Small victories

Hail hath no fury..

2008-07-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

If you have anti-hail shelters on your garden. This shelter, developed by the gardeners at Old Farm Community Garden in Colorado Springs, not only blocks hail, it acts as a greenhouse and wind shield, making for some happy, happy plants.

This shelter uses 10-foot lengths of half-inch PVC, bowed down and fastened to the raised bed. You could also use stakes to put it right in the ground. The plastic is 6 mill UV treated from American clay, though most garden stores will have something similar.

The sides lift to give gardeners easy access.

Tomato tips

2008-05-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

There are lots of great tomatoes out there. Experiment and find what you like, but here are four very different varieties I plant every year:
Sweet Baby Girl
Stupice
Champion
Black Brandy wine

How to plant a tomato:
I don't mess with seeds. The growing season is too short. I'd rather pay $5 a plant and let someone else fuss with up bringing. This year I planted my tomatoes May 3. That's well before the average last frost date, but I protect them using walls-o-water. These inexpensive plastic sleeves act like a sweater for your tomatoes, which after all come from the tropics and aren't used to our cold nights. The water in the sleeves warms in the sun then keeps the plant warm all night. It also protects from wind. I recommend them even after the frost, and keep them on until mid June when the plants become too big.

The first seedlings

2008-05-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

These oak leaf lettuce seeds were planted 4/27/08 and sprouted 5/3/2008. Tiny seeds need to be watered daily to germinate, and should be kept moist until their infant roots reach down into the soil. Even one missed day of watering can mean a failed crop.

Squirrel-proof planting

2008-05-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Every spring I have the same problem. The squirrels watch me as I plant my first seeds, then sneak into my garden once I'm gone to see if I buried anything tasty. I've looked around for a solution that would be cheap, easy, and effective and settled on wire mesh. I used a 4x4 foot section of 1cm wire mesh, laying it over a newly planted area for a few days until the squirrels forget. They are generally only interested in freshly disturbed earth. The mesh has another use once planting is done. I throw it over a wheelbarrow and use it as a screen to remove large bits from finished compost, leaving only the fine, dark humus.

What I'm planting this year... and when

2008-04-09T07:15:00.000-07:00

OK, actually, I'm going on vacation until the end of April, so the first things here are what I WOULD BE planting if I was not in Oaxaca. I'll plant them as soon as I get back

Things to plant right now:

Oregon sugar snap peas
snow peas
arugula
oak leaf lettuce
Spinach -- I like a small leaf variety I can use in salads
bib lettuce
spicy mesclun
bull's eye beets
golden beets - my favorite, but not as prodcutive
Parsley - this is a tender perennial, I've had it come back for several years and it always re-sprouts around April 1.
Garlic -- should really be planted the fall before, but you can still plant it now.
Potatoes -- I've had good luck with purple Peruvians and French fingerlings. Make sure the soil is loose so you can filch potatos off the edges.

Things to plant in May

Pole beans - I like a slender haricots verts
Bush beans

The following tomatoes
Sweet Baby Girl
Stupice
Champion
Black Brandy wine

I plant tomatoes may first. This will only work if you use walls o' water to protect them from frost. Even if you plant after the frost date (May 15 or so) Walls o' Water will still help your plant by keeping it warmer at night. You'll get earlier fruit and more of it.

Things to plant in late May or June

Cucumbers - I grow both pickling cukes and lemon cukes. I've never had much luck with bigger varieties.
Squash -- summer squash, ONE zucchini and patty pan squash. Forget the directions the packet gives about planting on a mound, it's too dry here.
Peppers -- best to start inside or buy plants

Here's a full planting guide from the CSU Master Gardeners.

No time to make good soil? Buy it

2008-04-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

I highly recommend composting home and yard waste to improve your garden soil. It saves landfill space, saves money, and saves buying sometimes unsustainable alternatives, such as peat moss. But if you didn't start last year, you're not going to get meaningful amounts of compost from your yard any time soon, so to boost your soil, there are several bag alternatives you can buy relatively cheaply. The one recommended to me was cotton boll compost. It's rich in organics, plus, it's a by-product of cotton, so you're not mining a natural source. It has a nutrient ration of 7-2-2, an acid pH, which is good for Colorado Springs soils, and has lots of trace minerals. Unfortunately it can possible pesticide residue from the cotton industry, (so if you're strictly organic, it's not for you) but it's also the compost of choice for commercial gardeners in town, according to the folks at Good Earth Garden Center. So, I'm trying a little experiment: I have amended one of my beds (left) using my own compost, plus coffee grounds. I amended the other using 4 cubic feet of cotton boll compost. We'll see how they match up as I start planting next week!

Potassium?

2008-03-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

The first of my monthly garden columns hit the Gazette this morning and I immediately spotted a mistake. Healthy soil, I said, provides lots of nutrients like nitrogen and potassium to plants. Plants do need potassium, but I meant to say phosphurous. I think, as a trail runner, I was getting me dirt confused with me. Anyway, there's a great new book on building healthy soil called The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin. It's set up for wetter climes, so doesn't fully address watering your compost, but it's still a great read.

Coffee gets my compost steaming

2008-03-17T07:58:00.001-07:00

After adding approximately four big bags of wet coffee grounds to my compost pile a week ago, I went out to stir it yesterday and saw something I'd never seen before: steam. That's a good thing, it means the micro biotic community in my bin is chugging along at a speed that is creating its own heat.

I've never seen that happen before. Usually my compost is very slow. I have a tendency to let it dry out, which essentially mummifies the yard waste instead of letting it break down.

Why did coffee grounds do such amazing things: two reasons.
1. They're loaded with nitrogen which is rare in the compost pile at this time of year. (Green things generally have nitrogen.)
2. They're loaded with moisture, and since the tiny particles can be easily mixed in, they spread the moisture around.

So, if you want to start composting with grounds, here's a recipe. You want to mix "green" and "brown" material. You want a 1 to five ratio of green to brown.
Green is any fresh material (such as grass clippings) that can provide nitrogen to the pile. Brown is any old material (especially dead leaves) that can provide food for the micro organisms to break down. Coffee counts as a "green" material, even though it is brown in color.

Either layer the materials or mix them up. Make sure the pile is loose so it has plenty of air. Turn it every few weeks with a pitch fork.

For more composting advice, click here.

Turning up the dirt

2008-03-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

I should have turned up my dirt and added lots of organics (leaves, grass clippings, etc) last fall, but I didn't. Instead, I have to do it now. Saturday I turned over all my dirt, making sure to loosen any clumps. Last year I had problems with the dirt compacting too much -- not enough organic material in there. I want to use my own compost to revive it, but I'm not sure I have enough so I think I'll add my compost to one garden and sphagnum moss from the garden store to the other. Then I'll see which works better.

First spring buds

2008-03-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

Friday, Feb. 29 I saw my first robin of the year, singing high in a ponderosa pine on a warm, sunny afternoon. I knew the bulbs wouldn't be far behind. March 1 was 70 degrees. The first warm day of the year. The tulips on the south side of my house thrust a good three inches out of the ground. The crocus and daffodils are on their way up too. I covered them in leaves to protect from the 18 degree overnight lows we had the next day.

The big guys have arrived

2007-08-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

Monday I picked my first really big tomato, a champion hybrid. I've had cherries and stupices for about two weeks, but owning to a cold spring and a June hail storm, by tomatoes have been behind.

So when this big guy finally ripened up, we made an awesome tomato salad with fresh basil and mozzeralla, a drizzel of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was heavenly. A true summer meal.

I can't wait for my black Brandywines to ripen!

Slugs!

2007-06-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

The lettuce patch is where these slimy little guys hang out.
Last year I was afraid to touch the slugs in my garden, but when you are in a war, you get desensitized. Now I go out every morning, collect the newspaper, take it out of its protective plastic bag, then go to my garden, pick slugs like they were strawberries, toss them in the bag, and throw the bag in the garden.

By doing this daily, I've cut my slug damage to minimal, but I notice if I stop for a few days, they come back quick.

I've also been spreading dog hair around the lettuce. It doesn't harm the slugs that are already there, but at least it helps keep new slugs from moving in.

If this week's heat didn't kill you fungus, these things will

2007-06-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I had a problem with Early Blight (i.e. brown spots) on my tomatoes. This is a fungus that can effect the leaf, stem and fruit. If you see it, remove damaged leaves and stems. Then spritz the plant with a good anti-fungal spray. Most garden stores should have a vegetable safe, natural option. After taking both these steps, my tomatoes are quickly coming back to life. They are green and leafy, and I even have a few dollar-sized fruit.

I also had a problem, and usually do, with powdery mildew on my cucumbers. It's a fungus on the leaves that makes them crack and turn a sort of dusty white. There's a simple fix. Mix baking soda with water in a spray bottle and spray the leaves. The change in PH will kill the rot. It shouldn't come back in the summer heat. If it does, you might be watering your cucumbers too much.

The first tomato!

2007-05-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

I planted a tomato in mid-April as a test, to see if there was any advantage to planting then, versus May 1. Either way, you need a Wall-O-water to protect the plants from cold, but I wanted to see if more time in the ground would lead to earlier maturity. Some years maybe it would. This year, the tomato sat through several snow storms, barely growing at all.

When I spotted my first tomato on Monday, it wasn't on that early plant, it was on another, of an identical strain, that I planted two weeks later. So there you go: this year, at least, it didn't pay to plant early.

Now, however, things are starting to catch up. My tomatoes are all peeking out of their water towers.

My lettuce is finally starting to do something, almost a month late.

I planted a pepper, a Japanese egg plant, some basil and flat-leaf parsley on May 15. I'll plant even more basil in the coming days. You can never have too much. Meanwhile, my snow peas are still quite small. The cold must have held them back, but they're growing fast. How are other Colorado Springs gardens doing? Post a progress report below.

The enforcer

2007-05-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

Some readers have asked me why I don't have a picture of Stanley, the Chihuahua/dachshund who keeps the squirrels away from my garden. Quite frankly, it's because his ego is big enough as it is and I don't need that little 14-pound terror to attract a fan base, but, against my better judgement, here he is:By the way, the big Mother's Day weekend frost-free date is coming up. That's usually a safe time to plant tomatoes. However, this year has been a very cool year. If you plant, and don't use walls o' water, I'd have a sheet ready to throw over the plants on cool nights.
Most area garden center sell planter tomatoes. I recomment these over trying to start from seed, which can take forever. My favorite, because of the variety, is Good Earth Garden Center.

The squirrels didn't get all the peas

2007-04-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

The snow peas I planted two weeks ago have been slow to sprout. Then again, it's been snowing a lot, so I guess I should cut them some slack. Anyway, yesterday afternoon, the first folded leaves emerged. From here they'll grow quickly.
What I'm really excited about though, are my fava beans. You can't buy fava beans in Colorado Springs. I had never had one until I had dinner at the Penrose Room last spring. They were divine. I've been dreaming of them ever since. And since they fit my garden plan of being easy to grow but hard to buy (like good basil and real tomatoes) I planted them. We'll see how they do.

Alternative tomato cages

2007-04-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

A regular reader and friend, Chip, sent in this suggestion. Instead of using store-bought tomato towers, make your own out of wire mesh used in pouring concrete. The mesh is cheap, sturdy, and useful for many other garden projects. Mother Earth news suggests also using it to support beans and make small seasonal green houses. Read the article here.

For a snowy spring, a tomato igloo

2007-04-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've written before about Walls-O-Water. These $3 plastic sleeves, filled with water, act as a mini greenhouse around individual plants. I used them last year when planting tomatoes two weeks before the recommended Mother's Day frost-free planting date, and it's a good thing. The one tomato that didn't have a Wall-O-Water died a quick and frosty death one night. This year, I decided to push the WOWs to the limit. I'd heard from Wayne Fisher, owner of Good Earth Garden Center in Colorado Springs, told me he once planted a tomato in March using a WOW, "just for bragging rights." That seemed extreme to me, but I did want to get a jump on the growing season, so April13, while it was snowing, I planted a wonderful heirloom Stupice tomato in a wall of water. Monday morning, after the snow had melted, it seemed to be doing fine. The key is to let the WOW sit on the site where you plan to plant for four or five days to warm the ground.
Will planting early make any difference? It's hard to say. It might be better to let the Stupices sit in Good Earth's greenhouse for a few more weeks. Maybe there is no advantage. But I wanted to find out. I plan to plant more on May 1. We'll see by July if an early start made any difference.
If you want to try Walls-O-Water, they are available at most garden stores.

A Garden's first green is gold!

2007-04-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm stealing a line from Robert Frost. But I'm excited. After planting radishes, lettuce, beets, snow peas, potatoes and fava beans the last week in March, my first leaves poked through the humus yesterday. It was the radishes, of course. They're always fast growers.Is anyone else planning a front strip garden this year, like I have? I saw a new one on north Wahsatch. Haven't talked to the gardener.

Click below and tell me your what you've planted!

A garden paying lots of dividends

2006-08-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

It's been four months now since I planted the first cool-weather crops in my garden. They're all gone now, except for the lettuce. In their place, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and beans have been bursting out all over. I picked the stuff below this morning. I'll have it for dinner tonight. Amazing. The best part is the tomatoes. You've never had a tomato until you've had your own tomato so ripe and tender off the vine that you can barely cut it. And we are quickly finding ourselves with more tomatoes than we know what to do with... a good position to be in.
Best of all, it hasn't been much work. All I really do now is pick. The sprinkler system water's the garden. The veggies have crowded out any space weeds could take hold, and except for my nemesis, Slugzilla, I haven't have any real bug problems.
Early on I was concerned that my garden, right next to the sidewalk, would get pilfered by passers-by, but so far, except for four squash blossoms, it has been untouched. (I can understand stealing squash blossoms, since they are delicious stuffed with cheese and fried, and impossible to get at the store.) Even the ripening tomatoes haven't been stolen.
All and all, this has been an astounding success, and a delicious treat for a guy who didn't always like to eat his vegetables.

Time to take the tomatoes to task

2006-07-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

July has been so good to my garden. We've had rain every day and no hail! The flea beetles that were munching on my spinach have now been sent to that big lettuce leaf in the sky.
And last night I dined on fresh beets from the garden.

Things are going so well, in fact, that the tomatoes I planted are quickly getting too big for my garden. They're spilling out of their containers as if they were auditioning for Baywatch.

So I started wondering, is it ok to prune tomatoes?
It didn't take much searching on the old 'Net to find out it's not only ok, it is recommended. A pruned tomato yields larger fruit that mature more quickly.
Most garden sites recommend pinching off lateral suckers when they are a few inches long.
For tons of info on how and when to do this, click here.

This gardening stuff is easy...

2006-06-07T07:42:00.001-07:00

June has been good to my garden. Hot. No hail. So far no bugs. I have more lettuce than I know what to do with. My snow peas are now two feet tall and have just blossomed, which means I should have pods in about a week. The basil is going bonkers. The tomatoes are flowering too. My bush beans, cucumbers and squash are just poking up. I even have a few peanuts planted by neighborhood squirrels that have sprung up.
And what have I done to deserve such a bounty? Nothing, pretty much. The garden is hooked up to my sprinkler system so I don't have to water it. I let my greyhound patrol for squirrels. Other than the 10 minutes of weeding I did Sunday evening and my daily trip out to pick greens for dinner, I haven't done squat. Who knew gardening could be so easy?

Here's a tip for these hot dry days we've been having, pretty much since winter. Standard gardening says that you are supposed to plant on the furrow, so seedlings will not get drowned by rain. When there is no rain, and you want to make the most of your irrigating, plant in the dirt trough along the furrow, where water naturally collects.
When it hits 90 degrees, don't be surprised to see plants wilt a bit, especially squash and lettuce. It's best to pick these veggies in the morning when they are cool and firm, then stick them in the fridge for dinner.

To encourage plants to be as drought tolerant as possible, give them a heavy watering once or twice a week, then let them dry out. This will encourage the roots to go deeper in search of moisture. If you water every day, they're happy to stay near the surface.

On a note from my spring cool crops, I picked the last of my radishes yesterday. Now I have a free spot in my garden. Any thoughts on what I should plant? Give me some suggestions below.

Summer: time for hail

2006-06-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Perhaps gardening makes you focus on the negative. Instead of thinking of June as a month of sunny, carefree days, you think of it as afternoons full of potentially flattening hail storms. And that's what happened in many northern parts of El Paso County yesterday.
Eventually in Colorado, you plants are going to get whacked.
I've seen several solutions, including a metal mesh ramada for tomatoes.

Here is another thought from a local gardener.

I have tried several hail mitigation techniques, but the one I'm using now
is to string a 1/2 inch mesh bird netting over the garden in a double
layer. It lets thru sun and rain, but blocks most of the damaging hail.
Perhaps some day I'll have a green house big enough not to have to worry, but
that'll be a while. In the meantime, I'll do what I can.

When to take off the wall of water....

2006-05-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

He're a note with some ideas from a local gardening friend:

Dave,
The instructions that come with the WoW's imply you can leave them on the plants all season if you wish, and I suppose that would be possible if one selectively prunes the leaves that get too big (such as your situation) inside the WoW. Theoretically, the plant would then grow out the top and prosper. I don't do that, however. When the plants get big enough to crowd the inside of the WoW, I remove the WoW and put a larger protector, such as a 5 gal plastic bucket with the bottom removed (free from any painter, they want to get rid of them) until the plants become sun-adapted. After a couple of weeks, you can remove the buckets. If you simply remove the WoW, you risk sun-scalded plants. They can survive it, but it "sets them back" a bit. The danger of leaving the WoW's in place, in my opinion, is that the very warm, moist environment creates a perfect climate for disease, especially the fungus diseases known as alternaria and septoria, or early and late blight. Bottom line, yes, I have seen this problem but I deal with it by removing the WoW.
r, Chip

Spring assassinated my tomatoes

2006-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Tomato with Wall 0' Water

Tomato without Wall O' Water

Any Questions?

It was 80 degrees out when I planted my tomatoes. I protected most of them with Walls O' Water that insulate from the cold, but left two to fend for themselves. The next two days there was a snow and a hard freeze, and now I have two less tomatoes. Meanwhile, the ones in the Walls O' Water are large and lush.
These little teepees of water are cheap and obviously effective. I haven't met anyone yet who has had a bad thing to say about them, so you might want to pick some up. They are available at most gardening stores.

For other tomato growing tips, (organic, no less) click here.

To send news of your own garden to my blog, email me: dave.philipps@gazette.com

By the way, my cold weather crops are doing well for the most part. The greens are kicking ass. So are the radishes. I had both last night in a salad.
The beets are much slower to start, but are getting established now. And the carrots are just sprouting after being in the ground about a month. I guess they wanted warmer soil.
This weekend I'll plant some squash and cucumbers to round things out.

Before, and after

2006-05-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

What you're looking at is radishes, with pictures taken yesterday, and two weeks ago. The plants seem to be getting exponentially bigger all the time. I planted them April 4 and hope to harvest them in a few weeks. Then I'll have room to plant some warm weather vegetables, such as cucumbers.
My raised garden plots in the strip between my front yard and the street have been a success so far. No one, not even the squirrels, has disturbed them. Of course, we'll have to see if that's true later in the season when the beds are packed with produce.
I also just planted my tomatoes. Can anyone give me hints on what I can do to give the tomatoes an early season boost?

A note from a reader

2006-05-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

I just got a note from a reader.

Dave,
The crocuses are done and most of the daffodils, too, but the hyacinths look lovely and some of the irises are starting to unfurl in my Manitou garden.I'm trying to identify species planted by previous owners - looking at leaves and trying to match them to photos in books. Any tips from garden experts?

Hopefully, we'll have pictures, and answers from the experts, in a few days.

Huzzah! The first sprouts!

2006-04-12T07:09:00.000-07:00

There's no way to ignore it. It's finally spring in Colorado Springs. After getting their little green tips frozen off about a dozen times in March, my daffodils have grown tall and bloomed. The grass is turning green. It's now only about four weeks until the last frost. On April 3, I bought a cubic yard of rich topsoil and finally filled my two raised beds. I put a grid of twine across the beds because I'm using Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening method. It's nothing fancy, just a way to organize beds in squares instead of long rows that saves space and is perfect for a small garden like mine.
Once I had the squares laid out, I drew up a grid with the same number of squares on a piece of paper that I could use to remember where I planted what. Then it was time to bust out the seeds. Here's what I planted:

Sweet and spicy mesclun

Spinach

Radishes

Golden and red beets

sugar snap peas

snow peas

oak leaf lettuce

red butterhead lettuce

Italian Parsley

As I planted a square foot or two of each one, I wrote it down in the proper square on my sheet. I also included when it was planted and when it would be ready for harvest. I only planted one of my raised beds, leaving the other one free for planting warm weather crops, such as tomatoes and peppers, in a few weeks.

Then I watered and waited.

And watered and waited.

Every morning and every evening after work I came home and inspected every inch of dirt for signs of new sprouts. And every morning and evening there was nothing. I felt like that stereotypical (and now woefully outdated) expecting father, pacing around the waiting room, hoping any minute the doctor will push through the doors and say, "congratulations."

But nothing happened. I began to blame the soil, and myself, and the neighborhood squirrels and anything else that might have a hand in my garden's failure. And then...

First one radish rose up, and unfolded its butterfly-shaped primary leaves. It was smaller than a dime, and yet, a huge event in the season. My first sprout. It was soon followed by other radishes. Then the lettuce started. I'll finally be able to relax and feel some peace when the peas poke up.

Keep checking in for garden progress and tips, like this one:

For faster germination, cover your beds with clear plastic which acts as a ground-level greenhouse. Remove it after the seeds have sprouted.

Do you have pictures of your first seedlings, or progress in your garden. E-mail them to me and I'll put them on the Blog.

Getting a head-start on spring

2006-03-15T07:59:00.000-08:00

Chip, a reader and gardener from Black Forest (where spring doesn't come until June, sometimes) gets a headstart on peppers, tomatoes, and other warm weather vegetables, by growing them inside.
Here are some of his pictures and tips:

My seeds were planted about 20 days ago and are beginning to emerge. Planted two pepper varieties and five tomato. Seeds were treated by hot-water bath (50 deg C), planted in sterilized medium, and coated with fungicide powder (Captan) to avoid seedling diseases.
In the meantime, I've covered my garden with clear 4 mil plastic to force early thaw and higher soil temps. When uncovered, the garden was frozen solid last week to a depth of about 10 inches. It's now uniformly 40 degrees F down as far as the temp probe will reach. When it hits 50 Deg consistently, I'll plant the cold crops (spinach, beets, peas, etc.) under the plastic 'til they sprout and get a nice early start to the year. Have also purchased composting components to be ready for spring grass composting.
Bottom line, this should not be dead time, it's very busy!

The dirt on dirt

2006-03-07T06:55:00.000-08:00

Looking for top soil for your new garden? Two master gardeners wrote in with these suggestions:

I like to shop for soil, mulch, etc. at Rocky Top Resources. Fred and John are great for advice. They are located at 1755 E. Las Vegas Street, between Nevada and South Circle (579-9103). You can pick it up or have it delivered by the truck full or go by with some bags and get as much as you want. You can go with a straight top soil, or get a good blend of top soil and compost called "Topsoil Mix - 60% organic", or a straight 100% organic topsoil amendment.

Since you are filling above ground beds, not amending existing soil, I would recommend using a soil mix such as Tri-mix. I believe Pioneer, C&C and Rocky Mountain all can provide it. All you would need to do is fill the beds and fertilize them several times during the growing season.

Composting 101 and a look at my new raised beds

2006-03-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

Creating a small, low maintenance garden begins with good, organic-rich soil. Good soil conserves water, is good habitat for helpful soil critters, such as worms, and can keep plants robust enough that they are less likely to succumb to plant diseases and parasites.

But how to get good soil?
Well first, some people do a soil test to find out where the dirt is lacking. Others say this isn't necessary, it's always a good idea to add nitrogen-rich compost.
In the interest of testing things out, I sent a soil sample to CSU's extension. The news back was good. The acidity of my soil was about right. There were enough of the key nutrients: potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. There wasn't too much salt, and the organic material levels were a bit below ideal, but pretty good. So all I really needed was to add a bit more organic material to make my plants thrive. To start your own soil test, click here.

That's helpful to know, because I need to add something. I built two raised beds out of spare lumber I had in my garage and now they need to be filled with soil. The beds are supposed to help warm the soil for a longer growing season, and promote drainage (not that that is a problem in Colorado) but I built them primarily to keep out trampling dogs because my beds are in front of my house right next to a busy sidewalk. (see pictures below)
If you want to see plans on building your own raised beds, or commercial beds available, click here.
Of course, I'll add my own compost to the beds. But where should I get top soil? Do any local seasoned gardeners have any advice on good, inexpensive topsoil? Comment below if you do.

Now, on to composting. There are several good composting Websites, including compostguide.com and howtocompost.org. But what they don't tell you is that in Colorado, you need to water your compost. Water it once or twice a week. It does not need to be sopping, but it should be damp in the middle for decomposition to take place. Otherwise, your kitchen waste and yard clippings with dry out and mummify and archaeologists will be studying them centuries from now.

The first frost-free day is still two months or more away, but I plan to start planting cold-weather crops, such as beets and snow peas, on the first of April. Does anyone have any hints on making these early bloomers thrive?

Speaking of early bloomers, I couldn't help but throw in a few pictures of bulbs pushing up in my yard. They've been going crazy in this warm weather.

2006-01-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

Cameron, a reader of the blog, has a different soil-building tip:
I have tried alfalfa pellets but I must say that they don't work quite as well as owl pellets. My Grandfather used owl pellets exclusively and he was the annual winner of Ionia County, MI biggest pumpkin award for 16 years in a row. He believed that it was the rodentia bones and leftover pieces that made the pumpkins so huge. He also told a story about this time that he almost died in the war.

The next big step....

2006-01-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

It's snowing out, but I'm already thinking of spring. The next big step is to plan what to plant and buy the seeds. I'll be writing about this in the Gazette on Feb. 9. But in the mean time, I want to ask people to leave their comments on where to get the best seeds. I'm thinking Wal-mart (just kidding) or maybe online. Do you have favorite suppliers?

-Dave

Another reader soil-building tip

2006-01-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

This one from Lee Fielder:

Alfalfa pellets! Mix them into the soil when you till it. Adds nutrients, loosens the soil, and turns it into earthworm paradise. I used it with my daylilies first, and in 1 year had plants that looked like they had been there 3. I now use it in all of my beds, flower and vegetable, with great results.

How to build soil in a dry climate

2006-01-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

A reader's take on the benefits of green manure (left) versus good ol' animal manure.

"It looks like you're already getting good advice, but I do have a comment based on what I saw in the latest post. Amending the soil with organic matter to develop humus is always a great idea for all the reasons we know so well, but you have to be careful how you do it, and the procedure you use depends on the amendment.
What you've done is known as "sheet composting" in most circles. Instead of piling the organic matter in a heap to heat up and digest, you've spread it out as a sheet on the ground. Here in Colorado, I'd generally not recommend adding raw organic matter in any form, except perhaps fresh grass clippings or "green manure" tilled under, without first composting it. Sheet composting is difficult to do well up here. The main reason for this is caused by our dry climate. When I gardened in upstate New York, you could throw anything on the garden in fall, till it under, and by spring it would be well rotted humus. Not so here...the climate does not facilitate such rapid decomposition, mainly because the soils tend not to support large colonies of beneficial fungi, bacteria, and macro-invertebrates (worms...) required for such results.
Furthermore, adding anything with high carbon content causes a temporary nitrogen deficiency in the soil as the few existing microbes go to work and use the available soil nitrogen to digest the carbonaceous material (cellulose, primarily) in the raw amendment. Of all the essential elements in the soil (NPK), nitrogen is the most water soluble and will leach out quickly without humus to retain it. When exacerbated by the rotting effect, it can completely deplete the soil. Eventually, the digestion process is finished and soil nitrogen levels return to normal, and maybe even a bit better than normal because of the newly created humus that helps the soil keep its nitrogen. The faster the microbes can work, the sooner the deficiency returns to normal. As indicated above, unless you can keep your ground really wet, and maintain an artificially high level of the good soil critters, this deficiency will last for quite a while. You can correct this by adding supplemental nitrogen, but then you're just correcting something you caused to need correction. Fresh grass clippings, well tilled in, or a cover crop such as vetch or clover tilled under in spring is not as risky because they're already high nitrogen sources and will rot faster than high carbon additives such as hay, straw, wood shavings, etc. Be careful of herbicides and bad stuff in grass clippings...
Finally, the same dry climate causes soils here to retain sodium chloride (salt...) in the root zone. Salt is a killer to many crops, especially vegetables, so it is a deadly enemy. By using any animal sources of nitrogen (manure especially) you actually increase the amount of salt you're putting on your garden, and it will stay in the upper soil layers for a long time, thus accumulating rapidly to toxic levels. That's too bad, because manure is usually readily available and it's a great source of naturally available nitrogen. Unfortunately, however, we need to be cautious here in Colorado if we use it, and monitor salt levels carefully. I'd simply avoid it and use vegetable-only compost.
And that brings us to my favorite subject: Compost. I've been able to make vegetable-only compost here and get my piles up to 160 degrees. But, we'll save that subject for later.

Best Regards,

Chip

Winter seed time

2006-01-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Since there is nothing to do with the ground in January, I've been thinking about ordering my seeds for the year. What are some favorite spots for buying seeds? Do people prefer catalogues or local garden shops? Or can I just swing by Home Depot and still get good results?

What works best?

-Dave

Welcome to my little Garden spot

2006-01-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all. As anyone who read my story in the gazette knows, I'll be keeping a web log on the progress of a little kitchen garden in my front yard. Above is the less-than-perfect site for my new plot. The goal is to grow as much food in as small a space as is practical, with as little work as possible. Call it the lazy-man's garden. How little can I do and still get a good return? That's what I want to find out.

And for all you non-gardeners who want to find out with me, I encourage you to dig a small plot and garden along. Post your questions to this site and I will dig up answers from master gardeners in the area.

I'll be publishing one story a month on my garden, but in the meantime, I'll be updating my site with picture and notes from my garden (and yours).

Also, if you are a seasoned gardener, don't hesitate to chime in with advice.

Next month, I'll be going through how to improve the soil. The magic word here is manure. Below is my greyhound, stella, who considers herself a manure expert, inspecting a load I just added to my plot.

-Dave

November update

2005-11-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

I decided to put in two 4x8 beds running north south in the front of my house. I've turned up the ground, and just sent off soil samples to CSU. I'll share them with you soon. In the mean time, I got a load of stall sweepings from a friends horses and spread them on the beds. What's my next step? What do gardeners do when it's almost December.

2005-10-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

What's the best way to make a raised bed?

2005-10-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Suzanne emailed to say:
"for the raised bed- whatever is free is always good, barring that, check out places like Home Depot for their prices. I originally wanted railroad ties (very pricey) and ended up with 2X12s that I cut to length. Best dimension for garden width is about 4'- something you can reach across and not have to walk inside of, once the garden is built. So depending on the length of the hell strip, you may have something like 4ft x 8 ft by 12 in. You'll still want to dig into the existing soil as much as possible, then fill the new bed with soil (either purchased or from elsewhere in your yard), and then amend the soil."

the pity is pouring in!

2005-10-06T07:47:00.000-07:00

No one has very nice things to say about my garden site. Tree roots, marauding dogs, nosey neighbors, but I wanted a challenge, what can I say? Everyone so far is recommending a raised bed. What is the best way to go about building one?

THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE!

2005-10-04T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've looked all over my small, downtown lot, and this is the best site I could find. It certainly isn't ideal. There are some trees, there is not that much space, and there are, shall we say, privacy issues. But tell me what you think...
In order they are, a veiw north, a view east, and a view west.

Our next step...

2005-09-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

I'm getting great feed back. You've offered several opinions on size, shape, orientation, and scheduling of stories. Most agreed that there is a lot to do in the fall. We've had a lot of thoughts on pests and sprays. Becky says healthy plants don't need them. I'm willing to give that a shot and hope she's right, but I may have the spray ready at the last minute if things get nasty.
From here, we have to decide what kind of beds to have and what to plant. I'll email you some questions.

The Permaculture guru weighs in...THANKS!

2005-09-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

A few thoughts on the schedule from Becky...
February soil tests - You may want to dig that soil before the groundfreezes, eh? I don't depend on soil testing, but would recommend you focuson rebuilding damaged or depleted soils. Urban soils have many issues thatneed addressing and you could address them in your article. Soil testingdoesn't always have much to offer (I've been a gardener for thirty years andhave never had my soil tested.) Those tests could be considered if you hadproblems that showed no apparent answers, but for me and the professionalgardeners I know... no one soil tests unless there are indicators that thereare problems that amendments and mulching wouldn't fix.
June - Please don't plan on having weed and bug problems! First off,weeds are often edible themselves and many have medicinal qualities. Afterall, God made weeds to perform a service, NOT to irritate gardeners. Weedscan be positive and to begin anticipating set-backs isn't fair and hopefullynot accurate. Same goes for insects... There are more beneficial insects togardens than pests. If you have healthy plants they can handle most insect"problems." As you can tell I am organic in my gardens. I can't stress toyou enough that our culture is addicted to using quick-fix chemicals and theunhappy fact that we are contaminating our soils, ground water and watersystems. Don't begin your gardens with the "going-to-war" attitude. Please.
July - I have some easy hail-proofing ideas for you. Let me know if youare interested. Again, most healthy plants can survive most hails. (But,alas, a gardener's life isn't perfect.)

The latest input: Edwin Carley

2005-09-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

Several important items may have been overlooked in your outline:
January - Draw a garden plan indicating what you are going to plant and where. This is necessary because it guide seed and plant purchases. Depending on the orientation of the garden, you don't want tall plants shading shorter plants, etc.
If a new garden, you will need to determine how you are going to water it and with what. Some people use sprinklers, soaker hoses or laser lines.
Realize that you may be planting and harvesting all summer long, although your thoughts for September are appropriate.
In our garden the following vegetables have done extremely well; lettuce (multiple varieties), spinach, carrots, radishes, onions (fantastic!), summer squash, parsley, cilantro, cabbage, turnips, and rutabagas.
Our tomatoes have done well but I start the plants in mid-February and plant them in the garden in mid-May using "walls of water" to protect them from the drying winds and perhaps a late frost. Six plants produce more than an adequate amount of fruit. Four plants could be sufficient for most families.
For two years I tried to grow peppers but my efforts weren't rewarded. I finally decided to build a plastic film covered frame. I planted pepper transplants in the garden and covered them with a mini greenhouse until early July. We now have lots of nice sized bell peppers for home use. Given the price of peppers in most grocery stores, the effort is probably worth it ... especially if one is retired and has the time to putter around.
In a small garden, crops such as peas, beans, corn, potatoes, pumpkins and winter squash don't have a good fit because they consume too much space. I grew peas in our garden one year ... they could be trellised on the garden fence ... but the deer discovered that they were tasty.
Lettuce should be planted every few weeks, and sparingly. How much lettuce can a family eat in a week? A problem I have with later lettuce plantings is that they seem to come up and then disappear. I finally realized that mice consume the late season plantings and have to set mouse traps and pray that I catch the mice before they eat the lettuce seedlings.
My comments regarding lettuce bring up another important point ... how does one protect their garden from voles, mice, rabbits, deer, Bighorn sheep, elk and bear? The latter two animals are the only ones that haven't enjoyed our garden. You obviously know that hail can be expected to occur and the most unappreciated time!
Enough comments for you to digest for the moment.

Recomendations from Stephanie Jensen

2005-09-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

"I like your story schedule, but you might add a bit about ways to get a jump on the season by using contraptions like "walls of water" and something about irrigation (manual, drip, etc). You also should think about piling up easily obtainable and cheap soil amendments at the site (leaves, grass clippings) this fall and digging them in next spring. "

She also writes that I should decide what I want to grow, then determine my square footage. I would rather set the square footage, and see how much we can pack into it. What do you all think?

Marge Black's suggestions on bed size

2005-08-31T00:09:00.000-07:00

This is my 4th year of gardening on my postage-stamp sized lot. Last winter I took out all the dirt from my beds (I had originally tilled down about 8", then tilled in peatmoss and sheepshit) and tilled down another 4" and tilled in the sheepshit and peat (my soil was pure, rockhard clay). The difference in the productivity of my garden from last year is amazing! My plots are about 3' wide, they are raised, and I can reach to weed easily from both sides. I put my beds on the north-south magnetic axis because I had read in so many books that plants grew better when the beds were oriented that way.

Our first comment!

2005-08-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our first post from Suzanne Jarvinen <suzanne.jarvinen@worldnet.att.net>
1.Your schedule looks pretty good. I've been able to work the soil inJanuary/February.Don't forget about animal impact to gardens-deer, rabbits, mice, voles andrats (you may survive the weather but.....).Hail has been a big deal to west siders and east siders the last severalyears- oh and WIND.In Sept/Oct. I tend to revisit my garden size and plan any additionalgardens for the next year- especially if ground will need to be cleared(it's too frozen in Jan)
2.-dimension ideas- boards(used to build raised beds) come in 6 ft lengths-how about a 6X6or 6X3. Pretty small, but that's what my gardens are.Also-potted veggies on the deck/patio.

WELCOME MASTER GARDENERS

2005-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

As you can see, this is my temporary blog where I will post discussions of the "Small Victories" garden.
When it comes to questions, I will still e-mail you directly. To check out what other people think, visit here again soon.

my new blog

2005-08-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hey Dena, I set this up in about five minutes. pretty basic, but it gives you an idea of how easy it would be to do a blog for Out There. Something we control. As it is now, I have never had anyone ever talk to me about the "colorado springs outdoors" page that is part of gazette.com.
Something to think about.

2005-08-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

hey, does this look better, easier to read?

Small victories

2005-08-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

hi all, just trying to figure out how this all works