Preoccupied By All Things Green and Growning

Yep. Once again it has happened. Spring rolls around and my mind becomes consumed with thoughts of flats of annuals, potting soil, and perennial beds. Of course on my free time (ha!) I am doing everything in my power to insure the success of my veggie garden which means watering A LOT! It has been 2 weeks since we were blessed with rain here in Colorado Springs. Fires are burning near Trinidad and La Junta and when the wind gets to blowing from the south we all suffer. Sunrises and sunsets are tinged with orange and red and the stressed out trees are producing copious amounts of pollen which combined with the dust coats everything. Difficult working conditions for a gal with seasonal allergies, but what can I do? Can't stand being inside for too long even with all this adversity!
Our backyard farm is coming along nicely. Barb passed 2 raised beds my way and my crops of lettuces and spinach I have growing in them are abundant and and downright perfect.

My carrots and beets that I seeded weeks ago failed to sprout much and I went ahead and re-seeded them yesterday; I think this was due to the wild temperature fluctuations we were having for a couple of weeks and a possible missed watering. My first planting of potatoes is lush and green and I have done my first hilling . Last week I planted my patch of hot and sweet peppers, 5 varieties of tomatoes (which I was worried had lost to the wind but appear to be bouncing back wonderfully), squash, zucchini, kale and onions. Yesterday I planted the second batch of potatoes I acquired (Thanks Cheryl!), pole beans, purple and french filet bush beans and pumpkins in our front yard pumpkin patch. Today I went over to Good Earth Garden Center and bought our hops Humulus Lupulus. They are
planted and I am thrilled to have that step done!

I prefer to direct-seed much of my garden but I will admit that I prefer to buy my tomato plants at Good Earth as well since growing tomatoes is one of their specialties. They have a plethora of varieties to choose from and I decided on 6 that are heirlooms in a variety of sizes, colors and textures.

What have you planted that you are excited about this year?

Spring, Custom Orders, Bread, Beer, Coffee...

I just finished and listed this fun 27 Oz. Klean Kanteen cozy in my Etsy shop yesterday. Apparently lots of people are needing a plethora of color in their lives these days because my Tyler stripes are going like hotcakes! Turn around on this baby was 4 days and although I can't promise such quick service as I head into the gardening season, I can say that I will hustle as fast as humanly possible on custom orders.
As for custom orders, keep your eyes peeled here at the blog for postings on a fabulous custom felted bag I am about to delve into ASAP for a local gal. Michelle is not only one of my favorite new people but she is also a baker and gifted me the most delicious loaf of rosemary artisan bread. If you are local I suggest searching her out and sampling her wears. In fact if you are on Facebook, you should run right on over and become a fan of her page : Manitou Michelle's Breadeaux Company.
I also have a pair of felted mittens on the needles right now for a friend who shares my Reynaud's affliction. Erin DJ's down at Brewer's Republic at least once a month in addition to running the open-mic there. Check out their FB page for dates and times. If I haven't mentioned Brewer's Republic before I am truly sorry! It is a great bar that serves All Colorado Microbrews and Umpire Estate Coffee which is my favorite coffee (and coffee shop)!

I realize that this blog post reads more like one big advertisement for some of my favorite things, but I really believe in supporting local endeavors. All of the businesses I have mentioned above are amazing and worth checking out if you are in the Colorado Springs area!

Anywho, Happy March! It is supposed to be in the 60s and sunny again today. I am starting to get calls from clients for spring clean-up and that is where I am headed as soon as I finish typing this. I will post pictures tomorrow of the progress I have made in my own gardens in preparation for what I hope will be a banner year of veggie growing. I can't get ahead of myself though. This IS Colorado: snow in April has been known to occur.

Wild!

This is a big catch-up day for my blogging. Things have been busy which is fabulous, but I am learning to juggle my time again since getting back to the world of adults and a job that doesn't revolve strictly around my son, home and husband.
This blog post is about the wonderful wildlife I have been seeing lately.
The first happening occurred at the same gardening client's house where I saw the bobcat. I was working in the back of the house when the homeowner opened the ground level window next to where I was working, popped out the screen and insisted I climb inside immediately as there was a mama bear and cubs in her garage. I have never moved so quickly! Normally they keep their garage closed because of this exact reason but it was open for me. Her dogs were barking like crazy at the door to the garage and you could hear something big scratching at the other side and pushing it's weight against the door. Finally it got quiet so we went upstairs where we had a good view of the driveway and this is what we saw:
Mama and her 3 cubs had dragged the big Tupperware of dog food out by the driveway and proceeded to have a field day with it.
Meanwhile on the homefront... I had house finches build their nest on the top of one of my rose trellises. About a week ago 4 little babies hatched and they are the cutest things! I can hear them chirping when mama or papa come in with food practically anywhere in the yard. Who would have thought something so small could make so much noise!
And last but not least, I found a lovely Fritillary caterpillar in some of my Sedum. I believe this will become a Painted Lady Butterfly. I have had quite a few on my Butterfly bush and Monarda in the front garden this year.
More to come hopefully today on the actual garden. I should have some new listings up on Etsy soon that I am excited to share with you as well. Thanks so much for checking in!

A Few Things

I finally have a few minutes to sit down at the computer and blog! I feel like I have so much to share. Two nights ago I made a stir fry with veggies all from the garden: two types of beets, broccoli, carrots and 5 color silver beet Chard. It's true, I took pictures. There are few things that make me as happy as eating something I picked not even an hour before.
Last night around 12:30 a crazy storm rolled through with huge wind gusts, lots of cloud to cloud lightning and heavy rain but thankfully no hail. I sat watching it out the front window for a while hoping beyond hope that I would still have my beautiful tomato plants in the morning. Just North of us they had golf ball sized hail and a Tornado sighting!!
Today I am harvesting my remaining spinach and continuing the endless weeding that apparently goes along with getting consistent rainfall. It is a beautiful cool morning and I am feeling so grateful for it after the last few days of heat.

Summer Heat and our first Beet

I wanted to check in and say hello. Work at the Garden Center is slowing down now but I am no less wiped out at the end of the day due to the heat that has finally arrived. This has also made it a struggle to keep my garden hydrated and weeded when I am home. Needless to say I have been waking up early to get some of that done. We have been enjoying amazing volumes of lettuce spinach and radishes and now the bush beans, tomatoes, zucchini, swiss chard, broccoli and beets are starting to do their thing!

Hummingbirds!

That's right I heard a Hummingbird today! I was out turning over my garden getting ready to plant spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets and radishes (I know! Too much information) when I heard the tell tale sound. The little guys are arriving.

The Call of the Garden

For most of the month of February it was hot and dry here on the Front Range (eastern side) of the mountains. We had whole weeks where the daytime temperatures were 60 degrees and above. I am a gardener and this raises all sorts of issues inside me. I worry about having enough precipitation to keep things alive... and on the flip side I start thinking I should get things planted because hey! it is 75 degrees out today - in the middle of February! Patience right? So I am reading and researching instead. Last summer we dug up the last of the compacted and practically dead grass in the back yard and my garden has doubled in size. I am thrilled and overwhelmed at the same time at the prospect of expanding the variety of what I grow because along with that comes maintenance and new pest issues. I really want to grow pop corn but we have some amazingly large Raccoons around here. I am definitely growing beets and am giving Kale another try even though last year my crop was overtaken by aphids. So why am I rambling on about this? I have finally found a gardening book that is concise and doesn't burst my bubble when I want to attempt to grow new things. The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch is my new bible! I don't honestly know how I have lived without it but all I can say is Game On! We are eating well this year from our garden. When I am not doing deep research on planting, I am finally reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver who is my favorite author hands down. The quote on the back of the book sums it up:

"This is the story... of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

I am inspired and maybe a bit overly ambitious since I don't live on a farm. But I believe this is going to be a great year for learning to be more self-sufficient, utilizing what tools and resources we have near and eating better because of it. My son also turns 4 next week and I am so thrilled to get him involved in the process of growing his own food. Besides, let's face it: vegetables just taste better straight from the garden.

Do you have any suggestions for what I should grow? Recommendations for an exceptionally hardy variety or something that you can taste on your tongue at the mere mention of a summer garden? Share! Share!

Argh! Bugs!

This summer has been a real test in the garden. So hot and dry you have to water constantly it seems. I tried some new plants in my garden and contrary to what I thought looking at them from a distance they are getting eaten alive! My Kale is gorgeous except for the aphids and my Broccoli has been fighting the good fight against the little black bugs that have decimated my nasturtiums.
So am I just going to sit here and complain and let my hard work go to waste? Heck No! Am I going to spray them down with chemicals and then be afraid to eat them? NO! I went to the local garden center today and bought Ladybugs ~ So there they sit at the moment all 1750 of them in my refrigerator amongst the Sour Cream and OJ awaiting their release into a heavenly feast this evening. In the meantime I am waiting out the heat of today as close to the window air conditioner as I can get with a pile of bowls and 4 newly felted cuffs to be finished. I will be listing some new items in the next couple of days so keep your peepers peeled: there are some really cute things on the way...but that is just my biased opinion.