Beyond Gardening 101: the Humble Gardener
Baby Spinach
Where to begin? Prior to moving to Palisade my gardening experience was limited to a very small urban garden in Denver. So, when we moved out here in 2023 and I started the “market garden” adventure in 2024 on about a ¼ of an acre I was over the moon that the things I planted grew and thrived! The following year I had a little (a big) hiccup with Andy’s stroke but still managed to grow stuff! Looking back the raspberries didn’t do so well and yes, I took out one of our Cherry trees with the stupid (rather me being stupid) weed Wacker but overall Posh Gardens what a success last year.
I did learn a few things last year; one I’m not wired to be a mass production farmer… planting and trying to harvest 99 tomato plants of one variety… that was a big no go in the future. Regarding the Cherry tree… I needed to and did expand the weed barrier to give me room for doing the edging… what is the saying? Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me, well there was not going to be a twice for the orchard and whacking my tree to death a second time!
Then we get to 2026…. After two years of successful growing, I was feeling pretty good. With the tomato debacle I knew I wanted to plant a variety of vegetables, and I wanted to try my hand at some new veggies and melons! Our friend Jeanette grew the tastiest melons last year, so I thought I’d like to give it a go too. I made my list, bought the seeds, mapped out my new vegetable rotation for the year and waited for spring.
Turns out 2026 was the warmest winter we’ve had since Andy and I moved here, so much so I still had veggies growing through the winter as we never really did have a hard frost. We had fresh Swiss Chards all winter long, my herbs which are normally annual continued to grow through the winter, especially the parsley! My cilantro even self-seeded and came back like gang busters in the spring and summer. I was planning on replanting Swiss Chards this year and thought, well if they came back and are growing strong then I didn’t have to, same with the parsley! Nope not a good idea… I always say I learn things the hard way and this was no exception; of course I didn’t realize this until much later; both the Chards and the Parsley went to seed! Boo….
I also participated in the Master Irrigator program in the early spring to learn more about proper watering. I think this is where my trouble really started. I had a little bit of knowledge and based some of my spring watering strategies on it. There was starting to be rumblings about a water shortage in the valley. Turns out the concern was real and we are indeed in a drought and there is a real possibility that we may run out of water which would be devastating for our agricultural community. In my program, I learned it was better to water longer to encourage deeper roots BUT to do it less often. So, I decided that is what I’d do for the garden. I devised a watering schedule and put it into play. Not realizing until later that direct sowing and baby seedlings do not work well, at least in the beginning, with this kind of strategy. Sounds like a no brainer now but at the time I had no clue!
Turns out this was a very bad decision on my part when one is both direct sowing seeds and planting out little seedlings. It’s a great strategy when your vegetables are well established, it’s a kiss of death when they are just starting out! Again… I learned this the hard way! After doing even more research trying to problem solve why my garden was not growing, I learned that in the beginning as they are just getting established, you need to water these babies every day, sometimes twice a day! I immediately revised my watering schedule and bought more seeds so I could do a second planting… with the hopes of solving the problem. Finally, I’m seeing some activity especially in my melons.
Sadly the English Cucumbers and Delicata squash are still a no show. I’m now wondering if perhaps I have the location wrong? I’ve planted both along the arches in the past so maybe it is just a matter of relocating them and give the arches a rest. I still have seeds left so I thought I’d do one last ditch effort and see if I can get them growing in a raised bed over by the Potting Shed.
My shallots are also not coming in … turns out relocation would have worked for them as well. Originally, I was going to plant them where the Swiss Chards were growing… then when I decided to keep the Chards I moved the planting plan around for the Shallots. Then the Swiss Chards started to bolt so I dug them up and planted the Shallots in their originally planned location. Yet another big mistake… Shallots are direct sown, but they are supposed to be sown mid to late March or early April! When I finally dug up the Chards, it was June! This means I missed my window of opportunity for planting Shallots for the year. Timing it turns out, is everything when it comes to planting vegetables!
This was also true for my Spinach and Kale, turns out these two leafy greens are Spring harvest veggies, meaning you plant them early in the spring while it is cool as neither do well in the summer heat! You can do a second sowing in the fall when the temperatures have cooled down as both veggies do much better when the soil is cooler. Even though I read the directions on both seed packs I still missed the mark for these vegetables!
So although I’ve figured out the solution to the garden problems, I’ve been experiences, I’m still left with no Shallots, a very sad and small crop of Spinach and Kale and I’ve yet to figure out a reason why the Delicata and English Cucumber and not doing well. All in all 2026 has been a very humbling experience for this wee little farmer, aka gardener. So, while Posh Gardens is not doing nearly as well as I would have liked, I have learned a lot from these very dumb mistakes. Although humbling it has been a great opportunity to learn and start to move beyond Gardening 101! I am looking forward to applying what I learned this year to my garden endeavors next year! I’m sure I will make new mistakes but that is also all part of the process and although eating a bit of humble pie doesn’t taste great, I figure it builds character and keeps it real!
