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!