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Pikes Peak Plants Pikes Peak Plants is a local family-owned urban microfarm located in COS, CO that features an Ancona duck agroecosystem.

We are committed to offering the best veggie garden starts, pasture-raised duck eggs, and the best urban farm experience possible!

Millicent, guardian of the peppers 🌶 🫑
04/09/2022

Millicent, guardian of the peppers 🌶 🫑

🌻 Flower girl 🌻
16/08/2022

🌻 Flower girl 🌻

10/03/2022

Millie is our Colorado Mountain Dog being trained to guard our flock of Ancona ducks. As a livestock guardian dog, she loves to work and will assign tasks for herself to do. At almost a year old, she may look giant but is still very much a puppy at heart.

Follow us for more fluffiness!

S🌸P🌺R🌼I🌹N🌷G - Meteorological? Astronomical? Ecological? When did we have so many definitions of spring and what do they ...
01/03/2022

S🌸P🌺R🌼I🌹N🌷G - Meteorological? Astronomical? Ecological? When did we have so many definitions of spring and what do they mean? 🤔

Spring refers to a season and also invokes ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, and regrowth.

In the northern hemisphere, meteorological spring starts on March 1 and lasts for three months. This period of time precedes the three hottest months (meteorological summer) and the three coldest months (meteorological winter).

Others consider the first day of spring to be when days and nights are approximately twelve hours long, with daytime length increasing and nighttime length decreasing as the season progresses. This is also known as the start of astronomical spring, aka the spring (or vernal) equinox.

However, if you live in a northern area, it may not feel or look like spring on March 1 or even March 15. The beginning of spring is not always determined by fixed calendar dates. Instead, those who follow ecological spring refer to biological indicators, such as blossoming of a range of plant species, the activities of animals, etc.

Living in Colorado, Mother Nature can be quite sneaky. Today is March 1, bright and sunny. If you stand outside with your eyes closed, you could convince yourself that it’s summer already! 😎 However, the abundance of brown everywhere says so otherwise. ❄️ Who knows? We could be experiencing another bout of winter weather as early as this weekend! 🥶

We are still about 13 weeks away from being able to safely plant heat loving plants in the garden so we will soak up as much sun as we can in the meantime. ☀️

What does your part of the world look like today? 🌎🌍🌏

PS: See this little shoot coming out of the tiny muscari bulb? Bertha (pictured) decided to unearth it to check on its progress. So far so good!

26/02/2022

Go away! I’m hard at work, can’t you see?

Millie is our Colorado Mountain Dog. She grew up in a rural setting and has adjusted very well to living in suburbia. She comes from working parents and although she’s one of the more mellow puppies from her litter, she still has a drive to work. However, her definition of working and choice of where to work from can be questionable at times…

Lesson learned: Mother Nature always wins…2021 was the first year my Ancona ladies were mature enough to start laying eg...
24/02/2022

Lesson learned: Mother Nature always wins…

2021 was the first year my Ancona ladies were mature enough to start laying eggs. There were fresh eggs daily starting on Feb 1.

This year, Feb 1 came and went, yet we didn’t see any signs of eggs. I wasn’t sure what the delay was but figured when it was time, the ladies would start laying again. I supplemented with extra freeze dried mealworms and grubblies, hoping that increasing their protein intake would help.

The ladies have been extra moody these past few days with the hi temps barely in the single digits. I figured they wouldn’t start now with this arctic blast. Guess I was proven wrong…

Peeking through the forest to see how all my little baby tomatoes are growing 🍅👀We're in the first full week of July and...
06/07/2021

Peeking through the forest to see how all my little baby tomatoes are growing 🍅👀

We're in the first full week of July and have lots happening in the garden! Loads of leaves to convert UV rays from the sun into plant nutrients to fuel flower formation and fruit production.

40 plants, 20 varieties 🍅

Swipe through to see if you can guess at some of the pictured cultivars/varieties! 🤔🤓

Who doesn't like garden surprises? Earlier this month, I had a kale plant pull through the ducky attack and matured into...
03/07/2021

Who doesn't like garden surprises? Earlier this month, I had a kale plant pull through the ducky attack and matured into a wonderful leafy plant. Today, I discovered that my sugar snap peas are still producing in the tomato/pepper forest that this raised bed has become!

Peas are a cold weather crop (Spring/Fall). When planted in the Spring, they usually give up when the summer heat comes around. With the amount of rain and cooler temperatures we've been getting lately, I guess they decided to keep trucking on!

Swipe through to check out how excited my Ancona ladies are about these determined spring crops that won't give up just quite yet! 🍽

Find anything crazy in your garden this week?

SURPRISE! This spring, I planted a whole tray of 72 kale plants. In one afternoon, my Ancona ladies decimated all of the...
25/06/2021

SURPRISE! This spring, I planted a whole tray of 72 kale plants. In one afternoon, my Ancona ladies decimated all of them. 😬🤦‍♀️

Turns out, they missed one!

This one lone survivor is thriving under the shade of a Stupice tomato plant.

At this point in the season, there's plenty of bugs and other grubs to snack on within these raised beds so this kale plant has remained untouched!

We shall see how long this kale plant lives for... In the meantime, I will start harvesting the outer leaves to encourage the plant to continue sending out new leaves. 🍽

Have you had any happy surprises in your garden?

Gardening is a journey and you will encounter mistakes and failures along, but don't let that deter you!I had glorious p...
24/06/2021

Gardening is a journey and you will encounter mistakes and failures along, but don't let that deter you!

I had glorious plans of planting 100 clumps of multisown beets that should have yielded 400+ beetroots.

However, mother nature had other plans...

First, I battled a momma bunny convinced that my beetroot bed was the perfect spot to have babies.

Then, we had about two weeks of true spring weather before the brutal 90+ degree weather hit us.

After that, we had cabbage moths that laid eggs, which hatched into worms that ate through the leaves (last pic).

All in all, we ended up with these lil stunted beets. I guess the silver lining is that they are all perfectly bite-sized? 🤷🤦‍♀️

Have you encountered part of your garden going in the complete opposite direction that you thought it would?

Duck patrol reporting for duty! 🦆🐛Our Ancona ladies are constantly foraging for bugs that find our veggie, flower, and h...
16/06/2021

Duck patrol reporting for duty! 🦆🐛

Our Ancona ladies are constantly foraging for bugs that find our veggie, flower, and herb plants tasty. This natural pest control method not only saves me lots of time, but also rewards us with extra tasty, nutrient-dense ducky eggs.

Although nightshade plants (leaves, stems) are poisonous to ducks, our ladies have a wide diversity of plants in the garden so they leave my tomatoes and pepper plants alone. However, because the modified hugelkultur fabric raised beds attract lots of worms and other decomposers, the ladies are always checking back for more snacks.

In the front, I planted various types of peppers. In the back, various determinate tomatoes. And of course, lots of mulch to cover the soil and reduce water loss!

What pest control methods do you use?

Second Week of June Garden Update:Lots happening in our garden space as we approach the middle of June. A little behind ...
13/06/2021

Second Week of June Garden Update:
Lots happening in our garden space as we approach the middle of June. A little behind with so much to do and only so much time. 😅

Pic 1: Our gladioli are coming up nicely. Excited to see them bloom in a couple months! 💐

Pic 2: Planted our first round of basil! When planting, I like to also pinch the set or two of leaves. This reduces the amount of transpiration on the new transplant, making the transition less stressful.

Pic 3: Our small harvest of Basil with fresh ducky eggs 🥚Made yummy pesto with this harvest and had it over scrambled ducky eggs 🍴

Pic 4: Our dahlias are coming up too! Still have about 15-20 that I had started early in pots that need to be transplanted. Hail structure for the flower space needs to be set up as well... Hopefully will get around to it today, we'll see 👀

How is your garden doing?

First tomato flowers (that get to live) of the season!I usually pinch flowers from tomatoes and peppers for the first tw...
12/06/2021

First tomato flowers (that get to live) of the season!

I usually pinch flowers from tomatoes and peppers for the first two weeks after transplanting.

When plants become root bound, it pushes them from the vegetative phase into flowering and fruit production.

Once in the flowering phase, the plant allocates the majority of resources into forming flowers and fruit. This means there are fewer resources for stem, leaf, and most importantly, root development.

These tomatoes have been planted in the raised beds since May 15, within the protection of Wall-O-Waters. I had been meticulously picking off flowers to encourage more plant growth. Now, time to patiently wait for tomatoes to form!

Are you growing tomatoes this year? 🍅

Can't believe we've had this fluffy pup-tato for 16 days already!Millicent and I spend hours outside in the garden with ...
07/06/2021

Can't believe we've had this fluffy pup-tato for 16 days already!

Millicent and I spend hours outside in the garden with the ladies. Feathered animals are hard for puppies to resist, especially when they run and flap as it initiates the prey drive.

The goal is to get her to pretend like the ducks don't exist. NO staring, NO pawing (that giant paw will take one of our ladies out for sure), and definitely NO chasing!

Because Millie is still a puppy, she needs lots of activities to keep her attention away from the ducks. She gets chews (pictured). We do perimeter walks. We play with toys. We even have our meals and do basic obedience training outside! All of this is in the pursuit of normalizing existing in the garden with our ducky ladies.

What have you been up to in your garden?

Got 45 peppers planted this weekend!We are experimenting with different spacing for peppers. Peppers like to "hold hands...
07/06/2021

Got 45 peppers planted this weekend!

We are experimenting with different spacing for peppers. Peppers like to "hold hands" with other peppers. This not only helps reduce water loss from the soil, but also protects the pepper fruits from the dreaded sun scald.

When planting, you want to account for spread of mature peppers. I'm comparing distances of 9" from center to center vs the traditional 12" from center to center.

Featured here is a shish*to pepper. You can see the leaves of neighboring pepper plants along the left and right edges of the picture.

Shish*tos are an early maturing pepper variety, which is very important for us in short growing seasons. They are also extremely prolific. The added bonus of continuously picking these peppers when they are green and ~3-5 inches in length is that it promotes the plant to send out more flowers and produce more peppers!

How far apart do you plant your peppers?

Happy  ! Here's another edition of "what am I??" 🧐🤔This tree sends out an abundance of creamy off-white pom poms blooms....
04/06/2021

Happy ! Here's another edition of "what am I??" 🧐🤔

This tree sends out an abundance of creamy off-white pom poms blooms.

As we haven't spent a full season on the property yet, everyday is a surprise with what plant will leaf out, what plant will bloom, etc.

I'm thinking of snipping a couple branches to bring inside the house to see if I can use it as a cut flower! It sure looks pretty outside and would add a nice look to our kitchen island as a center piece (assuming it has a decent vase life...).

Let me know your guesses below!

Loving the variegation on this Japanese Murasaki pepper!This variety of heatless pepper is new to me this year. So far, ...
03/06/2021

Loving the variegation on this Japanese Murasaki pepper!

This variety of heatless pepper is new to me this year. So far, I've been very impressed with its growth habit.

You can see in the center where I have pinched off the main (apical) stem to promote more branching to try to create a bushier plant.

A bushier plant has a lower center of gravity and performs much better in a climate like ours with high winds. A tall, leggy pepper loaded with fruit is way more prone to snapping than something bushier.

PS: Don't forget to pinch flowers for the first two weeks after transplanting! By delaying the flowering phase, you force the plant to stay in the vegetative phase for a bit longer, which allows the root system to develop in its new home and help stabilize the plant better!

Have you seen variegation in any of your veggies?

Garden inspectors making sure everything is up to ducky code 🦆🦆🦆🦆About three weeks ago, I transplanted individual lemon ...
01/06/2021

Garden inspectors making sure everything is up to ducky code 🦆🦆🦆🦆

About three weeks ago, I transplanted individual lemon balm plants from their 2 inch wide, 2 inch deep pots into 2.5 inch wide, 3 inch deep pots.

As part of the mint family, they are very vigorous growers and quickly filled up their new pots in this short time frame (pic 5).

Given that today was rainy and the forecast doesn't look like it's going to be too hot for the following couple of days, I decided to transplant 20 of these little ones into their new homes (pic 6).

These lemon balm plants will make up the second row of my perennial beds (pic 7). In the first row, I have a mix of thyme, oregano, and more lemon balm.

Still debating what to plant behind all these herbs. Leaning towards something dramatically tall. Not a perennial, but perhaps some amaranth?

Leave your suggestions below!

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