Ten Keys to Successful Vegetable Gardening in the Gunnison Country

“OMG, BGF, R U GON 2 PLANT VEGGIES?!”

Vegetable gardening in Gunnison Country is a challenge, to say the least. Local gardeners deal with extreme winters, short summers, high altitude, variable rain- and snowfall, arid climate, roving ungulates, and voracious rodents. Our frost-free growing season is short, at best only about 62 days. Thus, when we are successful in our gardening efforts, we are justifiably gratified in an achievement that requires more skills than gardeners “down the hill” have to have. Nevertheless, these skills can be acquired by anyone willing to make the effort – perhaps with a little advice from the Gunnison CSU Extension Office.

This article will focus on home vegetable gardening, but most of the concepts are also applicable to flower gardening. Note that, in this Article, I am using the word “vegetable” broadly.

Before starting any garden or landscaping project, make sure that it will not violate applicable local ordinances and regulations, restrictive covenants, lease terms, water use limitations, etc.
In this Article, we will look at Ten Keys to successful vegetable gardening in Gunnison County, which are:
Location
Planning
Soil Preparation
Sourcing Plants
Gaining Experience
Proper Watering
Weed Elimination
Season Extenders
Phased Planting
Harvesting

1. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.
In Gunnison County, choosing the right site for a vegetable garden will have the greatest impact on the success of the garden. Often, the root of a vegetable garden problem stems from a poor location.

A. LIGHT.
Vegetables are sun loving plants which cannot thrive in shade. A vegetable garden site must receive direct sun for a substantial part of the day. In this regard, vegetable gardens are solar collectors. Generally, the best locations for vegetable gardens are those with unblocked exposures to the southern sky. All other things being equal, a garden with an unblocked southern exposure receives more sunlight than a garden with any other exposure. (It is always easier to create shade than it is to create sunlight.)

When gardeners speak of North or South, they mean Magnetic North or Magnetic South. In Colorado, True North is about 14 degrees west of Magnetic North (and conversely True South is about 14 degrees east of Magnetic South. In other words, you are facing True South when your compass heading reads 166 degrees. This is a significant difference in orienting a vegetable garden on an axis to maximize the sunlight it can collect.

Unfortunately, on many residential properties, a likely vegetable garden location is shaded by nearby buildings, trees, etc. Some vegetable gardens can be successfully established on the west or east sides of buildings, that is, with westerly or easterly exposures – a western exposure being a little better for vegetable gardens. A garden may sometimes be placed on the north side of a property if the location has a clear view of the sun (still a southerly exposure). Sometimes it is possible to remove (reluctantly) a tree to open up an area to sunlight for a garden.

A poor place for a vegetable garden would be in a narrow shaded space between a house and a neighbor’s fence. Some properties on the north sides of hills or deep in narrow canyons get so little direct sunlight that vegetable gardening is probably not practicable.

B. MICROCLIMATES.
Almost every residential property will have one or more microclimates where the localized climate is quite different from the climate on the rest of the property. Such microclimates can be either milder or harsher than the climate conditions otherwise prevailing on the site. A milder microclimate provides an opportunity to grow more kinds of plants than could be grown on the rest of the property. A typical example of a beneficial microclimate is an inside corner of a house which receives and holds extra heat. Often plants can survive in the little space protected by such a corner, where the same plants could not be grown anywhere else on the property. Hint: Look for the places where the snow melts first in Spring.

Contrariwise, a harsher microclimate will reduce the success of gardening in that particular location. A common example of a harsh microclimate is a swale or gully which collects cold air and holds it. Such a microclimate can be deadly to plants, killing them with cold even when the remainder of the property enjoys safe temperatures. This type of microclimate is especially problematic in Spring and Fall.

C. SOIL CONDITION.
Soil condition is another critical element in selecting a garden location. Sometimes, the soil in an otherwise good garden location can be unsuitable for vegetable gardening. In older parts of Crested Butte, Gunnison, Parlin, Pitkin, Ohio City, and Tincup, it was common for homeowners to have midden piles in the back yard. This is also true of the old ranch properties. When public refuse collection became available, these midden piles were usually buried right where they sat. In other cases, vehicles or steel drums were stored on a property and, over time, these may have leaked chemicals and petroleum compounds into the soil. Another common problem is rock, especially near rivers and creeks. Properties near existing or ancient watercourses often have a very shallow layer of topsoil over a solid layer of river rocks. Other properties have mature evergreen trees that shed needles which contain natural herbicides which would damage or destroy vegetable plants. In other places, years’ long accumulations of ice melt salts and chemicals have rendered the soil unfit for vegetables. To locate a successful vegetable garden in such areas would possibly require total replacement of the soil to a depth of several feet – an arduous and expensive process.

D. TOPOGRAPHY.
A vegetable garden should be located on level ground which drains well. If the ground is not level in an otherwise prime location, it may be possible to build up the site by importing top soil or by creating raised beds, or both. Many Gunnison County gardeners make use of raised vegetable garden beds. (Raised beds offer a number of advantages besides creating level sites.)

Although it is traditional to have a rectilinear vegetable garden, this is not absolutely necessary. If the topography of the site dictates a semi-circular or serpentine garden, go for it.

If one vegetable garden is good, two or three are better. If you do not have a location for one big vegetable garden, maybe you have two or more small spots where you can garden.

Do not pick a garden site where water collects and pools. Most vegetables will drown in such a location. Also, avoid a location which is excessively windy. Wind can damage tender vegetable plants.

E. ACCESSABILITY.
Less obvious factors can affect proper selection of the location for a home garden. How accessible is the location? Will the gardener have to walk around three sides of the house to get to the garden site? Is water readily available, or will it be necessary to drag around miles (believe me, it will seem like miles) of garden hose to water the garden? Is storage for garden tools and equipment nearby? Will the gardener(s) have to climb steep paths to reach the garden (a problem which is especially important to older gardeners)? Are the pathways accessible to wheel barrows, rototillers, etc.? Is electricity available nearby?

One common mistake is to forget that the gardener will have to be able to work in the garden without compacting the garden soil by walking on it or tromping on young plants. Vegetable garden designs should include aisles and paths so that the garden can be worked without damaging it. The average person can reach 2 ½ to 3 feet, so design the vegetable garden with this in mind. This means that a home vegetable garden bed should be a maximum of 6 feet wide IF there are paths on both sides . Do not be tempted to make the garden beds “just a little bit” wider. Been there, done that, not going to do it again.

2. PLANNING.
Once the location of your vegetable garden is selected, you can start planning for the garden. Some folks run out and buy a bunch of seed packets or flats of seedlings and start putting them into the garden. This can be fun and some successes can be achieved (more by accident than otherwise). But, overall, the maximum results – and the least problems – occur when planning goes into a vegetable garden well in advance of actual planting.

This is one of the times when the long Gunnison Winters are an advantage to the gardener, because there is no temptation in Winter to just run outside and plant stuff right away. Those long Winter nights are perfect for studying and revising your garden plans, ordering and reading seed catalogues cover to cover, purchasing seeds for the coming season, and searching for and buying quality garden tools and equipment (sometimes on sale because Winter is the off season for garden centers and retailers of garden equipment).

One of the reasons to read all those garden catalogues and all those seed packets is to find out the amount of time required to grow a particular vegetable to ripeness. A second reason is to learn the water and temperature needs of different vegetables. A third reason is to learn the spacing requirements of the vegetable you would like to grow. (To ascertain spacing, it is helpful to do a sketch to scale.) In establishing the layout, do not create sunlight problems by allowing taller vegetable plants to shade younger or smaller plants. Place tallest-growing plants on the north side of the garden bed and the shortest-growing plants on the south side of the bed.

A. TIME TO MATURE.
Since Gunnison County’s growing season is so short, it is imperative to select the types and varieties of vegetables which have a chance of reaching maturity. According to data from the Colorado Climate Center, on average the last frost of Spring in Gunnison County is between May 31 and June 15 and the first frost of Autumn is between August 15 and September 1. This means that a Gunnison gardener cannot expect success when trying to grow a frost-sensitive vegetable which requires 95 days from germination to maturity. Such vegetables simply won’t make it in Gunnison County and failure is inevitable. Do not sow the seeds of disappointment by trying to grow vegetable plants which require a longer growing season than Gunnison County has. (But see Section 8 on season extenders below.)

B. HEAT.
Not to put too fine a point on it: the “cold season” crops are successful in vegetable gardens in Gunnison Country and the “warm season” crops are failures. Root vegetables do consistently well. Most vegetable types, peas for example, have some varieties with short growing seasons and some with longer growing seasons. A Gunnison Country gardener should select the short season varieties of cool season vegetables. Our family has had success with asparagus, peas, beets, carrots, leaf lettuce, mesculin mix, onions, garlic, radishes, spinach, potatoes, and turnips. We also plant basil, thyme, sage, oregano, parsley, strawberries, sunflowers, pansies (great addition to salads), violas (same thing), chives, rhubarb, hops, and horseradish in our vegetable gardens., Even though purists would argue that some of these are not “vegetables,” I think of them as part of our vegetable gardening. Other vegetables to try are broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, and chard.

In comparison, warm season crops such as tomatoes, beans, melons, squashes, sweet potatoes, corn, and peppers do no thrive in Gunnison Country. They require either warmer summer temperatures or a longer time to mature than is available in Gunnison. Planting warm weather types of vegetables, babying them, praying over them, and sitting out overnights with them during those late August frosts are all doomed efforts. (If God does have a Hell in store for gardeners, it would not be an Inferno. It would be the Sysiphusian damnation of living in a Gunnison-like climate and being forced to plant beefsteak tomatoes year after year for the rest of Eternity. Yes, I AM talking about when Hell freezes over!) If you just have to try tomatoes there is a seed company which has started selling seeds for Siberian Tomatoes; maybe they will work. Practically speaking, successfully growing a crop of warm season vegetables in Gunnison requires a large heated greenhouse. Gunnison County Advanced Master Gardener Bob Willey reports having experience during his time touring in central Siberia that tomatoes there are bred to be quick maturing, rather than cold-tolerant. There are many such varieties on the market today – look for tomato varieties that are advertised to mature in 50-70 days.

C. LAYOUT.
There are two basic styles for the layout of residential vegetable gardens: Row Style and Block Style. In row planting, the seeds or transplants are set out in rows separated by pathways. Access to each plant is directly from the garden path. In block style planting, the garden is divided into blocks of plants, and the blocks are surrounded by pathways. Access to an individual plant exists as part of the overall access to the block it is in. In all cases, rows should be oriented north to south, so that plants will get sun all day long – from the east in the morning, south at mid-day and west in the afternoon.

D. WATERING NEEDS.
It is important to group together vegetables with similar water needs. If vegetables which require a lot of water are grouped with other vegetables which like dry soils, then either some vegetables will not receive enough water to thrive and some vegetables will drown in conditions too wet for them. So, at the planning stage, take into account the watering requirements of the vegetables selected for the garden.

E. SPACING NEEDS.
Different vegetables require different space in which to grow. Plant them too closely together and they will not thrive or will yeild less than properly spaced plants. Plant them too far apart and you waste precious gardening space. Seed companies’ catalogues and Internet sites contain much valuable information about the spacing you must provide for maximum success. Follow these recommendations.

Until one gains experience, avoid the temptation to space vegetable plants closer together than the seed company recommends. Overcrowding vegetable plants usually results in REDUCED, rather than increased crop yields and exposes the plants to greater risk from insect pests and diseases. Stated another way, the garden may have more plants, but the yield from each plant will be less.

However, a vegetable gardener can increase yields by (1) creating raised beds and (2) planting in block style rather than row style. In a block style garden layout unnecessary paths and walkways are eliminated and the freed-up space is converted to grow more crops. This style of gardening requires extra organic matter in the soil and constant elimination of weeds. See, CSU CMG GardenNotes #V713
, Block Style Layout in Raised Garden Beds

When space is at a premium, it makes sense to grow vegetables which utilize space most efficiently. Consider bush beans, beets, broccoli rabe, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, chives, leaf lettuce, onions, radishes, snap peas, and turnips. In the case of beans and peas, grow them vertically on a trellis to use space most efficiently. Also, be on the lookout for hidden vegetable gardening opportunities, such as an empty space in a perennial bed where chives or thyme or sage could be planted.

F. ROTATION.
Plan for crop rotation. Vegetables benefit from being rotated from one part of the garden to another every year or two. The two main reasons for vegetable crop rotation are (1) some plants tend to deplete the soil of certain nutrients and the soil where they are grown needs a “rest” to recover and (2) some plant diseases and pests tend to get a better foothold in the garden when the same types of plants are grown in the same place year after year. By rotating crops, the vegetable gardener can do a lot to improve plant health and reduce dependency on chemicals (fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, or bactericides). An additional benefit of crop rotation is that it encourages the home vegetable gardener to keep trying new varieties and new types of vegetables, adding to the fun of the gardening experience.

3. PREPARE THE SOIL.
So far, we have been talking about the cerebral aspects of gardening. Like so many things, planning is key to long-term success. The next crucial step of beginning a vegetable garden is the preparation work that goes into the soil. In Gunnison Country we have a broad range of soils, from sandy to clayey, and everything in between. In general, Gunnison soils are alkaline, not acidic.

Good garden soil is deep, drains well, has organic matter, contains helpful critters such as earthworms and microorganisms, and has a balanced pH and micro nutrients. The soil texture should be loamy, not too clayey or too sandy. A basic test for the texture of the soil can be performed by a homeowner using an empty jar with a lid, such as an old quart canning jar. The procedure can be found at CSU CMG Garden Notes #214, Estimating Soil Texture . Many Gunnison properties have widely different types of soil at various spots, so it can be a mistake to assume that the soil is identical throughout a given property. The vegetable gardener should test each area where a garden might be placed.

The pH, soil texture, nutrient composition, and other matters can be analyzed by a simple and inexpensive soil test, which the staff at the Extension Office can assist you in obtaining from a qualified lab. See CSU Extension Fact Sheet # 0.501 Soil Sampling (Currently under revision). This is an example of money well spent, especially when the test results can save a lot of money on unnecessary fertilizers or identify a specific action necessary for good results. In Gunnison County, the most common deficiencies of important soil elements are nitrogen and, perhaps, phosphorus or iron. Simple and inexpensive fertilizers are available to deal with these needs.

Vegetable garden soil must be amended with ORGANIC MATTER ( I said that loudly because it is so important to success in Gunnison County). Organic matter improves the texture of the soil, enhances the drainage of the soil while at the same time retaining suitable amounts of water for plant use, and provides nutrients for plant growth – which agriculture-types refer to as “tilth”. Many different types of organic matter can be used. Organic matter can be provided from soil amendments from a nursery (expensive) or from your own sources (almost free). See CSU Extension Fact Sheet #7.212, Composting Yard Waste . Most Gunnison gardeners end up using a combination of both sources when establishing a new garden. Unless you are blessed with soil which already has significant organic matter, plan on initially amending your soil with 3 cubic yards of organic matter for every 1,000 square feet of garden area. See CSU Extension Fact Sheet # 7.235, Choosing a Soil Amendment. (NOTE: Chemical fertilizers do not contain organic matter or helpful micro-organisms and therefore do not improve the tilth of garden soil.)

Some soil do’s and don’ts:

Do work your soil amendments into you garden space(s) well in advance of actual planting. It would be optimal to prepare your garden beds in Fall for planting the following Spring. One reason for this is that soils have a structure in a stratified, layered sort of pattern. Whenever you disturb the soil, as when digging and amending the soil, it takes time for this structure to reestablish. Work the soil down at least 8 to 12 inches. If you can, the modified Double Dig method of preparing a garden bed is terrific. If double digging is not practical, using a broadfork to loosen the soil is another option.

Do not rototill the garden into a homogenous dust pit. This over-tilling is very damaging to the structure of the soil (in fact it destroys it) and that soil will require a very long time to recover – probably more than a full growing season in Gunnison’s cool climate. When working soil amendments into a new garden bed with a Rototiller mix in the material at the slowest speed and stops rototilling when the material is just folded in. You should still be able to see the different textures. After initial preparation of the garden bed, rototillers have little business being in the vegetable garden. In order to help the soil structure re-establish itself, many gardeners intentionally leave little patches of undisturbed soil that they “missed” when cultivating.

Do work LOTS of compost into the soil when preparing a new vegetable garden bed or revitalizing an old one. See CSU GardenNotes #243, Using Compost in the Home Garden. Become a home composter. Homemade compost is like gold. It is good for the environment, good for your garden, and good for your pocketbook. Homemade compost is free and every bit as good as the bags of commercial compost. Compost acts as a very slow release fertilizer in addition to its job as a soil amendment. Most Gunnison County gardeners prefer to build their own compost bins rather than buy them. This is another great recycling opportunity.

Do use manure from cattle, which is terrific after it has aged appropriately, and is readily available locally. See CSU CMG GardenNotes #242, Using Manure in the Home Garden. Do not use manure from horses or domestic pets as a fertilizer/soil amendment. Horses do not completely digest their feed, with the result that hay, grass, and weed seeds will pass through a horse’s digestive tract and can be still fully viable in the manure. Pet manures carry parasites and typically do not provide the herbaceous components necessary for use in a garden.

Do thoroughly water the garden soil after you have worked in soil amendments. This helps the soil establish its stratified structure and leaches out some of the counterproductive salts which may be present.

Do not walk in the garden after the soil has been prepared. Foot traffic compacts the soil and reduces the tilth of the soil.

Do not work garden soil when it is wet. It will compact and harden. The best time to work garden soil is when it is slightly damp, like the second day after a good rain or a heavy watering.

Do not exceed the recommended application rates when applying commercial fertilizers, on the theory that “if some is good, lots more is better.” Not only is this a waste of money, but you run the risk of chemically burning your plants, often with fatal results. In fact, many experienced gardeners often use less than the manufacturer’s recommendations when applying fertilizers, usually with entirely satisfactory results. Timing of fertilizer applications is as important as the amount applied. This is an area where experience is important. Many home vegetable gardeners have stopped using chemical fertilizers entirely, preferring to rely on good gardening practices and, if necessary, organic fertilizers.

Do not add wood ashes to Gunnison soils or compost piles. Ashes are highly alkaline, and this is the last thing that Gunnison vegetable gardens need. Also, do not put fresh wood bark or wood chips into Gunnison soils or compost piles because they take a very long time (about five years) to decompose and these materials rob nitrogen from the soil/compost pile.

Once the vegetable garden soil is properly amended, it should be tended with annual applications of additional soil conditioners (i.e., more Organic Matter), because vegetables use up these soil components to create the food we eat. Without periodic supplements, crops will consume the available soil nutrients and deplete the soil. Often, a yearly application of compost is sufficient to revitalize the soil; sometimes a little extra fertilizer can be beneficial. A rule of thumb is to incorporate a 1 inch layer of compost into the vegetable garden every year.

4. SOURCE YOUR SEEDS AND STARTS SMARTLY

Plant the vegetable garden with the best seeds and starts (aka transplants or seedlings) available. A milder climate or a lower altitude may forgive the vegetable gardener who buys cheap seed or seedlings grown in some distant State, but Gunnison Country can be a harsh mistress when you buy her costume jewelry or paste diamonds from a discount megamart. Been there, done that, not going to do it again.

A. GROWING FROM SEEDS.
Growing vegetables from seeds is much cheaper than growing them from seedlings. There are seed companies which specialize in seeds for plants from high altitudes and colder climates. There are seed companies from Colorado which sell seed grown in Colorado. A new trend is the emergence of heirloom seed companies. While these heirloom seed companies do not specifically specialize in high altitude or cold climate plants, they do offer seeds for heirloom vegetables which are often much hardier than modern hybrids and genetically altered vegetables.

Patronize these firms; your vegetable garden will benefit. Many of these companies can be found on the Internet.

B. GROWING FROM TRANSPLANTS.
Seedling starts are more expensive than seeds, but they give the vegetable gardener a head start to get the vegetable garden going in Spring. Using seedlings can extend the Gunnison growing season a little bit because seedlings have a little more time to mature before first Fall frost than plants started from seed at the same time. When you buy seedlings, buy those which were grown by Colorado nurseries. Seedlings from places like Arkansas or California will be very stressed by the time they reach your garden, and some of them will have no hope at all of making the transition from a mild sea level climate to a cool high altitude climate.

C. SAVING SEEDS.
Once you have found vegetables which work well in your garden, you can save money by harvesting your own seeds (unless these come from F1 hybridized plants). Let some of your most vigorous plants go to seed and collect the seeds. Allow the seeds to dry completely and store them in a cool, non-humid location. One idea is to use recycled white paper envelopes for storing the seeds. Label each envelope or container with the plant and variety name and the date harvested. Stored properly, many types of seeds will be “good” for two or three years – although the percentage of the seeds which will germinate will go down each year. You can trade your seeds with other gardeners, truly a win-win deal. Saving seeds from heirloom vegetables is becoming increasingly important.

John Mugglestone at the Gunnison Extension Office is a wizard on seed saving and plant propagation; talk to him. Also refer to CSU Extension Fact Sheets No. 7.602, Saving Seed.

5. GARNER GARDENING EXPERIENCE.
There is no substitute for garnering hands-on experience in the vegetable garden; so jump in and plant one. See what happens. If the harvest the first year is a little meager, figure that that is just part of the learning. Expect some failures and disappointments at the beginning. You can start small, but start. Learning is an on-going process. Even experienced gardeners are always discovering something new and trying something a little different. This is part of the fun. Benefit from the experience of other local gardeners. Join the local garden club. Make friends with the folks with the big vegetable garden on the next block. Talk to Master Gardeners at the Extension Office. Ask questions at your nursery or garden center (where, not surprisingly, many employees are Master Gardeners).

For those who enjoy keeping a personal journal, include your daily observations, successes, and failures in the vegetable garden. Keep track of what varieties of what vegetables you planted. Put in a little rough sketch of the layout where each type of vegetable was planted. Record the sources of the seeds and starts that you used. Evaluate your results. In following years, you can refer back to these journals and make improvements and avoid repeating mistakes. Old-time farmers routinely kept diaries, recording all kinds of information about plants, weather, timing of planting and harvesting, etc. As part of this record keeping, many modern gardeners invest in home weather monitors which record daily highs, lows, barometric readings, and, sometimes, rainfall amounts. Do-it-yourselfers can make their own home weather stations with inexpensive components.

Learn to recognize vegetable garden pests such as aphids, leaf miners, cutworms, beetles, powdery mildew, mosaic virus, thrips, nematodes, root rot, soot, whiteflies, fusarium and vermiculum wilts, and so forth. Learn whether a particular problem is important to the overall health of the vegetable garden – some things are purely cosmetic and do not impact the health of the garden. (Some recent literature even suggests that vegetable plants that fend for themselves have a higher nutrient content than those grown where pesticides are in use.)

The sooner you recognize a pest problem in the garden, the better you can deal with it. Recognizing these problems is largely a matter of experience. If you see a possible problem, and do not know what it is, talk to the Extension Office. Often the Extension Office personnel or volunteer Master Gardeners can identify what is going on and whether anything should be done about it. Also, the Gunnison Extension Office maintains a nice set of reference books on plant and garden problems which the Staff is happy to let you examine. After you review some of these books you will probably want to purchase copies of a few for your own use at home. These can be ordered for you by local bookstores or obtained on the Internet.

6. WATER WISELY.

Much of Gunnison County qualifies as a high desert. The rainfall alone is insufficient to satisfy the needs of most vegetables, which need a consistent amount of water to grow to maturity with maximum size and flavor. Principles of xeric landscaping do not apply to vegetable gardens. This means that the gardener will have to supplement water from rainfall with irrigation in the vegetable garden. However, water conservation practices should still be followed. See, CSU CMG GardenNotes #714, Irrigating the Vegetable Garden, and #716, Water Conservation in the Vegetable Garden.

To conserve water, mulch around the vegetable plants once they have established themselves. The mulch will reduce water loss from evaporation and reduce or eliminate the unwanted plants (weeds) which compete for the available water. Mulch can be things such as grass clippings, straw, leaves, or weighted down newspapers. The best mulches are those which will break down over time and serve as compost for the garden. Also, heavily mulching garden pathways will deter weeds on the paths; this is the appropriate place for mulches such as shredded or chipped bark or inorganic materials (such as shredded tires, etc).

Watering in the middle of the day tends to waste water through evaporation and can cause burning of the plant tissues when water droplets act like little magnifying glasses that focus the sun’s rays too strongly.

The best time to water a garden in Gunnison Country is in the early morning. The next best time is in the evening, but this risks a common Gunnison problem known as powdery mildew (as well as other pests and diseases). Gunnison County’s climate of warm summer days followed by cool nights is the perfect incubator of this fatal disease. Plants that stay wet over night serve as hosts for this disease, the spores of which are always present in our air. So, if you can, water very early in the morning.

The vegetable gardener should not follow a rigid watering schedule. Water only when the vegetable plants actually need water. Often, one type of vegetable will need water and another type will not. When watering, the water should be applied slowly and deeply. The water should be applied at a slow enough rate to avoid runoff out of the garden. Most watering in home gardens is too frequent and too little. Shallow watering encourages shallow rooting and plant weakness. Deep watering encourages deep rooting and plant health and growth. It is time to water when the soil is dry to the touch 2-4 inches down. Try to water at the base of the plants rather than on top of them.

Water long enough that the water gets down to the bottom of the root zone of the vegetable plants. This means that, as the plants grow larger and their roots go deeper, water must be applied for longer times as the growing season progresses in order to reach down to the roots. Garden centers sell inexpensive probes that will give basic information about the water needs in the garden. Once the garden is properly watered, do not water again until the plants need more. This also means that the interval between waterings will vary, depending upon such variables as temperature, rainfall, humidity, cloud cover, and wind. While the hose is out to water the vegetable garden, water the compost pile (trust me).

7. WEED THE WEEDS.
Every garden will have weeds. Weeds will see a beautifully prepared vegetable garden as a free luxury condo in Fort Lauderdale. They will move right in (who wouldn’t?). The reason that weeds are so successful is that they out-compete more desirable plants for water, sunlight, and nutrients. They grow faster, deeper, taller, and meaner than vegetable plants.

There is no way to get around it – a successful vegetable gardener weeds her garden as often as necessary to nip the weeds in the bud. If the soil has been properly prepared, weeding is a much easier process because it is easier to pull or hoe weeds out of the loose and loamy soil. A few minutes weeding as soon as you notice a weed plant will save a lot of time and toil when a weed has had time to establish itself more fully. Caught early enough, weeds can even be added to the compost pile and turned into a benefit for the garden. (Do not, however, compost weeds that have gone to seed or perennial weeds which propagate by stolons or underground runners.)

There are a few simple principles for weeding in the vegetable garden. If you are pulling the weeds, get as much of the roots of the weed as you can (easier when the soil is looser, harder when the soil is compacted or lacks organic matter). Grasp the weed at its base – not the top – and pull slowly and smoothly. If you are hoeing, use a sharp hoe or cultivator and shallowly scrape and loosen the soil around the vegetable plant to cut down weed seedlings before they have a chance to send down deep roots. The best time to weed is after a soaking rain or watering, when the soil is damp but not wet. Think of a weed plant as your mother-in-law: She is a wonderful person, just so long as she does not come to stay at your house (and try to take over everything).

Be very reluctant to use chemical herbicides (weed killers) or any other chemical pesticides in a home vegetable garden. Every year new health risks from these chemicals are being discovered. Such products do have an important place in landscaping, but for vegetables which will be consumed, do not take unnecessary risks. Hand weed or hoe the bad guys and play it safe. In fact, one of the biggest benefits of growing your own vegetables is that you can avoid chemicals which commercial growers use in growing their crops. The home vegetable gardener can afford to be an organic gardener. If chemical pesticides must be used, follow the package instructions about application and harvesting very carefully.

Some weeds are edible. In these cases, you can keep the weeds you pull from the vegetable garden for consumption. Usually, these weeds are used as salad greens. Try purslane with shredded red onion and spicy Italian salad dressing. Master Gardener Bob Willey has an article on edible weeds on this Website. Check it out.

8. USE SEASON EXTENDERS.

Since Gunnison has such a short growing season, most vegetable gardeners hedge their bets by using one or more season extenders. Greenhouses are the classic example, and every vegetable gardener lusts after a big (expensive), heated (expensive) greenhouse (expensive) with running water, potting benches, growing trays, automatic watering systems, and a toasty heater (expensive) (expensive) (expensive). However, cold frames, tunnel covers, raised beds, heat cable, and a variety of other home made and commercial season extenders are used in Gunnison vegetable gardens. Photographs of various season extenders in Dr. David Whiting’s own yard can be seen on CSU CMG GardenNotes #722, Frost Protection and Extending the Growing Season.

The plastic covered tunnels have worked well for many vegetable gardeners in Gunnison County. If the Gunnison gardener can extend the growing season by just two weeks in Spring and two weeks in Fall, this makes available hundreds of vegetable varieties that could not otherwise be grown in Gunnison County. Nothing can beet a season extender, in fact you carrot afford to do without one.

9. PHASE PLANTINGS.

When planting the vegetable garden, it is wise to plant in phases. For example, if all the salad greens are planted at the same time, the greens will all mature at the same time. You may find yourself with twenty lettuces which all mature in the same week. You would have to eat a lot of salads to use up all those greens before they go bad.

Instead of planting everything at once, plant one row (or block) of, for example, lettuce, then wait a week and plant another row, then wait another week and plant another row, and so forth. This technique will produce a continuing harvest of prime vegetables for a longer period of time than just simply planting everything at once. This technique also allows the Gunnison gardener to “bracket” the frosts of Spring and Fall. By planting in phases, the risk of total crop loss from a late Spring frost or an early Fall frost is reduced. (Of course, every few years it does snow on July 4 in Gunnison. The prepared vegetable gardener has a supply of old bed sheets on hand for just such events.)

10. HARVEST WISELY.

Pick vegetables as soon as they reach maturity. Do not wait to harvest ripe vegetables. In Fall, this is playing a game of chicken with the first killing frost. Wait one day too long and all those gorgeous lettuces will be wilted and unappetizing. Herbs do not handle frost well. The vegetables will stop growing and go into decline. Waiting to harvest a mature vegetable also risks a plant “bolting:” when it sets seeds and puts all its energy into them. When vegetable plants bolt, it usually ruins the taste of the vegetable.

If you find you have ripened vegetables in excess of what you can use immediately, consider storing them in a root cellar or other cold storage setup. See, CSU Extension Fact Sheet #7.601, Storage of Home Grown Vegetables. Canning or pickling are two ways to preserve the overabundance of many vegetables. Preserving food is a fun hobby in itself, and a skill cultivated by all the old-time ranch and farm wives in Gunnison Country. Modern gardeners are rediscovering the benefits and enjoyment of preserving nature’s bounty using these traditional techniques.

If you do not wish to can or pickle or put up your excess vegetables, you can share them with friends or contribute them to the GUnnison Farmer’s market to be sold for the benefit of the Gunnison Food Pantry. Freshly picked vegetables not only taste great, but they have much higher nutrient value as compared to produce that has been sitting in a warehouse for several weeks before sale. Your fresh vegetables will be appreciated.

David Apker, Gunnison County Advanced Master Gardener