Perfectly Pretty Perennials

This year's crop of new perennials is perfectly pretty! I've been excited about them since they arrived in February and now that theyr'e starting to bloom, it's even better. It seems like bi-colors are leading the pack this year.

One of my favorites is Fire Spinner Ice Plant. It's a beautiful new bi-color ice plant that is truly unusual. Purple in the center spinning out to yellow/orange at the tips, this beauty is a Plant Select award winner.

There are a large number of new irises but one of my favorites is Poem of Ecstasy. This is a bi-color lavender and peach iris and it is spectacular.

The new West Country series of lupines are bi-color lupines in red/yellow and purple/yellow. These are striking in the garden and I can't wait to add them to my collection.

Lots of other great new plants too. Stop by your local garden center today for your own perfectly pretty perennial fix!

If you are chomping at the bit to get out and get gardening... guess what? So are we! BUT, it's still early in most areas and Jack Frost is still nipping at the radishes, and lettuce, and pansies. So, you'll probably need to protect your young plantings for just a bit yet. Here's how.

Covers- the easiest thing to do to protect your plants is to provide some type of covering. Just as a blanket will keep you warm, it will also protect your plants. Cover them with a sheet, blanket or newspaper. If you need to, make a "tent" using poles so that the weight of the covering doesn't damage young plants. This will also protect against windburn in our windy part of the country.

Avoid plastic coverings however. Plastic actually conducts the cold better and may harm plants.

Water can be used to protect against freezing. Set it to come on between 3-4 am and let it run until the sun comes up. If plants do show some signs of damage, wait a few days in order to give them time to recover before pulling them up and replacing them.

If you don't have access to water and don't have blankets, then there are some wonderful, and fairly inexpensive products that are available to help you.

Season Starters or Wall O Waters, are tubular "tents" that go around the plants. They are filled with water and once that heats up from the sun, they act as a protectant for the plant.

Harvest Guard or NSulate Cloth are lightweight covers that will serve to keep frost off of plants. These are especially helpful in covering large areas and are re-useable year after year so they are economical.

NuVue Frost Covers look like little pup tents. They are spring loaded and pop up to easily cover not only garden plants but also shrubs and bushes from snow during the winter months. Best of all, they fold flat for easy storage in your garage.

Freeze Pruf is like antifreeze for your plants. This is a topical spray that works into the capillary system of the plant and can improve cold tolerance down by 9 degrees. You must use it when temperatures are above 50 degrees and a minimum of 8-12 hours before the expected freeze in order to give it time to work through the system of the plant.

So get ready, get set, and get out and garden! Remember cold and cole crops, along with pansies, sweet peas and violas can all be planted now. Just give them a little protection if the temperatures fall below 45 degrees!

Early Spring Gardening Ideas

It appears that it's going to be an early spring! And while that's great news for some, for gardeners, it can be a little worrisome. What I'm talking about is the potential for freezing down the road. For instance, all of the apricot trees in our area are in full bloom and many of the other fruit and ornamental flowering trees aren't far behind them. If we get a hard freeze, such as is predicted for Sunday and Monday evenings, we will surely lose those blooms and probably the fruit crop.

One thing that you can try is a product called Freeze Pruf. In layman's terms, this is like an antifreeze for your plants, and will protect down to 9 degrees below freezing. However, you MUST apply it in advance of the freeze so that the capillary system of the plant has a chance to take it in. If you wait until the time of frost or slightly before, it will not work.

We're excited about the warm spring weather and are anticipating a great gardening season acros the country. If you haven't been to your local garden center yet, it's time to get your garden on!

It's the very best time to be in the garden center! We're planting like mad and it's such fun to see things green and growing after a long Colorado winter. This week is a busy week, agriculturally in our area. The Four States Ag Expo runs through the week. Vic is giving three presentations there, so if you are interested in learning some fun, new gardening tips, join him there. We are frantically planting perennials and there are some very exciting new ones this year. One of the best is "Fire Spinner" Ice Plant. This is a tough plant that's well suited to our high mountain climate. In fact, it's one of the Plant Select choices for this year. This ice plant is a shocking color combination of the individual flowers. The apple green foliage contrasts with the orange, pink and red flowers. Stunning, spectacular addition to your garden!

The other one I like is "Poem of Ecstast" iris. I'm an iris nut, so this one really caught my eye with it's pink and lavender falls. Check this one out for an exciting new addition to your yard.

Don't forget shamrocks for St. Patty's day on Saturday! Everyone's a LITTLE Irish!

Welcome Spring!

It's a sunny March day and it's hard to believe that just a few days ago we had blizzard like conditions and howling winds with about 5" of snow. It's hard to know exactly how much we had- it was blowing around too much. But, that's what springtime in Colorado is all about, after all.

The robins are chirping outside of my window and I took a walk this afternoon and the daffodils in the yard are up. Spring is indeed on it's way. And it's springtime in the greenhouses in a BIG way. Stop by and see us this week. The new items for the season are beginning to arrive and there is more excitement out there than I've seen in a long time. Welcome Spring!

Incredible Edibles

If nothing else, you have to admire the people of Japan for one thing- they've gotten it right when it comes to making things work in small spaces. Cars, electronics, housing and yes, even food. In order to conserve space, watermelons are grown in molds that shape them into perfect squares so that they will fit into the small apartment refrigerators commonly used in that country. So if your excuse is that you don't have room to grow your own food, think again. Many folks don't have the room for large gardens so this month I'm going to give you ideas and methods for producing incredible edibes in small spaces. There are two factors that need to be considered when planning your garden. The first would be location and the second would be the plants themselves. Small space gardening in the yard can be done in several ways. The first is simply a small bed. A second way would be to use to the popular "square foot" method, where you buid a grid and plant one variety in each square foot. This could contain as many square feet as you wish. Another way to accomplish small space gardening in your yard is to use raised beds. Raised beds are attractive for those of us whose aching backs are starting to let us know that bending over isn't as much fun as it used to be! But if planting in the dirt is still your calling and working in your yard isn't practical or even feasible if you live in an apartment, then consider vegetable gardening in containers. Get innovative! Practically any type of container can be used - a decorative plastic pot, whiskey barrels, Earthboxes, old tubs -- just about anything that will hold soil and water will work. If you don't have a place to set containers, then go vertical. Strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and other small space fruits and vegetables can be planted and harvested successfully in hanging baskets or topsy turvy planters. Give a gardener the opportunity and they will find the way to make it work! And the beauty of container gardening is usually, you can get through the season with very little, if any, weeding. Many vegetables can be grown in a limited amount of space. Crops such as lettuce, kale, spinach, mustard or any kind of greens work well. Lettuce can even be planted in a decorative "salad bowl" that can be grown in a sunny window, or put outside during the day and moved indoors to protect it from cool nighttime temperatures. If you are planting in your yard, beets, turnips, carrots, radishes, garlic, celery, onions, chard, and other leafy or oriental vegetables work well. Read the seed packages when you select your varieties- they will tell you what selections work best for small space areas. In many cases, spacing can be cut to about half of what's recommended. Select "bush" varieties rather than "pole" unless you have a pole to run the vines up. Pole beans, for instance, will work well if you have a fence or other vertical place to plant them, with out taking up too much horizontal space. Trellises or tomato cages can even be used in containers to support vining plants, provided whatever they are producing won't be too heavy once it matures. Pumpkins, for instance, would not be a good choice for trellising or caging. Succession planting is the practice of planting a crop in an area as soon as one is finished. This extends the life of the garden by producing several different kinds of vegetables from the same space over the course of the season. You'll have to watch your maturity dates and timing if you want to try this. Interplanting methods can also be used. This means planting one slow maturing along with one faster maturing crop in the same area. The short season crop should be one that takes less space, such as radishes, whereas the longer maturing one might be potatoes. Once the radishes are harvested, this allows additional room for the potatoes to grow, but you've only utilized one area of your garden for both crops. For more ideas, stop by visit with us. We can share some of our other customer's success stories and we'll be happy to show you the best varieties for your particular area and space. It's time to get your garden on!

Even though it's the dead of winter, ice and snow present some problems to your outside environment. Here are some helpful winter tips for keeping your yard in tip top shape in preparation for spring!

~Remove snow and ice from tree limbs and branches as soon as possible after a storm. Snow and ice can bend, break or shred trees and shrubs.

~If a branch does break or shred, prune it off cleanly so that any chance of disease or pests entering the plant are minimized.

~Use rock salt and ice melter sparingly. These can run off into lawns and hurt the grass and other vegetation in flower beds. Instead use birdseed or sand as anti-skid materials on walkways and paths.

~Check stored bulbs for any signs or rot. Discard bulbs that have begun to go bad.

~Seed catalogs will begin arriving soon. Pour over them, decide what plans you have for your garden this year and dream away the cold, snowy days of winter!

~Recycle evergreen branches left over from holiday decorations to lay in your garden. They'll help provide extra protection during a cold winter.

~If the winter is dry in your area, remember to deep water at least once a month. A good way to remember is to do this each holiday between Halloween and Easter.

~Set out food for the birds and other friends that you may wish to attract to your yard. This is especially important if the snow cover lasts throughout the winter.