Colorado Gardener Articles

Snow is falling at last! My truck is still half full of dairy compost from Soil Rejuvenation just east of Longmont. Brian, the owner, is a lanky farmer with the gift of gab. His crop is soil and it excites him. For almost 10 years he has been researching and experimenting with materials and learning in depth about soil biology and what makes it thrive.

By Idelle Fisher: Dr. Samuel Ramsey Dr. Samuel Ramsey of CU's Boulder Bee Lab was the engaging keynote speaker on the first day of this year’s Pollinator Summit. With a good dose of humor, he addressed the “wrong bees" topic, describing how our non-native honeybees have gotten a bad rap in recent years because they can negatively affect our important native bees. Honeybees are important for agriculture, but he stressed how vital it is to treat honeybees like pets or livestoc

It’s been a beautiful fall and there are plenty of leaves everywhere for the garden beds. I find there’s nothing better for building soil in veggie and perennial beds, and well as around roses and shrubs, than adding compost and leaves in the fall. Shredding the leaves, especially any thicker, leathery cottonwood leaves, helps them break down faster without matting.

Q: Over the last few years, I’ve collected a number of cacti and succulents. When I look them up online, it shows that they have gorgeous flowers. Mine never bloom. I have them in various windowsills and on tables near the window. Do they have to be older to flower? Do they need a certain kind of fertilizer?

By Penn Parmenter: “All men all the time.”  That’s what I say to people when trying to explain how I live.  Then I say, “In a tiny house – all men – all the time.” 

Fall Harvest The other day my friend Nina stopped by with some sweet corn from Munson’s in Boulder. Munson’s Farm is well known around...

By William J. Dagendesh: Harvest supply kit Children’s old backpacks and giveaway canvas tote bags make a handy harvest kit. Fill with a...

By Pam Sherman: Do you have too many zucchinis now, but not enough in winter? How can we enjoy our garden's bounty throughout the cold...

By Jennifer Bousselot: Jump start your spring vegetable season. Growing up on a small family farm I remember how the demands of the crops increase as the season progresses.

In the proposed "Rescission of Conservation and Landscape Health Rule" (aka The Public Lands Rule), the Feds plan to strip conservation...