Many hands make light work. How thankful we were to have many family hands available to build the Montana garden. What a project! When we all unanimously voted on the "perfect" location for our garden, we based our decision on one primary factor - location, location, location. It was important for the garden to be close to the house, have easy access to water, and be positioned to get the optimal amount of sun exposure. We selected our site, measured for rows, made sun charts, created visual diagrams, studied the needs of the different plants, developed the soil, and made a garden plan we could execute. Everything was perfect until we started digging...no dirt...and...lots of ROCKS! After we gathered enough rocks that we thought we could build a small fort, we started the process of making our garden dirt. We enlisted the Mount N livestock's help for this part of the project...

It has taken years of experimenting and working in harmony with nature to find the best gardening techniques and create the hardiest plants for Mount N. Trial, error and perseverance have proven to be our greatest teachers. Since we are in the mountains, the weather can get a little harsh at times. We experience negative temperatures throughout the winter months with the record low temperature for our area being -70° F. Extreme temperature changes create growing challenges, but we have overcome these difficulties by approaching them as opportunities. Greenhouses and green tents are used to start our seeds and help offset our short growing season. As amazing as it sounds, if we plant it, it seems to grow and thrive.

Elk, deer and bears translate to "oh my" when you are gardening. Our solution was to put up an 8 foot game fence made with hand-peeled lodge pole and ponderosa pine posts with metal t-posts as interval supports. We wrapped 3 foot high poultry netting around the perimeter and expanded our ranch security patrollers. We broke ground with an antique hand plow, but upgraded our tool shed to include a powered tiller within a very short time. Tilling, making rows, setting up trellises, creating raised beds, building grow boxes, and hauling off rocks all took a lot of time, but we had a lot of fun doing it. We worked, prayed, laughed and sang. The Mount N hills were definitely alive with music, prayers and laughter while we worked and played.