Just when everyone started busting out short and sandals and leaving their jackets at home…
A winter storm in the forecast!!
A week after I finally moved my squash outside and started hardening off some tomatoes and cucumbers, we were predicted to get about 6” of snow and two nights of below freezing temperatures.
Frost protection
Frost / snow hatsSquash tentHerb shelf tent
I set out to protect my plants from low temperatures, planning some insulation and wind barrier. I used an old bed sheet, some clear plastic bags, a camping tarp, and miscellaneous clear plastic recyclables with air holes drilled into them. I secured most in place by sticking a bamboo grilling skewer through one of the air holes and into the soil a few inches. This seems to work great to secure them against the wind.
In some cases I brought plants in containers back inside. I had just felt the relief of being an almost empty-nester when plant after plant returned to crash at my place!
Snow protection
Frost is one thing, 6” of heavy wet snow is another. I reinforced my cloth and plastic sheet covering with additional bracing to hopefully withstand the weight of the snow. Folding chairs, extra trellises, container lids, etc. were all in play.
Aftermath
So far… pretty much everyone survived! My squash plants are definitely less cheerful, sustaining some leaf damage. I did lose a few of the weaker plants. But in all, I’m very pleased with the survival rate.
Well, I ran out of photo space on my WordPress account so, I gotta figure that out. Just a quick update this time as we move out of April and into May!!
Critters have started to appear. I have an ant problem I’m hoping to solve before I plant the north plot. Sun age and borax slurry did not work.
The appearance of creatures
Caterpillars, beetles, ants, grasshoppers and spiders have started to appear in droves. The south plot as of May 1
I’ve almost planted the whole south plot, and started staging the north plot. Peas are coming up, carrots are barely sprouting, spinach is starting to look like spinach, and one each of my kale and Swiss chard plants have survived past the seedling phase.
Portable greenhouse!
Since many seedling struggled being put into the ground, I’ve got a transitional plastic box on site that I’m using as a halfway house between indoors and outdoors and in ground. I’m letting the seedlings mature a bit more in the box. It helps with my lack of space for all of these guys in my grow rack, and they seem to thrive! Then I can plant them once they’re a little bigger.
I just put them in this tote, then put the lid on askew so they can get air, with a weight on top for wind. They stay moist and seem happy.
Out of town plan
I ventured into the world of auto-watering this weekend and I haven’t quite cracked that nut yet. I’m going out of town Monday thru Friday and thought I’d give it a try. I don’t feel good about the system so I’m just going to overwater and cover and hope for the best.
The top of the gravity system.
That’s it. More next week when I inter my new ollas and commit to a plan in the north plot!
I created a scheduling spreadsheet to manage my garden planting timing. It’s based on dates from farmers almanac for Denver, in addition to instructions on seed packets (using the almanac frost date as reference date). It’s the beat way I’ve found to take all of the info from multiple sources and put them in one place so I can see them in order. Gotta love a spreadsheet.
Plant starts
Current state of the bathtub greenhouse. Note the butternut vine in the left that is now as tall as me.
Started on 4/1 (kale, chard, arugula, dill, poblanos, green onions)
4/44/44/54/54/10 cosmos4/10 green onions4/10 poblano peppers4/10 dill4/10 chard and kale4/11 scout seedlings sent out overnight to see if it’s ok to go outsideKale, dill outside hardening offGreen onion and arugula outsideBaby poblano peppersBaby Swiss chardBaby kale (Russian red)
Started on 3/17 (Honeynut,butternut, cucumber, zucchini, biquinho peppers, tomatoes)
4/10 tomatoes!4/10 cucuberates galore
Tomato problems. I’m not sure what’s happening but I’m trying to fix by spreading them out more, trimming bad leaves, and being mindful of overwatering. Come on tomatoes, we’re not even outside yet! You got this.
Started in January (zucchini, butternut, basil, rosemary)
Full blow living room zucchiniFirst zucchini of 20224/18 Bebe butternut4/18 another Bebe zucchini
I harvested a zucchini! I really wasn’t sure what would come of my January squash plants, but I have started so see some fruit appear in the last month. Since they are still indoor plants until the weather warms up, I’ve had to keep an eye on them and pretend to be a bee in order to pollinate (see Zucchini post). I don’t anticipate optimal fruit production from these guys as they’re a bit stunted, but it a impressive how well theyr
Plot progress
4/34/5 first tiny radish leaf?4/10 oniony something?4/10 lots of mystery sprouts4/10 Asparagus?4/104/10 carrot seeds in groundSurprise!Purple surprise!SpinachSnow peas!
Ollas
Until the garden water gets turned on, my sophisticated water supply system.
I interred some ollas and learned one important lesson: a funnel is very useful for filling them. I grabbed a 3-pack at the dollar store and it was the best purchase I’ve made all month.
They seem to need refilling once every 2-3 days or so at the moment, but it’s not very hot out. I’m hoping that being buried underground will keep them fairly well insulated from the heat. I have verified that the soil around them is moist, but I don’t really know if they’re going to be effective on their own. I planned on using them more as a drought failsafe. I’ve still been surface watering every few days since I’m trying to get some seeds to germinate.
Dig a hole. Insert olla. Bury olla. Cover hole. Ollas 2.0, trying a different bottom capTesting for leaks
Community
I set up a garden Facebook group for members. So far many have joined but not many are posting.
We have our second work day this weekend, I think we are weeding the paths and placing new gravel.
Gravel.
Some good news: we should have water turned on a few weeks earlier than expected! Bad news: someone stole our water valve so someone has to come out and fix it. Urban garden problems.
ROAD TRIP 