For several years, we have tried to get any sort of vegetables to grow in a small plot in the yard with no success. For those of you who don’t know we live in what is considered a high altitude, semi-arid region with poor soil. This presents several problems: short growing season, lack of water, and lack of nutrients in the soil. Of course, all of the above together make for a big challenge.
High altitude gardening is nothing short of challenging (we live at ~7000 feet). First, the last average frost date for our area is around June 1 and the average first frost is around September 15 — for those counting, that is 107 days. Not great by any means, but doable. It also could be worse, this chart shows that people in Steamboat have no chance as their average first frost is 13 days after their last frost. Add to this that overnight temperatures are barely over 50 and then daytime temperatures run to 80 quickly and we have some problems. Mostly, warm weather vegetables (cucumbers, etc) are going to be difficult, and bolting types (broccoli) as well. If you care to read more about the perils of mountain gardening, you can go here.
Semi-arid could also present a problem. While we get more precipitation than most of the surrounding area, it is generally in the winter. We average 100 inches of snow (250% more snow than Colorado Springs, 18 miles south of us) in the winter but get little precipitation during the summer months. We also have intense sun and heavy winds which dry things out fast.
And last but certainly not least, the soil here could is useful for little more than making pottery. I am not exaggerating when I tell you it is solid clay. After we moved here, we pulled up a flower bed which had rocks over the top.. The soil was compacted solid down at least a foot (where I stopped tilling). It is also extremely alkaline and devoid of most nutrients.
How to solve? We have tried unsuccessfully for several years and finally found the answer: start seeds indoors and transplant to raised beds using the square foot gardening method.
To start seeds indoors, I used the jiffy greenhouse line to kick start everything. This product works wonders for kickstarting seeds and is extremely simple (a video of the process is on youtube. After germination, I set these up in the basement with a small grow spotlight on a timer. FYI, the plants seem to do much better if you transplant to real soil after they get a few inches high. This worked OK and I got quite a few plants, here is what worked:
- Peas – very well
- Spinach – good
- Lettuce – good
- broccoli – not so well
- cabbage – not so well
- Herbs – abysmal
I think next year I am going to try a few new things as described in this video. First, I am going to lengthen the timer to 16 hours. Second, put two shop lights with the right bulbs in them for better coverage and a heat lamp to get the temperature up in the basement. Lastly, I am going to try the fan trick shown in the video above. Hopefully, I will get better results next year…
For the raised beds, I create a few boxes that fit around a window well on the south side of the house. Construction was easy — I used cedar fencing (the wide slats) and a 4×4 cedar post. I just built a rectangle two planks high with the post to secure everything. Then we put in a mixture of sheep compost, topsoil, and perlite.
Irrigation was simple with the magical invention of drip irrigation. I already had the main line run for some other flower beds, so I merely created a grid in the bed using 1/4 inch soaker hose. I will say that the soaker hose out of the box did not get the coverage I wanted (I put them in parallel lines) so I did a little field modification using the tip of my pocket knife to add holes at the appropriate places. This was a little voodoo magic to line everything up, but the result was very good coverage.
So, enough writing, the results are on the right side. This is just one of the three raised beds I built and as you can see, most things are doing well. Here is what is growing:
- Peas
- Peppers
- Cabbage
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Romaine
- Lettuce
- Beans
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Carrots
- Herbs (dill, basil, coriander)
- strawberries
- raspberries
- pumpkins
Of all of these, I would say the peas, lettuce, and cabbage are doing the best. We have harvested several peas and many, many flowers are there so we should have a bounty. On the cabbage side, things are going OK — the heads are forming albeit a little slow. I have cut some of the huge outer leaves and we cook them in butter, salt, and pepper (which is quite tasty even for a non-cabbage lover). The bibb lettuce is also doing great. Have already had 4 harvests of the largest leaves and the lettuce continues to grow…
