Are you a beginning gardener on the plains of Colorado?

    Have you recently moved into town? If you have lived in another part of Colorado, then you might know some of what to expect of gardening on the plains. Colorado is one of the toughest states, along with Wyoming and Nebraska, for gardening out west.
    The first tip is to be aware of the extremes in temperature and weather changes. Protect plants in the fall with two or three inches of mulch in the garden beds. For some plants that need additional protection, use evergreen boughs or pine needles. Use a protection that can allow some air flow. The objective is not to smother the plants, just to retain some heat. I accidentally left a thin layer of leaves in a garden bed one fall. As I decorated for Christmas in that garden bed, I noticed that where I placed stakes among the leaves, they were easy to pull out even if the temperature was below freezing. A thin layer allowed the top portion of the soil not to freeze.
    No matter where you live, it is recommended to do a soil test to know what nutrients are in your soil and pH level as well as soil structure. It is good to have a baseline, a starting point, so that you know the appropriate amount of nutrients to add to the soil or how to raise or lower the pH. Soil bacteria do not thrive well in alkaline pH. They need a pH of 5.5 to 7.0. So if the pH is not in the proper range, all those soil bacteria are not present to help decompose compost. A pH between 5.5 and 6.5 can assist nutrient leaching, but above that become a barrier to plants obtaining nutrients. Alkaline pH makes nutrients such as zinc and manganese unavailable, creates toxic elements, and particularly in clay soils changes how the soil structure behaves. These things are all connected. Shift one and you end up shifting everything.
 

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