Marpa Landscape Design Studio Blog

The high plains and mountains of our Rocky Mountain region can be tough on plants.  Things that grow elsewhere in the same “zone” don’t necessarily do well here, where the conditions can be harsher and drier.

Happily we can rely on our academic friends at Colorado State University, where they conduct growth trials on various plants in their “Trial Garden” in Fort Collins, CO.  Each year they test out new varieties of plants and rate them on how well they grow in our climate and soil.  They choose the best among them and describe their performance.

So if you’re getting ready to plant your summer garden, check them out at www.flowertrials.colostate.edu.  Your garden might be better for it!

We’ve learned a lot this growing season: how to run a greenhouse, how to plant an orchard and bud apple trees, and how to grow GREAT tomatoes!  This beauty is one of the beefsteak tomatoes.

Remember the apple trees we budded with USDA expert Greg Noden back in the spring?  Well, they’ve grown into little treelets and we’re planting them in their own orchard area of the nursery!

First we laid out rolls and rolls of weed barrier so the little trees have a fighting chance to get started.  After laying out the orchard on paper (well, on the computer screen), we measured the lines of each row of trees and marked the irrigation points with flags.  Then we began setting out the trees in their pots.

Each new variety will be marked with a wooden stake to keep all the trees straight.  We should know within a few years what varieties like our soil and water conditions.

Marpa is embarking on a new venture: a small urban farm.  This project is grounded in a vision of small-scale, community-based food production that we feel will be of benefit throughout the country. We will be trying to grow as much food as possible in as little space and using the fewest resources possible.

We began by refurbishing our old greenhouse as well as setting up a new one.  In the new greenhouse, we installed a geothermal floor, which will use the constant temperature of the earth below to mitigate the extremes of cold and hot.  This should help to cut down on the power usage in this greenhouse.

One of our first endeavors was to clear space in the nursery to grow apple trees.  Martin researched varieties that might make the best cider, and which might grow in our climate here on the Front Range in Colorado.  He ordered root stock and bud wood to make 300 trees, and then was faced with putting the two together.

That’s where Greg Noden of the USDA comes in: he generously gave up a weekend to come to Boulder and teach us how to “bud” an apple tree, i.e., to get it ready to grow.  Here’s a video we made of the process for anyone who wants to try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1igp9DppuM