Posts in category: Garden

Well, it’s been a difficult planting season!  After all my planning, it seemed like everything went kaput the last few weeks.  The week I’d intended to plant (starting May 15, our “average last frost date”) turned cold and rainy.  I knew that there was questionable weather coming, but due to our plans for a trip I needed to get things into the ground.  Also, the things that were “hardening off” in the cold frame were getting too big for the cold frame, and at one time a couple of things were damaged when the cold frame fell on them during watering.  I was tired of them being in the cold frame, so I went ahead and planted.

Planting the tomatoes and peppers went pretty well.  Within a couple of days after planting it was quite windy and rainy, and they sure got beat up.  A couple of the tomatoes snapped in half right where they had been tied up.

Squash and cucumbers went in the ground also, but got beat around in the wind a bit as well, not looking very happy.  I lost the cucumbers and some squash.  At least it is early enough to replant and they should be fine.  I also have seen a lot of cucumber beetles, so have begun to spray for those with spinosad.

Now we’ve returned from vacation, and with so many plans to work in the garden immediately, I came home very sick, and won’t be able to get out to the garden.  It will just have to wait.

I think most plants will survive, but they sure aren’t in the best condition.  The peppers were damaged by hail, and many leaves were left dangling or in bad shape.  The tomatoes are small and thin, but still alive.  The cucumber seeds I planted after the first ones died did not come up.  The squash that was still alive and in fairly good condition before I left have been chewed up, presumably by the cucumber beetles that are still everywhere.  There are weeds everywhere as well.  Hopefully soon I’ll feel well enough to get back to work!

This week many gardeners in the Fort Collins area were plagued with a large amount of marble-sized hail and lost a lot of their crops.  Fortunately, the hail here wasn’t as bad and my plants aren’t much worse than they were already.  I guess all the locals are now pretty much in the same boat!

All year I have planned on planting my seedlings outside this week.  After all,  even though the “average last frost date” is May 15th, the last two years have had great weather in May and I guess I was fortunate.  NOT THIS YEAR.  As mentioned in the last post, I went ahead and planted, even though the weather has been questionable.

All week we’ve had lots of rain and cold (but not freezing) nights.  Most everything is still alive, but I wonder how much damage I’ve done by planting them out so early.  I’ve lost a couple of tomato plants that have snapped off in the wind.  With 52 tomato plants, I suppose it is not a big deal to lose a few!  Most of the week I’ve had the peppers covered with the cold frame and they’ve done well, but yesterday when I took it off and left home it hailed.  There are a few holes and rips in the leaves, but all still seem to be alive and they should recover.  I don’t think the cucumbers have survived, but that’s not a huge problem, I’ll just put more seeds directly in the ground–starting them indoors was merely a head start and not necessary.  The squash still looks good.

Perhaps all will be well and everything will turn out ok.  The garden is looking good, with plants in almost every bed.  I still plan to plant the basil, which hasn’t even liked hardening off in 40+ daytime weather–the leaves have turned brown.  Later I will sow the bean seeds, carrots, more corn and greens.

I’m very glad we’ve covered most of the pathways with woodchips.  It allows me to walk through most of the garden without collecting mud on my shoes.  We still need to finish up a few pathways, but it’s looking pretty good.

There is a nice article about when to plant seedlings outdoors on the GrowVeg website.  Too bad I didn’t read it earlier!  I did grow extra things, I just didn’t save any to replace what died after transplanting outside.

Tim remembers hearing that “farming is the ultimate act of faith.”  Perhaps true.  For those who depend on growing things for their food or livelihood, it would be very nerve-racking.  For me, I can still survive and buy food at the store if the weather turns and kills everything, and I’m still fretting, hoping things will survive the weather and my mistakes.  I shouldn’t worry…for Father knows my needs and clothes even the lilies of the fields.

4:20 pm: It has just begun to rain and it’s about 46 degrees.   The forecast the next few days/nights is for rainy days in the mid-to-high 50’s (not so bad), but 40-ish each night (not so good).  The past few days have been off-and-on cold with cold nights.  We’ve had some nice rain, so things are greening up.  It’s just frustrating not knowing when to plant or what’s ok to plant.

I guess I’m getting more exposure to Colorado unpredictable weather.  I know that May 15 is the “average” last frost date, meaning there’s a good chance it will still be cold and/or frost after that date, but the last two years have been warmer and I’ve been too optimistic.  Next year I will start things later and not plan on being able to plant by May 15, as I have the past two years.

I know that tomatoes and peppers need warm weather, and have heard not to plant them until it is consistently 50 overnight.  However, I’ve had them out hardening off all week inside the cold frame, even the nights that were 30.  It was just too difficult to carry them in and out each night & morning.  Yesterday I went ahead and planted the tomatoes and today the peppers.  I’m keeping the peppers covered, at least overnight, until it warms up–the cold frame fits nicely on top of the peppers and should keep them well protected.  Some of the tomatoes have hoops over them and are ready to cover with frost cloth as need arises. So far, I’m leaving the tomatoes uncovered during the day.  Not sure what to do with them overnight.

I’ve read that there is really no advantage to getting the tomatoes out too early–that bigger tomatoes grown inside and planted out early aren’t ready to harvest any earlier than those done a little later and planted when warmer.  Apparently warmth is the key, and it’s possible that tomatoes planted in >40 degree weather won’t produce as much fruit.  We shall see.  At any rate, next year I plan to start them later, and won’t plan to plant them out as early.  If there’s really no advantage, why bother?

There is progress being made, and we’re in the final countdown in the last two weeks until “last frost”.  I’ve sown seeds for beets, rutabagas, peas and planted my seed potatoes.   I started my corn seeds indoors, as I did last year.  It worked well last year starting them in the mini blocks, so I’m doing it again.  So far the long-range forecast looks pretty good, warming up and fewer freezing temps at night.  I’ve also planted more leeks and scallions, and eaten some delicious asparagus.Last night it was Asparagus-Smoked Salmon Crepes, which turned out delicious.  


I’ve begun to “harden off” the bee balm and alpine strawberries for planting soon–I think they can handle some colder temps, but I’ll watch the weather more closely before I plant. I’ll be using the cold frame, moved to an empty bed, for my area to harden things off.  It’ll be a walk to get the heavy trays there, but I think helpful–after a few days I should be able to leave things there overnight.


We’re getting the beds ready for planting.  This year I’m trying out Steve Solomon’s homemade “Complete Organic Fertilizer” (COF) to see how well it aids garden growth.  I’m leveling out the beds, mixing in the manure that was on the top of each bed over the winter, and adding the COF.  Some of the raised beds still are not framed, due to lack of materials, and difficult to keep them enclosed in the area I want them without some of the soil falling into the pathways.  I’ll just have to make do and make the best of it.


Tim has leveled out the area where we plan to put the greenhouse and it’s ready for concrete, which we hope to get this weekend.  It’ll be bigger than I had imagined!  It’ll be nice, particularly in the spring, for getting the seedlings going, and I’ll be able to do that process without all the electricity we’re using for the light bench.  We’ll also put down a concrete floor for the duck house, so we can wash it off for cleaning.


Tim is also working hard to fix our upstairs porch, which needed new posts for supports.  The old ones had warped and were pulling the porch and its roof away from the house–not good.  He’s working hard, and all these projects on top of his “real job”.

 This weekend we finished covering most of our pathways between beds with woodchips.  Last year Tim had found (at a local recycle place) some plastic stuff that’s meant to go under cement.  He cut it into widths the size of the walkways and put it down to act as a weed & mud barrier.  It worked well.  After our “trial” period, we finished most of the garden that way.  After we ran out of the plastic, we used leftover roof shingles to act as our weed barrier on the rest of the paths. 

The City of Fort Collins had advertised wood mulch at $5 a load this weekend, so Tim took four trips to pick up four loads of the stuff.  It’s nice, and we’ve got lots of it.  It turned out to be two different batches, and therefore two different colors, but I think that in time they’ll all look the same.  The garden will be so much nicer this year with the pathways covered and the weeds easier to control.  There will still be weeds at the edges and in the beds, but they’ll be much easier to handle than the ones that took over on the pathways.  Our other experiment with weeds will be a flame weeder we got.  We should be able to use that for weeds outside of the bed areas.

We’re still looking for cheap, recycled materials to frame more of the beds.  At this point, it looks like that will have to wait.  If they don’t get framed before planting, they won’t get framed!

This time of year I grow tired of the wind!  It blows and blows.  You’d think it would just give up after a time, but when it does, it just starts up again.  It’s hard to be outside in the wind, even if it is not particularly cold.  Now that it is warming up a bit, it would be nice to get more done outside, but with the wind blowing there is little motivation.  The forecast for tomorrow was to be nice, and much calmer, but now it is showing “breezy” again.  We had planned to take the horses out for a ride, and maybe we still will, but it’s awfully annoying (and a bit nerveracking) in the wind.

Soon we will be getting our ducklings.  We have a brooder all ready for them, and anxiously await notification that they’ll be on their way!  The new adventure will begin!