COLORADO SOIL STRUCTURE + AMENDMENTS

WELCOME TO COLORADO: A HIGH ALPINE DESERT

The “high alpine desert” (high and dry) zone of our Colorado front range means that the soil here is typically a rocky compacted clay, deficient in nitrogen or other nutrients. The soil here has a high “alkaline” pH of 7.0 - 8.3, due to the high amount of calcium carbonate (free lime), a reflection of limited rainfall and rock weathering.

To adjust for this, here are the elements we can easily add to this soil to make it more hospitable and to support your garden beauty and bounty.

START HERE + BRING YOUR SOIL TO LIFE

In perennial beds, after spring clean up, and before adding seeds or starts, it is highly recommend to:

1) OPTIONALLY Aerate or till the existing raised bed soil. In a raised bed specifically designated for use as a vegetable garden, it can be difficult to apply a no-till practice. In this case, it’s fine to balance structure and provide nutrients by adequately loosening up and amending the soil.

BALANCE YOUR SOIL STRUCTURE WITH THESE ELEMENTS

2) Add a moisture-retaining element such as rice hulls, pearlite, or vermiculite (expanded shale). If you want to support a local reseller, these are available at McGuckins. The volume needed will depend on your square footage as well as any unique microclimate influences of note.

The gardener’s goal here is to create a loamy soil strucure (an equal balance of sand/silt/clay). We’re going for the “goldilock’s zone” of not too heavy, not too light, but just right, with good moisture retention. Here’s how to identify what general soil type you may be working with and now to balance it:

→ DENSE DIRT OR CLAY Most of the Front Range of CO has dense or clay dirt masquerading as soil. So, if you soil is overly dense, compacted, or has a high clay content, you’ll want to lighten it up. For this, you can use rice hulls, pearlite, and/or vermiculite. These elements act to retain moisture by wicking and dispersing, making it available to the roots in a more even distribution over a longer period. Coconut coir and spanghum moss also provide a lighter weight to the surrounding soil media thus aerating and lifting the density.

→ SANDY SOIL If your soil is too sandy or dry dusty silt, water may run through it too fast, or it may not cultivate the density necessary to support the kind of microbial activity that will truly nourish your plant roots. So you’ll want to create more moisture retention and build up the structure slightly. In this situation, coconut coir acts as a fine moisture retention element, or you could use vermiculite for even more retention. Consider removing a % of the existing media and/or adding raised bed soil to bring the structure into balance.

For moisture balance, remember this general rule of thumb: Use rice hulls, coconut coir or perlite when you want better drainage and aeration. Use vermiculite when you want more moisture retention.

What’s Your Starting Soil Type?

Use Amendments To Balance Soil Structure

Here’s What A Healthy Balance Might Look Like

NEXT FERTILIZE YOUR SOIL WITH

COMPOST + NUTRIENTS

There is a difference between soil and dirt. Dirt can be any media such as sand/silt/clay, but it lacks the living microbes or fungal networks that create the ‘soup’ of life within which plant roots symbiotically thrive. Soil, on the other hand, can have a base of the same media, yet it is ALIVE, providing a living soup for such organisms. Soil has a balanced structure, density, and most importantly: the biodiversity necessary to support a living eco-system thriving within. Here’s how to build biodiversity and healthy structure into your Colorado soil:

COMPOST

3) Add a volume of organic compost suitable for vegetable or medicinal garden use. Start by adding a layer to the top of the exposed soil and then mixing it in. Great composts to use can be anything from Alpaca or Chicken poop from your local farm (make sure it’s not too “hot”), to bagged compost. Here are our recommended bagged planting soil blends, available at local suppliers such as McGuckins:

• The Bomb — by Paonia Soil Co

• Sheep ‘n Peat — by Earth Essentials

• Ocean Forest — by Fox Farm

FERTILIZERS

4) Add nutrients that help plants grow. Your typical fertilizers will have a blend of Nitrogen—Phosphorus—Potassium (N-P-K). Together these provide a spectrum that meets plant needs. You can also add other natural elements such as worm castings, bat guano, fish or kelp emulsion, blood or bone meal. Keep in mind that each of these has their own ratio, so make sure it’s what your plant needs before applying. We recommend the following brands:

• Root | Grow | or Bloom — by Age Old Organics

• Hemp Dress — by Key To Life

BOOST SOIL BIO-DIVERSITY

5) Add mycorrhizae (a fungus that grows in association with the roots of a plant) for help with nutrient uptake to help plants and ecosystem grow. Establishing this root-based systemic network is essential in that it helps plants attract and absorb nutrients from the surrounding soil that its roots alone would not be able to draw up. It’s like ‘nature’s wifi’— helping connect the neighborhood bio-chemically through the soil. Nature takes time to build this, and we can help speed it up by introducing the mycorrhizae.

• Mycorrrhizae — by Big Foot

ADD WATER SLOWLY AS YOU MIX YOUR SOILS

6) Slow water. Let the amendments soak down with slow watering (to avoid fast runoff) before planting. Soaking, rather than spraying, will give your soil time to sink in and begin to come to life. Make sure the water soaks deeply down and doesn’t just sit in the top few inches of your soil.

PLANT YOUR SEEDS + STARTS

7) Now your seed and starts are ready to be planted. By nurturing the soil before planting, you increase the success rate of your introduction, robustness, and longevity of your new plants, as well as contribute to a healthier ecosystem.

Additional Natural Products

CLICK HERE FOR A FULL LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS

for horticultural and vegetable gardens

Learn To Grow - What To Know

Want Hands-On DIY Learning Sessions and Small Seasonal Classes?

COME VISIT US AT GEOFLOWER FARM IN NORTH BOULDER !!!

CLICK FOR MORE DETAILS

Click for more details at our north boulder location @ Geoflower Farm

Plant A Living Guild To Support Your Crabapple Tree

Here is a sample Fruit Tree Guild (plant list) for your yard - Compliments of Rebecca

Our plant recommendations are selected with your microclimate in mind— including sun, soil, and water conditions, species variety, seasonal fruiting or bloom times, companion planting, nitrogen fixers, pollinator attractors, natural pest resistance, aesthetics and overall balance. With over a decade in the industry working on the front range in this high alpine zone, we believe these selections are well suited to bring your garden to life. Planting can be partly intuitive and also counter intuitive. If you have any additional questions, just reach out.

Garden Maintenance

PLANT ID’S

How To Artfully Train Your Flowering Vine

This is how a wisteria might look when artfully trained along the side of a building. Beautiful! Let it grow loosely so there will be room for your exterior to be painted or updated around the vine as needed.

FYI Toxicity

Wisteria is poisonous to humans and pets. All parts of the wisteria plant are toxic, but the seeds and pods are the most harmful as that is where the plant contains the most concentration. The toxins are lectin, and wisterin glycoside.

To keep everyone safe, you can create a safe-zone with artful garden gates or DIY playpens.

WISTERIA

Wisteria is a climbing flowering vine that looks great on pergolas and around garden borders. Common varieties grown in Colorado are the Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and the Texas Purple Wisteria (Wisteria floribunda), the latter of which yours may be.

Fertilizing In the spring, fertilize wisteria with a high-phosphorus fertilizer to promote growth and flowering. Avoid nitrogen fertilizers because wisteria is a member of the pea family, which can fix nitrogen naturally.

It produces seed pods in late summer and fall. The pods hang from the vine, similar to peas, and can contain fuzzy or smooth seeds. IN FALL, it is useful, especially on a young wisteria, to save a few dried seed pods and then take the rest off. This helps direct the energy back into flowering and growth for next year.

Exploding pods Fun fact: Wisteria seed pods can explode with enough force to sound like rocks being thrown at a garage. This helps disperse the seeds away from the parent plant, ensuring they have enough sunlight and nutrients

Pruning Prune wisteria twice a year, in July/August and January/February. In winter, prune leader shoots back to four or five buds. Remove suckers that appear at the base of the plant. 

How do buds survive the Colorado winter?

Next year’s leaves and spring-blooming flowers have already formed and are hidden inside the buds of deciduous trees around the garden. So how do these tender plant parts survive sub-freezing temperatures? Many are protected by tough, weatherproof bud scales, which fall off in spring when temperatures rise and the buds get ready to burst open and grow.

The bud scales of magnolia trees are particularly showy. They are covered with soft, silver hairs that look a little bit like a fur coat (similar to a pussy willow bud) and help insulate the them from the cold.

Lily or Tulip Magnolia

MAGNOLIA LILIFLORA (botanical name)

Size Lily magnolias can grow up to 4 meters tall. 

Flowers Their blooms are large, showy pink to purple flowers that bloom in early spring. 

Eco System Lily magnolias are deer resistant, fragrant, and attract hummingbirds. They have moderate water needs and prefer full sun.

Pests Lily magnolias are susceptible to some diseases and insects, including powdery mildew, coral spot, or gray mold. Late frosts can also damage the flowers.

Care These trees thrive in full sun and moderate water with good drainage.

Purple Heart

TRADESCANTIA PALLIDA (botanical name)

To grow Purple Heart in Colorado, plant it in a location with bright, indirect sunlight, use well-draining soil, water moderately allowing the top inch to dry out between waterings, and protect it during colder months as it's not fully hardy in most parts of the state; Consider growing it as a houseplant during winter or planting it in a container that can be brought indoors when temperatures drop.

FREE Tree Care guide with Plant Talk Colorado

TIPS FOR YOUR APRICOT TREE

This link takes you to a separate website where you will find both a fact sheet— and a free database— including more How-To videos, and timely information on your choice of horticultural topics for growing on the Colorado front range.

Sponsored by Colorado State University Extension, Denver Botanic Gardens, and Green Industries of Colorado. 

Natural Weeding Options

Click these separate links to read more or find out DIY tips

• Best Applications for Vinegar DIY

• Pulverize Weed Killer (Natural) Recommended Product

• Steam Weeding by local company Edaphic Solutions Service

Local Nurseries + Vendors We Recommend

GEOFLOWER FARM + CSA — NORTH BOULDER 

GROWING GARDENS — BOULDER

THE FLOWER BIN — LONGMONT 

BBB SEED COMPANY — BOULDER

Rebecca's Gardens partners with A Good Earth Maintenance for installations through TLC, True Land Collective, a client-to-contractor hub featuring a niche group of trustworthy reliable small businesses.

We proudly work with longstanding local contractors and artisans who are masters of their trade, aligning projects and purpose for smoother communication and fit.

Our wisdom and work with native plants, cultivation, and maintenance is directly translated throughout the installation process, ensuring we do our best to communicate and instill the needs of your landscape ground the ground up.

We visualize and build to suit your dreams and budget in alignment with native ecological factors.

“Small or Grand, you're in good hands.”

Garden Inquiry: Why do squirrels eat the bark off a fruit tree?

Squirrels may primarily eat the bark of fruit (or other) tree to access the nutritious cambium layer underneath the bark, which is rich in sugars and nutrients, or to satisfy a nutrient deficiency. Rather than actually eating the bark itself; they often strip away the outer bark to reach this layer, especially when food sources are scarce or during the winter months when other food options are limited; this behavior is also sometimes used to maintain their teeth by gnawing on the bark.

Recommendation: Put out a cute squirrel feeder during fall and winter months, separate from the bird feeders. Side benefit may include the joy of observing their cute antics.

Click Here To Check Out This: SQUIRREL PICNIC TABLE

We’re so excited for your gardening journey this season! May your plants and hearts grow in abundance, wisdom, and joy. May you learn from experimentation and celebrate your adventures. And just like Life, gardening is a Journey… just remember that who we become, what we create, and how we enjoy the process on the way to our destination is the real treasure. So try something new, do your best, and you know where to reach me if you need any help, have any questions, or want to try out your ideas along the way. Enjoy the gift of every season!

~ Rebecca

A Fun Harvest Mid-season 2020

Tasty ground cherries