Looks pretty good from here, Ryel, a few miles east of you.

We don't do 'Valencia' onions any more and quit on the broccoli, and found the buttercrunch was quick to bolt here when spring planted (but survived our recent cold snap in my garden). And if you want production you won't care for 'Brandywine' in this climate but they still taste fine. I save plastic bubble packaging from the grocery store to start things like bush beans and peas earlier, as the heat will get to them quickly in June.

Dan

Last season was my first at broccoli and cauliflower and NEVER again for both, for me. I'll settle with what the farmers' markets provide.

I planted peas on 3/18/09 and will try for a month earlier in 2010.

I have some tomatoes you can try - email me privately -

Deb (austinnhanasmom)

Here ya go -
Bush Beans - Provider last year was American Seeds' "Tendergreen" - it did GREAT! We have long enjoyed both Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder as pole varieties.

Broccoli - DiCicco We loved DiCicco this past year. Produced for a LONG time. Small heads but good side shoot production. The late planting produced better than the early one due to fierce hailstorms in June.

Carrots - Scarlet Nantes, Danvers both do well, also try Chantenay Red Core - the best tasting IMHO

Cucumber - Straight Eight or Marketmore Straight 8 did great. We grew them up a nylon trellis & pickled 'em.

Kale - Italian Nero Toscana don't grow
Endive/Frisee - Tres Fine don't grow
Lettuce - Buttercrunch, Salad Bowl, Red Sails all good. Also tried Rosso, very successful! and pretty, too.

Peas - Sugar Snap Sugar Snap is great, try Little Marvel, too.

Bell Peppers - California Wonder try Big Bertha, too, and let her ripen on the bush!

Radish - French Breakfast forget what variety
Tomato - Celebrity, Gold currant, Brandywine Celebrity does great/fantastic. Get the IND variety rather than the bush, and stake it up well. Try some of the heirlooms like Black Krim and Boxcar Willie. Taxi & Lemon Boy are both great slicers of the yellow variety & very tasty. I have a whole bunch of seeds for giveaway. Email me if interested.
Watermelon - Sugar Baby Speaking for myself & 3 friends, never had ANY luck w/ watermelons in Colorado. Season just too short

Potato - Yukon Gold, Norkotah Russet haven't tried yet - 2010 will be our first year. Norkotah will be our choice
Garlic - Music Stiffneck just planted our first last fall. We took apart a grocery store bulb
Onion - Valencia Ringmaster. Perfect for our northern CO climate
Spinach - Bloomsdale Bloomsdale.

Raspberries Heritage do fantastic.
Blackberries DO NOT PLANT CLOSER THAN 100 YARDS TO RASPBERRIES!

Basil - Genovese any of them 'should' grow here if you pinch 'em back & disbud them & don't plant out til weather is warm
Rosemary yuk)
Thyme don't grow
Chamomile don't grow
Lavender Munstead and Provencal have both done well for us. I can provide babies of each in the spring if you like.

My neighbor grows watermelon. He waits to harvest them right before the frost.

So this year was Sept 20th or something, long after anybody thinks of eating water melon. They also keep rather well, and some that are not ripe when picked will ripen up - he always gives us a dozen or so, and we were eating watermelon right through Halloween.

Hi Ryel,

Welcome to RMG. Were glad you decided to come post with us! With all the suggestions youve already gotten, I hope you dont wind up wishing you hadnt asked for opinions! ;-)

Here are my opinions! I have a pretty small veggie garden. Wish I had room for more!

I WAY second Irisgirls suggestion for Blue Lake Pole beans. I grew them for the first time this year after getting some from my neighbor last year. They were great! They grow LONG and straight, and the beans inside stay small even when they get big. I also grow Cherokee (olde variety) wax beans (bush) that I like a lot. They need to be picked fairly small, but if you keep them picked, theyll produce all summer.

For carrots I keep evangelizing about Royal Chantenay (pelleted seed available from Harris). Theyre short and WIDE, so good even in hard clayor good soil. They can be eaten small or you can let them get absolutely HUGE, and theyre still sweet and moist with no tough center core. They store well in the ground with a good thick leaf mulch, or can be dug and kept in the fridge or a cold place for at least a couple months. I tried Nantindo this year, and compared to Royal Chantenay they werent sweet at all. Just for variety Ill be trying a different variety in 10, and maybe Ill try Scarlet Nantes or Danvers.

Cukes are a BIG thing with me, and I FINALLY found a really good seedless one! Its Diva, and available for sure from Pinetree and Parks. This one isnt long and skinny like the ones that are usually sold as seedlessthat usually DO get seeds. This one is shaped more like a regular cuke, but can get really big before seeds start developing. The flowers are all female and dont require pollination to produce fruit, and the cukes are amazingly crisp and sweet. My neighbors were picking mine while I was on vacation, and when I got back they were asking me how I get them to be so crisp! Diva originated in the Middle East, and it loves the heat! I HIGHLY recommend it, and now that I found it, its one Ill be growing every year.

I didnt get lettuce planted this year, but in previous years I havent had much luck with buttercrunch or a few of the other loose-leaf varieties Ive triedthey always bolt and peter out in the heat, but a couple years ago my neighbors grew a cos type lettuce that produced all summer, and in my research last year I found a cos lettuce that was "bred to grow in the deserts of Israel!" If it can grow there, I figure it can grow in Denver, and I plan to get it in this year! Available at Pinetreein the Middle Eastern Veggie section!

Never got the spinach in last year either (or any of the early crops) but the ones Ive tried in the past also succumbed to the heat. Ive heard good things about Bloomsdale, and thats one of three I got seed for last yearwhich I plan to plant this year!

Tomatoesyoull get enough recommendations around here to boggle the mind! The two Ill recommend are two cherries. I love Sungold, and for a red cherrythat DOES NOT CRACKI love Sweet Baby Girl. Its the only cherry Ive found so far that doesnt crack, and its wonderfully sweet and flavorful.

PeasIve grown a lot of different varietiesI LOVE them. Most of them are good, especially if you pick them young. Only variety I wont grow again is Alaska! Ones I plan to grow in 10 (that I havent grown before) are Super Sugar Snap, Sugar Sprint, and Sugar Prince, along with a couple of the "regular" varieties of English peas.

Broccoli I dont have room! Kale and endive I dont like! (Humor me Digit!) Not wild about peppers or radishes. Too olde to eat much garlic! Dont have room for watermelons. Wish I had room for small fruit! And for potatoes I plant the store bought ones I have in the cabinet that have started to grow!

I recommend you try a few different varieties of basil! Slightly different flavors, and different leaves! And try some of the red for ornamental value (and for eating). And, yes, keep them well pinched back and do your best to keep all buds/flowers cut off. Lettuce leaf is supposed to be great if you make pesto!

Thyme is hardy and it will spread all over the place. Be careful where you plant it, or just keep it dug up around the edges to contain it where you want it. If you have any sort of a path with stepping stones, you could plant it in the cracks and along the edges and let it grow into and fill up the cracks and then use whats growing around the edges for cooking.

Be really, really, really sure you want chamomile before you plant it! If you let it go to seed AT ALL, youll never get rid of it! I never actually grew any at this house, but it took me a couple years to eradicate the seeds and seedlings that came along with me in the pots of perennials I brought along from the last house!

RosemaryI agree with Irisgirl! Yuk! But if youre determined to grow it, I highly recommend you start with a store bought plant. Seed germination of rosemary is usually difficult and poor at best.

Lavender is very easy to grow, and will also reseed very easily (but wont be totally invasive like chamomile). English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the most hardy. I cant offer you seedlings like Irisgirl, because all my seedlings come up thru the landscape fabric that was in here when I bought the place, and Ive never been successful at getting them out of the fabric and into a pot, but if Bonnie/Highalt does her seed exchange again after the beginning of the year, I can offer you seeds. The variety I have is either Munstead or Hidcote. It was in when I moved in here, and those two varieties are one of those cant-tell-the-players-without-a-program kind of things! If Bonnie doesnt do her seed exchange, I can send you seed anyway if youd like some! (If youre growing the French lavender Provence, Irisgirl, Im surprised youre having such good luck with it. Its only considered to be marginally hardy to zone 5. You must be doing something right!)

Again, welcome,
Skybird

P.S. David, can I stop by and pick up one of those watermelons when Im down there on vacation next September? Crow Canyon is on next years agenda, so I will definitely be in Cortez again!

Welcome Ryel! As you can see you will get as many opinions as you do responses, LOL!

So here's mine:

Bush Beans - Provider (Haven't tried this one, and haven't had much luck with beans ... too many grasshoppers)

Broccoli - DiCicco (2nd year to try broccoli, and tried this variety this year. Takes up way too much room, is a catepillar magnet, and I only harvested one tiny head. Probably won't grow next year)

Carrots - Scarlet Nantes, Danvers (Love to grow carrots, and have tried several kinds! Best performers this year were Touchon Long, and Jaune de Doubs) Oh, and just a tip about purple carrots, when cooked they do turn the soup purple : )

Cucumber - Straight Eight or Marketmore (Haven't tried either of those varieties, and tried Skybird's favorite Diva twice, with disappointing results both times. Best performers in my garden - Spacemaster,and Homemade Pickles.)

Kale - Italian Nero Toscana - Don't eat or grow

Endive/Frisee - Tres Fine - Haven't tried growing this either.

Lettuce - Buttercrunch, Salad Bowl, Red Sails (My favorites so far are Jericho, Nevada, New Red Fire, and Simpson Elite, which are all slow bolting varieties)

Peas - Sugar Snap (Love them! Fresh snap peas are awesome!)

Bell Peppers - California Wonder (Haven't tried that variety, but have had success with a couple of bell types - Revolution, and King of the North. Quadrato Rosso D 'Asti produced okay, but was later than the other two for me)

Radish - French Breakfast (Will be growing this one next year. This year was my first to grow radishes, and I liked Cherry Belle, and Early Scarlet Globe. Not as crazy about White Icicle)

Tomato - Celebrity, Gold currant, Brandywine (Haven't grown those particular varieties. My favorites this year were Earl's Faux, Indian Stripe, and Cherokee Purple)

Watermelon - Sugar Baby (Planted these VERY late, but had half a dozen unripe ones at the first frost. I think if I planted them earlier, I could have gotten a few ripe ones. Other folks at the community garden that planted at the proper time had decent harvests)

Potato - Yukon Gold, Norkotah Russet - never grown
Garlic - Music Stiffneck - didn't get mine in the ground : (
Onion - Valencia (Tried onions from seed and sets with only minimal success)
Spinach - Bloomsdale (Two words - Leaf miners)

Raspberries - wish I had room for them!
Blackberries - see above

Basil - Genovese (Love it!!! Plant it every year, and never have too much)

Rosemary - (Wow, didn't realize it offended so many, LOL! Yes, it is hard to grow from seed, has low germination, but can be done. The biggest issue is that it is not hardy to our zone, and must be brought in each winter. If I can keep it alive indoors till spring, it does fine in a pot outdoors in the summer. I like the flavor of rosemary, but a little goes a long way. I just like the fresh piney smell of it.)

Thyme - (I just have the regular culinary type, and so far, mine hasn't spread much. I use it a lot in cooking, so it's a must have for me. Great for herb wreaths too!)

Chamomile (This was my first year to grow, but I harvested the flowers in hopes of making tea, so mine never set seed. I found that the small pot I had it in would not produce enough for even a cup of tea. Will try again next year in a larger pot)

Lavender - I have a couple of plants that I grew from Skybird's seeds. Wintersows really well.

And about that seed exchange ... I did it in the fall the past two years, but this fall, it was so quiet around this forum, and the few people that were hanging around, I'd already swapped with before, so wasn't sure I'd get any participation. I'd be glad to do it in the spring, when more people are active on the forum, and everyone's received their seed orders for the year, and have extras to share.

Let me know if you are interested! I participate in swaps all of the time on the Round Robin forum, so if there isn't enough interest to hold a swap over here, folks can join one of the many going on over there. It's a great way to build up your seed inventory without spending a bunch of money.

Ryel, I hope all of this advice isn't just confusing you more!

Bonnie

Skybird, Crow Canyon is a fabulous place - lots of wonderful people, and one of the more beautiful spots in the county - In September, it should be spectacular. I'll make sure to get you a melon or two....

WOW! You guys are awesome. Thanks a bunch for all the great feedback and advice - I've modified our seed list based on everyone's suggestions.

A couple observations from our first time growing last summer:

Our Scarlet Nantes carrots and Provider bush beans were probably the best performers out of everything. We hadn't know about staggered planting yet so we had a bumper crop of each when they were ready for picking, but the carrots were huge and the beans were abundant and tasty. We weren't too happy with the taste of the carrots so want to try a couple different kinds this time - looking forward to trying out the Chantenays.

We did Crimson Sweet watermelons last summer and although they totally took over our yard with their vines, they were delicious - we picked them right before frost and were amazed at the taste and texture. Need to figure out how to keep them in order this time so they don't take up so much room.

We wanted to do at least one crucifer last summer, and that was our Kale, and it worked out great. Kale is definitely not for everyone but it grew big and strong and we found a couple recipes that made it taste delicious. And so healthy! A bit nervous about broccoli but got to give it a try.

We planted our asparagus roots last summer - hoping to get a little taste this summer but just to see them growing again will be satisfaction enough.

We did Sugar Sweetie cherry tomatoes and had great luck with them - so fun to just pick them off like grapes and pop them in right off the vine. Want to get into the Sungolds this time and see the difference.

We tried corn but it got all eaten by the squirrels. They also ate all our grapes off the one grape plant we had, and ate most of our strawberries. I hate to say it but we're going to war with them this season... trying to figure out a way to deal with them.

Our big thing this summer that we didn't do last summer is grow lettuce since we eat a ton of salad. Sounds like bolting is a problem but will try to mix up the varieties to at least get something.

A seed exchange would be awesome! We'd love to participate as we will definitely have plenty of extra seeds. And thank you to those who offered seeds or plants - will definitely be getting in touch with you.

Curious if anyone has tried lasagna gardening? We will probably do a double dig this time just to go through the paces, and mix in horse manure (free from the farm down the road) and home-made compost. Thinking of adding a layer of peat moss to balance things out.

Also, where do most people get their seeds from? Right now we're looking at Botanical Interests, Seeds of Change, High Mowing, and The Natural Gardening Company (all online). We want all organic all OP seeds.

Thanks again and so glad to have this amazing resource!

I've done double digging in the past but doubt I'll ever do it again as it's simply too much work not to mention I'm aiming for minimum disruption of the soil web. I'm not sure one could call my system lasagna gardening but it's my own variation based on using whatever mulch material I can get for free or low cost. Hay, straw, leaves, spent brewer's grain, coffee grinds, kitchen scraps and compost is what I generally use as mulch.

The seed exchange sounds cool. I've done trades before that have worked well via snail mail. I guess it's time to update my seed list.