When Breckenridge Community Garden comes into existence this summer, Summit County will tally five community gardens serving nearly 200 plot holders and one elementary school.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20120420/NEWS/120419778/1001&parentprofile=1055

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20120326/NOTES/120329857

If all goes as planned, Breckenridge will have a community vegetable garden in the summer of 2012. Four other community gardens are currently operating in the county, so we are delighted that Breckenridge will now be on board. It’s a great concept, because many locals don’t have the space or conditions suitable for growing vegetables in their own yard. Raised bed vegetable garden plots will be rented out for the season to plot holders. The plot holders do the planting, watering and tending of their gardens—and then they reap the benefit of their harvest. If you are new to vegetable gardening, you will be amazed at the bounty that can be grown in our mountain region!
The proposed site is at the corner of Coyne Valley Road and Airport Road. Breckenridge will relocate its recycling facilities to the same location, so it will be a central hub for the local community. The High Country Conservation Center will be administering the project, so check out their website for more details. http://www.highcountryconservation.org/

Fall is upon us! While you are putting your pots and planters away for the season, remember that Summit Landscaping & Garden Center has a custom container planting program. You can bring your planters in this fall; we will store them for the winter and plant them for you next spring. Some customers like to be very involved in the design of their planters, while others simply want us to plant them with bright, colorful flowers that look great. We can accommodate you either way! If you would like Summit Landscaping to store your pots, bring them to our office on a weekday during October. We will get your contact information and take down any requests you have for the design of the planter. We plant our custom planters in May so they have time to grow in our heated greenhouse. You can pick them up in mid to late June when it is safe to put them outside. Give us a call!

In the middle of summer, many of us feel so “busy” with our gardens that we forget to appreciate the true joy that gardening can bring to our lives. Fall and winter are a wonderful time to read gardening books and browse through seed catalogs for inspiration, as we plan for next summer and ponder the beauty of our gardens.
Here are a few of my favorite gardening books, all available at Summit Landscaping Garden Center.
1. High Altitude Western Gardening by Marilyn Quinn: The photographs in this book are tremendously inspiring and provide an abundance of ideas. A perfect book for high country gardeners since the book focuses on plants suitable for our climate zone. Quinn highlights the use of native varieties and includes a useful section on vegetable and herb gardening.
2. Xeriscape Plant Guide by Rob Proctor: Anyone who is trying to create a more sustainable landscape will find this book to be a great resource. Proctor highlights 100 water wise plants, shrubs and trees which not only need less water, but less care in general. My only criticism is that the elevation ranges seem too conservative: for example, I have beautiful prairie coneflower growing in my garden at 10,400 feet, yet Proctor only rates it to 8,000 feet.
3. Easy Gardening: No Stress, No Strain by Jack Kramer: a gem of a book for someone new to gardening who could benefit from the basics of how to plan a garden. Kramer explains the basics of irrigation, raised beds and methods to keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

To water or not to water—that is the question in a gardener’s mind each fall.
Fall in the high country is typically a dry time. Until the ground freezes in mid-October, your garden, shrubs, trees and lawn still need water. Failure to keep your garden watered in the fall can lead to root damage that affects the health of the entire plant. Trees and shrubs need adequate moisture stored in their roots to survive the winter.
If Mother Nature is not providing us with rain or snow, you should water once a week through the fall. Do not water if the air and soil temperatures are below 40 degrees F. Try to water in the middle of the day so the water has time to soak in before freezing at night. Remember to disconnect your hose after each use to prevent damage. And once there is snow on the ground, you can put your hose away for the winter!

As we move closer to fall in the high country, it is time for gardeners to complete their final projects and think about putting their garden to bed for the winter.
1. First, consider whether you want to make any additions to your garden this fall. In our climate zone, perennials can be planted into the first part of September, giving them a few weeks to get established. Trees and shrubs can be planted until mid-October when the ground freezes.
2. Clean up any dead plant material in your yard. Pests, diseases and fungus thrive in a habitat of decaying materials. Raking up leaves and grass helps remove the environment where these pathogens flourish.
3. Avoid major pruning in the fall. Evergreens should never be pruned in the fall, and deciduous trees should only be thinned after they have dropped their leaves for the year.
4. Most perennials will let you know when they have stopped growing and are going dormant for the winter by turning brown. When this happens, you know it is safe to cut their stems to ground level. Spreading a layer of compost around your perennials helps insulate them and insures they will have plenty of nutrients in the spring when the snow melts away.
5. While compost is sufficient fertilizer for perennials, trees and shrubs benefit from a dose of high potassium fertilizer in the fall. Avoid fertilizers with high nitrogen (the first number) as this promotes top growth. In fall, a fertilizer with high potassium and phosphorus (the last two numbers) promotes root growth.
6. Perennials, shrubs and trees all love the insulation of a layer of mulch. Wood chips, weed-free straw and pine boughs all offer protection from sudden temperature changes. Snow is the best insulator of all, so pile it onto your garden when you are shoveling this winter.

“For Summit Landscaping owner Rod Vargas, the goal for the community garden piece is to have a facility that’s attractive to onlookers but is still functional. Currently, his business sponsors The Living Classroom in Frisco, including materials costs, staff time for workshops and a cash scholarship opportunity.”

“We see a lot of need and desire from the community to be involved in something like that,” he said.

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20110818/NEWS/110819806/1078&ParentProfile=1055

Article by the Summit Daily regarding business growth in Summit County CO.

“Rod Vargas, who purchased Summit Landscaping in Breckenridge this past October, is in the process of giving his new company a facelift. He’s repainting vehicles and equipment to give his business a uniform look, and putting up a small garden center.

“Regardless of where the economy was going, I think it was a great opportunity for us to update the image of the company,” he said.

Vargas isn’t certain when the economy will completely rebound, but said the perfect time to think about expansion is when it’s stagnate.

“To me, it was a great opportunity,” he said. “It’s a great time to do it.”

http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20110322/NEWS/110329967