August 2026 E-Magazine
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
Late summer and early fall can be a good time to plant. As we ease into a hopefully cooler part of the summer with the potential for much more moisture later this month–if the super El Niño plays out for us that way–I’m reprinting an enlightening article that Mikl Brawner wrote for us about soil.
We may very well have another extended growing season on the Front Range and a light freeze won’t do much harm. The extreme heat and dry spring weather made it extremely challenging to grow greens of all kinds so we have another opportunity. Spinach and the tasty Asian salad greens that are attacked by flea beetles in the spring do much better in the fall anyway.
With the moisture and the heat come mosquitoes. I have water buckets for the horse, plus I collect rainwater from my barn & shed roofs and since they’re not perfectly sealed I toss in mosquito dunks, an effective, non-toxic (Bacillus thuringiensus) way to kill the larva anywhere that water collects.
R. Gary Raham is a natural science writer and illustrator based in Fort Collins who has written many pieces for Colorado Gardener over the years, several of which have won Colorado Authors League awards. This month he writes about our forests as they struggle with environmental effects of climate change and the scientists who are exploring ways to help them “walk” both within their current range and beyond it. Today’s forestry practices call for “deep time eyes”, he says, “that see visions of a future world warming far more quickly than ever seen in the geological past.” Colorado State University is one of the leaders in the field.
Keith Funk answers readers questions about flowering trees that Japanese beetles avoid, colorful perennials to plant now, tomato plants that aren’t setting fruit, replenishing mulch, and bindweed.
I’ve been wowed by the Mexican coleus I found at the small, seasonal Blue Ribbon Farm in Longmont this year. Unlike other coleus they like sun and the colors are so rich and vibrant!
This year I especially appreciate the carefree natives in my garden like all the different artemisias and the pink (though usually salmon) Cowboy’s Delight Globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea). Not thirsty, not so flashy, but silvery green and graceful, and no matter what the weather I know they will survive and thrive.
In honor of Colorado’s 150th anniversary of statehood this weekend, check out the interactive online photo gallery, "Colorado is beautiful" from Environment Colorado.
Take a hike!
- Jane Shellenberger
“Where can I get good topsoil?” is a question I hear frequently at our nursery. I often look wistfully towards the plains and say, half-jokingly, “You can get good topsoil about 800 miles east of here.” That’s where I grew up, in Iowa, where two tomato plants feed a family of six. It’s not that local suppliers are trying to deceive us when they sell Colorado clay as topsoil; it’s just that glaciers didn’t dump three feet of loam on top of our clay.
Many people think, “I’ll just get rid of this clay or build a nice raised bed on top of that worthless dirt, and then I’ll have a good garden.” Unfortunately, that’s not a great idea. My father used to say, “There’s no royal road to learning.” The same can be said of good soil in Colorado; we have to earn it, build it, and grow it.
The old physical concept of soil is “clay, sand and silt.” Now a lot of us say, “Soil is physical, chemical, biological, and electrical.” Likewise, the old advice to make soil more fertile used to be, “Just add good strong fertilizer and watch the plants shoot up.” Many of us have seen the ill effects of strong chemical fertilizers and are more likely to recommend supporting soil life and the Soil Food Web.
Helping Forests to Walk
By R. Gary Raham
Speaking about human beings and the ebb and flow of glaciers over the past million years, writer Loren Eiseley said, “We are things forgotten when the ice withdrew, and meant to perish really, but the ice forgot, and somehow from the ice-streams we survived—a tough, ill-mannered beast, outthinking all the rest.”
Ironically, human thoughts and actions are now doing their best to erase ice from the world entirely, by turning our former ice world into a hothouse world in record time.
And as ill-mannered as we may be, the challenges of surviving changing climate did give us the big brains that could still help us survive the warming world we are creating.
One way to do that is helping forests to walk.
Helping forests to walk is a Native American phrase used by biologist Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass. Later, the evolutionary biologist/writer Connie Barlow picked up the term as a more poetic way to say human beings can help forests migrate out of their current ranges into places that will better fulfill their needs a few decades into the future. And those forests bring with them entire suites of organisms big and small that tie ecological systems together.
By Keith Funk
Gardening Events
Check our Colorado Gardener Calendar for our list of events including plant swaps, gardening classes, webinars, garden tours, plant sales, and conferences.
Coming up:
Resource Central: Working With Seeds Through the Seasons - Online
Aug 3: Learn fall gardening, extend the growing season, start seeds, and save seeds from beginner-friendly crops.
Denver Rose Society:
Propagate Your Favorite Roses
Aug 8: Denver Botanic Gardens on York St.
Do you have a Colorado Gardening class or event to submit to us? Fill out our form »
