and limited flowering. If

you’re able to, incorporating

compost into the soil profile

(no more than 2” dug about

12” deep) can improve your

soil and provide some slow-

release long-term nutrients for

your plants.

Weeds – Were you overrun

by weeds last year? Consider

adding 3-4” of mulch to your

garden bed. This will reduce

how many weeds can germi-

nate and will make removing

those that do grow much sim-

pler. Landscape fabric may

help in the short term but is

not recommended for garden

beds as it can clog with fine

particles over time and may

cause the soil underneath to

become anaerobic.

These are just a few very ba-

sic thoughts about getting our

perennial beds going this

year, if you want more details

or ideas on anything dis-

cussed here please call our

office!

Is your ornamental bed start-

ing to look a little tired?

There are a lot of things you

can do this time of year to get

them refreshed and ready for

a Colorado summer. First off

assess what the problems

were last year.

Water – did you struggle to

get enough water on the bed?

Or were your plants occasion-

ally swimming? Overhead

irrigation is great for turf, but

can be problematic for orna-

mental beds. Consider switch-

ing out a sprinkler head for a

drip irrigation system. There

are some excellent drip sys-

tems that can put out as much

or as little water as you want.

Look for in-line emitter line,

micro-sprinklers, or soaker

hose depending on

your plants. Drip

systems have be-

come very easy to

assemble and main-

tain. If you have a

drip system already

take a few minutes

to check emitters

and make sure they

have not clogged

and are spraying

effectively.

Poor growth – Poor

growth could be due

to many aspects

including water as

we discussed above,

too much or too

little sun, fertilizer,

poor soil etc. Ensure

the plants you have are suited

to your conditions. As land-

scapes mature generally shade

increases and so the plants

need to shift towards being

more tolerant of shade. Or

perhaps you’ve lost a mature

tree and shade plants can no

longer grow well in the new

sunny environ-

ment.

Assess whether

your plants are

getting suffi-

cient or too

much fertilizer.

Both can cause

problems. Too

much fertilizer

may cause a lot

of green growth

Preparing your ornamental garden beds

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

Low tunnels–

low cost

season

extension

2

Romantica

Roses

3

Planting Peas

in the garden

4

A D A M S C O U N T Y

E X T E N S I O N

Horticulture Newsletter W I N T E R 2 0 1 8

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Welcome to the Ad-

ams County Exten-

sion Horticulture

Newsletter. If you do

not wish to receive

this newsletter in the

future simply respond

to

ehammond@adcogov

.org that you wish to

be removed from the

list.

P A G E 2

Soil

temperatures

can be much

higher under a

low tunnel than

in surrounding

areas giving a

head start to the

season!

Extending the growing season affordably

Recently I decided to

install a couple of low

tunnels in our home

vegetable garden. Low

tunnels are basically a

series of short arches

placed over a garden

bed that are used to

support a covering of

some type. The idea is

to heat the air and soil

under the covering dur-

ing the day then to re-

tain some of that heat,

especially the heat radiated by the warm soil,

during the night.

We went with a simple design which only re-

quired some old rebar we had laying around,

PVC pipe and some plastic greenhouse covering

we bought online. Pound the rebar into soil at

regular intervals along the bed then slip the PVC

pipes over them on one side of the bed. Bend

each pipe and slip it onto rebar on the opposite

side. There are formulas available online

to determine the length of the PVC you need

form to an arch of a given height but essentially

if your beds are three to four feet in width you

want to cut the PVC pipe to a length about one

foot wider than the bed.

We chose to install four arches per eight foot

bed. The more arches you have the better the

tunnel will hold up vs. wind and snow.

After installing the arches we placed the green-

house plastic over them and secured it with

clamps. They make really slick clamps designed

specifically for this purpose but I don’t have

them. Again this is a simple and inexpensive de-

sign and does have some drawbacks. The PVC

pipe will oxidize in the sun and become brittle

over time. Eventually it will have to be re-

placed. I’m planning on spray painting the ones

we used this summer to extend their life. There

are also stronger designs out there that utilize

metal hoops. A quick internet search will yield

lots of interesting designs which are almost cer-

tainly stronger and more durable.

So, is it worth the effort? We have had the tun-

nels out in our garden for almost two

months and for us it certainly has been. We

planted cool season greens, as well as some

broccoli, in the tunnels late in February and

they germinated incredibly uniformly. I

assume this was due to both more constant

and

warmer

soil tem-

perature

under the

tunnel

and possi-

bly to the

elevated

humidity

in the

tunnel. In

the mid-

dle of

March the

afternoon

soil tem-

perature under the tunnel was over 10 de-

grees warmer than the soil in one of our un-

covered beds. We are hoping to use the

bump in soil temperature to give an early

start to our peppers this year.

The tunnels do require some maintenance

and have some limitations. Chiefly they

need to be opened and then closed on warm

and\or sunny days to prevent the plants in-

side from cooking. In the late spring you

will need to do this nearly every day which

kind of ties you to garden. The covering

also will normally have to be taken com-

pletely off once the season gets started and

reattached in the fall. It can be difficult or

impossible to get taller crops under the tun-

nels in the fall.

On the whole though, I think that low tun-

nels are a great option for many backyard

veggie gardeners. They are relatively cheap

and easy to install and can be a very effec-

tive way of adding a few weeks or more to

both ends of the growing season.

H O R T I C U L T U R E N E W S L E T T E R

Master Gardener’s corner: by Barbara Carvallo P A G E 3

The Romanticas – New Roses by Meilland

The Meilland family has been growing roses in the South of France since the 1850’s. In 1932 Antoine Meil-

land, founder of Meilland International SA, entered into a contract with the Conard-Pyle Company better

known as Star Roses of West Grove, Pennsylvania. Together they have marketed Meilland-bred roses in the

United States for over 70 years.

Meilland’s roses are notoriously large, lush and covered with blooms. Many are shrubs standing 3’ to 4’ tall,

spreading prolifically and particularly well adapted to wide border gardens. Others are gorgeous hybrid teas,

climbers, miniature climbers and miniatures – all with the habit of blooming profusely. Roses by Meilland are

very hardy and easy to care for once established.

Today Meilland remains a family owned and operated concern with thousands of acres of nurseries in France,

Spain, Netherlands and the United States. Wherever they are, the roses of the House of Meilland are unique in

their beauty, durability and versatility.

The newest variety is a collection of roses known as the Romanticas. They represent a marriage of the old and

the new. Old world roses rich in fragrance with bulky flowers of many petals now share the disease resistance

and exceptional garden performance of modern roses.

The roses featured here are as follows:

Michelangelo

Allegro

Princesses Charlene De Monaco

Traviata

All photos courtesy of Meilland.com https://meilland.com/en/garden-roses-collection/romantica-roses/

We’re nearing the end of our window for getting a spring planting of peas in the garden, but there’s

still some time! If you’re a pea aficionado you can prepare peas by soaking them in a “germination

chamber” i.e. a plastic bag with a wet paper towel in it for about 24 hours before you plant the peas

outside. This will give them a head start as well as

allowing peas to germinate in the warmth of your

home. Peas will germinate in soils as low as 45

degrees Fahrenheit but like warmer temperatures.

Generally they like to germinate warm and grow

cool.

Plant your peas an inch or two apart in rows. If

you’re growing traditional rows you want them

spaced 12-15” apart. If you’re looking to do a

block style planting you can plant a little more

closely, but at least 6-8” apart. The peas should be

about an inch deep in the soil. Make sure you wa-

ter them in well after planting.

As they start to come up it’s important to check

whether your peas are a bush or climbing variety.

Climbing peas will require some form of staking for

best production. Bush varieties “climb” onto them-

selves as they mature and do not require additional

support.

By June you should start seeing flowers and soon after

that start getting peas. If you can resist eating them all

right there, in the garden then you are a stronger per-

son than I! Happy pea gardening!

9755 Henderson Rd

Brighton CO 80601

Phone: 303-637-8100

E-mail: ehammond@adcogov.org

http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/

Adams/

Adams County Extension

Planting Peas