A Decade of Gardening Part I - a Look Back

A decade of gardening has come and gone. That means countless homegrown tomatoes have been sandwiched, canned, pickled, dried or frozen. Smiles have graced gardener's faces watching the earliest spring bulbs pop from frozen landscapes on into summer's reveal of flowers, striking foliage and fabulous fall color. 
  
Maybe that's being too positive as to what actually happened from 2010 through 2019. I can't help myself when it comes to one of my favorite past time activities.

How about we agree that in Colorado, specifically along the Front Range - the last ten years of gardening might be summed it in one sentence (quoted by someone famous that I can't seem to find or remember) - "parts of it I liked and parts of it I didn't." 

Parts not Liked (of course, the weather) -

You may recall the severe hot summers of 2012 and 2018, where both years had over sixty days (May through Sept.) in the nineties and very dry June and August months. 😩

May 29, 2015 - Potatoes in Smart Pot loved the Rain and Cool!

Hot, dry summers are memorable but more of the norm around Denver. What I won't forget are the summers of 2011 and 2015 and all the precipitation at the beginning of the outdoor growing season. 

Both years had snowy and rainy Mays making it difficult for seed sowing and transplanting. In July of 2011 we had well over five inches of rain. In June of 2015 we had close to three inches of rain and things didn't dry out until mid July. Both seasons were great for growing potatoes and scouting the morning trails of slug slime. Tomato plants sulked and decided that whatever fruit matured came down with a fungus or bacteria or both. 😣 

Gardeners know that weather events often inconvenience anticipated planting schedules and expectations. "Whatta 'ya gonna do."  

November 10, 2014 at 9:00 am 55 degrees

When we're dealt extreme hail or temperature swings, everyone, not just gardeners are left commiserating and adversely effected - usually in the pocket book to replace plants. The flash freeze, also called polar vortex or extreme bomb cyclone days from November 11 to 16 of 2014 are hard to forget. Fruit trees won't either. The months and days leading up to this week were warm and dry. Daytime temperatures from November 1 to 10 were breezing along in the fifties and sixties. On November 10 in just mere hours we went from 66 degrees to 14 degrees. Then it plummeted to minus 6, minus 4 and minus 8 for three nights. Days were in the low teens. If our plants could have talked to us, they would have literally said "what in this flora, fauna world are you doing to us?!!"  

We know the aftermath, it wasn't pretty. Many plants (not all) were damaged or died, they just weren't prepared for such a severe, long lasting cold slap in the buds, stems, root hairs, xylem and phloem. Many have written about this event, read here and here for a refresher.  Other (lesser) weather related plunges took place in October and March of 2019. 

November 11, 2014 3:00 pm 17 Degrees

It wouldn't be an accurate ten year garden reflection blog without a mention of the close to half of the Mother's Day or Mother's Day weekend snow or cold temperatures that ruined freshly planted petunias and peppers.

Liked Parts - 

We welcomed the cutest four legged puppy family member to our home in August of 2010. Ferris was ten pounds of joy and trouble. As any new puppy owner can relate, they chew on everything, then they find more things to chew. We're thankful he didn't take to shoes early on and never has. 

He lost his puppy coat of brown and grey within the first year and has maintained his wheaten soft coat color that bears his breed name. Ferris Jem Cahill, our thirty-five pound best friend for walking around the park, riding in a car, meets every friend and visitor to our house with this breed's signature "wheaten greetin."   

Ferris enjoys being outside with me while gardening. Of Irish heritage, wheaten terriers were bred for vermin hunting, guarding the chicken coop and herding. We find he's best at keeping the yard free of cats, squirrels and rabbits (that we thankfully fenced out a few years ago). He loves the snow!

In Part II I'll touch on our landscape projects, favorite plants and garden surprises.