Category: Green Gardening Tips

Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Veggies

IPM: Resistant Varieties

dbg_lah_6794Is your garden being bugged? While 95% of all insects are either beneficial or benign, that last 5% can eat us out of house and home—or at least out of cabbage and broccoli. If insect invaders are on the attack, sometimes you just have to fight back.

Pests may be persistent, but we gardeners are not helpless. I like to remind myself that I am smarter than an aphid and more cunning than a flea beetle. When it comes down to a battle for the harvest, there are lots of tools at our disposal. As a master gardener, I was taught the principles of Integrated Pest Management, or IPM. Rather than just reaching for a spray can, this approach is multifaceted. There are many ways to outwit a weevil.

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Soils

Do I Need Some Fungi?

Amanita-type mycelia
Amanita-type mycelia

I was thumbing through a gardening supplies catalog, looking at the assortment of “things you can spend your money on that your plants will probably do fine without” when my eye was caught by an offer for “mycorrhizae.” The catalog was extolling the many virtues of this fungal spore mix—it would improve plant health, make the plants more drought resistant, increase yields, protect against diseases, reduce the need for fertilizer, and cure my great-aunt’s bunions, all for $16.95 per pound.

It sounded too good to be true, so naturally I was highly skeptical. (It also sounded pretty expensive until I learned that you apply it by the teaspoon. Phew, not so pricey after all!)

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Soils

Feeding Your Lawn

lawn_uplandin_20090615_lah_3607The summer is heading for fall, and it’s time to fertilize lawns. Go to any garden center and you’ll see piles of name brand lawn fertilizer, complete with directions on the back. Just follow these simple steps and you’ll have a healthy, green, weed-free lawn.

What these manufacturers don’t take into account is that different parts of the country have different soils. What may be excellent advice for Pennsylvania or Maine may not work for Colorado. Unlike much of the north and east, the Front Range loses more water to evaporation than it gains in rainfall. Combine that with the native rock from which our soils are derived, and we typically have soils that are alkaline, high in phosphorus and potassium, and low in organic matter and nitrogen.

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Veggies, Xeriscape

Grow Veggies, Save Water

community-gardens-bearcreek-lah-003According to a recent report from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, “Extreme drought conditions exist from Colorado Springs and Pueblo to the San Luis Valley and over most of the plains to the southeast of the big metro areas.”

If you live here, this isn’t exactly news. The fields are turning brown months early, wildflowers are small and sparse, and even the most aggressive weeds are wilting.

Living in the low-rainfall west, we’re used to gardening with minimal water. Xeriscaping is a household word, and basic principles of low-water gardening are widely available. (I’ve written several posts on it too—just type “xeriscape” into the search bar.)

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Soils

Too Much Compost?

 

veggie-garden-student-run-csu-perc-lah-094-1When I first encountered this concept—that a gardener could use too much compost—I immediately thought, “Is that even possible?” As an organic veggie gardener dealing with soil comprised of decomposed granite punctuated by lumps of sticky clay, too much compost seemed an impossibility. Isn’t compost the answer to all our gardening problems?

It’s true that “add compost” (or other organic matter, such as peat moss or leaf mold) is the best advice for gardeners dealing with either clay or sand. Organic matter opens up the solidly packed clay particles, allowing air and water—and therefore roots—to penetrate what would otherwise be an impervious substrate. In sand, organic matter acts as a sponge, holding on to both water and nutrients that would otherwise quickly drain away.

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Landscaping, Seed Starting, Soils, Veggies, Weeds, Xeriscape

Colorado Gardeners Need Colorado Garden Advice

Photograph by Michael David Hill.
Photograph by Michael David Hill.

The ad promised that this new gardening book would show me how to “chase those darned moles out from under my prize tomatoes … make … azaleas bloom like crazy … and [use] eggshells [to] barricade slugs from the hostas, cabbage, and lettuce.”

Sounds wonderful, right? The problem is, while those “garden cheats” (as the ad called them) may work in much of the country, particularly in the east, not one of those will work here in Colorado.

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Landscaping, Veggies

Defeat Your Weeds

dandilion-boulderco-3may07-lah-048With the weather swinging wildly between winter storms and balmy sunny days, it must be springtime in the Rockies. The snow reminds us that it’s much too early to plant, but the warm days in between beckon us outside. What’s an antsy gardener to do? Happily, there are things you can do to prepare for the gardening season. Unhappily, one of the most important chores is weed control.

Daffodils and tulips are sending up leaves, perennials have tiny, tentative shoots, grass has a green tinge—and weeds are exploding out of the ground. This is the time to gain the upper hand.

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, House Plants, Landscaping

Living Christmas Trees

Photo: Judy Sedbrook, CSU Extension
Photo: Judy Sedbrook, CSU Extension

With the surge in environmentalism, many people are trying to decide which is “greener,” a real Christmas tree or an artificial one. Both have their pros and cons. There is, however, a third alternative. You can decorate a still-living tree this year.

Most nurseries and garden centers sell potted Christmas trees. You bring them indoors for a brief spell (a week at most) during the holidays, then plant them permanently in the ground.

Still-living trees cost more. No one wants to pay a premium for a tree that still has roots, only to have it die after moving it outside. While planting a Christmas tree isn’t difficult, you should do the same research and preparation that you would do when choosing any tree for your yard.

First of all, make sure you have the right tree for the right place. Consider how the tree will fit into your overall landscape plan. Most evergreen trees get very large. That cute three-foot fir may have a mature height of 70 feet or more! Instead of trying to cram a giant into a small suburban yard, choose a dwarf specimen instead—or arrange to plant it elsewhere so it will have room to grow.

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Posted on in Conservation, Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Landscaping, Seed Starting, Veggies

Recycled “Greenscapes”

continer-whimsy-dbg-2008jun26-lah-461“Don’t throw that away!”

My family is used to my exhortations by now. Mom, the recycling nut. It’s true—I have a bin for metals and one for plastics, 1 through 7. Glass has its own container, next to the compost bucket. Worms eat my garbage. Paper and cardboard pile up in old laundry baskets (I’m recycling the baskets too). Still-usable discards go to the thrift stores, worn out clothes get used as rags. Not much ends up in the small trash can we lug to the curb every week.

As a gardener, I want to extend my recycling efforts to my yard. How can I avoid making new purchases for my garden?

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Soils

What Rot!

compost-piles-pbg-390Making your own compost is a great way to recycle yard waste that would otherwise end up in a landfill. It’s the epitome of green gardening, and it’s really not that complicated.

The pile should contain about half fresh, green matter (fresh manures, grass clippings, weeds, kitchen waste) and half dry brown matter (fall leaves, straw, last year’s garden). If the manure you collect locally comes mixed with straw bedding, you already have the perfect combination for compost. Mix the green and brown parts together, or create thin layers.

Shredding your ingredients helps speed decomposition. In Colorado, an unshredded pile may take several years to break down, but it will eventually turn into compost.

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