Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Volunteers get down and dirty to protest pesticides
Sofia Joffe, 9, left, and Amaya Baccellieri, 10, pull weeds in a garden area of Foothills Community Park on Tuesday afternoon. | John Weller
Plants stolen from school’s educational veggie garden
How do you get the lamest street-cred ever? You steal plants from an elementary school’s educational vegetable garden.
The Smith Renaissance School of the Arts, located in northeast Denver, got plant-burgled recently, but is rising above it.
Two weeks ago, on a Friday, the students planted the seedlings and others that were donated. The following Monday, the plants were gone.
“One student wondered if it was a clever rabbit,” said Lindsay McNicholas, the school’s resource advocate. “It was deflating. We had just planted them. We didnt even make it 72 hours.”
Read the rest of the story at The Denver Post. Or check out photos of the students replanting the Smith Renaissance School of the Arts vegetable garden.
Got a lawn? Think green
Yes, homeowners, it’s time to think about your lawn. If you need a big patch for kids and dogs to romp on, make sure they’re not getting a dose of pesticides along with the fresh air.
Here’s a story by the Camera’s Mark Collins on how to take care of your big green expanse.
Brad Wolfe of Organo-Lawn sprays clove oil, a natural weed killer, on a lawn in north Boulder.
If you haven’t cut your lawn by now, you’re probably walking through calf-high grass. Spring has sprung, and the following are tips to green up your lawn care habits this year.
Weed early
When it comes to attacking unwanted weeds, “the sooner the better,” said Brad Wolfe, owner of Boulder’s Organo-Lawn lawn care company. “The longer you wait, the more hardened the weeds get.”
Wolfe’s company is the first in the area to use an organic weed control product, One Earth Weed Control.
Wolfe said Organo-Lawn was instrumental in making the organic clove-based product a selective weed-control product.
“That means it will kill the weeds, but not the grass (upon application),” Wolfe said.
He said the product works quickly on many types of weeds.
“It will kill certain thistle and dandelion in no time,” Wolfe said.
Balcony garden step one: “growing” my dirt in a compost bin
Hey! It’s a guest post from the Camera’s Allison Barrett!
Allison
A few months ago I moved into a quiet apartment that had one amazing feature: A large balcony. We aren’t talking 4′ x 9′ or even 5′ x 10. We are talking a 6′ by 25′ balcony that had so many possibilities that the mind boggled.
I happened to move in next to a green thumb and, throughout the cold winter months, before she ran off to Arizona, we devised greater and greater plans for what to do with my space. Her balcony, even in the dead of winter, was a warm, cozy place with chairs spaced appropriately for company and gardening pots and tools carefully placed on the side, ready to be used again as soon as it was time.
Why compost?
So these grandiose plans came down to one simple fact: I needed dirt. Three options arose.
First, sneak out and “borrow” dirt from neighboring homes in the dead of night. Second, buy dirt from a dirt store. Third, and the most enticing, make dirt. Create compost using all the organic materials left around after making a meal, coffee and reading the newspaper!
The first one would land me in jail, the second was not very appealing due to a small budget and even smaller ambition to carry large bags of dirt up to the second floor where my apartment was located. The last one made the most sense. Eco-friendly, cost-effective and hey, I have a balcony, I have plenty of room to “grow” dirt. Read more
DIY trellis: cheap, strong, makes a good Scottish ale
Patrick Doyle made this trellis with lead spun from Thor's loom or something. I don't know, just click through and find out how yourself.
OK, actually, the trellis here won’t make any beer for you at all. The fellow who made the trellis however, Patrick Doyle, will be a strong candidate for Vanity Fair’s “Awesome Gentlemen” issue in about 25-30 years, and does make a good beer.
Here’s what he has to say about his newest design for urban gardening — the Most Indestructible Trellis Ever 2.0:
Introducing the Most Indestructible Trellis Ever 2.0, which is so strong, I’m confident I could grow watermelons and pumpkins on it. (Which I’m not planning on doing, but it’s that beastly.) All that stainless steal is just gorgeous.
Looks awesome. I’m going to grow bowling balls and anvils for my famous Most Inedible Chili Ever recipe.
Check out the specs over at Grown In The City.
Successful DIY upside-down tomato planter
The talented Nick Switzer completed a DIY upside-down tomato planter according to specs from a plan we posted here earlier — a great gift for Mother’s Day.
You can do it, too!
Hope Mom loved it, Nick!
DIY terraced planter construction complete!
It's built, it's re-enforced, it's painted. So where's the sunshine?
You may recall that a while ago, I started working on a DIY terraced urban farm, which is my fancy-talk for four shelves on which we’re going to put containers.
The idea was that I wanted an attractive, mostly out-of-the-way place to put plants so they’d get sun that they need — while also protecting them a bit from the high Colorado winds that we get. (If you hear faint tink-a-tink chimes from the north in Boulder, duck; it’s not an ice cream truck — it’s my neighbor’s wind chimes migrating south at about 70 mph.) Read more
Boulder spring plant sales: it’s on!
Carol O’Meara, gardening columnist and host of stellar gardening in Colorado tips videos, pulled together a list of Denver/Boulder-area plant sales, and here are the Boulder ones: Read more
Colorado square-foot gardener answers beginner’s questions
A great post for veggie garden daydreamers over at Jacqueline’s Journey. Go check it out and find at least one nugget of information that’ll make your local veggie garden better this year!
7. What are good crops to grow for Colorado’s climate? Colorado has cool, wet springs and hot, dry summers which is pretty annoying to the vegetable gardener. Cool weather crops like lettuce and radish will do great if you get them going early enough but by the time late June’s heat and lack of humidity come along they will require intensive watering and may even stop producing edible leaves. I found that Collards and Kale are cool weather crops that also do very well during the summer months. Other excellent crops are raspberries, onions, garlic, chives, shallots, tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, and squash.
8.What was the most difficult thing for you to grow? I have had particular problems growing peppers, eggplant, and okra. These plants require steady warm temperatures or they will drop their flowers and/or fruit or not grow. Depending on your Colorado micro-climate these plants may work great for you or may never get enough heat to be productive.
Found via Tall Tara!
DIY terraced urban farm, part one
So I’m making a thing.
We have a very small balcony, but it gets so much sun that it seems like a waste not to grow tons of stuff. We’ve already started with hanging tomatoes — don’t worry, we bring them in at night still — and strawberries. But we’re fired up.
This whole year, I basically promised myself I’d try things I’m not good at way more often. Sort of a masochistic New Year’s resolution. Judging by the amount of times I’ve felt very stupid this year, it would appear to be working. In any case, growing food certainly qualifies, so we’re going at it, full steam. Pictures and tales of adventure below the fold! Read more
