Northern Colorado Zone 5 – Seed Starting & Transplanting Guide
Check out our Zone 5 seed starting & transplanting calendar created by one our many talented & passionate Home Grown Food volunteers.
This handy little planting calendar shows when to start seeds indoors, when to direct sow seeds outside, and when to transplant your seedlings outside.
You can download and print the guide and stick it on the fridge as a handy reminder. If you are coming to our Seed Swap on Sat March 1st, we always have plenty of postcard size guides on hand to give away.
Home Grown Food is a passionate volunteer group of local gardeners who grow our own fruits and vegetables in Colorado gardening Zones 5a & 5b.
What we do:
- Give public talks on growing your own food.
- Sponsor public workshops to educate the community members.
- Maintain a Google Group for ongoing discussion and resource lists.
- Hold monthly discussion groups on gardening and local food topics.
- Coordinate publicity and car pools to out-of-town events.
- Work with and through local media to provide perspectives promoting local food issues.
- Mentor new gardeners.
No Dig / Lasagna Gardening
No-Dig Beds, Lasagna Beds, Compost Beds…. whatever you call it, this method is excellent for creating a quick, thick garden bed of humus-laden, water retaining, nutrient-rich, organic soil for your vegetables.
» Learn more…
Lasagna Garden Materials
This illustration is a cross section view of what a completed Lasagna garden might be made of. The basic principal is to use alternating layers of “Brown” and ”Green” organic materials. Brown materials are high in Carbon. Green materials are high in Nitrogen. » Learn more…
5 Steps to Creating a Lasagna Garden
Lasagna Gardening – Step 1
Choose a sunny site and pre-soak the ground. Mark off an area 4′ x 8′ or 4′ x 12′ and cover with overlapping wet cardboard or a thick layer of wet newspaper. This layer will kill grass and weeds. » Learn more…
Events
2014 High Plains Landscape Workshop
• The Lincoln Center
• Sat. Feb. 22, 2014
• 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $44, $49, $59 (lunch included)
Speaker Sessions include: Organic Vegetable Gardening on Colorado’s High Plains by Jane Shellenberger, who is the publisher/editor of Colorado Gardener which she founded in 1997 and author of Organic Gardener’s Companion, Growing Vegetables in the West (Fulcrum Books, 2012).
Discover techniques for successfully growing tasty vegetables varieties in our challenging, semi-arid environment, while understanding your garden as part of a larger whole, including as habitat for pollinators and other critters. Learn how to create living, breathing soil that provides healthy growing conditions for a range of vegetable varieties.
Keynote Speaker:
Kelly Norris, named a “rising star” of horticulture by Organic Gardening.
Organized by Fort Collins Utilities, Larimer County Cooperative Extension, and the Gardens on Spring Creek
Online registration is at fcgov.com, or call-in registration is 416-2486.
Season Extender Workshop
The Growing Project
These can be easy, inexpensive ways to grow more! In this workshop you will learn about various season extenders and how to use them in the Fort Collins climate. Participants will help build a season extender that will be given to TGP.
Please join us February 22nd from 1-3 pm at 4331 Mill Creek Ct, Fort Collins. Food will be provided!
You must RSVP to dana@thegrowingproject.org. Space is limited!
Cost: $10 or 2 hours of volunteer work to benefit TGP.
Filari Farm High Tunnel Greenhouse Tour
Sat February 1, 2014, from 1-3 p.m. – FULL
Sat January 25, 2014, from 1-3 p.m. – FULL
Come see how to do year-round growing in northern Colorado, using high tunnels.
Sandy Charles of Filari Farm is using and comparing three different systems:
The first is a subterranean heated system with a frost free foundation. This is by far the most successful, since the warmer air from inside the tunnel is forced into a series of pipes underground, (sometimes referred to as a “heat battery”) so the soil never freezes and greens grow continuously.
The second system employs just the frost free foundation, and the third is simply a high tunnel. All have inflated 6 mil plastic for insulation and stability.
She grows a variety of Asian greens, arugula, spinach, mustard and lettuces, as well as several herbs.
Come and learn about the tunnels, help harvest some greens and ask any questions.
A $5 fee will be charged, or in lieu of money you can do an hour of volunteer work for The Growing Project or Home Grown Food, the co-sponsors of this event.
Please RSVP to info@thegrowingproject.org
