Find Joy in Gardening this Summer Find Joy in Gardening this Summer

By Missy Ruzicka

There is nothing like serving summer dinner guests fresh tomato caprese made with fresh basil and tomatoes from your garden. There is something gratifying about planting, growing, and harvesting your own food. Although our growing season here in Colorado is short, there are still plenty of flowers and veggies you can grow in your own yard without being a farmer.

I never really tried my hand at gardening until that pesky summer of 2020, where I like many of you, was going a little stir crazy and needed something else to do. My mom has an amazing green thumb with beautiful gardens and house plants she has had for decades. I asked her what was the easiest thing to garden and for the flowers that are most difficult to kill. With a quick run to the local gardening center, I had everything I needed to try my hand at being a gardener.

I’m not going to lie, it was tough setting it up and getting a handle on the weeds but after the first week or so, I found myself out on the back deck enjoying my morning coffee, looking at my beautiful flowers and the vegetable plants that were really taking off. I learned to take a step back and enjoy the quiet mornings of weeding my flower beds, watering my veggies, and finally finding why my mom spent hours outside in her yard.

Now Colorado is not an easy state to garden in for we have been known to have a crazy snowstorm in June, hail storms that can destroy your yard in a matter of minutes in July, weeks of heat and dry spells, and let’s not forget that gardening at elevation can be tricky.

We have had success with yellow squash, all kinds of peppers, and heirloom and cherry tomatoes. This year we are adding spinach and rhubarb to our list. I find it rewarding to share our bumper crop with friends and neighbors.

Growing vegetables is relaxing but watching your yard come to life with all the different flowers in bloom is probably the most rewarding part of gardening. My mom helped me plant a bunch of bulbs and flowers and I was amazed when our spring started off with tulips and daffodils, followed by my favorite irises of all different colors. Then as those began to fade, the roses and daisies came to life with sunflowers and black-eyed Susans rounding out summer. My yard is in a constant state of change, and blooms of color are forever blossoming and changing right up until that first snowfall.

Colorado’s summers tend to get hot, and about July all the pretty green grass starts to turn dull and brown in some areas. I asked the team at Olson Outdoors in Broomfield what I could do to help the grass during the dog days of summer and they suggested more frequent watering for a shorter time to help control the tempera ture of the clay which will help your grass roots. Instead of watering for 30 minutes 3 days a week, water 8 minutes for 5 days.

Gardening has been shown to lighten moods and lower levels of stress and anx iety. It’s relaxing to sit out on your back deck as the sun sets and see the fruits of your labor and realize that all that work was actually enjoyable.