Oh where, oh where have my wormy friends gone??

Ahhhhh.... home again! I'm back from a week-long trip to Montana. I left Colorado a week ago Tuesday, passed through cold, rain & some snow in Wyoming and got to Montana in time for a beautiful weekend! Hubby flew in from Korea and met me there to watch my stepson graduate from the University of Montana in Missoula (with high honors I might add) and to see my step-daughter get married in Great Falls. What a week! We're all back home now. I made it just in time for some beautiful Colorado weather!

Today, instead of unpacking or doing my laundry, I worked in the garden. I put up the ladder trellis and the other ladder-like trellis I built last year and hopefully have them secured in their spots. I planted the corn and watered the perennials. lettuce & potatoes. When I pulled back the straw mulch where I intended to plant the radishes & carrots, I discovered a little problem. The mulch layer I added in the fall had not decomposed like I expected. The corn bed was the same way but those seeds are big enough, I was able to fake it (hopefully) by planting into flakes of straw. I can't do that with my paper-towel seed mats. I ended up moving the mulch, digging out the fully composted lasagna layers of two years ago. I put the old stuff in a few large tree pots for temporary storage, dumped the mulch layer into the bottom of the bed, tossed in a few clods of sod from the front garden (they need to go somewhere...), watered it all and put the finished stuff on top to create a better planting area. Aside from doing something I thought I would NOT do (dig in my raised bed), I made a disconcerting discovery - my worms have gone AWOL!!

The bed I was digging in is the same one where I found the bounty of beautiful worms last spring (in the pumpkin shells). Sure, I've got some wrigglers in there but not the glorious gobs of them I was expecting. The deeper I dug the emptier it was. Truthfully, I'd suspect if asked, they might claim it was a hostile work environment as the bed and all the mulch layers were on the dry side. I don't think we had as much moisture this winter. Hopefully adding some moisture will bring them back. I will have to do some digging this summer and check on the troops, I may have to re-think some of my plans...


I was going to post this with no pictures but it just seemed like something was missing- so here you go- a couple pics from our side trip to White Sulphur Springs where we enjoyed a good burger and the hot spring-fed pools in a small town where there was nobody (read children) that we had to make any plans with- for just one night.

March Updates

It seems I have garden projects scattered all over the place right now! I have a few seedlings under lights in the basement. I'm pre-sprouting the seeds in the egg cartons on the cable box then moving them to the lights as they come up. Here are a few of the baby tomatoes I have down there. I have tomatoes, a couple peppers, herbs and a few ornamentals for companion planting. I found a pretty helpful website on companion planting not too long ago. Some of them I knew but many were new to me. Check it out at http://www.homeandgardensite.com/companion_planting.htm . I actually have seeds for a number of plants on the list so I'm going to work them in around the garden this summer.

Here's a look in the garden today. The peas I pre-sprouted and moved out are doing pretty well. They're about 3-6" tall now. Of the sprouted seeds I moved out, most of the seeds I started on the paper towels didn't make it. I might try this method one more time but only if the upper layers of the bed are more like soil than mulch. I think they just dried out. The seeds I started in the organic starting mix are doing better. When I started putting these out, I planted them into a layer of more finished compost I added to the mulch layer so they'd have a little more to grow in.

Here's a rather messy view of the garden area today. The bed in the foreground with the plastic is where I'm starting the cool season plants. It's covered because it is still very early in the season here. Out last frost date isn't until about May 15. More than anything, I'm playing with these seeds and learning a few lessons along the way. Eventually I'll find the right combination of methods or the proper planting time will come along. Either way, eventually, something will grow...

Along the fence are the 3 new beds. These are filled with the horse manure compost from the straw bale bin, the contents of the temporary beds, the last of the pile of aspen leaves that wouldn't shred last fall, coffee grounds, a bit of compost and a handful of worms. I topped these off with pads of straw (that I soaked in water first). I'm thinking the straw pads will help keep the beds from drying. I'm really wanting these to break down and settle so I can top them off before planting. The straw does seem to be working. I also have them covered with some old landscape fabric to also keep them from drying out and to keep the straw from blowing away. I saw on the news last week that so far this YEAR we have had about 1/4 inch of moisture. Yep, it's dry! I also added a little more to 3 other beds (I stole some material from the raspberry area - where the path will be) and topped them off with straw as well.

In between the beds (adding nicely to the look of the garden I must say...) are the bags of shredded leaves I'm saving to use as mulch. Next year I need a nicer looking storage (or hiding) spot for those. I had them tucked away a little nicer until I moved the lilacs out and the new beds in.

In the left corner are the stacks of large (I think 35 gal maybe?) nursery pots I'm going to use for potatoes. In front of the bins is the kiddie pool that I used to park the strawberry plants I was given in October. Their bed wasn't built yet, so I thought they'd be ok in the pool. I stabbed some drainage holes in the pool and filled it with some of the (fairly fresh at the time) horse manure and hay mixture I had cooking in the raspberry bed. The plants looked ok in the fall. I let them grow until freezing weather came and I mulched them with straw and circled the pool (which was in the corner by the fence) with the bags of leaves as insulation. I didn't want it to thaw too early. I pulled out the pool this last week and uncovered the little guys. I should have done it sooner. The survival rate does not look good. Most of the crowns were rotting and very few show signs of life. I think they have recently rotted because the roots are black but still attached. If they had rotted in the fall, I doubt I'd see the roots. I pulled out all that I could find and moved them to small trays filled with the starting soil and put them on the front porch until I can see how many survived. I didn't dump the pool in case I missed some that might be alive. It's really quite a bummer. Now I think I'll need to order some. This is a little bit of the life left in that whole pool full of strawberries. (sigh...)

But spring is coming, the hyacinths are appearing... Daffodils and tulips are coming up as well.

And I had a moment of excitement this weekend. I was giving my wintersowing containers a drink and I noticed I have a few sprouts!! Not many yet, but I was happy to see that it just might work! I found a couple sprouts of Rocky Mountain Penstemon, Dianthus knappii, and Liatris. Here are the Liatris sprouts...

I actually sowed 22 more containers this weekend. I'm trying lettuce & spinach that way too.

These are the lilac bushes we moved (remember those fun-to-dig holes a while back?). I have one more to move but the straw bale poo pile is still in the way. I had it all planned out, but when we moved the bigger bush a piece split off so we planted it where the other one (from the front yard) is supposed to go. I really wouldn't mind the lilac in the front yard but it's planted in a spot where I don't think it will work well when it grows big. It's at the corner of the front walk. When it grows, it will encroach on the walk and block the view of the front door. I think they're going to survive the transplanting. We were concerned about the larger one but it has the biggest buds of them all. We dug up a saucer-shaped area around the plants to break up and aerate the soil for the roots. We put a layer of the composted manure around the plants, then mulched that with a layer of hay topped with some wood mulch. They actually stayed moist for two weeks this way. They may have gone longer but we watered them for good measure. I want them to have enough moisture to re-grow the roots they lost in the move.

And finally, some things don't really change... This seems to be how a game of fetch always ends... if only Wilson would play fetch... he prefers to play keep-away with the occasional game of "chicken" mixed in. I actually got smacked in the kneecap with his hard head the other day. Ouch. :-)

Raised Beds, Early July 2008

I planted the garden in stages between the end of May (19th) and mid-June. Here's a photo of the east bed with radishes, lettuce, spinach, peppers, Walla Walla onions, green beans, sugar snap peas and yellow beans.

The west bed with red onions, cucumbers, a bush tomato plant, zucchini , watermelon ,and the beginnings of the corn. The corn didn't germinate very well, so I had to replant it.

This is the garden with its protective covers (aka sheer curtains from the thrift shop over irrigation tubing). We are very likely to have hail during the early summer (as my neighbor warned me) so this is how the little plants were protected. As you can see, I also added mulch around the beds which we can get for free during the summer here.

Here are my little potatoes, growing nicely.... you can see the 2-section compost bin as well which is built from salvaged 2x4s and used chicken wire.

Building the raised beds May 2008

When I first looked at this house with our Realtor, I picked out the spot for the garden. There's a spot that isn't in the back fence with the dogs, but also isn't in the front yard in full view. It's on the south side of the house and is pretty well screened from the street behind a retaining wall.

I decided one week in May that I was going to try raised beds, a first for me. I learned about lasagna gardening online, and thought it sounded worth a try. After a lot of internet searching and a lot of reading on the Gardenweb forums, I decided to get started. I found used redwood 2x6s for free on Craigslist, and started on the plan! The beds are 4' x 10' and 3 boards high (about 15.5"). Each corner has a piece of wood that I screwed the boards into, as some of the board ends aren't in the best shape. I also added a piece of 2x6 inside the center of each long side. This adds stability and helps pull the somewhat warped boards in line with each other. Building with used lumber can make for interesting projects. It may not the prettiest up close, but it serves its purpose well. I lined the wood with plastic sheeting in the hopes that it will help it last longer.

I filled the beds with what organic materials I

could find at the time. The bulk of the filling is well aged horse manure (came chock-full-o'-worms too) that I got from a family who lives a few miles up the road. They advertised the manure free on Craigslist. I started with a layer of paper and layered chicken manure (that was at least 6 months old if not older), leaves and pine needles, horse manure, coffee grounds, coffee chaffe, and a little fill dirt. I don't remember the exact order, but I tried to keep the layers to about 2-4" thick and alternate "greens" and "browns" as best I could.

The photo shows the 2 beds after they were filled. The sticks in the right bed are for the peas and in the left bed is my makeshift stick trellis. All of the materials for these 2 beds I got free through Craigslist and Freecycle or were items I had on hand.

I also built a potato box from old fence boards and 2x4's. The plan was to mulch the potatoes with straw and add the 2 open sides as the plants grew. I left the back side intact since it was against the retaining wall. I left the right side intact because the compost bin will be going just to the right of the bin.

Introduction

I live and garden just east of Colorado Springs, CO. I moved to Colorado in December 2007, and I started my raised bed vegetable garden last summer. I grew up in Vermont, and have lived in other western states, but my garden here is subjected to more extremes than gardens past. Just this past week, we have seen temperatures between -6F and 70F!! This year, I am expanding the vegetable garden with additional beds and adding berries and fruit trees. I am also planning a flower garden for the front yard and some plantings for the back.

I'm going to start my story with last summer's garden.