1. Sow seeds like acorn squash indoors in flats or individual pots, planting them three times as deep as their diameter or width.

2. Use a potting medium rich in organic material and place the flats by a natural light source or suspend fluorescent tube lights 3 to 4 inches above the flats..

3. Harden off cold-hardy seedlings in a simple framed enclosure as soon as outdoor temperatures rise above 25˚ F at night.

4. Prepare garden beds to receive seedlings by loosening the soil and adding lots of organic compost or manure.

5. Thin seedlings in the first month or so. Choose the healthiest ones to plant and recycle the rest to the compost pile.

6. When transplanting seedlings from pots to beds, preserve as large a root ball as possible.

7. Plant vegetables in rows and rotate plantings each season.

8. Shade lettuce and other heat-sensitive plants with upturned pots on hot afternoons.

9. Mulch crops with pine needles, dried grass clippings free of herbicides, hay free of weed seeds, gravel, wood chips or other organic materials.

10. Protect crops on brutally hot days with a shade cloth that has a 30-percent shade coefficient.

11. Organic gardening yields nutritious crops that contain up to 80 percent more vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown produce.

A Very Veggie Primer

It’s time to get your garden in gear for summer’s harvest. Here is organic gardener David Wann’s 11-step plan for growing flavorful vegetables.

Text and photos by David Wann

Colorado vegetable gardeners face horrors that might make even the Jolly Green Giant think twice. We cope with an average annual precipitation of 15 inches or less (about a third of what Bloomington, Ind., receives and a quarter of what falls on Boca Raton, Fla.), and we also win the nation’s award for the most frequent hailstorms. The organic content of Front Range native soils is less than 0.5 percent, so any moisture we do get drains quickly. We’ve seen temperature swings of 50˚ F in a single day and witnessed freak snowstorms in June, even on the plains. Which all means Colorado gardeners have to be a little smarter—and a lot more proactive.

That said, organic gardening is the only technique that really works well here, because it enriches the soil’s organic content, enabling it to hold water and stand up to our harsh sunlight. By building up the soil with compost and turned-under cover crops like alfalfa and clover, organic gardeners create loamy, spongy soil that retains water and nutrients. Roots stay cooler in rich, well-­aerated soil, and are assisted in nutrient uptake by enzymes and billions of beneficial soil microbes that thrive in a ­chemical-free environment.

Rich organic soil is like our body’s immune system, and veggies grown in healthy soil aren’t as bothered by pests as those raised in depleted soils. Rather than destroying both pests and predators with chemicals, organic techniques protect the “good bugs,” so they in turn can protect our crops. An added benefit is no chemical runoff to foul water supplies.

Food grown in organic soil also contains up to 80 percent more vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown produce, according to studies by the United Nations. That’s because the soil is healthy—and that’s the cornerstone of organic gardening: Keep the soil in balance and the garden (and gardener) will thrive.

Here are 11 steps to growing good-for-you, good-for-the-earth vegetables:

1. Start from Scratch
In sparse climates like ours, sowing seeds directly in garden beds is risky. Before they germinate, garden seeds often become birdseed, get washed away in afternoon downpours, or go airborne in gusty midnight winds. You might get lucky and avoid those scenarios; you might not. Pad your odds by starting seeds indoors in controlled conditions, giving them exactly what they need: warmth, light, water, nutrients and TLC.

As sturdy adolescents—rather than helpless newborns—seedlings started indoors outgrow the innocent, just-­germinated tenderness that sends bugs, bunnies and slugs into ecstatic feeding frenzies. And, because you transplant seedlings from flats into individual 2-inch pots or group them in planter boxes that have more room for roots, homegrown seedlings have sturdy root systems by the time they’re planted, and enough leaves to lose a few and still survive. Transplant your seedlings into garden beds after the last forecasted frost or freeze, and right before a gentle spring rain.

A general rule of thumb (green, of course!) is to plant seeds about three times as deep as their diameter or width. However, some seeds, like lettuce, need shallower sowing because they must have light to germinate.

2. Start Off Right
When you plant seeds in flats (found at garden centers), use a potting medium with lots of organic content, like peat moss and compost (Fertilome brand is a proven winner), which helps the soil hold moisture, but not too much. Or make a homemade medium with equal parts finished compost cooked up from kitchen scraps and leaves, sharp (gritty) sand, and rich garden loam. Space seeds 1 to 2 inches apart so they don’t compete for nutrients and light, and thin seedlings as they grow. With good soil as a starting point, fertilizer isn’t necessary, but seedlings will appreciate weekly dilute applications of mineral-rich seaweed, fish emulsion or “compost tea” (water with compost soaked in it).

After planting seeds in the flats, let there be light—lots of it. As soon as outside temperatures rise above 40˚ F, set the flats outdoors on sunny days for a few hours at a time, but bring them in before nightfall. If cold spells or work schedules prevent you from putting the flats outdoors, bathe them in light by suspending fluorescent tube lights 3 to 4 inches above the flats for 10 hours a day.

3. The Hard Facts
Ideally, you should provide a halfway house for cold-hardy seedlings as soon as outdoor temperatures rise above 25˚ F at night. This can be as simple as recycled storm windows placed over a wooden frame, like a sandbox, or angling the windows against your house at night and placing towel curtains on both ends to prevent drafts. This process, called “hardening off,” gradually exposes seedlings to colder temperatures and brighter sunlight to prepare them for hot summer days.

4. Beddy-Bye
A raised bed or other weed-free plot is like an empty canvas. To paint a beautiful picture during the growing season, loosen the soil two shovels deep and add lots of organic compost or manure. Just an inch of rich compost (about four 40-pound bags or six 5-gallon buckets per 100 square feet) will result in lush foliage, fragrant blossoms and flavorful veggies. The benefits of raised beds include accessibility, better drainage, warmer springtime temperatures and isolation from pests. They also allow you to focus on a finite, contained space.

Among the many challenges Colorado gardeners face is pH, a measure of the soil’s acidity or alkalinity. In our area, native soil pH is around 7, which is higher, or more alkaline, than many plants prefer. Acid-loving crops like blueberries can’t grow here because they prefer a pH below 5.5, while strawberries and tomatoes prefer a slightly acidic pH of 6. Adding elemental sulfur around tomato seedlings can help boost yields, but not in a substantial way. Therefore, it’s wiser to amend the soil with organic matter so that pH isn’t an issue. Organic matter helps “buffer” the alkalinity of native soils, and its humic acids enable the plants to better absorb minerals.

5. Cross the Thin Divide
Despite continuously thinning your seedlings in the first month or so, they usually need additional thinning and dividing as they mature. The trick is to choose the healthiest plants as “keepers” and recycle the rest back to the compost pile. In dense seedling stands, avoid pulling up the whole seedling destined for the compost pile. Instead, just clip it at the surface so as not to disrupt the keeper seedlings’ roots.

6. Have a Ball
When transferring seedlings from pots to beds, preserve as large a root ball as possible, gently separating the keepers from each other. Transplant them to a deep, soft, planting zone and water them with a wand or nozzle set on soft spray. If possible, install a drip-irrigation system to keep the soil moist (about the dampness of a wrung-out sponge).

7. Rows and Rotate
Write down what you plant in your beds so you can rotate crops the following spring. For example, plant greens where beans grew in the prior year to take advantage of the nitrogen produced by the beans. Follow a deep-feeding crop, like carrots or broccoli, with a shallow feeder, like lettuce. Allow lettuce leaves to shade the next closely spaced row, and keep abreast of weeds with a hoe, hand fork and hands.

8. Shady Solutions
When transplanting light- and heat-­sensitive seedlings, like lettuce, cover each seedling with an upside-down, 1-gallon pot (6 inches across) set in the soil at an angle that shades the seedlings from southern and western exposures. A few days of afternoon shade will allow their roots to better establish and make each seedling a better producer. Remove covers in the morning and evening, and discontinue them once the seedlings are established.

9. Mucho Mulcho
Mulch keeps roots cool, smothers weeds, holds water in the root zone, and slowly adds organic material to the soil—all important to a plant’s well-being. Place a 3-inch layer of mulch around your plants, extending half-a-foot wide on all sides. Good mulches include dried grass clippings free of herbicides, hay free of weed seeds, wood chips, dried leaves and pine needles. Try using strips of dye-free cardboard under the mulch for extra benefits, but be sure to poke holes in the cardboard after wetting it to allow air to penetrate and water to soak through.

10. Care Canopy
To keep sun-sensitive crops (broccoli, lettuce, spinach, beets and carrots) a few degrees cooler, rig up a shade canopy on brutally hot days. Select a shade cloth—available at nurseries and garden supply centers—with a 30-percent shade coefficient and stretch it over nails pounded into wooden stakes. Your plants will thank you when temperatures soar or hail threatens.

11. In Timely Fashion
Watch crops closely as they start to mature, and harvest them before wildlife does. Also, pick them before they become overly ripe (particularly radishes), are damaged from sitting on damp soil (winter squash is particularly susceptible) or turn bitter (lettuce and broccoli past their prime). As you concoct flavorful feasts from your organic veggies (so much ­better than store-bought!), take a moment to commend yourself for being an environmental steward.

David Wann coordinates a community garden in Golden and is the author of several books, including Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle (St. Martin’s Griffin). For additional tips, tools and techniques concerning Front Range gardening, read Wann’s The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West (Fulcrum Publishing).

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