Our First Garden on the Ranch

rockingbranchco

Aug 28

5 min read

Among working on the house and getting our livestock in order this year, we also went hog wild with a garden this spring. I admit, we haven't been the best about weed management, and at times it could have looked prettier, but it definitely gave us an exciting harvest and a lot of learnings for next year! With August wrapping up, now feels like the perfect time to reflect on what worked and didn't work in the garden so we can start dreaming up next year's plans.

Colorado's Growing Season

Living in Longmont, we’ve come to appreciate the nuances of Colorado's seasons. They always keep us on our toes, and we also get to enjoy the differences in views and routines they bring. With a relatively short growing window, typically from late May to early September, timing is jam-packed for starting a garden. We’ve learned that starting seeds indoors is essential to get a head start, but it’s equally important to monitor the weather closely and be prepared to protect our plants from unexpected cold snaps in the first few weeks! I follow a specific meteorologist on Facebook and if he says "cold snap", I take it seriously! Two years ago, snow hit the ground on May 8th!

The cold is only the first issue; then comes the heat and lack of rainfall (especially this year). This part of Colorado averages ~15 inches of rainfall per year, with May being the wettest month typically. Right now, we are only at ~7.5" so I'd say we are behind. We definitely took the lack of rainfall into account when planning the garden, but we really struggled with water consistency and set up an automatic drip line. That will be a must for any future planting.

Weird Watermelons

One of the stars of our garden was undoubtedly the watermelon. There’s something magical about watching the vines stretch, and the fruit develop under the warm Colorado sun. Also, a baby watermelon the size of a golf ball is absolutely adorable for a fruit. It makes me question how, with so little rainfall and only short bursts of watering, so much flavor and juiciness could develop inside?! Again, magical. Well, we couldn't do just normal melons; we had to experiment with weird melon varieties! We grew three types of melons: The Black Diamond watermelon was started from seeds inside, and the Yellow Doll icebox watermelon and Honeydew Melons were local seedlings I purchased on a nursery walk with a friend.

Black Diamond: This one is actually completely normal and is the classic giant watermelon you find in most grocery stores. We only had two plants of this variety and will likely end the season with four watermelons.
Yellow Doll: This is one we will definitely grow again. They were quick growers (about 70 days to harvest) and are beautiful in color and flavor! If I had to compare the flavor to a Black Diamond, I would describe the flavor as a sweeter, warmer honey-like sweet. We had eight of these plants and their vines were everywhere. We will likely end up with about 25 watermelons.
Muskmelon (?): This is one we will likely grow again, too! I lost the tag on it so it is a bit of a mystery melon, but I remember it being close to a honeydew. I only purchased one of these seedlings as a small test, and while it took longer to get growing, the melon rind is tough and protective, and the number of melons per vine is pretty efficient. We are still waiting on these to be ripe enough to pick, but tasting notes should be: rich honey notes balanced by subtle undertones of fresh cucumber and crisp apple.

The toughest part about melons was picking the right time to harvest! I also felt a little nervous giving away melons without knowing if they were perfect on the inside for friends to enjoy. I'm sure picking at the right time comes with experience, so we will keep looking for the right signs (yellow spot, dried tendril, knocking, etc.) and splitting them open to see & enjoy! We can’t wait to make melons a larger part of the garden patch next year.

The Zucchini Explosion

If there’s one vegetable that seemed to have a mind of its own, it was zucchini. What started as only two plants quickly turned into a bounty that we could hardly keep up with! We had zucchini in every way possible and still couldn't keep up! We've done every type of zucchini boat you could imagine, skewers, pasta sauce, on top of pizzas, and lots of zucchini bread. We loved the abundance and will keep the quantity small, so we don't feel like we are drowning in zukes next year.

My nieces helping me pick the garden (left), mid-week haul (middle), choc. chip zuke bread (right)

Peppers and Tomatoes

Our experience with peppers and tomatoes was a mixed bag and could be improved next year. We started these plants (30 total transplanted seedlings) from seed indoors, but with the extreme heat, they took a lot longer to establish outdoors and get big enough to fruit abundantly. We are just now (end of August) getting to enjoy more than one tomato or pepper at a time - now they are all coming at once it seems! These will both be plants we always include in a garden because we love a nice, fresh heirloom tomato and Brandon really enjoys all of the pepper varieties.

Flowers

Our sunflowers and marigolds did really well, but that was the only flower around the garden that I had any success with. I planted two rounds of Zinnia, with absolutely zero luck on them coming up! I think the weeds might have choked them out each time... or maybe I mistook them as weeds. Either way, I did learn that I need a dedicated zone for flowers so I can keep a close eye on them between weed pressure and rabbit pressure.

The Clean Up Crew

One very helpful crew that helped keep the gardening in the green (not wasteful or not worth it) was our scrap crew. Between the chickens and the pigs (and even the donkey), we always had an animal excited to take down some garden goodies. This was a nice last resort for any of the produce we couldn't enjoy in time or just felt like we had too much of sitting on our counter. I think the favorite was the watermelon, of course, and honestly it was super fun launching a few 3-4 lbs watermelons in the field for the chickens to find after they busted open.

Next Year!

It is somewhat sad knowing that our garden has hit its peak and we will soon need to start knocking things down and preparing the soil for next year. We definitely learned a bit more about gardening than in years prior (gardening in Missouri and California), just with the sheer size of our garden and experiencing the heat and lack of moisture. We also think there is more opportunity to work on our shoulder season plantings, as we didn't do any Spring harvest and don't plan to have any Fall harvest at this point (although we could still probably get a round of radishes in and out of the ground before the first frost!). I am most excited to think through the design of the garden for next year and plan out when it is time to start seeds indoors again.

For now, we will enjoy the last few weeks of the garden and prep for putting the beds to rest.