Soil problem? Water issue? Raised beds? Gardening in Boise, SW Idaho presents challenges

Many people begin to garden in earnest after their retirement. There can be as many challenges as any gardener would like, from extending one’s season into year-round gardening to breeding one’s own plants. We have water needs, diseases and insects to cope with, as well as our very alkaline soil and hardpan to challenge any of us.

In some parts of the Treasure Valley, even the well water has a high pH (that means it’s very alkaline), an alkalinity too high to support plant growth, and some wells contain huge amounts of nitrogen from feed-lot cattle urine. That is hazardous to infant health.

On the other hand, humans have been growing food for thousands of years, using a stick for a plow and rainwater. This generation at least knows that some plants prefer sun to shade, and extra nutrients can help vigorous growth. We also have variations of hoes to prevent plants’ competition from weeds. This means that gardening may be as simple or as complex as you like.

If you’re new to gardening at your present location, dig a hole and fill it with water. If the water hasn’t drained in a couple of hours, you’ll have to plant on berms or raised beds. Even containers will do to grow food or ornamentals. The only plants that tolerate poor drainage are bog plants.

Some parts of the valley have hardened lava or caliche near the surface, in plant rooting area, and that may be chiseled out for tap-rooted trees. It would be too much labor for regular row or bed gardening, though. Tomato roots, for example, may probe deeply into soil unless inhibited by a hardpan.

Caliche is a natural desert climate accumulation of calcium carbonate, but when you see it pried out of the ground, it looks like a 2-inch-thick layer of rough concrete. And it’s that impenetrable.

If you don’t have good drainage and/or caliche or lava is close to the surface (closer than 18 inches, for example), you can use raised beds or other containers to compensate. Neighbors who garden should be able to tell you the depth of caliche or lava rock. Both are common south of the Boise River. To the north, dense clay is a common hardpan.

If you’re short on space, grow tomatoes, cucumbers, winter squash, melons, or gourds up trellises. If you covered your bare soil with fallen leaves last fall and they’re still in place, remove them and put them into your compost. You can leave them in place and part them, like Ruth Stout in one of her “easy gardening” books, but that mulch will harbor plant destroyers such as slugs.

Also remove any mulch from your ornamental beds to deprive slugs and other destructive critters a home. At least some of the leaves have decayed by now, enriching your soil and providing better drainage for plant roots. The reason you want good drainage is to give roots opportunity to receive oxygen. They can’t absorb it from water, but atmospheric oxygen will penetrate soil.

If you want to try your hand at breeding your own plants, I’d suggest you start with vegetables. Some ornamentals may take years to flower from seed, but vegetables produce or fail their first season.

First of all, you’re better off if you start with open-pollinated crops, not hybrids. If you want to breed squash, for instance, you’ll have to learn what cross-pollinators may be involved. This is one of the times that botanical names work best.

Squashes are all of the genus Cucurbita. If your squash is Cucurbita maxima, it may be pollinated by any other variety within that species, but should not be able to be pollinated by C. (short for Cucurbita) mixta, C. moschata, C. pepo, C. ficifolia, or C. foetidissima.

If breeding plants is your goal, I’d urge you to get a copy of Suzanne Ashworth’s “Seed to Seed.” She lists variety names for each of the species, and is helpful for most other vegetables one might consider growing. Other references I’d recommend for gardeners interested in breeding plants are Joseph Tychonievich’s “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener” and Carol Deppe’s “Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties.”

Isolating plants such as chile peppers for breeding or seed saving purposes is very difficult. Ashworth recommends at least 500 feet between varieties. Years ago, in an effort to save rare chile seeds, we built screened cages for chile plants. Then I saw bees inside the cages, and others burrowing under the edges of the cages to get inside, so cages didn’t work. I know Seed Savers Exchange uses screened cages to avoid cross-pollination, but don’t know how they prevent the burrowers.

Peppers, most tomatoes, beans and some other vegetables have “perfect” blossoms. That means the male and female parts exist within the same flower, so it may be pollinated by wind, insects or jostling by any vertebrate. Some tomatoes, such as wild cherry tomatoes, have protruding stigmas that can send pollen flying in a windstorm. I’ve also seen very determined bumblebees bully their way into a tomato blossom.

Flowers of potato-leafed tomatoes and the first blossoms of beefsteaks are susceptible to cross-pollination. Carolyn Male, the late college professor and tomato expert, reported less than 5 percent cross pollination in her tomatoes planted 5 feet apart.