Si Pak Tani

by Ginger Baer For many years vegetable gardens were spacious, spread out and required a lot of weeding, water and upkeep.   I loved my BIG garden, but hated the weeding and tried many methods to cut down on that kind of work. It wasn’t until I moved to the mountains and joined our community garden that I actually tried intensive gardening (due to the fact that my space was limited). Each garden plot measured 4' X 12', a far cry from my 20' x 20' garden at a lower elevation. In-ground garden The most important part of selecting your garden location is location.   You need to have plenty of sunlight, well-drained soils and availability to water.   Leafy vegetables, such as lettuce and spinach, require the least direct sunlight, only 4 to 5 hours. Root vegetables require 5 to 6 hours, and fruiting vegetables (such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini) require at least 8 hours. In Colorado, water can be a challenge unless you have water rights.   This is why I have a p...

Brassicas in garden (photo Yvette Henson) by Yvette Henson I just planted my brassica seeds in flats to plant out into the garden when it is time.   Brassicas are plants in the Brassicaceae family ,  also known as cruciferous or cole crops.   Plants in this family that are grown for eating include cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, radishes, turnips, and more.   As vegetables, they are rich in anti-cancer compounds, one of which is free glutamine.   Brassicas are also high in other many other nutrients. Brassicas are cool-season crops.   Although some varieties can take longer to mature, they can better survive temperatures below freezing.  We can plant them before the last spring frost and/or later in the summer so they mature when temperatures are cooler (which will improve their flavor and quality).   Cool-season crops generally do very well in our mountain communities where we have lower day and nighttime temperatures.   They ...

by Kristina Hughes, Clear Creek County Master Gardener Lime tree- Photo by Kristina Hughes For those of us who like to let our houseplants spend time in the great outdoors during the warm months, there are many benefits. My plants love being outside in a protected location and they reward me with vigorous growth and rich blooms. Those benefits come with a price, however, and I have paid a price. My lime tree in particular seems to attract aphids, which isn’t a problem when the plant is outside. Aphids are a favorite food of many birds and predatory insects. Aphids are an important food source for beneficial insects such as lady beetles (especially their larvae) and green lacewing larvae (see photo below). Some people recommend allowing small numbers of aphids to be part of a garden ecosystem, to support healthy populations of the predatory beneficials that love to eat aphids. My lime tree does fine when it’s outside in the summer. But a couple of years ago, right around this time of ye...

By Irene Shonle, Director CSU Extension in Gilpin County   Overall, snowpack in Colorado is great so far this year (statewide, 114% of normal).      Snotel Current Snow Water Table As of February 25 th , the South Platte River Basin (our watershed) is 110% of normal and the Arkansas is 125%. West slope river basins range from 107% to 122%.   This is great news to urban dwellers, to farmers and ranchers and to states downstream from us to whom we owe water, since that snowpack will soon be melting into water and rushing down the mountains in our streams and rivers.   This is especially welcome news after the dismal snowpacks of the last few years. However, river basin snowpack means very little to us locally. The water many of us mountain dwellers drink comes from wells, and not from reservoirs or large underground aquifers as it does in the flatlands.  The production of those wells is entirely dependent on the precipitation that falls in our own yards....