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Posts Tagged ‘planting’

Rare Agricultural Sighting Takes Gardeners Around the Globe by Storm!

Posted in Garden Ramblings, Time to Plant!, tagged , , , , , , on March 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

The agricultural community world-wide is buzzing with talk of a rare Gardening Husband sighting. This reclusive beast, who has been known to go immediately and indefinitely into hiding after any mention or even remote inference of the phrase “yard work”, has been spotted recently in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States.  One of our lucky man-watchers was even fortunate enough to catch this nearly unheard of scene on film!  Assisted only by his side-kick, Giant White Dog, Gardening Husband–by his own initiative–bravely battled the desolate land of Last Year’s Shriveled Vegetable Plants, fighting and hacking his way down to bare soil.

To catch sight of this rare appearance, keep your eyes peeled for our brave warrior, usually seen wearing a skull cap and heavy duty gardening gloves, plus a uniform usually consisting of jeans and a sweater.  He can often be seen throwing a red rubber Kong toy or dingy tennis ball to Giant White Dog in between, as well as during, bouts with dead vegetation.

Soldier on, fearless Gardening Husband!  Your deeds of good and bravery are those to which gardeners around the planet aspire.

douginthegarden

My Hero!

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Snow Day

Posted in Garden Ramblings, Time to Plant!, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2013| 1 Comment »

  dearmothernature
yaysnow

More to come soon…

Happy snow day!

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Lesson #2: Playing in the Dirt (a.k.a. Soil Amendment)

Posted in How to Grow Veggies (in CO anyway), tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2012| 5 Comments »

This post is dedicated to Ghost, the Garden Cat.  He was always my helper in the garden, but he particularly liked to get in the way during this stage of the game.

You’ll want to wait and do this after the ground has thawed.

Vegetables need good, rich soil to grow well.  Most Colorado soil is very dense and full of clay—it will need to be amended with some good stuff to make your plants are happy.  Check out the soil in your planned garden area—dig down a foot or so.  CAN you dig down a foot or so?  If not, you definitely need soil amendment—I’d double the numbers listed below.  Any earth worms in there?  If so, congrats!  Earth worms are our friends!  Your soil is probably in pretty good shape.  You can buy a soil testing kit if you want to know exactly how good your soil is, what’s in it, what the Ph level is, etc., but that’s all a bit too scientific for me.  I’d rather just get in there and start digging.

Soil Amendment Ingredients

Ingredients needed for soil amendment: Soil Pep, Vermiculite (optional), Fertilizer, and Compost (not shown)

Shopping List:

  • Compost:  Any kind of compost is fine, but I suggest mixing a few kinds together.  You can also add a bag or two of manure into this mix.  Whatever kind you use, mix them together in a wheel barrow before spreading it.  I suggest using about one bag per 25 square feet.
  • Soil Pep:  I am a huge believer in Soil Pep—it’s kind of a mix of bark and other decomposable natural stuff, but it’s not compost.  It does a great job in breaking up tough soil and keeping it light and loose.  You can find it at pretty much any garden center or nursery, but I haven’t seen it at a big box store.  One bag is usually good for about 50 square feet.  Added garden nerd bonus:  the Soil Pep you use in your garden this year will break down before next year and further amend the soil!  Woohoo!  And look what I just got in my email box this morning–a SP coupon!
  • Fertilizer:  There are lots of fertilizers out there, but I use one called Colorado’s Own Vegetable Food—it’s good for all kinds of veggies.  It’s in a orange bag, and the numbers on the bottom are 5-10-5 (sorry I don’t have a photo yet).  Go to Echter’s for this.  (If you haven’t been to Mecca—I mean Echter’s—yet, go.  Just go.  I apologize now for the damage it will do to your check book.  (I am sure that will be the subject of a future post.))  One bag of fertilizer should be enough, unless you have a huge plot you are planting.  It should say on the bag how big of an area it will cover.  Extra is not bad here—you will use more later in the season. (more…)

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Lesson #1: Location, Location, Location

Posted in How to Grow Veggies (in CO anyway), tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2012| 3 Comments »

If you don’t already have an established spot for a vegetable garden, this is the first step.  Think about…

  • Sun!  Most vegetables need full sun in order to grow well.  Find the sunniest spot you can.  We actually pulled down some trees last year to get more sun onto our veggie beds.  Granted, they were evil nasty elm trees that Hubby hated, but it was really about the garden in my mind.spigot
  • Water.  Is there irrigation?  If not, would it be hard to install?  Vegetables need water pretty much every day during the hot days of summer.  If there’s no irrigation, plan on getting out there on hot days with the hose!
  • You can plant your garden right in the ground, or you can build some raised beds.  Raised beds are nice, because it’s a little easier to control where stuff grows, and because you won’t break your back quite as much when it comes to weeding.  Also, you can fill raised beds with all new soil.  If your soil is really poor—impossible to dig into because it’s so full of clay, perhaps—you can start fresh with a raised bed.

    Finn, the Giant Garden-Destroying Pooch

    Our Baby (Our Very Large Baby)

  • Do you have dogs?  How about a 100 lb. crazy one year old dog?  (Yup, that’s what I have.)  Raised beds might be less attractive to a digger—our older dog just walks around them.  But you might want to think about fencing to keep the little angels out.
  • Proximity to the kitchen:  Are you going to want to walk clear around to the far side of your house every morning in your PJs to snip some chives to sprinkle on your eggs?
  • You might not have just one spot.  I have five raised beds in my back yard that are dedicated to edibles, but of course that wasn’t enough.  Since it’s a part of our yard we don’t really use and it gets tons of sun, the south side of our house has become the home to six more tomato plants each year, so we have enough to can for the winter (oh, yeah—we’re gonna talk about canning).
  • Think about containers, too!  Herbs grow fabulously in pots.  So do kale and cabbage—and they’re pretty!  Mix ‘em right in with your flowers, and you can eat them when the season is over.  I don’t want to hear the excuse “I don’t have room to grow vegetables!”  Yes, you do.  (Stay tuned for a post on container gardening soon!)

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