Colorado Garden

Hi, I live in Colorado and garden, gonna start a thread for my gardening here, this year I have big plans, I just made repairs on my sprinkler system hopefully it works. I am mainly looking for advice on how to stop tilling my land, it's so damn hard in the ground here all my neighbors that garden all till each year and compost organic material into their tilling,i also been tilling each year and amending as much as possible. I am unsure if I can do no till cause each year the ground freezes here. Thanks.

I'm subbed. Sorry I can't answer your question, this will be my first year doing a garden and I'm starting with raised beds. I would eventually like to go all out so I wanted to hear any advice you get and hear from another CO gardener. Just thinking about it though, why wouldn't you be able to do a no till? I mean, probably have to wait till the ground thaws but that would still give you enough time, no?

Yodaweed said:

Hi, I live in Colorado and garden, gonna start a thread for my gardening here, this year I have big plans, I just made repairs on my sprinkler system hopefully it works. I am mainly looking for advice on how to stop tilling my land, it's so damn hard in the ground here all my neighbors that garden all till each year and compost organic material into their tilling,i also been tilling each year and amending as much as possible. I am unsure if I can do no till cause each year the ground freezes here. Thanks.

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I used raised beds in Denver. Base of topsoil over laid with about 14" of rols. So far just need slight amending each year. No till.

Here's some pictures from last year

Here's some purple weed I grew.

Im try a section without tilling. Using carrots and onions and alfalfa on a different. We will see.

My first year trying gardening in CO. Check out a documentary called "Back to Eden", be warned guy talks biblical verses evey other sentace haha, but the gardening info is pretty interesting.
Guy covers his soil with mulch and wood chips and never tils. I'm giving it a try this year

I'm trying some no till this year, I had people dropping off tons of leaves last fall. I dumped a bunch of them in a fenced in 14x20 spot which had originally been tilled up but had gotten very weedy and I don't own a tiller. I have about a foot of leaves over most of it. Now I'm starting to put a layer of compost on top of that and planting stuff like lettuce in it. I'm going to try to get a truckload of wood chips here soon to use as mulch around the plants. From what I understand you just keep building these layers up year after year. and you end up with a great rich soil as it all breaks down.

So the plan is to mostly move to this no till sort of thing and raised beds, done digging up garden spots. I'm thinking it might take a few years to get the no till thing into full swing but maybe not.

Hey all... big into gardening, always have been... not in CO though, out East... I was surfing the gardening threads and saw some here talking no till... maybe you have already read about this, maybe you haven't.. but I am gonna try some straw bale growing this year in a no till area.. just so happens I have a few dozen bales around that I was going to till in, but figured I would try planting in them instead... one quick link.. http://strawbalegardens.com/faqs/1-what-is-straw-bale-gardening

No this isnt my garden..but probably how it will look... just thought it was cool and wanted to share... happy growing..

Mount said:

Hey all... big into gardening, always have been... not in CO though, out East... I was surfing the gardening threads and saw some here talking no till... maybe you have already read about this, maybe you haven't.. but I am gonna try some straw bale growing this year in a no till area.. just so happens I have a few dozen bales around that I was going to till in, but figured I would try planting in them instead... one quick link.. http://strawbalegardens.com/faqs/1-what-is-straw-bale-gardening View attachment 3644814

No this isnt my garden..but probably how it will look... just thought it was cool and wanted to share... happy growing..

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Thanks for the share !!!! i am going to look into this.

Mount said:

Hey all... big into gardening, always have been... not in CO though, out East... I was surfing the gardening threads and saw some here talking no till... maybe you have already read about this, maybe you haven't.. but I am gonna try some straw bale growing this year in a no till area.. just so happens I have a few dozen bales around that I was going to till in, but figured I would try planting in them instead... one quick link.. http://strawbalegardens.com/faqs/1-what-is-straw-bale-gardening View attachment 3644814

No this isnt my garden..but probably how it will look... just thought it was cool and wanted to share... happy growing..

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I've seen a couple different people I know try the straw bale thing with disappointing results but I don't think they spent enough time and effort preparing the bales.

Dave's Not Here said:

I've seen a couple different people I know try the straw bale thing with disappointing results but I don't think they spent enough time and effort preparing the bales.

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I was wondering the same thing... could it work, would it work, what works best..but I figured since the bales I have were sitting around for about a year now they are probably pretty broken down inside so maybe they are "just right"... never know but when the darn weather gets a bit warmer, I will let you know.

I got so many plants vegging inside waiting to go into the ground, like 5-6 different types of peppers (hottest is habanero) 4 different types of tomatoes, lots of Brussel sprouts, broccoli, latham raspberries and cabbage, also started some flowers and a second variety of strawberries(alpine). This is gonna be a good year, hope this cold weather lets up soon I want to get these cole family into the ground asap.

Mount said:

I was wondering the same thing... could it work, would it work, what works best..but I figured since the bales I have were sitting around for about a year now they are probably pretty broken down inside so maybe they are "just right"... never know but when the darn weather gets a bit warmer, I will let you know.

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I'm not trying to dissuade you, I think you should try it and share your results. The people I know that tried it aren't master gardeners or anything, but maybe not put all your chickens in the straw bale basket. If you want to break them down more before planting get them under a tarp and keep them moist, maybe even throw a couple gallons of piss on each bale to help get them composting.

Dave's Not Here said:

I'm not trying to dissuade you, I think you should try it and share your results. The people I know that tried it aren't master gardeners or anything, but maybe not put all your chickens in the straw bale basket. If you want to break them down more before planting get them under a tarp and keep them moist, maybe even throw a couple gallons of piss on each bale to help get them composting.

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I never put all my eggs in one basket...haha... learned that at an early age... appreciate the advice...

Yodaweed said:

Hi, I live in Colorado and garden, gonna start a thread for my gardening here, this year I have big plans, I just made repairs on my sprinkler system hopefully it works. I am mainly looking for advice on how to stop tilling my land, it's so damn hard in the ground here all my neighbors that garden all till each year and compost organic material into their tilling,i also been tilling each year and amending as much as possible. I am unsure if I can do no till cause each year the ground freezes here. Thanks.

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I don't live in Colorado, I live further east about two to three states over and the ground gets COLD. I'd suggest using alfalfa and buckwheat to till up your land. Throw it in an area you want to grow in this spring, let it grow out over the summer and winter and next year you should have a nicely tilled spot.

I just pulled alfalfa from one of my beds today and the roots were ridiculous on these things.. Around 18 inches long. Just got my butternut squash seedlings planted. Broccoli and tomatoes tomorrow, followed by bulbs. I love April

MistaRasta said:

I don't live in Colorado, I live further east about two to three states over and the ground gets COLD. I'd suggest using alfalfa and buckwheat to till up your land. Throw it in an area you want to grow in this spring, let it grow out over the summer and winter and next year you should have a nicely tilled spot.

I just pulled alfalfa from one of my beds today and the roots were ridiculous on these things.. Around 18 inches long. Just got my butternut squash seedlings planted. Broccoli and tomatoes tomorrow, followed by bulbs. I love April

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Not to mention, worms and bulbs will do a very good job at tilling your land as well. If you don't want to deal with harvesting or anything use daikon radishes. I've read great things.

MistaRasta said:

Not to mention, worms and bulbs will do a very good job at tilling your land as well. If you don't want to deal with harvesting or anything use daikon radishes. I've read great things.

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I was just tilling my garden and planting some grape plants, I must have killed at least 10 huge earthworms accidently while tilling, they were giant, I think night crawlers. We expecting a snow tomorrow I hope all my plants are alright I already got out 2 grape plants , 2 blueberries, 1 raspberry, some cabbage and lots of carrots I just planted. Also did some fordhook giant chard and mustard greens I hope that grows.

Yodaweed said:

I got so many plants vegging inside waiting to go into the ground, like 5-6 different types of peppers (hottest is habanero) 4 different types of tomatoes, lots of Brussel sprouts, broccoli, latham raspberries and cabbage, also started some flowers and a second variety of strawberries(alpine). This is gonna be a good year, hope this cold weather lets up soon I want to get these cole family into the ground asap.

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put up little hoop house.pvc cheap

Yodaweed said:

I was just tilling my garden and planting some grape plants, I must have killed at least 10 huge earthworms accidently while tilling, they were giant, I think night crawlers. We expecting a snow tomorrow I hope all my plants are alright I already got out 2 grape plants , 2 blueberries, 1 raspberry, some cabbage and lots of carrots I just planted. Also did some fordhook giant chard and mustard greens I hope that grows.

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I hate tilling the garden an seeing allthe cut up worms.havnt ased my tiller in garden in few years.only time I use now is when expanding.i now turn by hand fork, one row at a time