Pretty good rock work. It will be fun to see how this gardens matures. I was in Colorado from north to south this Summer for two weeks, but missed Fort Collins. You live in a beautiful state....if you stay in the mountains. Mike

To be honest, I have only planted carrots once in this garden and they did just like they have done most places I have lived, so I just stopped planting them. They were cheap to buy and I just didn't fight it. They don't seem to be the 'cheap' food they once were, but maybe that is because I search out the baby ones and not just those that are peeled to look like baby carrots. I have read lots about them lately and have been happy to have the info from 'real' gardeners like you and Jay, although both of you grow in very different conditions than mine. The problem has been that they didn't develop underground. The tops always looked perfect, but there was just not much under it. I would guess that much of my problem has been that I didn't thin enough. I think I am going to make seed tapes like seedmama does, and then I won't have to do that part. I am thinking that I will build a small bed so I can control the soil, and try some in the fall. It will be just another learning experience for me. One side of my garden drains a lot faster than the other. I have not planted any of the summer crops that you listed above either except for green beans. I planted some pole beans and the germination was not as good as normal. A little later, I planted Contender bush, and they seem to be doing fine. One of the market gardeners that posts on the Market forum says that if you want to plant early beans, make sure the seed color is brown. In her opinion the brown bean was more tolerant of cooler temps. Your temps have been surprising low, haven't they? I think our low for May so far is 47. I've got a ton of work to do outside, so I had better get started. Thanks for the carrot help. Oh, here are the seeds I bought: Cosmic Purple Carrot Atomic Red Carrot Amarillo Carrot Greasy Grits Beans Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli Chinese Red Meat Radish Lettuce Leaf Basil Red Malabar Spinach Stevia Zucchino Rampicante Squash (Already growing for this year) Long Island Cheese Squash Precoce D'Argenteuil Asparagus True Black Brandywine Tomato Pineapple Tomato Flame Tomato Big Yellow Zebra Arkansas Traveler Tomato Amish Paste Flame Lettuce Mascara Lettuce Because I went back in the store and bought 3 different times during the day, I got a free pack of seeds each time. LOL I didn't plan it that way, it just happened, plus with the crowd, it was very hot and crowded in there, expecially early in the day, and I couldn't stand it very long at a time. Last time DH went he was grabbing seeds everywhere and throwing them in the basket. This time he stayed about 3 minutes and headed for the porch to wait for me. After I had bought seeds and thought I was finished, I remembered that I wanted Malibar Spinach, but didn't want to fight the crowd for one pack of seeds. Then I went to hear Oster speak and remembered I wanted Lettuce Leaf Basil also, so I went in for the 3rd time. The free seeds were Clemson Spineless Okra, Watermelon Jublee, Quadrato d'asti Giallo Pepper. I already have that pepper growing in my garden this year also. I hope I didn't duplicate the tomatoes because I didn't check my inventory before I left home since I wasn't planning to buy anymore tomatoes, but since tomato and lettuce seed were were their Spring Festival special priced item, for $1 a pack, I just had to have a few more. LOL

Laura, I'm afraid I won't be much help to you, since I've always mostly been to the same places you have been. I like Fort Collins Nursery, because most of their trees and shrubs are grown locally, you can see part of their stock if you drive just north of town on Shields between vine and 287. Most but not all of their help is pretty knowledgeable, but they seem to be a bit closed minded about roses. I go to them for a fruit tree or grape vine or something that it's critical to get something chosen to be optimized for our particular local climate. I've bought most of my roses from Bath. They have a big sale just before mothers day, so I usually get a new one each year for me, and also one for mom and one for my mother-in-law. The roses are brought in from wherever by the truckload, but they're in good shape, and nearly all varieties chosen well for local climate. Hardly a hybrid tea among them most years. (which is good) LOTS of floribundas and grandifloras. If I need something unusual I may go to Gulley's. I often buy some perennial flower starts there. They have a lot of stuff out front under that awning that I can't seem to find anywhere else. They had some herbs that I couldn't find elsewhere also. All three of these places have helpful knowledgeable staff, quality plants and nursery stock. I like going to all three. But the pricesÂÂÂ I know it's costly to run a locally owned business, and I doubt they overpay their staff, so I'm not blaming them. I just can't afford these kind of places except when I need something special. I just can't justify spending that kind of money when I can often buy the exact same tomato plant, blue spruce or oak tree, or flat of petunias and geraniums etc at Wal-Mart or Home Depot for 1/4 or 1/3 the price. If you know what you want, and don't need a lot of expert advice, and are able to stop by on more than one occasion (since on any particular visit you can count on half the things you want not being in stock), then you can really clean up by going to these discount places. I even buy a lot of stuff at K-mart garden shop since it's right on my way home from work. Even though most years the kids running the K-mart garden shop wouldn't know the business end of garden rake if it bit them in the behind, if I watch for when stuff first arrives, I can buy some great stuff there cheap. Before it dies from the abuse! They usually have some stuff from "Proven Winners" and a couple of those other brands you see advertised in garden magazines at great prices. You just have to make sure to buy it before they kill it, that's all. Well, thatÂs my 2 cents worth. Bruce

Hi Bruce, I dont want to turn this into another cottonwood/aspen rantbut I AM going to link one of the old RMG rants! Ever since I bought this house early in 04 Ive been battling these things, and over the years Ive come up with something that seems to work, so I thought Id let you in on my experiment results! I wont repeat all the stuff I said on that thread, but, first, even if your neighbor wanted to get rid of the tree, it only makes the situation worse. Once the "parent" tree is cut down, the suckers come up with a VENGEANCE! More about that in my 06.03.05 post! In April of 07 I resurrected the thread to report that using roundup on individual cottonwood suckers had been workingbut I was also killing a ring of grass around each sucker I sprayedand it was VERY labor intensive to try to spray the suckers without killing too much grass! And there were so many aspen suckers in my front yard that I couldnt use roundup on them without killing much of the grass! In July of 07 I did one more update to let everybody know that using Weed B Gon for suckers that were coming up in the grass worked very welland it continues to do so! My Final Plan included using Weed B Gon on any suckers coming up in grass, and using roundup on the suckers that came up in my perennial beds. To do that I cut the corner off of a plastic bag, pull the sucker up into the bag, and carefully (on a windless day) spray all the foliage inside of the bag, then fold the bag over and weight it down with something so the roundup doesnt "accidentally" get on the perennialswhich are often VERY close to the sucker. Closing up the bag also seems to help by "steaming" the sucker inside of the bag. When the sucker has completely browned, I pull the bag off and cut it off at or below the soil level. Since then Ive added another step to my faux eradication Plan! Now when Im digging to plant or dig up perennials and find a root thats bigger than about a half an inch, I dig the hole as big as I want/need it and then cut the root back to the side of the hole. Then I dig a little more soil out around the root, put a small baggie (non-zipper) over the end of the root, make sure the top/opening of the baggie is higher than the bottom which is around the end of the root, and pour a small amount of roundup over the end of the root into the plastic bag. Then I pack the top of the baggie shut with some of my nice heavy clay, plant what I want there, and fill the hole completely with (improved) soil. This, I have discovered, really seems to be a death knell for that particular rootnot that there arent a million-zillion more just waiting to make an appearance! But this method has successfully done-in the bigger roots that I had been spraying and/or cutting off ever since I moved in here. In case you cant tell, I have a BAD problem with cottonwood and aspen roots! The one neighbor behind me has THREE of them that are less than a foot away from my back fence. One of them has actually started moving the fence, and that same one is moving the (two-high) railroad ties that border the perennial bed that runs the whole way along the fence. The railroad ties that have found themselves in "a very moving position" are four and a half feet inside of the fence, so about 5 feet away from the tree! Mostly Im able to cut out the roots with a limb lopper, but Ive also cut out roots that were more than 3" in diameter, and I obviously had to saw them offincluding a few that were in my "escape-proof" garden which is between the back of my shed and my side fenceand is only about 20" wide! Its always fun working in there! In April 09, after years of cutting/spraying the suckers, I decided to apply a root mitigation program in my escape-proof garden! Here are some of the roots I cut out! And heres where they were cut out ofjust before "capping" the ends of the roots with plastic bags and pouring some roundup on them, and after refilling the hole with new soil! No suckers came up from these roots for the rest of the summer! And heres a picture of what I ran into when I was "trying" to dig up my Herrenhausen ornamental oregano to take along to the swap, and another one of some of the roots I had to dig out to plant my grape vinejust one, one-gallon plant! Ok! This has turned into another rant! I think Im justified! And after all the problems Ive had with cottonwood/aspen roots for well over 15 years now, I will definitely not be planting bambooor Virginia creeper or trumpet vine or mint or yarrow or gooseneck loosestrife (I LOVE the flowers!) or Mexican evening primrose or............... End of rantfor now! Skybird