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Gardening guide offers tips and insight to growing in the Rocky Mountains
A number of books have been published on high desert gardening, but Taos author Nan Fischer says none have been like her new guidebook that spans the whole year.
Fischer’s readable book is titled “Growing a Sensational Garden in the Southern Rocky Mountains: A Monthly Guide.”
Her book’s focus is on the Intermountain West, meaning Colorado, Northern New Mexico (including Albuquerque), northern Arizona and a portion of Utah.
In the book’s introduction, Fischer advises readers how to use her book.
Each part or chapter, Fischer writes, “is a month of the year with a task list followed by three detailed topics relevant to the tasks.”
So for the first month, the January task list explains how to plan a growing season. The February task list includes creating a planting schedule for the season if you’re starting plants from seed. March suggests holding off moving plants from a climate-controlled greenhouse, if you have one, to the outdoors until after high spring winds have subsided.
Fischer explains how the timing of the transfer is critical. For one, plants held in pots too long are stressed and take longer to get established. For another, the outside temperatures in some planting zones may be too warm for spring plants and they will suffer from the heat.
However, here we are, readers, almost in April. What tasks does Fischer propose for the April list?
Fischer opens the April task list with this simple declaration: “Let the planting begin!”
She advises that if the snows are behind you, take time to rake garden debris, and compost plant material unless it’s diseased or has bugs.
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As for composting, Fischer writes that she herself has three rotating compost piles. One pile is old enough to put on beds. Another pile will be ready for next year’s planting, and a third is ready to be built up with this year’s kitchen scraps.
May is also a major planting month in the region.
She also gives advice on “mulching, soil improvements, cold-frame planting, hardy plant selection and water conservation for ornamentals and vegetable gardens on a residential scale,” according to a brief description on the book’s back cover.
Just about every page, it seems, is filled with sound advice on growing edible vegetables and fruits as well as flower gardens.
Fischer urges that you read, or at least skim, the whole book so you know what’s in it. Clearly, skimming will give you a good sense of the multiple related subjects. Keep in mind that the book is spilling over with information.
“There’s no one way to garden in a place with many microclimates,” she advises.
Fischer acknowledged that the book is not exhaustive, and it strikes me as being comprehensive and easy to follow. It’s peppered with color photographs and black-and-white illustrations.
At the end of each month are several lined, blank pages set aside for the reader to maintain their own garden journal.
“Just write down (what you’re doing.) When you fill up the pages, you have your own guide,” Fischer said in a phone interview.
“It pays to know what you’re doing. You have that information. You can look back to the journal. Correct this. Improve that. So it’s a constant project. You want to improve and learn and incorporate new knowledge.”
Aware of the wisdom of those in the gardening community, she notes that readers should talk to local gardeners to expand on what readers learn from her book. Furthermore, support for local gardeners builds community, Fischer added.
Fischer is a horticulturalist and owner-operator of nannie plants, LLC, a Taos nursery, and has decades of growing experience.
She has lived in Taos since 1988 and has written extensively on gardening topics for such publications as Mother Earth Gardener, GRIT and the Taos News. Some of her Taos News articles are reprinted in her guidebook.
The book is a much expanded and revised edition of a volume that Fischer had written and self-published for Taos area gardeners. The new edition is part of the University of New Mexico Press’ New Century Gardens and Landscapes of the American Southwest series.
“Most of the books in the series to date do not focus on the edible garden. Nan’s book is a real back-to-basics exception,” series editor Baker Morrow wrote in an email.
“Fischer’s book is especially helpful when it comes to heirloom seeds — seeds derived from traditional gardens in the West.”
In sum, Morrow added, the book follows an easy, fun and affordable cultivation approach.
