and giant hooks that attach to the ceiling and will pull down for easy retrieval of big items like camping gear, bicycles or Christmas decorations. Lockers can be installed side-by-side for tons of storage area both inside and out. Secure the base of lockers against rodents thinking they just got a great house is an important issue.
Outdoor Need #3: A Safe Place for Kids to Play
Children bring so much joy to lives that parents want to return that joy by creating a safe place for them to play. In urban or suburban residences there is room for swing-sets or sandboxes that kids enjoy. Board fences can be utilized as chalk boards, climbing walls, or to hold storage baskets installed on them for holding kid’s trucks, sand buckets and balls. Playtime is probably the biggest health benefit we can give our children. Here are a couple of ideas:
Active outdoor yard toys provide many health benefits for kids who are becoming more sedentary with too much sitting static technology time.
Sport activities may be high on the “need” list of parents as well as kids. Volleyball, croquet, bocce to name a few favorites can be planned for and so can a trampoline..
Rural areas typically have more space for kid’s activities. Kids have horses to ride, cows to herd, chickens to feed and eggs to gather. One enterprising rural parent created a dirt track with hills, jumps and curves to keep his kids entertained at home, away from the tube and happy.
Outdoor Need #4: A “Man Cave”
A Man Cave is a private space for a man to have the things he really “needs” and that is usually a huge flat screen T.V. Everyone’s needs differ so shown below is this homeowner’s version of a Man Cave:
Inside this Man Cave is a very cool sport complex. The ball court is just the right size for a strenuous workout of shooting baskets. Another area has a treadmill and stationary bike for exercising. Rather than the usual tricked-out technology gadgets for sport competitions, this Man Cave hosts an open basketball night every Monday for neighbors, friends and family.
Outdoor Need #5: A Place for the Family Pet
Home isn’t home without a pet to greet you with an excited, loving welcome. A place for pets with a fenced backyard is typical for everyone loves their pets–especially the kids. Kennels or dog runs are needs that take planning. The summer heat and winter cold in the west are important pet issues.
Clematis, Lonicera or honeysuckle, campsis or trumpeter vine, Polygonum or silver lace vine and parthenocissus or Virginia creeper will furnish shade and block doggy smells. Any of these perennial vines will beautify a kennel or dog run.
Outdoor Need #6: A Space for Hobbies
Of all the outdoor hobbies, gardening is ranked number one in most areas of the country but if you live in the Rocky Mountains hunting and fishing probably exceeds gardening. In the mountain west, hunters are so avid they often grow their own game.
This Western hunter grows his own birds then releases them to the wild when they reach a stage of maturity so he always has a good supply for hunting. He grows quail one year, then pheasants another, but this year he raised guinea hens and he swears he will never make this mistake again. “Oh, they are not all bad for they eat ticks and snakes plus they squawk and screech when a something comes into the yard”, he explained. “But they are the dumbest birds alive, even more stupid than turkeys. They travel in flocks and were released months ago but they still come home to roost. I doubt they will ever leave home!”
No matter what brings joy in the outdoors it’s certainly better than being tied to technology. What “needs” can you plan for in your garden?
