playing n the dirt

This spring was the first season for me to try green house gardening.  As a whole it was a big success.  I started with peppers and tomatos, because just north of Denver, Colorado the growing season is not much more than three months.

I did learn a few lessons, actually I kind of got a little greedy and forgot lessons that I already knew.  My biggest mistake was not thinning my seedlings enough.  So while I have lots of plants they are closer than they should be.  Being so close normal air flow is hindered and it does make the spread of pests easier.  I am also trying to get used to the green house being more humid.  Usually the natural weather is kind of on the dry side.  I’m not sure, but I wonder if the humidity made the pest problem worse.

I will try and remember these lessons and I am already looking forward to planting in the green house this fall once all the tomatos and peppers are harvested.

My friends that don’t garden ask me what I do all winter.  While I do have some other hobbies my main winter hobby is dreaming about what I’ll do in the gardens come spring.  That means I spend a lot of time looking at websites and catologs.

In the coming weeks I’ll be putting together some resource pages that will include many of my favorite places to either purchase quality supplies or just get some gardening infomation and tips.

One of my favorite things about having a vegetable garden is picking my own dinner.  It’s fun to see what vegetables are ready to be picked and then try and figure out what you can make with them.

Tonight there was a lot to pick.  I got a few nice roma tomatos, a hand full of green bean and carrots, three bunches of lettuce and three zuchinni.  I just happened to have two left over chicken breasts from dinner last night.  I made some pasta, sliced some cheese and dinner was done.

Fresh and fast, they always make a great dinner.   

I find it hard to believe sometimes, but I do know a lot of people that don’t know how to garden.  I think it’s not so much of a lack of knowledge as it maybe fear.

So fear not.  I hope I can help some with the knowledge by posting some basic “how to” tips for both the first time gardener and the those with a little more experience.

Remember these simple rules, gardening should be fun and you will at some point have to get a little dirty.  A garden needs plenty of four basic things, good dirt or compost, mulch, water and sunshine.

So have fun, get dirty, provide the basics and watch your garden grow.

If I had to pick the one thing I disliked most about gardening in Northeastern Colorado it would be the short growing season.  It’s not to uncommon to get snow as late as the end of May or as early as the first part of September. 

I have covered everything more than once with plastic, blankets and old sheets to try to keep from losing an entire crop of vegetables.  I used to dream about moving to a warmer climate when we retired just so I could garden more.

Last fall I took action.  Not by moving, but by buying a green house.  It went up last October.  I didn’t plant anything in it, but I did prepare the ground.  This spring I planted tomatos and peppers directly in the ground in the green house.  They have done wonderful.  In the heat of the summer I’m able to keep the sides up and windows open for air flow. 

I’ve got my seeds and plantings all figured out for this fall.  I’m looking forward to enjoying some of the colder weather vegetables like carrots, spinach and peas well into late fall and with any luck even winter.

So let it snow in September, because I’m covered, so to speak.

For 12 years I’ve looked at the strip of ground between our driveway and our neighbors fence and have wondered what to do with it.  It’s no more than three feet wide but it’s about 60 feet long.  It’s not close to a water supply and has always had lots of goat vine weeds in it.  Over the years I’ve put in a couple of plants, but nothing did very well.

This year I decided to at least try and make some kind of gardend bed out of it.  Actually I made a couple of beds.  Towards the back half I planted blueberry and raspberry bushes and lilics.  At the front I planted daisys, morning glories, magnolias and other dry weather seeds along with some day lilies from the same neighbor.

Before planting I had to prepare the bed.  I used simple organic gardening ideas.  I pulled out as many of the goat vines as I could, turned over the top couple of inches of old clumpy grass and dumped a lot of my own compost on it.  I’ve watered well dragging the hoses from both the front and back yards to reach to whole length.  I had to get more serious with the goat vine using an old organic weed killer, vinger. 

And yes I had success.  Wonderful flowers have come up, spread and bloomed from seed.  I’ve been eating raspberries when I water and the lilics have leafed out.  

For vegetable gardeners this is a great time of year.  Fresh vegetables are ready to eat or will be very soon.  At our house we have eaten all the first round of the sweet peas and spinach.  We’ve been eating green beans, carrots, lettuce and zuchinni for weeks now and there are many more yet to ripen.  The cucumbers are already as long as fingers.  While watering the peppers I’ve spotted some pretty big yellow ones and we’ve had fried green tomato’s while waiting for them to ripen.  Yep, all the hard work is paying off in some of the best tasting organic vegetables ever and they are all right out my back door. 

All gardening is therapy to me, but weeding is the best. There is nothing like getting a bucket and just sitting there and pulling weeds. You can either zone completely out and think of nothing at all or you can really examine a problem. The bonus, when your done zoning or have solved your problem you have a newly weeded garden.

This works with any weed at any time of year. However, I have a favorite weed and a favorite time of year. Late July and early August like clock work one side of my front yard grass gets mike weeds. (I don’t know if that’s its official name.) Almost every evening for 2 to 3 weeks I get my weed bucket and spend an hour or so just zoning or contemplating the world.

Late one afternoon a couple of years ago, after watching me sitting in the middle of my yard for a few evenings a neighbor came over and asked me what I was doing. I explained I was pulling the little mike weeds out of the grass. Well honey he says you’ll never get rid of those, we all have them. I know I replied but this is better than going to therapy.

And so it is. I almost look forward to late July and early August and my time with the milk weeds.

This morning is why I garden.  What a beautiful morning it was, about 70 degrees with some nice clouds and almost no breeze.  What do people that don’t garden do on such a great morning?  I did get alot done.  Some weeding in the flower beds, clipped the grass around the blueberry bushes and got the lawns watered.  The best news of all is that there are some very dark clouds to the west of here.  Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get some rain today.