This is the fifth of a six-part series focusing on container gardening in Colorado.    

How rewarding it is to grow vegetables at home! The July-August 2020 issue of The Garden Buzz newsletter focused on container vegetable gardening basics to guide gardeners in the use of pots, buckets, bags or vertical growing systems. The CSU Container Gardening Fact Sheet and the chart below can help gardeners purchase the proper plant varieties for the best container size. Varieties can be found at local garden centers or online seed companies. Whether using plants or growing from seed, the varieties are ideal for containers.

Pollen wasps (subfamily Masarinae) are one exception to this rule. Pollen wasps provide pollen and nectar for their young. You can often observe them visiting Penstemon flowers. Most solitary wasps feed on arthropods, but sometimes you may see adult wasps feeding on flower nectar for energy.

Annual: Annual plants grow, bloom and die within one season.

Biennial: Seeds produce a plant that blooms in the second year and then dies at the end of that season.

Botanical Name: A worldwide method of classifying plants in Latin that is unique to each plant. In practice since the 1700s, it is used to describe a plant for its physical characteristics like shape and color and many times includes the country of origin. Example: The name of the genus and species of a carrot is Phaseolus vulgaris.

There are more microorganisms in a handful of healthy soil than there are people on the earth. Our very lives depend on its vitality. Soil not only supports the plants that release oxygen and provide us with food, but it also cleans the air and stores carbon. For a healthy, productive garden with flowers, vegetables and fruit that look like they're from a magazine photograph, start with what's under your feet. Doing the work now will help achieve the results you are looking for and give plants a good start.

Have you ever seen this in the garden? It is rose crown gall, caused by bacteria that enters through wounds, grafting, or insect damage. Galls on roses are generally found at the crown, just below the soil surface, or on the roots. The bacteria can spread through the soil, so control is difficult. Established, mature plants can tolerate the bacteria and can remain in the landscape but it can kill younger plants or those that are susceptible to the gall. Managing crown gall is best done through prevention: closely inspect new plants before planting, disinfect pruning tools after use on infected plants and avoid planting susceptible plants.

The Colorado Hairstreak butterfly has just been commemorated on a new postage stamp! This beautiful butterfly is the state insect for Colorado and can be seen in the foothills around its host plant, Quercus gambelii (gambel oak).