Fort Collins Nursery

Saving seeds can be an inexpensive way to continue the great harvest of a vegetable or flower garden. For hundreds of years, it was part of the task of growing food. Now, buying seed packets can be inexpensive and easy, with a wide variety available (especially in our Garden Shop!).

If you spread a handful of flower seeds last spring, chances are you are still enjoying the reseeded flowers this year. Clip and save seed pods to broadcast next spring, or just let the flowers go wild; that’s what they do naturally!

Seeds from peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, squashes and herbs are easy to save. After harvesting ripe, but not rotted fruits, remove as much pulp as possible. Beans and peas should be left on the plant until the pods are dry, and squashes should be left until the first frost, than harvested.

Spread seeds on a paper towel and air dry. You can try to speed up drying in the oven or a dehydrator, but temperatures over 100° F will damage the seed. Never use a microwave.

Store seeds in a cool, dry place away from hungry critters. Only seal seeds in a container when they are completely dry, since any moisture can lead to mold.

Use seeds the following season, since seeds will lose their viability after the first year.

If the vegetable seed you used was a hybrid, which is genetically modified, chances are seeds from these will not be true to its parent. This is often the case with saving seeds from store-bought vegetables. The best results are also from self-pollinated plants, listed here.

With a wonderful bounty of fresh produce, sometimes the garden overflows. Many home gardeners consider preserving the fruits of their labor to enjoy throughout the years to come. Preserving your own food can also be a big cost savings.

Freezing is one of the easiest ways to preserve food, but canning, drying or creating a root cellar work for particular foods and aren’t as labor intensive as they sound.

Cucumbers, green beans, peppers, onions, cauliflower and even watermelon rinds can be pickled.

An easy pickling recipe from Mother Earth News requires no canning, just a few weeks in the refrigerator.

Tomatoes can be preserved as salsa, sauce or just diced. Using a boiling water bath, tomatoes and pickles can be preserved without a canning pressure cooker due to the acidity content.

Cherries, plums, rhubarb, plums, pears and apricots can be made into jams and jellies and canned. Fruits can be packed into jars raw or preheated and packed hot.

To can fruit without adding sugar or salt, check out the CSU Cooperative Extension’s article “Food Preservation Without Sugar or Salt.” 

Dried fruits, such as apples, cherries and grapes, last well into the winter, if you don’t eat them all before then! Use a drying tray or an oven. Keep dried foods for up to a year by using a vacuum sealer.

Freeze shredded Zucchini for later use. Pumpkin can be steamed, pureed, and frozen. Try freezing pre-measured amounts for easy defrost. Turn a bumper basil crop into pesto, frozen into cubes, which is also easy to defrost for a quick dinner. Remember to label each with the date.

Hard-sided squash, such as acorn, butternut and spaghetti, can last for months in cool, dry areas, no preparation needed!

The CSU Cooperative Extension Office offers classes on a variety of preservation methods.

After a long and productive growing season, most garden soils can benefit from amendments before the ground freezes.
Renew organic matter in the vegetable garden and now empty flowerbeds while also clearing the yard of debris. Run a lawn mower over fallen leaves, collect, and spread in beds. Dig and mix leaves into soil to a depth of 6 inches.
Also, add broken-down compost from the bottom of your compost pile, or add bagged compost. Dehydrated cow or sheep manure makes an excellent amendment. All this effort in the autumn and early winter means only having to turn soil and plant in Spring!

If you’ve found damaged plants, mounded soil, and small burrow holes, you may have an unwelcome rodent helping themselves to your garden. Voles, which resemble large mice, are common in Northern Colorado foothills, forests and prairies.

Voles live as families in burrow systems and can cause extensive damage to trees,  shrubs and crops (especially root vegetables). Some evidence of vole damage can include girdling of the bark of trees and shrubs, but underground root damage may not be seen.

Most damage is caused in winter months, so late fall is a great time to apply Molemax repellent. This product also repels moles, skunks, rabbits and other burrowing animals and is safe to use around children and pets.

Did last winter’s lasting snowpack make dead patches on your lawn? This is caused by gray snow mold, a fungus.

Snow mold occurs when snow or leaves cover lawns for a prolonged period through the winter, especially in shady areas. The mold forms a circular shape, and actively grows when temperatures are just above freezing.

To prevent snow mold, remove leaves and matted materials from the lawn, which encourages proper air flow. Grass will grow back in the spring.

If snow mold is a consistent problem over several years, applying a fungicide, like F-Stop from Fertilome, in the fall can prevent damage.

After a brief summer vacation outdoors, houseplants come back inside for a comfortable winter. Some may return with unwelcome visitors, such as fungus gnats, whiteflies, mealybugs, scales, aphids or spider mites.

Allowing soil to dry between waterings helps discourage egg-laying of pests in soil mixes, as does repotting. Wash pests off leaves with a quick spray of water.

Also, remove dead plant material and leaves, since they harbor larvae.

If the problem persists, bring a sample of the pest in and ask one of our knowledgeable greenhouse staff for a recommended treatment.

Hybrid Tea, Grandiflora, and other grafted roses need more winter protection than other varieties. Prune back long canes in November to protect them from snow damage, or wait until mid-April and leave the rose hips for winter interest. Remove debris from the base of the roses, and use a rose collar to hold soil, compost, straw or bark over the rose crown. We carry rose collars, which can be reused year after year. In the spring, the collars can also be used to protect starter tomatoes.

Have your irises grown into huge clumps, but not produced blooms like they used to? Some clumps may also have started to lift out of the soil, which is an indication it’s time to divide and conquer.

Spring and summer blooming plants like daylilies, iris, daisies, and oriental poppies can be safely divided and transplanted from September until the ground freezes.

Lift clumps gently out of the soil with a garden fork. Pull or cut clumps apart, and discard shriveled, diseased or mushy bulbs in the trash. Even the best compost piles will not get hot enough to kill plant diseases.

Trim leaves to about 4-6 inches above the bulbs.

Replant bulbs 12″ to 24″ apart after refreshing the soil with an amendment such as EKO Compost. Remember in a few years these will also need dividing, so give them enough room.

Divide one color or type at a time or label each to avoid mixing them up while transplanting. Sometimes friends and neighbors will have clumps to trade, adding an exciting new variety to your landscape!

Dividing in the fall allows spring and summer blooming plants time to recover, grow new roots and save up energy. On the flip side, wait to divide fall-bloomers, like mums, asters and ornamental grasses, until the spring.

If you want more spring color, Fort Collins Nursery offers hundreds of varieties of bulbs starting in September. Stop in to check out all the color your garden needs!

Cold-hardy vegetables grow well into 40-degree temperatures with little hardship. Broccoli, cabbage, onions, lettuce, spinach, peas, radish and turnips will continue to produce through the fall. Even semi-hardy carrots, potatoes, chard and beets will persist with a little help through cooler temperatures.

Cold frames, which are often used in early Spring, can also extend the growing season to winter. These southern-facing structures keep heat from passive solar trapped in an enclosed space. Some seeds (lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard) can still be sown directly in thesoil!

After irrigation is turned off, plants still need winter watering in our high desert climate.

We recommend thoroughly watering trees, shrubs, lawns and perennial beds at least once a month. Remember to water when temperatures are above 40 degrees, and with enough time for the water to fully soak into the soil.

Added water, along with a thick bed of mulch, will protect plants from a summer drought the next year.

Newly planted trees, shrubs and perennials are the most at risk. Try to water these 2-3 times a month. Fall-laid sod will also need extra moisture.