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Previous months in Western Colorado
With Lynn Gillespie
2000
May
I live on the Western slope of Colorado, almost in Utah, at an altitude
of 6000 ft. in a mountain valley. Our USDA growing zone is 5.
Our average last frost date is May 10. We will freeze in the fall round
September 20. Our growing season has about 120 days of frost free weather.
We get snow in the winter and will drop to below zero at the end of December.
Our region is desert like with very low humidity.
I only grow organically. I grow in the cinder bock raised bed gardens.
This way I can start anytime in the spring, I don't have to wait for the
rototiller because we don't use one any more.
In the garden right now, the peas are up and the lettuce is up. We are
just at the beginning of our frost free time. I have tomato plants outside
hardening off getting them ready to plant.
The asparagus is up, it grows wild on our farm. We picked enough last
night to put up 12 pints in the freezer. Last year we canned the asparagus,
it was horrible. I will freeze it from now on.
The potatoes we planted three weeks ago are just popping up now. I plant
them 12 inches deep so it takes them awhile to come up.
We also planted onions when the potatoes were planted. They are growing
good even through the frosty nights. I snuck some corn seeds into the
garden last week. This is risky because it might still freeze. If it doesn't
freeze than we can have corn early. I always start with an early variety
so we get a taste early.
The strawberries are blooming along with the apples, peaches, cherries
and pears. The apricot trees are done blooming.
This is a little bit about what we are doing right now in our garden.
Check out my web site at http://www.lynngillespie.com
for more information.
June
The month of May is very busy in a zone 5 garden. Living at an altitude
of 6000 ft we get a lot of surprise frosts in May. The first frost was
around the beginning of May and I only had frost hardy plants in the garden
such as peas, cabbage, broccoli and lettuce. After that frost the weather
warmed up quite nicely, over 80 degrees F for a period of two weeks. During
that time I planted all my tomatoes and peppers out. This is risky but
with covers, you can get by if a frost comes along. Three nights after
I planted the tomatoes and peppers, the frost came. Before the frost came
a 70 mph wind (very unusual for us). Need less to say the tomatoes and
peppers were uncovered when the frost came. The frost was so heavy it
nipped the grapes and strawberries too.
I waited a week then planted the tomatoes and peppers again. Now they
are growing quite nicely and the weather has settled down. I think we
are done with frost. Once in a while we will get a stray frost as late
as the first day of summer (June 21).
Beans, cucumbers, and corn seed went in to the garden this week. I grow
in raised beds so the soil is always easy to dig, the seeds I just push
in with my fingers. I am growing popcorn this year for the kids and mini
corn for me. In the gourmet section of the supermarket they now offer
mini corn cobs they are about 3 inches long and you eat cob and all. We
have been buying them already canned and put them in our vegetable soup
in the winter. They taste just like fresh corn in the soup, they are sooo
goood! I will keep you posted on what we get. Rumour has it that they
will produce 30 ears per plant. I wonder if I will have to shuck them????
The carrots are just coming up along with the sunflowers I planted last
week. I have to grow lots of carrots because the cow expects a treat when
we finish milking her.
Harvest this time of the year consists of radishes, lettuce, rhubarb
and a few strawberries.
July
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Lynn's garden uses cinder blocks stacked two high. You can also
have a better look at Lynn's garden from the
east and the west
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The garden is starting to produce some food. We are picking strawberries,
I have gotten about 5 gallons. The raspberries are just starting to produce.
The first crop of lettuce is done but I have started a second crop that
will be ready in 4 weeks. The corn in knee high, except for the miniature
corn, it is ankle high but that is to be expected.
We had a hail storm last week so the plants are beat up. It didn't kill
anything. We have Nanking cherries that are ripe. They are a bush cherry
and are mostly like a sour cherry. I pick them and make juice from them.
The tomato plants are starting to set tomatoes and the pepper plants
have small peppers on them.
We are having warm nights (above 60 deg. F) and hot days (over 90 deg.F)
which makes the garden grow fast.
The green beans will start to bloom in the next few weeks and so will
the cucumbers.
August
The garden is finally starting to produce. We are harvesting cucumbers,
green beans, summer squash and early potatoes. The corn will be ready
next week. We are getting a few tomatoes but the majority of the tomatoes
will not ripen until the middle of August.
I planted some day neutral strawberries early this spring. I was surprised
to see that they are blooming. I have never had a crop of strawberries
in August. The ever bearing strawberries are always done in June.
The pumpkins are just starting to set fruit. I am going to scratch a
design in one of them while it is young to see what it will look like
in the fall. We are growing Big Max for the kids and Sugar Pie for eating.
September
The garden is at its production peak. We are picking tomatoes to make
salsa and spaghetti sauce. Green beans are ready for canning. We have
been eating corn all along, the last of it was ripe last week. I did lose
some corn to the cows. They reached over the fence and helped themselves.
After we take the corn from the stalks, we cut the stalks and feed them
to the cows. This year they got to the corn before we could get the ears
off.
The yellow squash has been prolific and I have frozen several packages
for the winter. The carrots are sizing up well. I will cover them with
mulch in a few weeks. Frost for us is just around the corner. Our first
frost is usually around Sept. 20th.
The day neutral strawberries were good. I didn't have enough to take
to the house so I ate them in the garden as I was watering!! They are
still blooming so we will get some more berries to eat. I only had 10
plants to start with this year. They have runnered and now I have 4 times
as many. Next year will be a better test on production.
The pumpkins are getting very big and orange. We had a wild pumpkin plant
come up from the compost we spread. It has grown to over 25 feet long
and up to 6 feet wide in some places. It is growing under the deck of
the house, behind a flowerbed. It is pretty to look at. It has grown over
the top of my rose bush and all you see is red flowers sticking out of
the top of this pumpkin vine. The frost will kill it in a few weeks so
I am enjoying the lush green look now!
November
The garden did freeze on September 23. This is a very normal time for
the first frost. I would have covered the tomatoes but I have two plants
growing inside of a greenhouse to give us tomatoes for the fall and winter.
I covered the carrots with a thick layer of mulch. They can stay in the
garden until the end of November. I will have to get them out of the ground
before December. If I don't they will freeze solid for the winter.
The pumpkin crop was a great success. The kids had plenty of pumpkins
to carve and give away to their friends. We have removed all the squash
vines from the garden in preparation for next season. We can start planting
in April. There is not much left to do until March when I will get the
beds ready to plant.
2001
Lynn's other busy commitments have meant she's now unable to write her
column for western Colorado. We wish her well.
Last updated
25 May, 2002
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