Gardening in Colorado is Challenging to Say the Least

Apr 2nd Gardening in Colorado is Challenging to Say the Least

Gardening in Colorado is challenging! While tulips might be peeking out, the forecast predicts snow. I lived here all my life, and gardened as long as I can remember. Didn’t I say Gardening in Colorado is challenging! Yep, thought I did. From the short growing season to the huge hail storms. Still, we’ll soon be able to tackle April chores as our gardens emerge from winter’s sleep. Thanks to Kim Snowdon, Colorado Master Gardner, here are a few tips to get you going.

• Lawn care: Get lawns off to a good start by aerating and applying a light application of nitrogen fertilizer. Avoid broadcast pre-emergent herbicide; spot spray weeds if necessary. Check irrigation systems for leaks or broken heads. Water at a rate of an inch per week when weather is dry. Overseed thin or winter-damaged patches with appropriate grass seed. Yeah, well we gave up on the sloped front yard, installed artificial turf last year. Love it. But our dog refused the artificial turf idea for the back yard. Mystic wants real green grass to romp through.

• Trees, shrubs, and perennials: Once soil temperatures reach 55 degrees you can start planting trees, shrubs and hardy perennials. The cool soil will assist in establishment of transplants. This applies to plants you want to divide and transplant to different locations in your garden. Bare root (BR) roses should be soaked in water before planting. Fertilize BR roses with rose food or fertilizer with a high phosphorous content, such as 9-14-9 to promote blooms. Decomposed manure, bone meal or fish emulsion are good additions to the soil around newly planted roses.

• Spring pruning: Early blooming shrubs (forsythia, lilac, quince) flower on last year’s growth; prune after they finish flowering. Summer blooming shrubs (butterfly bush, blue mist spirea, other spirea species, mock orange, hydrangea) develop buds on new wood and can be pruned in early spring. Prune roses by

cutting back winter-damaged canes, then remove canes that cross or grow inward for a more open structure. Healthy canes can be pruned back to 12-24 inches tall; cut 3 inches above an outward-facing bud.

• Cool season annuals: Flowers such as pansies, alyssum, sweet peas and snapdragons tolerate light frost. Wait to plant more tender annuals until after Mother’s Day. Direct sow perennial seeds, collected or purchased, following the directions on the packet. Some seeds require stratification (exposure to cold) or scarification (breaking seed coating through abrasion).

• Ornamental grasses: Cut back ornamental grasses in spring before new growth appears to about 6 inches. Some cool season evergreen grasses such as Blue fescue might not require cutting back, but rather comb through leaves to clean out dead foliage.

• Spring weeds: Spring moisture encourages weeds. The roots of annual weeds are shallow and easy to pull. Early diligence pays off. Spread mulch 2-3 inches thick to reduce germination of annual weeds. Perennial weeds such as dandelions have a deep tap root but can also be removed by hand using specialized tools. Pollinators depend on some of these earliest of flowers, so pesticide application should be done carefully to minimize the impact on beneficial insects.

There you have it, tips for Gardening in Colorado. One last thing, hail. There is hail cloth or material in gardening shops to put over your garden that lets the sun and rain in but protects plants from that nasty four letter word HAIL. I saw it last year after hail devastated my tomato & veggie garden. You can bet I’ll get getting hail material this year. Be sure and check it out.

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