Seed Tester Profile

Ann Caffey

Walsenberg, Colorado, Zone 4

We are Zone 4, at 6300 foot elevation at the base of the San Juan and San Isabel mountains in the Rockies.  There is no "typical" weather - every year is different but there are some similarities.  Our average first frost is Sept. 15th.  Our average last frost date is May 15th, but I had 37 degrees this year in June.

Summers are hot, around 85 - 95 degrees daytime and 45-50 at night. We almost always have some wind and quite often, severe gusts up to 70 MPH or more.  We are solar - completely off the grid - so having a wind turbine works well.  Rainfall is very sporadic (except this year) and not something to rely on. 
In the winter we have snow (if we're lucky) and sometimes that is severe as well.  Last January and February, we had snow every weekend for eight weeks in a row.  At one point we received more than 5 feet of snow in two weeks.  Temperatures can range from 0 degrees (or below) to 70 degrees, sometimes in the same week.  Average daytime temps are around 40 degrees with nights around the 20's.

I have a garden of 4 smaller beds (4'X8'), 2 larger beds (12'X8') and about 80 or more feet of fenceline.  One bed is dedicated to herbs, one to raspberries, strawberries and asparagus, and the others rotate and sometimes change size. I need a large bed for corn, for example, so each year I enlarge a bed.  When I rotate crops the next year, I divide one of the larger beds into 2 smaller ones. 

I use a “waffle design” meaning my pathways and beds are approximately the same level and a wall is built around the bed.  I plant each variety onto its own little bed-within-a-bed, but after everything germinates, I let water flow between the "mini" beds. 

The perimeter of the garden is beans, peas, cukes, pickles and tomatoes.  I lean hog panels against the fence creating a kind of triangle.  As plants grow up the panels, harvesting is a snap.

The fencing around the garden creates a microclimate with less wind, snow lasting a little longer and smaller temperature fluctuations. This was an old mining town though, so I find alot of trash everywhere I dig.  I have no water well (or city water either!) and haul all my water with a truck tank that holds 200 gallons.  It takes three hauls per week for household use, two per week for the sheep, and one or two each week for the garden. 
I flood irrigate, filling the beds with water by a 1" hose and a soft spray nozzle jammed onto the end.  Of course, the frequency and quantity of water depends on weather conditions.  I've only watered maybe five times so far this season because of all the rain.  And as follows, this is by far the very best garden I've ever had in all my years of gardening. 
I'm completely besotted by my bounty!  It's so green here that it hurts my eyes and my sheep are so fat they don't even graze much anymore.  They go out in the morning and gorge on yucca flowers and then lie around and moan for the rest of the day!