Take a Walk Through My Garden

Posted on | April 28, 2010 | 2 Comments

An out-of-state reader requested a garden tour, so I thought I’d oblige with my first v-blog!

Try Something New in the Vegetable Garden

Posted on | April 19, 2010 | No Comments

The old adage “variety is the spice of life” was never more true than in the vegetable garden. If you’ve been planting the same varieties of tomatoes, bell peppers, bush beans, and lettuce for years, it’s time to try something different.

I try new varieties of the old favorites (tomatoes & peppers) just about every year. But recently, I’ve expanded my range a bit so that I try a whole new variety of vegetable each season. There have been failures (bronze fennel was not my favorite, black turtle beans were delicious, but not very productive, and I’m still trying to come up with a variety of cauliflower that is edible in our hot, hot climate!), but there have also been some vegetables that have moved from a garden trial to an annual favorite. Read more

Hardening Off Seedlings

Posted on | April 13, 2010 | No Comments

With a month to go until Boulder County’s average last frost date, it’s time to start thinking about hardening off cool-season crops! If you have season extenders like cold frames, row covers, or Wall-o-Waters, you can even harden off a few tomatoes and peppers too.

Why Harden Off?

Plants are wildly adaptable, which is part of the reason they grow all over the planet, inside and out. But that means that the structure of the plant itself (from the thickness of its stem to how open its pores are) is different based on whether it was started outside in the sometimes harsh and variable conditions of early spring or indoors where light, moisture, food, and wind are constant. You can replicate some outdoor conditions for your seedlings by directing a fan at the seedlings as they grow and by putting them somewhere where the temperature is a bit variable, but they’re still in for a shock when they move to your garden bed. Read more

Wildflowers of Early April

Posted on | April 9, 2010 | No Comments

In 2007, I began working on my Native Plant Master (NPM) certification down in Jefferson County. We were in the process of moving to Lyons, but Boulder did not yet have a NPM program, so I hoofed it down to Morrison every Saturday for a month to begin learning about native plants. Three years later and I’m preparing to co-teach my first Native Plant Master courses right here in Lyons at Rabbit Mountain next month.

Usually, I’d say the wildflower season in this area begins in March. But we’ve had a cool, wet spring, so I think things are getting off to a late start. That’s part of the reason I was delighted to find so many little treasures blooming on my first Rabbit Mountain hike of the season yesterday afternoon. Read more

Spring = peas

Posted on | April 4, 2010 | No Comments

This year I was expecting a wet and snowy March, so on a warm afternoon at the very beginning of March, I planted my peas and fava beans. Today, a full month later, the peas have finally sprouted! Unlike vegetables planted at a more hospitable time of year that fairly reliably germinate per package instructions, peas generally germinate when the soil temperature is right, whether that’s a few days after planting, or, in my case, a full month after planting. That said, determining exactly when soil will warm enough for the peas to germinate is a mysterious art since it happens at a slightly different time every year, so best to plant them early and know that they’ll be there waiting when the time is right.

With peas germinating in early April, we should be eating peas by early June. And after a long, cold winter, that’s sweet spring music to this gardener’s ears. So whether you’re celebrating Passover, Easter, the beginning of spring, or something else all together, have a great day!

Peas and bulbs and phlox, oh my!

Posted on | March 31, 2010 | No Comments

Tomorrow April begins, and with it us Zone 5-ers can at least begin to expect warmer weather (I have just guaranteed, by making this statement, that we will get one more snow storm here in Colorado. Sorry!). Yesterday it hit 80 here for the first time and that warm weather following so closely on the heels of the moisture last week has caused a flurry of activity in the garden.

As such, I thought I’d divide this post into what you should be doing in the veggie garden and what you should be looking for (or potentially planting later in the season) in your flower beds. Seeing the first crocus of spring (which we had just this week–a full month later than usual!) is as exciting to me as seeing the first spinach and pea sprouts, and my recent posts have been so veggie-focused that I want to give flower gardening a bit of love today too! Read more

Learning to Knit

Posted on | March 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

This past fall, I started knitting. Oh sure, I knitted a scarf or a pot holder or something when I was 12, but this was the first time I’d given it a go as an adult. Armed with a copy of Patons Next Steps, a pair of size 10 bamboo needles, and a couple of skeins of wool, I jumped right in on scarves, hats & mittens for my children. I’m lucky to have several friends (both here in town and far away) who knit, and their guidance was invaluable while I was learning, but at a certain point, you can’t have a knitting lesson with 800 children running around and have to find another resource.

Well, I’m here to tell you about some of my favorites. If you’ve always wanted to knit (did I mention that it’s very meditative???), these resources can help! I’ve now been knitting for six months or so and have graduated from scarves and hats to more complicated projects with the help of the following resources. I still consider myself a beginner, but I’m a beginner who is ready to tackle a few new stitches and techniques. Read more

Weed Now, Drink Beer Later

Posted on | March 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

Everyone’s heard the old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” But I prefer my own slight variant when it comes to spring gardening: “Weed a little in March, sit back and drink beer in July.” That’s right. When many folks are out in the blazing sun pulling deep-rooted perennial weeds this coming July, I’ll be drinking a beer on the patio. Read more

Transplanting Seedlings

Posted on | March 22, 2010 | 2 Comments

OK, you’ve identified how much garden space you need, chosen your veggies, planned some container gardens,  started seedlings, completed all of your March garden tasks, and chosen a seed company, now you’re probably ready to transplant some of those seedlings you started!

Check your seedlings and if they’re not quite big enough to transplant, be ruthless and thin to one plant per cell on all vegetables except perhaps onions and basil. Thin by pinching the extra seedlings off at soil level with your fingernails so that you don’t risk disturbing the roots of the one strongest-looking seedling you want to keep in each cell. It has taken me years to get up the courage to murder plants I started from seed, but doing so has made my plants better in the long run. So do it. Read more

March Phat Fiber “Fluff” – The Elements

Posted on | March 18, 2010 | No Comments

My father used to tell this great story about sawing off the treadle of my grandmother’s spinning wheel as retribution for her not letting he and my uncle go out to hunt. In the end, they climbed out the window and went anyway, and I can only imagine my grandfather’s reaction when he learned what the boys had done. Personally, if it were my wheel, I think Dad would have had to worry more about my wrath than Grampy’s, but who knows.

Those of you who have been coming here to read all about gardening are probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about. I admit it: I’m taking a break from gardening posts to talk about another (relatively new) hobby of mine–spinning. Read more

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About Terminal Verbosity

TV is the latest writing endeavor of Julie Artz, who has been blogging about just about anything that comes to her scattered mind since 2002.

Wife, mother, writer, gardener, flaming liberal, doesn't-know-when-to-keep-her-big-mouth-shut gabbergirl, obsessive reader, cook, appreciator of all fine food and bevies, Julie has finally reached Terminal Verbosity...

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