Life in the Garden, “Exclusively Yours”, July 2016

Its been a busy garden season and with the big harvest this year, I’ve been too busy to write.   But today, I received a copy of an article that features my garden exploits and want to share it.   Several months ago, my sister’s friend Tyler, asked if she could interview me about my experience as a master gardener for an article she was writing.   I answered a few quick questions late at night so she could meet her midnight deadline — and forgot all about it.

Fast forward three months and I receive an email from a Wisconsin woman wondering if she could hire me to help plan her son’s garden in Denver.   Of course, that’s the kind of thing I do — plan gardens — but I wondered how she’d gotten my contact information.   In her email, she mentioned an article in “Exclusively Yours”, a local magazine I grew up reading in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.   In an effort to locate the article, I googled and called the magazine, called my mom and sister who live in Wisconsin.   Nothing.  Finally, my new fan emailed a copy and it all came back to me.

Its fun to share my passion for gardening with everyone I know.   In the article, I mention the master gardening program at Denver Urban gardens, my donation garden at St. Philip Lutheran Church, the new donation garden I helped plan at Harvard Gulch Golf Course and more.   Check it out.  Please contact me if you want to talk gardening or need help getting yours started.  anaincolorado@gmail.com.

 

exclusively-yours

Measuring and Mapping My Community Plot

Measurements for my Rosedale Garden plots.

Measurements for my Rosedale Garden plots.

After 15 years at Rosedale Community Garden, I decided it was time to stop approximating the size of my plot and take actual measurements.    One of the master gardeners in my class shared a computer program her partner had used to map out their garden plot/plants for the upcoming garden season.   I checked out the site:   http://www.gardenplanner.almanac.com.    It looked so awesome that I immediately wanted to input my dimensions and get to work.    The site allows you to use it free for 30 days and then asks for a $25 annual fee; $40 for two years.

So on this sunny spring  morning, I drove the 20 minutes up to Rosedale Garden armed with last year’s written map, a tape measure and a sharpie.
I was surprised to find that the actual measuring took longer than I had imagined.   At 16 feet, my tape measure wasn’t quite long enough to capture the entire length or wide of the plots so I measured smaller sections instead:   the compost trench, the fenced in area, the strawberry patch, the raised beds, the perennial beds, etc.

After an hour of measuring followed by a brief seed planting session,  I rushed home to log on to the garden planner site and  inputted my garden dimensions.   After a concentrated hour of working with the mapping tools,  I can see that this project is going to take a little longer than the usual gridded paper and color pencils method.   In the long run, I think its going to be awesome!!!

 

 

 

First draft of my garden using new computer program.

Master’s Presentation: Putting the Garden to Rest

A class photo of the master gardeners taken at the end of our last class on April 24.

Giving my 3 minute talk.

On the last day of our 12 week master gardener program, several students and I were assigned to give a 3 minute presentation.    My topic was “putting your garden to rest”; a topic I needed to learn more about.    In years past, I have been guilty of running out of steam and spending as little time as possible cleaning up my plot before winter sets in.    I usually remove the old plants and compost in situ.   I collect up the tomato cages, roll up the hoses and go home.

Reading up on this topic was eye-opening and made me realize that I need to pay some attention to certain steps that might create a better spring planting season.   Here are some things I learned:

• Remove annual crops and trim perennials; chop up and compost
• Remove diseased plants like tomato vines and those infested with pests
• Fortify soil with chopped up leaves, compost, grass clippings
• Till soil 4-6 inches with pitch fork to disrupt any pests at burrowed underneath — wait until after several frosts
• Plant cover crops like hairy vetch and winter rye in October, turn under in April before they go to seed
• Clean garden tools with brush, oil handles and store in dry sand
• Drain and remove hoses; put away tomato cages
• Prepare area for planting cold crops in spring
• Assess what went right and what went wrong
• Celebrate!!!

As sad as it is to see the class end, this last day was a lot of fun.   The presentations were interesting and informative.    The potluck food was delicious.   And Emily Frost’s  trouble shooting discussion and group exercise were very thought provoking.    Having been in the thick of Rosedale’s leadership transition this last year, I can certainly attest to challenges of working with a variety of strong personalities in a community garden.

I especially enjoyed the variety of visual aids from Sharon’s brightly colored posters of 6 tips for organic gardening to Ruben’s 3 M’s — Mulch, Microorganisms, Moisture to Nick’s presentation about olla’s and  Rosedale’s upcoming workshop of using this ancient form of irrigation.    I look forward to the next phase of becoming a master community gardener which involves putting in 30 hours of service.    I am excited to reconvene with the group this summer and in the autumn to share stories and experiences.     Thank you to Shannon Spurlock, coordinator of the program, for a wonderful experience.

Working in the Field as a Master Gardener: Jefferson High School Community Garden

Master gardener, Penny working on making seed tapes.

One of the key components of being a master gardener is sharing what we’ve learned with other community gardens in  Denver.    On a cool, gray Saturday morning in early April, I headed out to Jefferson High School in Lakewood, the site of a newly constructed community garden, to work with a group of my classmates.   When I arrived, the group was huddled around the picnic table preparing to make seed tapes under the direction of Penny, one of the most seasoned master gardeners in our group.    She showed the fledgling gardeners how to cut newspaper into strips, mix a paste of flour and water and proceed to place evenly spaced dots of flour on the strips and adhere seeds to these areas.   Once dried, these strips can be stored and planted in rows, covered with soil and watered when the time is right.   This method of creating seed tapes helps made the work of handling very tiny seeds much easier and is an excellent project to do at the kitchen table during the winter months.

With half a dozen of us there to help, we soon left the students to their project and divided up the work of shoveling the freshly delivered compost into the wheelbarrows and spreading it on the grid of plots situated within the fenced area.    Afterwards, we spent several hours turning the compost into the virgin soil.    With only the use of spades and shovels, our small group was able to till approximately 12 plots which will provide a great start for the students and community members gardening here this year.

After 12 weeks of classroom instruction and several hands on work days, we newly minted master gardeners will be ready to take the show on the road.    I am nervous but excited to share my expertise with other community gardeners eager to learn.    I never thought I’d be a bonified expert in water conservation, succession planting, soil amendment, organic pest management, basic organic gardening and much much more.   Its abundantly clear to me  that I will leave this master gardener program with so much more than I can give back.    What a wonderful opportunity it has been.   Thank you to Denver Urban Gardens for an amazing program!!

Photos from Volunteer Morning at Jefferson High School Community Garden

The team of gardeners working at Jefferson High School Community Garden.

Using recycling salad containers as mini green houses to germinate seeds.

Recycling old prescription bottles to house seeds.

The new plots with fresh compost tilled in.

Recycling mini blinds to plant markers in the garden.

Tilling fresh compost into the virgin plots.

Distributing the new compost to the garden plots.

Planning for the 2013 Growing Season

2012 Map in Progress

Each March/April, my gardening partners and I get together for a planning session.    Susan, Natalie and now, Terry, and I share three plots at Rosedale Community Garden in Denver.   At our initial meeting, we convened at Panera with last year’s garden map, seed catalogs and the wish list.    After a catching up over a bite to eat , we reviewed what worked last year, what didn’t and talked about improvements we can make this year.

Last summer, we had problems with rabbits and bean beetles — both of which we want to seriously manage this year.    Most of our plants did great.   The heirloom tomato crop was excellent, hot peppers outshone the sweet, pumpkins, squash, salad greens, beets, flowers, carrots, cukes, broccoli and zucchini were all gangbusters.   Our deadbeats included beans and corn.    Using garden plans designed my Michael Buchaneau,  a landscape architect who leads Denver Urban Gardens, I drew up sample plans for each month highlighting succession planting.     Together, we discussed where seeds and plants will go, when they will go in and started to divide up the list of seeds, plants and equipment purchases.

Here are some of the decisions and plans we’ve made for the new season:

• install rabbit fence around the perimeters of the beds
• no rotatlling; hand till soil in raised beds
• probably no beans
• research and purchase row covers
• plant more onions, scallions, garlic and fragrant herbs around the perimeter
• test clay plot irrigation in some areas
• no corn — save water