Denver urban gardens

Garden Pre-Season 2026

April 12, 2026Posted in GardenTagged colorado, container garden, cool weather crops, Denver urban gardens, Garden, garden digest 2026, garden planning, green stalk, greenstalk, hobbies, radishes, seed starting, vertical garden, yard, yard workLeave a comment

It has felt like spring here since January, and I’ve been waiting (mostly patiently) for garden season to kick off! Here’s what I’ve been up to in the pre-season prep.

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The season’s first tomato!

July 19, 2025July 25, 2025Posted in GardenTagged beans, beets, colorado, container garden, cucumbers, denver, Denver urban gardens, flowers, Garden, garden digest 2025, green stalk, tomatoes, urban garden, vegetables, vertical garden, yardLeave a comment

The garden almost looked happy that I went out of town for a week and a half.

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End of June garden round-up

June 10, 2024January 10, 2025Posted in GardenTagged community garden, denver, Denver urban gardens, Garden, squash, vegetablesLeave a comment

After months of waiting to garden… I’m already a whole month in! This year I’m playing things a little more chill and not updating or tracking as much. Here’s what’s going on:

Big picture

Flower power

This year I invested a little more in planting flowers (and also in not pulling up volunteer flowers), and it has been a lovely way to start the season. I started echinacea (coneflower) from seed last winter, grew it in the plot, and it never bloomed. This year it came back strong and has just started to bloom! It’s so exciting. Other favorites that I did this year: cactus flower zinnias, Kilimanjaro white marigold, calendula zeolights, glorious gleam and Alaska nasturtiums. I also had lots of mixed bachelor buttons and larkspur pop up and provide pollinator party spots and lovely early season color. I’m about ready to remove the volunteers to give my main plants more sun.

Milestones

Eggplant! I’m growing these for the first time this year and just spotted the first blossom! I have no idea what to expect with these guys.
Sugar snap peas! I’ve returned to the reliable mammoth melting sugar peas. I’m getting like 10 peas a day at this point. I’m hoping they keep it up before getting too hot and calling it a season.
Squashes! All of my squash are in the ground- acorn, honey nut, zuchini, and something else I forgot. Zucchini looks happy.
Luffa! Trying this one again for the second season. Tragically ended early last year, this one is about waist tall and looking good so far.
Beets, chard – just starting to harvest greens.

Great scapes

May 31, 2024June 5, 2024Posted in GardenTagged community garden, denver, Denver urban gardens, Garden, garlic, vegetablesLeave a comment

Gardening has been underway! Updates forthcoming. My first product has been harvested:

Garlic scapes! I’ve never tried them but this year I grew hard neck garlic and I’ve heard only good things.

Not ready to use them right away, I put them in water and that seems to be working well to maintain freshness.

New frontiers

I did a tiny bit of online research that said they’re good used like green onions, so I chopped them up and sautéed them in butter before combining them into some scrambled eggs. To me they taste like garlic-flavored green vegetable. They’re fairly toothsome and taste green, plus a hint of garlic. Sort of subtle, but definitely tasty.

Another recipe that sounds interesting is garlic scape pesto. I still have a few left, maybe I’ll try that tonight.