And Then There Were Nine

We are new to Colorado, so the rhythms of its weather are still new to us. For instance, I wasn't aware that there were such high winds here. Last winter, the wind whipped through our back yard a few times with so much power that it moved the barbeque as well as a bench on our back patio! It even pushed around our (then empty but still quite heavy) garden boxes which were sitting on the back patio! One particularly forceful gale knocked down a large section of pretty antiquated fence.

It turns out that Denver can be a pretty windy place -- especially out here on the outskirts, not in the city itself, where there are lots of tall building to break the gusts us. It makes sense if you look at the topography of our continent. Denver is east of the Rockies -- like directly east. Further east of Denver are plains, plains, plains. North and South of Denver there aren't any mountain ranges. When the wind picks up from the North, South or East, what's there to stop it?

If you'd like to watch a fascinating, real time map of wind currents on the continental US, look here:

http://hint.fm/wind/ (yes, it's a weird looking URL, but it really goes to a cool site!) Here's a still shot from just now:

After things started to thaw and the first tulips appeared, things settled down. A fellow at the dog park told me it is most blustery in spring and fall, but by the time we set our plants out a few weeks ago, things seemed mellow. I assumed the plants could take a little blowing around.

Whoops.

Last week we had two days of really strong winds. Just crazy strong. Not as bad as the big guys of the winter, but fierce for knocking around plants and trees. I still didn't have my little guys in cages, much less stakes. It had been good, hot weather, so I hadn't used my wall-o-waters either --- which I'd purchased specifically for wind protection more than heat (though next year I will set them out earlier and use them as little greenhouses -- we just weren't ready to go with the garden that early since we were still transitioning it from a wasteland of pebbles, decades-old mulch and bindweed).

I noticed the wind while driving home from dropping the children off at school. The trees were being whipped about. They looked to beautiful. I was admiring their dance when I suddenly thought of our little babies in the side yard!

Sure enough,  the poor little plants looked so wind battered by the time I got home. I rushed in, got out the wall-o-waters and started filling them up as fast as I could. This is a somewhat lengthy and annoying process, taking about 10 minutes per cloche. I got 3 or 4 plants done, focusing on the tallest ones first, and then the wind quieted down. I wasn't sure about how the plants would handle the heat cast by the wall-o-waters, so I decided to leave the rest un-cloched and see how the protected ones fared over the next day. Plus, I couldn't figure out how I'd water them, since I didn't have my drip irrigation set up yet.

The next day, the winds stayed down, but the heat was up. The poor plants looked like they were sweltering in their little tents. I had asked the woman I bought my principe borghese starts from if she thought it could get too hot in a wall-o-water, and she'd never seen it. Clearly she hasn't been ridiculous enough to leave them on in 90 degree heat!

I figured out how to lift an edge of the tents and pour some water under. The plants appreciated it.

On the third day, the winds came up again. Fierce and strong. My 5 year old and I rushed to cover the rest of the plants, but it was too late for one.... yes. And then there were nine. Our poor little Hillbilly had been snapped straight down about an inch from the ground. Amongst the wind gusts, I dug the poor plant up, made a deeper hole, watered the hole base well and replanted it with the snapped portion set deep.

Two more days of terrible heat and I finally conceded I could no longer keep the poor buggers sweltering in their tents. I presently have 5 Texas Tomato Cages (6 more on order) and 6 bamboo stakes. With 10 plants, I had to get creative to protect them from the wind without giving them heat strong. I devised a way of setting the cages up and wrapping the bottom 18" in bubble wrap. They are taped in with duct tape. So far, they are holding.

I set up this wind guard for the five tallest plants. Four, really, and one on my little dead Hillbilly looking limp and done. I just couldn't give up on it.

The other plants, the shorter buddies, are staked for the moment. I set two full wall-o-waters (since I had nine of those) around each staked tomato and hope that'll work until my second batch of Texas Tomato Cages arrive.

In the meantime, I've had to admit that the Hillbilly isn't going to make it.

I was at Murdoch's yesterday and spotted a little "Lemon Boy" plant. It looked perky enough, so I bought it and will set it out in the Hillbilly's place in a day or so. This is the first non-heirloom variety I will grow. Sadly, there just aren't that many places to get an heirloom start around here at this time of year, so Lemon Boy it is.

Tomatoes Flowering

Brandywine - Landis Valley Strain

I planted out our ten tomatoes three days ago. Some are flowering. I will do a follow up post describing each tomato later, but at least wanted to note what we have set out. From east to west, the contenders are:
EAST SECTION:
Brandywine - Landis Valley Strain
Uncle Mark Bagby
Hillbilly Lemon Boy planted 6/9/12*
Whole Foods Mystery Tomato planted 6/25/12*
Striped German
Ananas Noir
---
WEST SECTION
Better Boy planted 6/25/12*
Sun Gold
Costoluto Genovese
Costoluto Fiorentino
Riesentraub
Principe Borghese (2 rather weak starts, co-planted)

*not heirloom

Uncle Mark Bagby

Costoluto Genovese

Reclaiming the Yard

Since we moved in last September, we have done the following to reclaim the yard:

1) had all the trees pruned. Although the trimmers destroyed the look of our evergreen, they did a good job on the others. This is great because this winter saw some incredible winds that even took down a section of older fencing! The tree branches were well-clear of the roof and our property was undamaged (except for the fence).

2) replaced 3/4 of the original dog-eared, 6 ft fence with a new one. We will finish the north perimeter fenceline in June when we split the project with our neighbors. After that, there will be a 40 ft. stretch that will be original on the south side. Those neighbors don't want to replace it yet, so that's okay.

3) had the ivy hauled out by the front steps and replaced with mulch

4) replaced the side stairs -- the previous concrete ones had fallen and created a precarious drop out the door

New Steps

5) removed south side borer mulch and weeds, replaced with soil, mixed in alpaca crap to create a heat-lover garden. Still need to put in garden fence to protect from dog and children.

South Heat-Lover Garden: Bringing in Alpaca Crap

6) had south perimeter fence area cleaned and hauled out.

7) hauled out corner of south and west fence lines to prepare for a garden shed

8) used last alpaca crap for a small pumpkin patch.

More pictures to follow

The Yard - What We Have

Our yard has been mostly unimproved over the past 20 years. The grass part itself is beautifully maintained and we are lucky to have an 11-zone sprinkler system installed. Everything looks lush and green with a basic program of watering every three days which, for the Denver area, is pretty good.

Since we bought the property last September, we have slowing been tackling the job of reining in the yard and reclaiming the edges for use.

BACK YARD:
At one point, the backyard had what must have been a pretty rock border that abated weeds. The border meanders about 10 feet from the fenceline in a slow, waving pattern. I'm sure it was at one point a beautiful landscape, but the rocks are totally ineffective at this point. The rock border is most evident along the west border.

The yard to the north side of the house (a side yard roughly 20 feet wide by 60 feet long on the NORTH EAST portion of the back yard) has a slope and is covered in rocks. This is likewise overgrown, and, in addition, so rarely inhabited that it is easy to get freaked out at the prospect of stepping on a snake. I had originally planned to put pumpkins on this slope, even with the rocks, but the fellow who we hire to mow the lawn sprayed it with a weed killer that literally kills everything in the ground.... for a year. Yes, I know. This is totally horrifying. I had no idea and have since learned my lesson. Whenever anyone offers to apply a "treatment" of any sort, I need to know exactly what they are using. Sure, there were a lot of weeds there and we weren't going to spring for a new rock placement or anything just now... all the same, I don't want things bombed on my property! So, short news is that the north side is completely dead for planting for a year. We will obviously not grow any food things on that side ever.

The north west side of the yard will eventually have a very nice garden. There is a great flat area for it where there had once been a level play yard. We decided that if we ever do put in a play structure, it won't go in this part of the yard as it gets sun most of the day. Sun = great for plants, bad for little kiddos' skin.

The south west sector of the yard has several lustrous and overgrown lilac bushes. There is also a very old, mostly decayed raised garden bed and some hardy looking blackberry or raspberry bushes. The bushes are so well established that they have several volunteer trees popping up. We plan to take out the volunteers and debris and put a garden shed in this corner. We will keep the mature bushes, but in the meantime I need to learn how to prune a lilac and trellis a berry bush such as the raspberry / blackberry so I can train it to stay along the fence again.

The south border fence is lined with a few clusters completely overgrown, sprawling and lanky red dog ear bushes. These bushes are taller than the six foot fence. They are really pretty and I hate to lose the privacy provided by the months they have leaves, but they are in desperate need of a good pollarding or coppicing. I plan to do one or the other at the end of next winter and see how it goes.

Finally, the south-east side yard (40 feet by 16) gets non-stop sun during the day and the bricks on the house cast heat at night. Because of this, I have hired people this spring to tear up the completely abandoned mulch border (home to tons of bindweed) and replace it with good soil and alpaca crap to create a heat-lover garden. I just planted out our ten tomato starts last night!

Back Yard Trees:
We have two ask trees near the house. One has been pruned to resemble a gun tower, but is strong enough to handle a hearty swing. The other is smaller, has a nicer spread, but is weak. We have a small swing on it, but I fear the children will grown large enough to snap the branch before it becomes strong enough to support a larger weight!

FRONT YARD:
The front of the house, which faces east, is all mulch bordering a yard. There are no plantings to speak of. There had been an ivy patch near the front steps and garage, but we had that torn out STAT to get rid of one of the snakes' favorite hang outs. That area is now covered with mulch.

Front Yard Trees:
We have an evergreen tree on the north side of the yard. It used to have a gorgeous sweep onto the ground, but we had the tree trimmers bring it up. We thought it would come about a foot off the ground so, again, snakes couldn't den in there... Unfortunately, the trimmers chopped off about 4 feet, leaving a weird looking tree. It breaks my heart and I am considering getting rid of it altogether.

So, that's the summary description. I will post pictures later!

Snakes by the Dozen

As I posted back in September, we are in the Denver area now. We have been in the area since last July, but only in our house since September. I realize now more than when we first moved in that the yard (12,000 sq ft!!!) has been mostly ignored and not landscaped in over twenty years. The previous owner was a divorcee with two daughters who confessed to us that she couldn't stand gardening. She was eager to move into what they call a "patio home" in the area. Such homes are intentionally built with very little yard space. We, with now three children and a young dog, were eager for a yard. Plus, despite my plant-killing proclivities, I was happy to have the chance to grow more food.

Now that we have been on the property for a bit of time, I've come to believe that the previous owner basically never went out into the yard. The lawn was well maintained by a mowing fellow, but the shrubs are quite overgrown along the edges and... most telling... we have an inordinate population of garter and bull snakes on the property. I'm sure the population is so large because the previous owner was never in the yard. Had she seen the amount of snakes, she would have had it addressed. They have basically had 20 years to thrive perfectly undisturbed. Our neighbors are surprised to learn we have snakes -- they haven't seen them on a regular basis like we have. This tells me, again, that this is a problem that can be solved with reclaiming the yard.

The snakes were so populous last fall that my poor husband stepped on one and nearly stepped on another while mowing! Last fall, when it was still warm, we would literally see at least one a day. This is a little freaky with small children running in the yard. Sure, the garter snakes are totally harmless, but a bull snake will strike and bite when pushed. Again, these bites are ultimately not fatal, but hell. I'd rather not have them biting my kids, much less me!

Last autumn, I finally started killing the snakes off as I found them. I felt terrible about it, but after calling a few companies that specialize in snake removal and learning about their methods, I determined that a quick death was preferable. The snake traps are just baited glue traps. The snakes get stuck on them and end up either dying of exposure or waiting until the trap guy comes back to check on them and then kills them. It seemed torturous.

I have never intentionally killed anything greater than an insect, but I was 7 months pregnant at the time and just not about to put up with anything threatening my children. I got my technique down after the first time. Turns out that whole "shovel" thing is overrated. I won't go into gross detail, but if you ever need a sure fire way to kill a snake -- it's harder than you think! -- email me.

This spring we finally gave in and hired the company. They set out two traps that never caught a thing. A few weeks later, they sprayed the perimeter of the yard and house with Liquid Fence. The property stank of garlic (which is weird, because there isn't garlic in the mixture) for days. That was about 3 weeks ago. Today I laid eyes on another huge bull snake working his way through the grass. So much for that....

FORTUNATELY, our wonderful young dog has matured over the winter and has developed into an incredible snake catcher. The first one he caught this spring he killed swiftly. I think that was a fluke. He has since caught five or six more and after letting him play with the second one for a few minutes and realizing he had no idea what to do, I managed to call him off it and put the stunned thing in a box. Our pup, Bishop, and I now have a pretty great partnership. When we spot one, he pops on it. He's very fast and catches them easily. The snakes go into a stun mode where they don't move. I use two long handles from an old hoe and an old shovel to pick the snake up, chop-stick style, and drop it in a big box with a lid. After that, when my husband gets home and can watch the children, I ferry the snake down the road and release it near the creek that is part of an open space. It's win-win-win. The dog has a great job where he shines. The snake gets to live and we reduce our population! We are making great headway. This snake today was the first I'd seen in three weeks, which is much better than a daily occurrence!

I know snakes serve a wonderful purpose in nature, especially with insect control in the garden, but I just can't risk my children getting hurt. So, off they go!

I plan to lay down some more applications of the Liquid Fence over the summer. I think it is effective when it is fresh. Next time, however, I will use the granule stuff, as it is supposed to last longer.

Planting Out Day!

The line up, looking East. Two Principe Borghese coplanted, Costoluto Fiorentino, Costoluto Genovese, Riesentraub, Sun Gold

Partial Line Up, East side, looking West, R to L: Uncle Mark Bagby, Hillbilly, Striped German, Ananis Noir

I've been working on creating a tomato garden all spring. Well, I haven't done much of the work... more like I've hired help and overseen its creation (have a brand new baby and still quite physically limited after some complications).

Hillbilly (L), Uncle Mark Bagby (middle), Brandywine - Landis Valley Strain (R)

Uncle Mark Bagby (L), Brandywine, Landis Valley Strain (R)

We bought our tomato starts on May 4th, the first day of Heirloom Farms' tomato sale. I'm glad we went on the first day. The traffic was terrible to get to it (nothing to do with the sale, just typical Denver weird traffic patterns), but we were able to buy 9 of the 10 varieties I had decided on. The sale is held in two locations, so I figured I'd get the last variety -- Principe Borghese - the next day at the other location (the locations don't have the same variety choices). Boy am I glad we suffered the traffic that Friday! I got to the second location the next day a few hours after it started, and they were totally sold out!!!

Hillbilly

Ananis Noir (L), Striped German (R)

I sort of lingered for a few minutes to talk to the farmer and I'm glad I did. It turns out she had two flaccid, mealy little Principe Borgese's left that she felt were too sickly to sell. I was so grateful that she let me have them that I insisted on buying them. Of the ten varieties this year, they are the only ones I've grown before. This is my third year with them and they have consistently produced well and deliciously.

After a few weeks of setting them out on days and preparing them for rough Front Range life, we finally planted out today!

The tomato garden still lacks a drip irrigation system, top mulch and a fence, but I couldn't wait longer to set the plants out.

Sungold

Costoluto Fiorentino (L), and Costoluto Genovese (R)

We trimmed the first few branches off each plant (except the borghese plants which were too tiny) and deeply planted them in a hole that had been prepared with some eggshell, Mater Magic, soil and compost. The starts were about 16" high out of their pots and after trimming and setting them in their holes, they were about 8" out of the ground a piece. I wanted them to have a deep root system start as the soil here is very clayish and dense. Really hard to grow through. I figure a deeper base will help them bare up against wind and develop a deep water source. Finally, they were well watered. I put them out at night as I'd read somewhere that they like that --- waking up fresh to being outside in a happy hole. It took a long time to get them out, but I'm happy! Let's hope they are too!

2 x Principe Borgese (L), Costoluto Fiortentino (middle), Costoluto Genovese (R)