Greetings Friends and Fellow Gardeners,
April is here so we are open 7 days a week, 9-5 and until 6pm on Thursdays.
Plants are coming in every week, as they become ready and as we feel safe that they will not die if hit by cold weather or 12” of wet snow. We have lots of cold-season salad greens, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower etc right now. Grapes will be coming in about 3 weeks, Austin Roses in 4 weeks and tomatoes in 1 to 2 weeks. Why so early on tomatoes? Because we carry a clever improvement on the wall of water, we call the Solar Cap. It is a metal frame with a plastic bag with a water layer, that is bigger than a wall of water, can be left on all season to keep the soil warm during our cool nights, won’t blow over etc. Mikl always plants a tomato or two around April 15th, often with a snow storm blowing in over the mountains, and he begins picking tomatoes in July. More and more varieties of tomatoes, peppers etc will be coming out later in April and early May. All of these veggies are organic and free of bee-harming neonicotinoids.
Our fruit trees that overwintered outdoors can be planted now, and as the berry fruits start leafing, we will bring them out. Raspberries are vulnerable now, so we will be bringing them out in a couple of weeks.
Saturday, April 5, Janis Keift of Botanical Interests will be teaching a class on Seed Starting Success. Learn from an expert.
DON’T MISS for the first time: BABY GOAT DAY , Sunday April 6 at 12:30 for a couple of hours, until the 3 baby goats get tired of romping, frolicking, jumping around and creating hilarious entertainment for young and old alike. Margaret Hollander, who raises these goats near the reservoir will be minding them and perhaps bottle feeding them. Two are LaManche goats and one is a Nubian. Have you ever seen baby goats?
Mikl’s class on Successful Composting is scheduled at the same time. He’ll probably be lonely, but could do some successful composting Afterwards with what the goats leave.
Also we would like to bring to your attention a Boulder County Open Space program “Purge your Spurge”. You dig your Myrtle Spurge that is a noxious weed and bring a bag of it to one location in Longmont or one in Boulder and they will give you free native plants. This “Donkey Tail Spurge” has greenish yellow flowers early in spring and bluish succulent leaves that contain a toxic milky sap. I know children that were sent to the emergency room for playing with this plant and I also know of a tough grown man whose eyes were swollen shut the day after pulling it. PLEASE use gloves and long sleeves and wash with soap after digging. Take your Spurge on May 10, 9-12 noon to 6400 Arapahoe in Boulder or on April 26, to the Boulder Co. Fairgrounds in Longmont, 9-12noon. For more information: kroy@nullbouldercounty.org or 303-678-6294
P.S. Plants that have spent their spring in a greenhouse will need to be hardened off both to cold and to our intense sun. Get information about how to do this when you shop at Harlequin’s Gardens.
We look forward to seeing you and helping you with your gardening.
Sincerely,
The Staff at Harlequin’s Gardens
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