Introduction

Have been lurking on this list for quite awhile and even posted a couple
times, but I like the idea of an introduction.

I have been gardening for about 10 years. I live on a cattle/wheat ranch in
southeast Montana, where the USDA says that I'm in zone 4. Well, I know
better, and only partly because we are at 4000 ft. elevation...we are zone
3 or even 2. Herbacious perennials do quite well here, but woody plants,
especially those advertised as hardy, seem to die. I consider myself lucky
to be nursing along a 4-year-old tilia cordata. 

My yard is bordered by a county road, a driveway, a junkpile (these happen
in the country) and a barnyard. Lest you go into rapture about the word
"barnyard", let me assure you that it doesn't mean much. Whenever I use
manure or old hay or straw for anything, I seem to issue an open invitation
to bindweed. A creek meanders through my yard...sound great, doesn't it?
The banks are about 10 feet high in places, and covered with burdock. Can't
spray  the creek banks, thanx to the environmentalists, so I have to try to
weed-eat them. Well, it's a losing battle. All you folks who live in
suburbia and curse the fate should be counting your blessings. 

Despite the hassles and the climate, I manage to have lots of bulbs,
perennials, annuals, and biennials. Peonies, orinental poppies, many
dianthus, most campanulas, delphiniums (Pacific Giant included), and more
thrive, while some supposedly hardy phlox and artemesia just die.

If I have learned anything at all in ten years, it's that microclimate is
everything. Watching how the snow drifts (which tells you how the
prevailing winds blow) will tell you exactly where to plant all those
things you're not sure of. I have stands of lavender, supposedly only hardy
to zone 5, that are 7 years old and that lived through minus 50 degrees,
covered with snow. I have willow trees, supposedly hardy to Zone 2, that
died back after -20.  

The soil here is clay. Mostly it's gumbo, but in my yard, because it's been
a yard for several decades, there are patches of sand and many spots of
loam. Even where the soil is pure clay, it's very rich. I have flower beds
that produce lovely, lush blooms, but are impossible to work if the soil is
dry. May as well try to work concrete.

Everything is relative,and no more so than in gardening.

Enjoy all your posts...

Myrna in Montana, Zone 3

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