It takes guts to grow tomatoes in the Pikes Peak region. The soil is terrible, the growing season is short and the weather is unpredictable.But it can be done.Larry Stebbins, director of Pikes Peak Urban Gardens in Colorado Springs, has the proof.”We consistently get over 100 ripe tomatoes from every plant and so can everybody else,” Stebbins said. “That’s what we teach people how to do, how to use the tricks, even in Falcon.”Stebbins, who started gardens at local schools where he taught chemistry or led administration teams before retiring, founded the nonprofit group in 2007 to help people start community gardens.Since then, PPUG has been the catalyst behind the creation of nine community gardens in the area, he said.However, a scarcity of available land forced Stebbins to reconsider PPUG’s true goal: to help people learn how to grow their own food. Now Stebbins and other PPUG volunteers teach classes on how to garden successfully in the Pikes Peak area. They also run a demonstration garden at the Harlan Wolfe Ranch on Cheyenne Road in Colorado Springs.Through PPUG, Stebbins has met frustrated gardeners originally from the East Coast, where the top soil is measured in feet and all that needs to be done is put a seed in the ground and stand back.”Here, we have inches of topsoil, if any at all,” Stebbins said.Gardeners new to the Pikes Peak area need to learn how to deal with the soil and the weather extremes, he said.With the price of food going up, backyard gardening is becoming more popular.Three years ago, 30 people might have shown up for a class at a church or hall. Today, 300 people show up for classes, and Stebbins has to hold the inexpensive $5 classes in school auditoriums.PPUG usually holds one class a month in the off season, covering gardening tasks that need to be done that particular month. Stebbins said he thinks they’ll hold their first class in October this year because new gardeners need to learn how to prepare their soil for next year.”If you want to garden in 2012, start in the early fall of 2011. Get your soil fixed, put straw or leaves on top to keep the soil moist during winter,” he said. “In springtime, you’re ready to go, and so is the soil.”A new topic this year could be garlic, which is planted in the fall, because so many people are interested in growing it.As for what grows best in the Pikes Peak area, Stebbins likes to start in the spring with spinach, lettuce and root crops.Butter Crunch and Four Seasons (aka “Merville de Quatre Saison”) lettuces do well, and the Jericho and Vivian romaine lettuces stay crispy even in the summer heat, he said. Stebbins said he recommends Tyee spinach, Yaya carrots and Candy onions; the latter are available at local garden centers and grow to the size of softballs. He said the onions are the real reason to grill a hamburger – just to have a slice on top.Some don’t need a hamburger to enjoy the onions.As part of their education and outreach program, PPUG sets up mini-farmers markets at local schools to teach kids about home-grown food. “We had one kid who bought a Candy onion and was eating it like an apple as he walked through our little farmers market,” Stebbins said.He said Yaya carrots are crispy – so crisp that farmers don’t grow them for mass consumption because they can’t be mechanically harvested.Squashes, cucumbers and peppers do great, too, but tomatoes need plenty of warmth and protection from the wind.Colorado gardeners should avoid melons, okra, sweet potatoes and lima beans – the growing season is too short. But Stebbins said bush beans and pole beans do fantastic around the area.After preparing the soil, planting the right crops and protecting them from the weather, Stebbins said the successful Pikes Peak gardener is “present in the garden.””That Buddhist saying, ‘the best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow’ is so true around here,” he said.Missing one day of watering on an 85 or 90 degree day can turn lettuces and broccoli bitter, and they’ll never taste good.Patience is not its own reward because the growing season is so short.If something’s not growing well, pull it out and replant. “You’ll be so happy you did,” Stebbins said.The false starts in the spring – warm one day and cold the next – are frustrating. “But it’s all worthwhile when plants push out of the soil and you see the smiles on faces, and, later, when families harvest a head of lettuce or their first little bit of spinach or pull out their first carrot,” he said.For gardening tips, visit PPUG’s Web site, http://ppugardens.org. The class schedule will be posted there later this year.
