Winter, your days are numbered.
Gardeners are getting their pruners sharpened, their shovels ready and their seeds ordered. Because before we know it, it’ll be time to charge back outside to pull dandelions and pat seeds into wet ground.
But for now, as gardening catalogs flood the mailboxes of ambitious planters, we plan.
To help get through these days of slush and slop, we asked contributors to Grow, The Denver Post’s garden section that runs from March to July, and other green thumbs what they’re hankering to plant this year.
I’LL ALWAYS PLANT:
At least two different kinds of black tomatoes in my vegetable garden, like “Black Krim” and “Paul Robeson.” I fell in love with these Russian heirlooms several years ago because of their beautiful dark purple color and complex sweet and smoky flavor. Each year I save the seeds, so the plants I’ll grow this season are connected to the first crop I ever grew. — Jodi Torpey, Grow contributor,
I’M ITCHING TO TRY:
“Blonde Ambition,” a lovely new ornamental grass from Plant Select. Discovered and introduced by David Salman of High Country Gardens, this Bouteloua gracilis variety is a Blue Grama Grass that offers something for every garden. It’s said to be extremely cold hardy, isn’t picky about its soil, and is perfect for low-maintenance landscapes like mine. The flaglike flowers will bloom for months and then remain on the tall plant through winter. — Torpey
I’LL ALWAYS PLANT:
Purple kohlrabi. It’s a beautiful plant; it’s a really unusual, oddball thing in the garden. The taste is the same as the green kohlrabi. It’s a great starch you can eat raw or sauteed. It’s easy to grow and easy to germinate in your windowsill or direct-seeded in the garden. — Mike Bone, senior horticulturist at the Denver Botanic Gardens
I’M ITCHING TO TRY:
New tomato varieties. I always look for a short-crop tomato. One I’m looking forward to this year is “Gregori’s Altai,” from Tomato Growers Supply Co. It’s short-season (67 days), and it’s one of those utilitarian tomatoes that you can use as a salsa or sauce tomato or a fresh eating tomato. It does well with cooler temperatures. — Bone
I’LL ALWAYS PLANT:
Flowers among the vegetables. This began as a thoughtful interplanting of companion blooms intended to lure away crop-killers or fix some sort of nutrition in the soil. Now, I plant what’s pretty. Last year, I tried “Green Envy” zinnia as a backdrop to purple cabbage; “Zeolights” calendula as a peach foil to hot red chard; and sizzling orange Mexican sunflowers, just because I like the way they pop above the hedge of dusty-green oregano. All of these have some benefits to the crops planted nearby. But the garden doesn’t have to know it’s medicine. — Dana Coffield, The Denver Post
I’M ITCHING TO TRY:
Hops. Call me susceptible to the call of AC Golden Brewing Co., which has asked the suds-inclined to stick a few rhizomes in the ground and grow for the good of the cause. I have plans to use the bines, which can grow a foot a day, to screen a compost pile and to green my porch columns, while providing a rich pollen source for my bees. I’m excited to see the frilly dark green leaves give way to lime-y cones, which can be collected for beer, of course, or stuffed into a pillow and used to help lure sleep. — Coffield
I’LL ALWAYS PLANT:
Lacinato kale, a.k.a. “dinosaur kale.” I’m an energetic gardener, but not a particularly knowledgeable one. Every spring I buy loads of plants. I dig holes. I amend. I water. I hope. Sometimes things work out. My wife, Annie, adores this kale, clumps of tall, dark-green leaves that sweeten slightly when sauteed in olive oil with a few minced garlic cloves. For years, it has been the only thing we have grown from seed, although last summer we tried other greens too. — Douglas Brown, The Denver Post
I’M ITCHING TO TRY:
Everything. This year we plan to finally go crazy with seeds. Ideally, at least half of the things in our garden will have started in our basement, as seeds in pots. Either way, one thing is for sure: We’ll be sprinkling lacinato kale seeds in our garden. — Brown
Susan Clotfelter, Grow editor
Local seed providers
Bounty Beyond Belief at garden centers and
Botanical Interests at garden centers,
Lake Valley Seed, at garden centers,
Rocky Mountain Seed Co.,
Tomato Growers Supply Co.,
