George Washington and Planting Cherry Trees by Carol King

Photo mountvernon.org

It’s George Washington’s birthday, (February 22, 1732) and it’s hard to think of our first president without the phrase “I cannot tell a lie” popping up.  The cherry tree myth is the most well-known and longest enduring legend about our first president. It was invented by one of Washington’s very first biographers, Mason Locke Weems. In the original story, when Washington was six years old he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father’s cherry tree. When his father discovered what he had done, he became angry and confronted him. Young George bravely said, “I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet.” Washington’s father embraced him and rejoiced that his son’s honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.1

Weems wanted to present Washington as the perfect role model, especially for young Americans. The cherry tree myth and other stories showed readers that Washington’s public greatness was due to his private virtues. William Holmes McGuffey, author of the McGuffey’s Readers, created a version of the cherry tree myth that appeared in his Eclectic Second Reader. This helped entrench the cherry tree myth in American culture. The myth has endured for more than two hundred years and has become an important part of Americans' cultural heritage.

Summer Fruit Season is Here By Joyce D’Agostino

Grapes, photo by Joyce D'Agostino

It’s that time of the summer, when your fruit trees are loaded with fruit that is ripening. Fruit have a number of vitamins, minerals and fiber that are great for your diet, so enjoy them fresh.

But if you have more than you can eat quickly, the bulletins below will give you great tips on how to can, freeze, dehydrate or make jams or jellies from your fruit to extend your enjoyment for later use. When you properly can, freeze and dry your fruit at peak ripeness, then they will retain these beneficial nutrients for months. Jams and jellies can also make great gifts.

Watch for Codling Moths on Apple and Pear Trees

Adult Codling Moth, photo courtesy CSU Extension

For the first time in several years, we didn't have a late spring freeze in 2018! That's good news for fruit production in Jefferson County. The fruit trees are already showing signs of a banner fruit yield. Watch your apple and pear trees for codling moth - it's the most important insect pest of these trees in North America.  Damage is done by the larvae, which are cream-colored caterpillars that tunnel fruit and produce ‘wormy’ apples.

Gardening Power to the People: Growing Blueberries in Colorado (Video)

Growing blueberries in Colorado is a challenge at best. Knowledge of soils and best planting practices will help you succeed. Patti O'Neal, Horticulture Assistant at the Jeffco Extension Office gives you growing advice in this useful video.

 

What are “Chill Hours” (and why is this important to my fruit trees?) By Joyce D’Agostino

Golden Delicious Apples, photo courtesy Stark Bro's Nursery

If you have fruit trees in your landscape, you may have noticed that some years the trees seem to produce abundantly, other years there is less of a crop. This can be puzzling to figure out why some years are considered a ‘good fruit year’, and others are not.

It's Grape Harvesting Time by Donna Duffy

Candice grapes ready to harvest, photo courtesy John Crawford

Grape growers anticipate this time of year all season long. If Mother Nature has been cooperative, it’s finally time to take off the nets and harvest grapes. John Crawford, my neighbor in NE Lakewood, has been growing grapes and making wine for over three decades.

Growing Elderberries in Colorado by Donna Duffy

Elderberries, photo courtesy Plantalk

Elderberry is a remarkable shrub or small tree of several species and many forms and colors of foliage, flowers and berries It has been found in Stone Age and Bronze Age excavations, was one of the sacred trees of the Druids, and has been used as a medicinal herb by early Europeans, native Americans and modern herbalists. However, it has not been popular in landscapes until recently when selections have been made for special leaf colors and textures. And now home-food and food-medicine gardeners want elderberries because scientific research has verified herbal lore that elderberries have health benefits. The Wall Street Journal identified elderberry with seven other berries as “nutritional royalty.”

Recommended Fruit Tree Varieties for Colorado Front Range by Carol King

Photo CSU Extension Growing fruit trees along the Front Range in Colorado can be challenging but also satisfying.  Late frosts, heavy spring snows, and several pests and diseases make this interesting to say the least!  However, in successful years, the gardener can be blessed with bumper crops of apples, cherries, plums, and often peaches and apricots. Here are some varieties that are considered among the best for success in Colorado  recommended by Curtis Utley, Jefferson County CSU Extension. Apples The more reliable varieties are: Cox Orange. Aromatic dessert apple. Yellow flesh. Red Delicious. A good winter apple and very resistant to fire blight. Golden Delicious. A fall apple of good flavor that bears sooner than most varieties.  Also a good variety to plant with other apple trees to ensure good pollination. McIntosh.  An all-purpose red apple. Johnathan.  A popular apple but fairly susceptible to fire blight. Fameuse.  Old variety similar to McIntosh. Goldrush, Pristine, Liberty, Empire, Honeycrisp, Arkansas Black, Sweet 16, Hazen, Winecrisp, Pixie Crunch, Sir Prize, Williams Pride, Fireside, and Jonafree are also recommended by Mr Utley.

Gardening Power to the People (Video): Growing Blueberries in Colorado

We can grow blueberries in Colorado. Pre-planning and knowledge of our soils will make your endeavor successful.

The Challenge of Growing Blueberries in Colorado by Carol King

Photo Carol King

Who doesn't love a blueberry?  They are one of the super foods, filled with antioxidents.  These tiny, round blue-purple berries have long been attributed to the longevity and wellness of indigenous natives.  Blueberries are very low in calories. A cup of fresh berries provide only 57 calories.  Some research studies suggest that these berries help lower blood sugar levels and control blood-glucose levels in type-II diabetes.  Super food indeed. Why not grow them in the Colorado Front Range home garden?

Blueberries will not grow in Colorado soil. Blueberries need acidic soil (and a lot of it).  Our native soils are alkaline; the opposite of what a blueberry needs! Every year at this time, I see the blueberry plants lined up in the big box stores just waiting for some unsuspecting gardener to purchase and take home to complete failure.

Create Your Own Apple Tree by Mari Hackbarth

1909 Illustration of a "Colorado Orange" Apple,  USDA

What kind of apple trees do you think Johnny Appleseed planted as he sowed swaths of seeds to establish orchards across the Midwest?  It turns out that every seed he planted grew into a unique apple tree!  Planted apple seeds will not produce a tree or fruit exactly like the original fruit or tree the seed was collected from.  If you grow an apple tree from a Macintosh apple seed, you will have an apple tree, but not a Macintosh apple tree.  Apples are an example of a plant that can only be reproduced exactly by a technique known as “grafting”.  Grafting is the process of joining two plants together.  The upper part of the graft (the scion) becomes the top of the resulting plant, and the lower part provides the root system.

How to Store Fruits And Vegetables for Winter by Carol King

Photo CSU Extension

If you have had a successful year in your garden or purchased an abundant amount of fresh fruits and vegetables from the Farmers’ Markets, farm stands, or from your CSA membership, it’s time to put that food away for the winter!

There are several choices for over wintering produce. Your main objectives should be safety and preservation of flavor and nutrition. These fact sheets from Colorado State University Extension will give you careful advice and processes for the best food storage systems.

Jefferson County Master Gardeners in Service: Horticulture and Demonstration Garden by Jill Knussman

Photo by Jill Knussmann

Did you know that Jefferson County Master Gardeners have a demonstration vegetable and fruit garden at the fairgrounds? For the past two years, hundreds of pounds of produce have been grown in these garden beds and donated to local food banks. We invite you to visit and see what you can learn about growing produce.

Growing Grapes for Wine? It's Time to Prune! by Donna Duffy

John Crawford, photo by Donna Duffy

My neighbor, John Crawford, is a fourth generation vintner. I recently asked him to share some advice on pruning vines for maximum grape production. Here’s what I learned.

Successful Strawberries by Rebecca Anderson

Photo courtesy PlantTalk Colorado

Fresh strawberries are a sure sign that summer has arrived. Strawberries (Fragaria ananassa) do well along the Front Range, even at higher elevations, making them a crop that can be rewarding for home gardeners. When establishing a new strawberry bed, try to pick a site that has not had raspberries, cherries, tomatoes, potatoes or eggplants growing in the past 5 years. These plants carry diseases that can infect and decrease the productivity of the strawberries. Select a site that gets at least 8 hours of sun during the summer. A soil test prior to planting is ideal so the soil can be amended according to the pants' needs, but if not possible, work one to two inches of compost into the bed one month before planting. 

There are many strawberries varieties to choose from. They all fall in one of three categories: June bearing, ever bearing and day neutral. June bearers produce the earliest fruit that is the largest and some say the sweetest.  However, they bloom the earliest and are prone to blossom damage from our late frosts. Ever bearers are considered the hardiest for the Front Range. They produce a spring crop and a fall crop and a few berries in between main crops during the summer months. The day neutral varieties produce berries for 6 week intervals 3 times during the summer. For gardeners who are going to pick one variety, ever bearers are recommended. Varieties that do well here are Ogallala and Fort Laramie. Some gardeners like to plant a few of each type to hedge against any failures of a specific variety. June bearing strawberries recommended for this area include Guardian and Honeoye. Tristar and Tribute are recommended varieties of day neutral strawberries. 

Gardening Power to the People: Growing Blueberries in Colorado

Growing blueberries in Colorado can be a real challenge.  This video with Patti O'Neal, Horticulture Assistant at Jefferson County CSU Extension, will give you the techniques you need to grow this delicious fruit.

When Can I Pick My Apples (or Pears) by Joyce D'Agostino

Apples ready to harvest photo by Joyce D'Agostino

This time of year, some of us are fortunate to have fruit trees that are bearing fruit and are even overabundant. The question is, when do I know when my fruit really is ready to pick because often just judging by the color does not often mean that the fruit is ripe.

One good way is to first determine which variety of fruit you have and research when it typically is ready to harvest. Apples for example, have very early, early, mid-season and late season varieties and harvesting at the right time will result in the best results for canning or eating fresh.

Also, you may find that keeping up with a large harvest can be challenging,  Fruit may begin to drop from the tree or falls from windstorms and the cleanup can be considerable. Proper pruning of your trees not only helps the tree become more healthy but helps control better harvests.

Growing Blueberries in Colorado by Carol King

Photo by Carol King

Who doesn't love a blueberry?  They are one of the super foods, filled with antioxidents.  These tiny, round blue-purple berries have long been attributed to the longevity and wellness of indigenous natives.  Blueberries are very low in calories. A cup of fresh berries provide only 57 calories.  Some research studies suggest that these berries help lower blood sugar levels and control blood-glucose levels in type-II diabetes.  Super food indeed. Why not grow them in the Colorado Front Range home garden?

Blueberries will not grow in Colorado soil. Blueberries need acidic soil (and a lot of it).  Our native soils are alkaline; the opposite of what a blueberry needs! Every year at this time, I see the blueberry plants lined up in the big box stores just waiting for some unsuspecting gardener to purchase and take home to complete failure.

Growing Grapes for Wine? It's Time to Prune! by Donna Duffy

My neighbor, John Crawford, is a fourth generation vintner who has been growing grapes for about six years in Colorado, and making wine since 1979 using the private label “Crawford Castle. John was previously co-owner of Colorado’s oldest winery, Colorado Mountain Vineyards – now Colorado Cellars. Here's John's advice on pruning vines for maximum grape production. 

Espalier: The Art of Plant Training by Elaine Lockey

Espalier at Denver Botanic Gardens

Espalier, pronounced esp-al-ee-er or esp-al-ee-ay, is the practice of training and pruning a plant to grow on a flat plane against a wall, fence or building.  This can create a beautiful focal point in a garden, can save space in small areas, and help fill in space if you have a large wall or fence that you want to hide.

Espalier can be informal or formal and there are several common forms practiced.  Certain plants respond best to certain types of espalier as well.  Informal espalier can be as simple as a vine climbing up a wall to a pyracantha hedge that is pruned in a flat plane but is allowed to branch where it wants vertically and horizontally.  Formal designs can be like the French palmette verrier in which a plant, commonly a pear tree, is attached to a frame that helps to shape it into the desired structure.  This particular one looks like a box shape or candelabra. This enables the pear tree to grow wide but the height is limited.