We were recently enjoying a calm Bosque Farms morning when a flock of sandhill cranes interrupted the silence as they made their way south to Bosque del Apache, a snowbird's mecca. The loud calls of these cranes sparked fond memories of our introduction to these large birds during our first days in New Mexico. Migrating birds this early in September reminds us of the term "early bird" and the reality is that winter does seem to be approaching early. The sky is gradually turning a darker shade of blue. Our hot summer days have become mild. Precipitation has waned. Evening breezes have cooled significantly. Autumn has arrived.

It's time to say goodbye to my farmer tan (no love lost), to flooding the field, and to the Amaranth weed party in our back property. We rented a brush mower to cut down the weeds, which we will till under and replace with hairy vetch seed to further nourish the soil for next spring. And at the end of October, the final release of Rio Grande water into our irrigation ditch, we'll say good riddance to waiting for water pressure while flooding our field.

The end of summer ushers in a myriad of off-season activities in preparation for production next year. Our hope is to join established growers in selling our produce at summer markets. While we produced a small, experimental crop this season, we harvested a bounty of experience that we will apply to next season.

One of our goals in moving to New Mexico was to be a part of the supply side after years of dependent consumption. The simple action of handing a neighbor flavorful, all-natural tomatoes from our very own garden has given us immeasurable optimism and confidence. However, rather than the usual sense of pride that comes with producing such fruit, we have been continually humbled by the power of nature and how we must work together for survival.

Our classroom for the 2008 summer season stands 10 feet from our back porch. A 20'x30' black tent covering an approximately 600-square-foot section of lawn (the other large section of the lawn is occupied by our 1650 gallon water tank), it's a structure Valerie endearingly calls our Bedouin tent. While she initially protested placing the unsightly tent so close to our home when we have two acres of land, she eventually agreed that it's best to start these things close to the home and eventually expand out, despite the fact that the tent would temporarily block our view of the majestic Manzano Mountains.

I do admit that placing this big tent right next to our house was the equivalent of surrounding a Rolls Royce with Gremlins in an empty parking lot, but it's been the best location to kick off our first growing season for many reasons. First, as the only consistently watered area on the property, it was the only place with immediate soil potential. Second, its proximity to the house has allowed us to gather water from our rooftop and collect it in the nearby tank, which abuts the house until we install our gutter system this winter. Currently without a pump, we have hand watered our small crop.

In the absence of mature trees on our property, the house also provided afternoon shade to cool the plants in the late afternoon. Overall, the tent's close proximity to our home has made it easier to experiment with rainwater catchment, soil amendment, planting, tending, and monitoring without having to haul equipment across a field two to three times a day.

So why a tent? The main objective was to produce the best crop possible by protecting our plants from harsh elements such as the sun and hailstorms and to take a shot at controlling the flora and fauna without the use of pesticides or chemicals. The tent acted as artificial shade to reduce sunlight hours on the fruit and protect the plants from scalding. We equate sun exposure in New Mexico to a microwave oven; a little shade can slow the ripening cycle to more modest speed of a conventional oven. On stormy days, it was a buffer from damaging, driving rain and hailstorms.

We didn't have a blueprint for a "tent" nor did we have a clue where to find the most important part of this structure -- the shading material. We first tried a soft plastic weed barrier, but our spring winds shredded that material in a matter of minutes. Eventually, I found a 50% wind/shade fabric from Greenhouse & Garden Supply that has proven perfect for the job. It's been the ideal material to protect our plants from the elements.

Following is a list of materials (reused from our supply and purchased) that went into the 20'x30' tent and garden area:

Material	Quantity
Cardboard (from our move to New Mexico)	~400 square feet
Plastic Zip Ties	50-75
Plastic Snaps for Wind/Shade Cloth	25
Bungee Cords	15-20
4'-6' Metal Posts	12
Expandable Curtain Rods (used as roof supports and bean stalk support)	5
50' of 6' Tall 50% Wind/Shade Cloth	2
50' of 4' Tall Metal Fence (coated)	2
50' of 4' Tall Metal Fence (coated)	2
9' Decorative Trellises (bookend roof supports)	2
50' of Clothes Line	1

Being first-time tent builders, we made some good decisions (using cheap curtain rods for roof support) and some bad decisions (using more expensive coated wire fence and decorative trellises). The approximate price of these materials totaled between $400-450. It was an expensive endeavor, but most of the supplies will be reused for later projects.

The actual tent construction took some time but was basic in its plan. We laid out the cardboard to prevent weed growth (permaculture style) and then hammered in the metal posts at the corners of the cardboard layout. We placed dirt and rock over the cardboard to hold it down. Then we wrapped the metal fencing around the outline and secured it to the metal posts and trellises with plastic zip ties.

Next, we secured the wind/shade material around the metal fence using plastic snaps and zip ties. For the roof supports, we pounded in one half of the curtain rods and filled them with rocks to our desired height before inserting the second half. From there, we tied the clothes line to the trellises and placed the line atop the curtain rods, securing it to the rods with zip ties.

We then cut the remaining wind/shade material into four sections and placed it over the clothes line, securing the material to the metal fence with bungee cords. The structure was sturdy yet flexible enough to ride out spring gusts up to 50mph.

While we hunted down the tent materials at various garden and home supply stores, I began to plan what we would grow. I contacted the certified organic Seeds of Change and ordered a six-pack variety of tomato seedlings (Arkansas Traveler, Chadwick Cherry, Double Rich, Stupice, Thessaloniki, and Yellow Pear), a six-pack variety of sweet pepper seedlings (Tangerine Pimiento, Purple Beauty, Nardello Sweet, Corno Di Toro, Summer Orange, and Red Ruffled Pimiento), and packs of Round French and Golden Bush zucchini seeds as well as a packet of Straight Eight cucumber seeds. The cost for the seedlings and seeds was approximately $80, including shipping.

Once our seeds and seedlings arrived, our lesson on the importance of timing began.

We learned how important it is to prepare the planting area before seeding or transplanting. The ground proved to be a bit more unruly that we had anticipated (including large river rocks approximately two feet down and clay content so thick you could build a house with it), so we dug large root zones for each plant and supplemented with a mixture of organic compost, peat moss, and the original dirt.

Meanwhile, we seeded the zucchini and cucumber seedlings in our garage window and had to watch them grow too large and die because the tent and ground were not ready in time. It was devastating to watch their demise and our fragile greenhorn farmers' egos took a big hit. Our initial plans of what to grow in the tent changed because of our mis-timing, but at least the limp tomato and sweet peppers plants ultimately thrived.

We chose an east-to-west orientation for the tomato and pepper plants and cut out the beds to accommodate the seedlings. Many farmers in our region prefer a south-to-north orientation for better sun exposure. We discovered this information, of course, after planting. We also received two tomato seedlings from Valerie's father and placed them in their own north-to-south bed.

We planted the tomatoes and peppers (add $40 worth of cages for the eight plants) in early June (late in the season here) and we kept the shade cloth over them for a month while they grew. Once they looked strong, we removed the cloth and let the roof shade the plants from the scorching afternoon sun. We did use the roof covering a few times during the season due to threatening storms, including a tornado a few miles west of us. The plants continue to produce gorgeous fruit through mid-September, a somewhat late harvest season here.

In addition to the tomatoes and peppers, we also dug beds to plant seeds of eggplant, red cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Unfortunately, grasshoppers wiped out the eggplant, and mysteriously, not one of the seeded plants germinated. Our assumption is that because we planted the seeds mid-summer, it was likely too hot for them to grow even with the protective shade cloth.

We then discovered a great way to grow seedlings by reusing eggs shells. We used half shells with a hole punched in the bottom as root protectors and nutrient feeders to raise the seedlings in small containers, then transplanted them in the ground. We now have several types of lettuce, kohlrabi, and red Swiss chard growing in the beds under the shade cloth. We also threw in some bean seeds and they are happily climbing up the clothesline.

Overall, the garden tent experiment has been a success, but it's time to take it down to expand into our intended growing area (and to landscape the backyard for neighborhood barbeques around a communal firepit next summer). We will miss the bounty of the tent while we welcome back our views of the mountains. But we will use the lessons we learned from the tent throughout the property in coming seasons, just as we will share them here:

Challenge	Lesson
Timing	Make sure you meticulously account for timing in your plan. Growing vegetation is a recipe that requires the timely application of ingredients. Make a timeline for composting, growing seedlings, tilling soil, planting, watering, and pruning, and commit it to paper.
Sun Shading	If your area gets too much sun, shading can be a valuable technique to protect your plants. Buying material in large scale production would be too costly and too demanding with maintenance. Use buildings and tree as alternatives (an added bonus: increase production with fruit trees). You can also use shading to influence fruit maturity and extend your harvest. We planted two tomato plants at the same time, but are enjoying their fruit at different times: a yellow pear tomato plant with great sun exposure ripens fruit early in the harvest season, while its neighbor, a Chadwick cherry tomato plant with less sun exposure, is ripening later in the harvest season.
Wind/Precipitation Protection	As with shading, try to find natural ways to protect your plants. If you deal with strong spring winds, you may plant late or protect seedlings individually. Try using shrubs or trees as windbreaks.
Plant Row Spacing	Make sure you know the final size of the plants you are growing. What we considered broad plant spacing was quickly eclipsed by robust tomato plants.
Rust or Blight	If you see a plant suffering from rust (yellow leaves), cull it quickly. We kept a tomato plant with rust because of its good fruit set, and it spread to neighboring plants. This is also a lesson in plant spacing. Make sure plants are separated enough to prevent the easy spread of disease.
Trellising	Train new growth on your plants to give them adequate air circulation, room to grow, and prevent lost branches due to fruit burden.
Pests	The enclosed tent has worked pretty well in protecting plants and providing habitat for those that eat the bad bugs (toads, spiders, praying mantis). Birds are also wary of flying into the enclosed area for tasty fruit.
Companion Planting	Study plants that are naturally beneficial for each other. For example, our bitter Swiss chard seems to protect the sweeter neighboring lettuce from insects. Pretty cool.
Peppers	There is a reason why most people in our area grow hot peppers versus sweet peppers. A recent study shows that hot pepper plants require pest activity to increase their heat. We will continue to grow both sweet and hot peppers.

There is so much more to share about what we learned from this first season, but I have to visit our Bedouin tent and water and harvest some vegetables right now.

Please feel free to email us for more details about our summer activities or share your thoughts and suggestions for our future harvests. We would love to receive feedback as part of our continued learning process.

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Farming: It Takes a Community