I ran around the garden this weekend, harvesting whatever I could before today’s snow hit.
Fun items this year included the green, curly squashes in the middle, Zucchino Rampicante (they spread everywhere), Brad’s (psychedelic) Cherry Tomatoes, Connecticut Field Pumpkin all from RareSeeds.com.
The New Zealand Spinach, from EdenBrothers.com (great eating, great for weed control, doesn’t mind the Colorado summer heat), is peeking out of the lower left corner and was an amazing new find. You just cut the stems and pluck off the leaves and it cooks down like regular spinach. Unlike regular spinach, it keeps coming back!
Benary’s Giant Zinnias (JohnnySeeds.com), and sunflowers (old seed packets I picked up locally on sale, plus old JohnnySeeds) make me smile every year. One of the young Stanley Plum trees purchased four or five years ago from Fossil Creek Nursery went “plum crazy” as did the basil, a free gift from one of the seed companies.
This marked a difficult growing season at our (Colorado Front Range) place with Covid-19 seed shortages, mid-May freezes, wildfires to the west dropping ash on us, broken underground irrigation lines, wildlife eating the tomatoes and pumpkins, swarms of grasshoppers eating leaves and today’s early September snow.
I learned not to mix vegetables and sunflowers. The big guys are too much competition for the littler plants. Also, sticking many seeds in the ground is a lot more fun and easier than transplanting baby plants nurtured indoors and having them die off due to late spring snows. Yesterday, in a fit of hope, I threw my old hay tarps over what I could of the garden. Later this week, I plan a treasure hunt for post-snow harvest survivors.
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