Season Extension the SE Wyoming Way!

Okay, raise your hand if you had damaged or lost a hoop house, greenhouse, row covers, cold frames, or any other season extending structure this past winter? I am raising my hand so high, I think it is out of my roof! From what I can gather, the wind storms this past winter have been, at the least, unusual, or as I was told, unlike anything ever seen in this area. We put up a hope house and promptly lost the plastic in the wind. Then, being the ever frugal and impatient person that I am, bought a kit from Amazon and lost that in 3 days (yes, I got my money back!). Needless to say, it is difficult to find a structure that will stand up to our usual winds, much less than the insane ones of recent months.

Enter the University of Wyoming Extension service!!!! Now, here is a riddle for you. What is a season extending structure, that wind does not bother, that has windows all around, growing boxes inside and taking up a 22-foot diameter? If you guessed a Geodesic Dome, you are correct!!! These structures are wind-resistant (because we all know nothing is wind-proof here in Laramie County) and as luck would have it, UW Extension wrote a How-to manual for us!

University of Wyoming Geodesic Dome in Laramie, WY. Borrowed from UW Extension website.

Does it look complicated? Yes. Is it inexpensive? Not really. Does it work so well that the Laramie County Master Gardeners are putting five, yes 5, of them in the new Demonstration garden? YES!!!!!

The Laramie County Demonstration Garden is located adjacent to the Cheyenne Regional Airport. The construction has already started with the help of some great community partners, which I will highlight more in the near future.

While I will write more about our demonstration garden in a later post, I wanted to give you all a little insight into it.

This garden, unlike many others across the U.S., is to demonstrate what you can do as a gardener here in Laramine County, not what an ideal garden would be if you had unlimited resources. That is what I think of as a demonstration garden. Here in Cheyenne, the Master Gardener's goal is to show you all, the citizens of Laramie County and SE Wyoming, what you can do in your own yards, big or small, and how to take care of what you grow.

I hope this whets your appetite for more information about what is "growing" for Laramie County!!! Stay tuned for more cool information and hot ideas! Until then, Happy Gardening!