Throughout this season, I’ll be giving you tips directly from the Botanical Interests test gardens: a plot of raised herb and vegetable beds and a wide swath of annual and perennial flower plantings in our garden about 30 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado. I hope you will find some helpful tips to apply in your own garden.

My friends often ask me how they should lay out their raised vegetable garden beds.

I always tell them, “Remember the wheelbarrow!” When laying out your garden beds, be sure to leave a 3-foot main path down the middle and a 3-foot access path on at least one side of each bed, so you can get in and out easily with a wheelbarrow. Make sure you also have room to turn the corners between paths with the wheelbarrow. I use raised beds for a few reasons. They have warmer soil, allowing you to plant earlier in spring, they make maintaining the pathways easier, and they make it easy to break your garden chores into small goals. If you have a short season like we do here in Colorado, you know that all of a sudden, you have a lot to do when spring hits. If you’re like me, it’s easy to overdo it and feel like there’s more to do than you have time to accomplish. With the raised beds, it’s much easier to break your garden tasks into smaller components and not feel like your have to do everything all at once.

This year, I’m trying a new method of ‘year round’ mulching:

In the fall, we raked leaves into piles, then ran the lawn mower over them. I layered 4″-6″ of this mulch over the top of each raised bed at the end of the season. This ‘tucked’ the bed in for the winter and helped to preserve the soil’s vitality. It is also an easy method of direct composting. When you are ready to plant in the spring, simply push aside the mulch to sow seeds. Don’t worry about leaving the beds a little ‘messy’ with the leaf/grass mulch throughout the summer. Bare soil dries out faster, leaches nutrients, and provides a welcome sign for weeds. Keeping soil covered will retain moisture and lower the maintenance requirements. The mulch is also beneficial to earthworms who love to live under this moist nutritious layer. They will thank you for your hospitality by aerating the soil and providing worm castings that provide rich nutrients for your plants. Earwigs and sow bugs (not as welcome as the earthworms, but part of nature’s great recycling team) tend to prefer to eat the decomposing material. As summer goes on, most of your mulch breaks down to enrich the soil. Our lawn produces a lot of mulch. Instead of hauling it away (what a waste!), we use it to cover the raised bed walkways. At the end of the summer, I rake that up and layer it in the beds too.

My first spring crops were planted last fall:

Visitors to our garden in early April are amazed to see lots of things already growing and ready for harvest! My fall sowing of Mustard Ruby Streaks, spinach, carrots, and green onions has provided an early bounty of salad material in early spring. You can either sow these cool season plants in late fall, so they’ll germinate early in spring. Or, in milder climates, sow earlier and over winter the plants with a layer of mulch or in a cold frame.

Until next time,

Happy Gardening!

Gardeners often ask us, “What can I grow in containers?” Maybe, the better question is “What can’t I grow in containers?”With the exception of watermelons just about any flower, herb, and vegetable can be grown successfully in a container!Container plantings are handy for any gardener, because:

• They are practical for urban gardeners, apartment, or town home dwellers with limited space
• They can be moved at will for convenience or aesthetic reasons
• They can ‘decorate’ your outdoor space, turning a porch, deck, or patio into something as beautiful as a butterfly garden or as delicious as your own private salad bar
• They do not require tilling or weeding.
• They can be moved indoors or covered when frost threatens
• They can be lots of fun to plan and create!

For a fantastic container garden, here are some tips:

Decide if you will be starting the plants indoors then transplanting to the container or sowing the seed directly into the container. (Follow instructions on back of packet based for outside or inside planting, and be sure to thin young seedlings, so they aren’t overcrowded.)

Choose the right size for the right plant:
5-Gallon containers are the most versatile. They are less likely to blow over in wind, dry out less frequently, and have room for plants with deep roots. It’s usually better to go larger with a container than put a plant in a container that’s too small. Larger containers are also better for climates that have hot, dry summers. Click here for more tips and a list of recommended container sizes for different vegetables

Use a quality potting soil:

Good potting soil will contain ingredients like compost, perlite, vermiculite, and peat. It will have a light texture with good moisture retentiveness, good drainage ability, and not contain a lot of bark. You don’t have to completely fill a container with potting soil. The bottom third of the container can be filled with a variety of ‘fillers’ like broken pottery shards, rocks, gravel, or crushed aluminum cans or plastic water bottles (to be recycled later).

Provide adequate drainage: All containers need to have adequate drainage. If your container is solid on the bottom, carefully cut or punch a hole in the bottom to prevent plant roots from sitting in water and rotting. Or, you can just insert a plastic container inside that does have drainage holes. If your container is sitting on a wood deck or concrete patio, you can put a drainage dish underneath to prevent staining.

Keep it watered: Containers may need to be watered once or twice every day to prevent them from drying out. A plant that dries out and wilts may not recover from the stress. You can reduce water needs by using a layer of mulch on top of the soil and putting the containers in an area protected from wind.

Fertilize regularly: Nutrients can leach out of containers with frequent waterings. Follow fertilization instructions inside the seed packet for each variety, but apply a little more frequently for happy container plants. For chemical-free fertilizing, try seaweed extract, well-rotted manure, earthworm castings, or compost.

Don’t Overcrowd: Just like in garden beds, young plants in containers need to be thinned and spaced adequately. Plants that are too close together will compete for water and nutrients, resulting in overall weak growth. (Plants that are well established with a good root system can be crowded in closer for a lush design.)

Be Creative! There’s no rule that a container must only contain vegetables, herbs, or flowers. Why not mix them? Also, don’t forget that vining crops like peas, cucumbers, ornamental gourds, and baby pumpkins can be grown in a container if you provide a trellis inside the container or next to it for them to climb.

Have a shady area, but you want to grow your own food?

Most vegetables and herbs do best in areas with full sun (8-10 hours/day). These include tomatoes, peppers, melons, and squash. However, you can get away with a little shade with a lot of crops if you concede that their growth may be less vigorous. Of all the herbs, Mint is the happiest in shade. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach do the best in areas with some shade, preferring at least 6 hours/day of sun. Root crops need around 6-8 hours/day of sun. All others listed can do okay in areas with less than a full day of sun, but need to get as close to 8 hours as possible for best results.

Greens:Arugula, Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard

Root Crops: Beets, Carrots, Kohlrabi, Parsnips, Radishes, Rutabagas, Turnips

Misc. Vegetables: Beans, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Celery, Peas, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Rhubarb

Alliums:Chives, Garlic, Onions

Herbs: Angelica, Basil, Borage, Caraway, Chamomile, Chervil, Cilantro/Coriander, Endive, Lemon Balm, Lovage, Mint, Parsley, Sage, Sorrel, Tarragon, Thyme, Watercress