The Tenacious Gardener

It's been a long time...

2011-02-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

It seems I haven't updated here since July!
I've begun another seed starting experiment. I learned some things from last year's failure.
1) Keep the humidity dome on until the first set of true leaves form;
2) Take the tray off the heat mat when the first set of true leaves start to form;
3) Don't overwater;
4) Don't let the seedlings dry out;
5) Have more patience with some seeds that take longer to germinate;
6) Transplant when the second set of true leaves emerge.
That's as far as I've got so far. The air layering pots on the viburnum was a mixed success. Some of them dried out and died off during our unusually hot and dry summer. Some lived and are overwintering on the shrub. I'll cut these off after the new leaves come out and start them in gallon pots. I still have lots and lots of iris to divide, move and plant (I have a lot in pots right now). I'm also planning a small vegetable garden for this summer. I probably won't get to do an early crop, but should have it all set up for a late summer and fall harvest. I hope we get enough moisture this spring.

Failure and Hope

2010-07-14T16:07:00.003-06:00

Well, the great seed starting experiment was a dismal failure. I can't seem to find the right balance between over-watering and under-watering. I then tried rooting some small cuttings. They're not all dead yet, but most have perished and what hasn't (about half of the creeping phlox cuttings) doesn't seem to want to sprout roots. I hope what's left will root soon.

I can make things grow just fine in the ground from transplants with the smallest bit of root, but I can't seem to get anything to start for me.
Anyone have tips on starting from seed or cuttings?

Now for Hope:

I got up early this morning, sat on the porch drinking coffee with my husband and discovered that I have no commitments today (for the first time in many weeks)! I got very little sleep last night, but I decided to work in the yard a bit instead of napping. I was able to get nine air-layering pots on my snowball viburnum and extend my perimeter soaker hose before it got way too hot to be working outside.

I've air-layered this shrub before and it worked great for me, so I expect it will be fine this time too.

Then I came in and took a nice, long, cold bath.
I feel much better now. :-)

Should Detroit Be Converted Into a Farming Mecca?

2010-04-30T15:06:00.003-06:00

This is a fascinating idea!

Food Among the Ruins

the great seed starting experiment - update

2010-04-30T13:30:00.001-06:00

It looks like I have eight acorn squash seedlings so far. There are no true leaves yet, just cotyledons. I also have a huge number of agastache golden jubilee seedlings just sprouting (not blue fortune as I posted before - I finally found the original plant tag). Nothing on the spinach or rose yet. A few of the neon swiss chard look promising and I have one lonely hyacinth bean vine sprout that I can't really call a sprout just yet. I'm looking forward to what will come up in the next week!

the great seed starting experiment

2010-04-24T15:31:00.001-06:00

I started a tray full of seeds in the basement on a hydration mat & heat mat with a grow light just above. I'm keeping fingers crossed that something germinates. I don't have high hopes for the spinach or chard as they didn't imbibe very well (I soak all of my seeds before planting and generally discard the ones that float and plant the ones that sink, or imbibe - water absorption is necessary for germination). I expect that the acorn squash will be okay along with the blue fortune agastache. I'm also trying out some rose seed from hips I collected last fall. This should be interesting.

I think winter is over

2010-04-08T15:23:00.000-06:00

It's warm out! The 'snowstorm' we were supposed to get was mild and wet. It never got much below freezing. By noon yesterday the whole 2 inches of snow/slush was melted and soaked into the ground.

I really feel in my bones that winter is over. I'm sure it might snow again, but I honestly don't think we'll have another hard freeze (25º or below). I feel confident enough to start raking up mulch and cutting back my perennials. I might even divide and move a few hardy things!

Beware of this dangerous garden pest

2010-04-02T12:25:00.002-06:00

It's spreading!

Must Resist!

2010-04-01T14:06:00.000-06:00

Spring in Colorado is a tricky thing. It's been as warm as 80º for the past few days. The tulips and irises are pushing up their leaves. It's so tempting to go outside and rake up all the mulch and fallen leaves and trim the dead stuff off of my perennials but we will have another freeze and it will snow some more. I will wait a few more weeks. I am determined.

I am a big dork

2010-03-13T16:16:00.001-07:00

Yup, I sure am. I spent an enjoyable evening with friends at Eddie's art opening. On the way back to my car, I fell after managing to go up a curb, cross a bunch of river rock while ducking under trees, down a curb and across a street, I caught my right clog on the next high curb and BIFF! - I went down spectacularly! I am apparently still protective of my right hip (the one with the artificial joint). Instead of twisting my right ankle and going down on my right knee and hip, I managed to turn myself enough to catch most of my weight on my left wrist and arm. At least I didn't kiss the concrete. I got home in one piece and did some acupuncture on myself. This morning everything feels okay except for my left wrist/forearm. It hurts a lot with that stabby radiating kind of pain. I've got it in a rigid wrist brace, but turning my arm palm up still hurts.

So much for my plan to clean up my yard today - And it's so nice outside! At least I managed to trim back my rose shrub (which is still very much alive and sprouting after moving the ancient thing 2 years ago!) and most of my herbs. I've got nice little thick green crowns coming up already! March and April tend to be our snowiest time of year, so I guess leavening the rest of the dead/dormant stuff will be fine for a while longer - insulation against the inevitable freeze yet to come. Ah - Spring!

Spring

2010-03-09T12:53:00.002-07:00

The snow has melted and my yard is a mess. The forecast for Saturday is sunny and 59º. The post-surgical ten pound lifting restriction will end Friday. Guess what I can't wait to start working on! ;-)

Gardening Goals for the Coming Year

2009-12-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this article on Dave's Garden by Tamara Galbraith (who has a wonderful blog called 'Can You Dig it?). This got me thinking about my own bad gardening habits - like not cleaning tools, skipping the weeding, forgetting to water - the list goes on. So I'm going to make some goals toward changing some of those bad habits in 2010. After all, it's a new decade!

1) I will maintain my gardening tools. Not only do I neglect sharpening and oiling them at the end of the season, I often put them away dirty. During the growing season I often forget to put them away where they belong and leave them leaning against the wall outside. This has to stop.

2) I will set up an irrigation system and water what's not hooked up to it when needed. I'm notorious for killing things due to not watering. In the few years that I've been gardening, potted plants never had a chance, and those in the ground were left to fend for themselves. It gets especially bad in the last half of the summer when it's hot and I just don't want to be outside in the stabby sunshine (at our altitude the sunshine does not bathe you - it's stabby!). I'm surprised anything survived at all!

3) I will set up my indoor seed and cutting propagation system. I have most of it already. The shelves with the nice plastic greenhouse cover (to maintain some semblance of humidity and to keep out the kitties-who-like-to-eat-plants) are sitting in the basement gathering dust. I just need to get some lights and a small watering system (back to that problem with watering). Starting plants indoors during winter/early spring will save lots of money on plants for my garden-in-progress.

4) I will do the hardscaping and soil prep before planting anything new in the ground. This will involve a considerable amount of hard work. I have decided that the front yard slope will not support anything other than more erosion due to it's steepness - I need to build a retaining wall. I also need to delineate planting beds from walking paths and seating areas by installing edging, pavers, gravel and stepping stones. Grading to direct runoff during summer downpours needs to be taken care of. Planting areas need to have the weeds removed and compost added. I also want to set up a couple of raised beds in the south facing front yard to grow herbs and vegetables. I know - that last bit might be a stretch, but ambition is a good thing - right?

5) I will stay one step ahead of the weeds. Since I inherited a yard full of weeds and bare dirt when we bought this place, staying ahead of the weeds feels like a losing battle. Last summer I all but gave up by the end of June. That mistake is just going to make my job this spring even harder. The key word this spring is mulch, mulch, mulch!

6) I will only plant drought tolerant, sun loving plants in containers. I have a few spots that need a potted plant to provide a bit of nature to offset their sterile looking concrete corners. Every year I'm tempted by the beauty of potted flowers and hanging baskets. I kill them within a month every time. I have learned my lesson and potted flowers are not for me. I repeat, i have learned my lesson and potted flowers are not for me. I can't keep up with the twice daily watering they need in our hot dry climate. The wide variety of sedum, sempervivum, and other succulent plants are beautiful, provide a bit of green (and often other colors), texture, and will survive in a pot even if I miss watering for a day (or two).

I think that's enough. if I can accomplish half of this in 2010, I'll feel quite successful!

Denial of Winter

2009-12-13T12:22:00.003-07:00

It seems that some of my plants are a bit confused. This happens every winter in some form or another due to our wild temperature fluctuations, but things staying green and looking as if they want to grow when it's been below 0º outside for days surprised me. Granted, it was up in the 50s only a few days before and we hit 50º again both yesterday and today, but this takes the cake! Not only is does my honeysuckle vine have green leaves, stems and buds, but the pineapple mint in very different part of the yard is sticking a green shoot up through the icy snow. These were taken a few days ago when it was all of 5º out in the sunshine.

WooHoo!

2009-11-14T19:08:00.003-07:00

In my visits to other regional gardeners' blogs, I came across Jodi Torpey's website. She happened to have a contest going to win a CobraHead weeder and cultivator. All I had to do was write about what I had learned from my gardening experiences this past season. And as luck would have it, I won and received the tool in the mail yesterday afternoon!

Since I have an entire bare bones, full of dirt and weeds yard to overhaul, this tool will be put to very good use. Now I can't wait for spring to begin using it! Many thanks to Jodi!

So many leaves, so little time...

2009-11-07T12:48:00.001-07:00

It seems all the leaves dropped at the same time this year. We had an early snowstorm, followed by warm, dry weather. The leaves never really got a chance to change to any color other than brown. I found a few slightly colorful ones under our cherry trees in the sheltered backyard. I might even have some time to rake up and start composting them this weekend!

the Steppe climate

2009-11-04T22:33:00.001-07:00

I make my attempts at gardening in Denver, Colorado - a challenging climate where it is sunny, windy, high and dry (zone 5b). Sometimes the rain doesn't even make it to the ground. This was taken last June out on the eastern plains. The curtains of virga were quite stunning.

My Brown Thumb Challenge

2009-11-04T10:44:00.009-07:00

At the foot of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 5400 feet, we receive about 15" of moisture per year. Drying Chinook winds suck away a good portion of that. Temperatures can fluctuate wildly - varying as much as 60 degrees between daytime highs and nightime lows. While winters tend to be mild here, it can drop to -20º at night in winter or spring, and can reach 100º+ in summer.

Our average last frost date is May 1st and can vary up to a month in either direction. First frost averages October 1st and can vary a couple of weeks in either direction. Throw in our frequent late and early snowstorms and you can guess what fun it is trying to decide when to plant or if your fruit trees will produce (or break under the weight of wet snow).

With this climate and our alternately sandy and clay soil, this Brown Thumb has quite a challenge to make things grow.