Feb
21

Jump start your Colorado garden now

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Get outside and prepare your garden for the season!

Compost

spinach

Spinach

If you didn’t compost last fall, throw fresh compost over the garden — even if it’s snow covered. It will settle over the soil and you can work it in right before planting.

Get seed
You can plant cool season crops as soon as the ground can be tilled (March, April).  Purchase your seed now so you are ready. Carrots, spinach, lettuce, beets, green onions, radishes  and peas are veggies to plant soon.

Plan your garden
Rotating plant placement each year is a good practice in order to avoid insects and diseases that can overwinter in the soil and attack specific veggies. Tomatoes and corn should be moved to a new place each year.

Rototill
Before planting, till  the ground.

Want to really jump start the garden?
After working the soil, place black plastic over it. This will warm up the soil and give a two to three weeks head start on growing. Pinch holes in the plastic to plant seeds. The plastic can be left as mulch during the growing season.

Courtesy Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado.

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Feb
03

Should you remove heavy snow from trees and juniper bushes?

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According to the  CSU/Denver County  Extension Master Gardeners, the best way to remove heavy snow from trees and juniper bushes is usually to let the snow or ice melt from the plant.

If  you are concerned about branch breakage, newly fallen snow may be gently swept from drooping boughs. Use gentle upward strokes with a soft broom to loosen the snow.

 

Never try to shake ice off any tree or shrub.

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Jan
20

Does Icemelt Harm Your Colorado Lawn and Plants?

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tree with salt damage

Last week  the city plowed our streets – no complaints!  But… they dumped a large quantity of salt on the street.  We have sand dunes of salt now.  
You may have also used icemelt on your driveway and walks.  This is almost a necessity in Colorado’s climate, but it can seriously harm our plant materials.  Here’s why.

 

Almost all ice melt products are salt-based and salts are damaging to plants.  The salt from ice melt not only gets into the soil, but will also build up over time to become an ongoing problem.  Season after season of using ice melt will continue to bump up the salt levels in the soil.

 

What happens?  Just like when people eat salt and become thirsty, overly-salted plants will also get thirsty and dry out.  Flushing the area with water sometimes helps, but may not be completely effective. 

 

Tips to minimize salt damage:
  • Use ice melt products sparingly.  You need to play it safe on walks, of course, so pay attention to how much product it really takes to get the job done.  Less may be enough.  
  • When ice is melting, avoid sweeping the puddles of salty water into planting areas.  Instead, let the moisture evaporate, sweep up any product that remains and dispose of it. 
Through moderation and careful clean-up, you can reduce the amount of damaging salt that travels to the root zone of your plants.  

 

When you have an area that absolutely requires ice melt and it’s next to plants, you may need to alter the planting area to accommodate your needs to melt the ice.  You can consider adding mulch over the area affected by ice-melt accumulation and placing container plants on top of the mulch.  Dealing with ice that results from other issues, like poor drainage, will require solving the problem that causes ice to accumulate in the first place.    

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Dec
30

Get Your Outdoor Spaces in Order for 2012 Colorado Entertaining

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Commit to “getting your house in order” in 2012 so that you are ready when opportunity knocks.  And that means spending some time planning for small changes that can make a big difference in your enjoyment of your Colorado outdoor spaces.  Common ideas include adding a fire pit, creating a garden. Firepit

This is the time to start making fire pit plans, in the sense that you are looking for the right kind, or you are simply thinking about making plans to create a fire pit from.

Think about the coming months, imagine how your could spend the evenings.

Think about how you want your garden or backyard to look this summer and how much time you would like to spend there.

Imagine that you could add a feature to your outdoor areas that you could use every day of the year.

Are you someone that:

 Wants more than a Barbecue in your Garden?
 Is tired and Fed Up with cheap fire pits?
 Wants To Add a Unique Feature to The Garden?
 Wants to Improve Your Firepit experience? (No more smoke!!)
 Has a New Years Resolution to Host Parties and enjoy your backyard?
 Wants to Be Proud Of your Garden?
 Is looking for a Pit That Lasts?
 

Before you know it you will start thinking of the parties and barbecues you will be having in your gardens and backyards, some of us that are lucky enough to have a large garden might even start considering a sitting corner with outdoor furniture and tables, maybe some features for the kids as well.

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Dec
22

Are Poinsettia Plants Poisonous to Animals?

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Poinsettias are not poisonous, according to the Animal Poison Control Center (www.aspca.org/apcc). Apparently the idea that poinsettias are deadly traces back to a story from early in the last century, when a young child was said to have been killed by eating a poinsettia leaf.

Since the taste of poinsettia leaves is reportedly very unpleasant, it is unlikely that an animal who attempts to eat or chew the leaves will continue to do so after the first taste.  According to the POISINDEX information source, an animal who weighed 50 lbs. would have to eat over 500 poinsettia leaves to reach an even potentially toxic dose of compounds in the poinsettia plant.

Mistletoe should be avoided, however. According to the APCC, the common holiday decoration can, if ingested in sufficient quantities, cause a severe reaction that may include difficulty breathing, seizures, coma and even death. Other holiday plant eating hazards for your pets include some Lillies and Holly .

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Dec
13

Colorado Winter Watering

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 Quick Facts About Colorado Winter Watering from CSU Extension…

 
Water trees, shrubs, lawns, and perennials during prolonged dry fall and winter periods to prevent root damage that affects the health of the entire plant.
Water only when air and soil temperatures are above 40 degrees F with no snow cover.

Established large trees have a root spread equal to or greater than the height of the tree. Apply water to the most critical part of the root zone within the dripline.

Read the entire article – click here.

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Dec
05

Your Colorado Garden Can Save Lives

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During our Colorado cold snaps, you will almost certainly notice more birds coming into your garden to seek sanctuary from the harsher environment  – particularly if you provide food on a regular basis. The variety of species may increase and you may be lucky enough to attract unusual visitors.

Finding a regular source of high-energy food such as a garden feeding station is a real lifesaver for birds.

Birds will become dependent on the food you supply, so it is important to make sure your feeders are kept topped up to prevent them from having a wasted visit. Providing a fresh, ice-free supply of water is another cold weather essential – drinking and bathing is a vital part of the daily routine of birds.

Want to have lots of birds and other wildlife in your yard this winter? Here are some tips:

1.Put out different types of bird feeders. Fill each with different bird treats, such as black oil sunflower seeds, thistle (Nyjer) seeds, peanuts, and suet. Why not keep a list of what kinds of birds visit your feeders?
2.Add a birdbath. Keep it filled with clean water. In freezing weather, add a birdbath heater.
3.Hang a house. Birdhouses make great shelters for all sorts of small creatures, not just birds.
4.Plant native trees and shrubs. Many can provide winter berries.
5.Leave dead flower stalks, grasses, and vines standing.
6.Let summer flowers go to seed for seed-eating birds.

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Dec
01

Christmas Gift for Your Favorite Colorado Gardener

by admin

Vertical Mini GardenEarthbox (www.earthbox.com)  is adding the new MiniGarden to its product line. Gardeners can create self-contained vertical gardens to fit their balcony, patio or porch.

Each MiniGarden kit holds nine plants in three rows of planting pockets and includes a water-collecting tray and connector clips. Multiple minigardens can be purchased to build a wall of gardens. The Direct Gardening Association recognized the MiniGarden as one of the best new products for 2011. Go to earthbox.com  ($59.95).

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Nov
18

Lighting tips for the holidays

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It’s time to hang some lights for the holidays.

The biggest trend for 2011 decorating  is traditional:   the classic, nostalgic look of Christmas past is “it” this year.

xmas lights

Xmas Lights

 
Evergreens whether artificial or real are the timeless mainstay both indoors and out. 
  • Use them with pinecones, berries and dried plant material from your yard to fill containers on the porch.  
  • Embellish evergreen garlands with lights and drape them over the door, along a fence line, a handrail or surrounding a pillar. 
  • Light up evergreen trees either in white light or by combining white with one other color.  Make a bolder statement by circling the trees with two different sizes of lights.
Icicle lights.  White lights remain the number one “color” for holiday décor, so be glad you saved the icicles and hang them along the roofline.  To add more interest, hang another strand with a larger sized bulb placed along the gutter just above the icicles.
 
Keep colors simple and traditional for other lighting.  Use a monochromatic theme of just white lights or combine white with one color.  Green is top of the list, followed by red or amber.  Too many colors get busy and detract from the classic style, so stay with simple color combinations.

Tree Lighting Tips 

Wrap evergreens in lights and sculpt deciduous trees with lengths of lights along the branches.
When lighting decicuous trees, play to the tree’s own shape that’s most visible in winter after the leaves have fallen.  Instead of draping a swirl of lights through the tree, extend a strand of lights along the length of several branches. The resulting “skeleton” will be a stunning show-off of the tree’s natural structure.  This application is more time consuming than swirling one strand, but worth the effort.  Just one tree highlighted this way is enough for most yards.

 

Need new lights?
Remember that LED holiday lights are both user friendly and sustainable:
  • You can connect 100 strands of LEDs end to end and plug the whole line into one extension cord that goes into a single power outlet.  That makes your job easy–no looking for extra outlets or worrying about overloading the circuit.
  • LEDs also use about 80% less power than conventional holiday lights and they last four to five times longer. 
  • You will pay more up-front, but you will recover the expense via reduced energy costs and fewer replacements.  Using less total material over a longer lifetime–while consuming less energy–is a major sustainable advantage.
Need help designing or installing your outdoor holiday décor?  Give Us a call!

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Nov
14

Trends from WSJ – THEN: Breakfast nook NOW: Outdoor living space

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In a recent article from the Wall Street Journal  : 
“Expanding the Spaces a Family Really Uses; More Practical Doesn’t Have to Mean Smaller” , Outdoor Rooms were discussed.  Exerpt  fromthe article:
THEN: Breakfast nook
NOW: Outdoor living space

As the kitchen has opened up into the dining room, there’s less need for a separate, small table for breakfast. Builders say they are increasingly installing sliding glass doors into the back of houses that blur the lines between indoors and outdoors.

In May, Jorge Rocha moved into a three-bedroom in Chula Vista, Calif., built by KB Home, and his first task was to build a patio out back.

“We installed a small seating area with a fire ring to make it a real outdoor living space,” says Mr. Rocha, who works as a manager for an electronics retailer. “It makes the house seem bigger.”

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