Highlighting People that Make a Difference: Barbara Masoner of Grow Local Colorado

by Gail Leidigh, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener since 2021

Grow Local Colorado vegetable garden at Fort Logan by Gail Leidigh

One of the best things about being a master gardener is the opportunity to volunteer with some amazing local organizations, and among them is Grow Local Colorado. Started in 2009 by a group of people who were concerned about the environment, sustainability, and food equity, Grow Local now has 20 gardens in locations throughout the Denver metro area, and last year contributed nearly 10,000 pounds of fresh food to area food pantries and organizations that address food insecurity.

I recently had a chance to sit and talk with the founder and co-director, Barbara Masoner, about the work they do and the future of the organization (conversation has been edited for length and clarity).

Can you tell me more about Grow Local and how it got started?

There was a group of us during the great recession asking what can we do to help? Food inequity was a big issue, as well as the environment and sustainability, and gardening was an obvious solution. John Hickenlooper, mayor of Denver at the time, initially offered Civic Center Park to start a garden, so the project could be seen by the public community, and then later the yard at the Governor’s Mansion. Denver Urban Gardens and Denver Botanic Garden first provided plants, and the collaboration got lots of press. Now we have gardens in 20 different places. Recently, Adams County schools became a partner, as there is such a need there. Our garden partners do have to commit volunteers and their time to grow the food. The Denver city greenhouse has offered to grow our seedlings for us for the past four years.

Are there any aspects of the projects that Grow Local is doing that you are especially excited about?

The ability to share the magic, such as the public seeing the vegetable gardens at Civic Center and asking what it is about. Even during the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, with huge groups of people gathering at Civic Center Park, the gardens were not disturbed. People from the homeless communities will offer to help plant as a way of giving back.

How do you decide where to donate the food that is grown?

We let the garden volunteers decide where the food goes, and they often have community connections. The smaller food pantries especially appreciate the fresh produce.

Painted rocks to mark growing vegetables at Fort Logan by Gail Leidigh

What are your biggest challenges?

This year we’ve harvested about 5,000 pounds so far and expect it to be about 8,000 pounds for the year. We had some pest and water issues this season and there was an infestation of harlequin bugs at Civic Center Park.

We can always use more experienced gardener volunteers. People mean well, and one year we lined an entire garden with herbs to keep out the geese, and a volunteer accidentally pulled them all.

In our future – figuring how to grow vegetables (in hotter and drier climates), and making our food equitable. Right now, we have offers to glean more fruit trees than we could possibly get to without the help of more people, more paid staff (and more time!).

Will Ferrell in scarecrow form, guarding the crops at The Haven, Fort Logan by Gail Leidigh

What is your favorite plant/vegetable?

That is like asking “who is your favorite child?” I would say okra – it is a lovely vegetable, with a beautiful flower and a delicious fruit.

Who does your social media? You have some fantastic content illustrating your work and volunteer opportunities (like and follow with the links below!).

Linda Kiker, co-director of Grow Local, does the content for our Instagram page, and I do the Facebook page.

Interested in supporting such an important and great local cause? The Grow Local Colorado website has further details on helping out with volunteer and monetary support.

Harvesting and Storing Vegetables for Peak Flavor and Freshness

By: Molly Gaines, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener since 2019

Summer’s Bounty. Photo by Molly Gaines

If you’re a vegetable gardener, you’ve likely begun to harvest some of the goodness resulting from your spring and summer efforts. My garden favorite, ‘Sun Gold’ cherry tomatoes, are just ripening. They taste like pure sunshine (those of you who’ve grown or eaten know what I’m talking about!) and I eat them like candy, straight from the vine. Because of this, it’s rare for more than a handful to make it into my kitchen.

Yet everything else in my garden — the herbs, cucumbers, green beans, summer squash and hot peppers — require some prepping, peeling, chopping, or cooking. They all need proper picking and storage until I’m ready to use them.

How and when to harvest, and how best to store your bounty, can be confusing. It’s a combination of art and science. I hope the following information helps guide you through one of the best parts of a vegetable gardener’s season: harvest time.

A handful of sweet and fruity ‘Sun Gold’ tomatoes. Photo by Molly Gaines

Knowing What’s Ready

In order to assess what’s ready for harvest, I do an early morning garden walk. It’s become one of my favorite parts of my summer days. It’s when I harvest vegetables from my garden, as it is best to pick in the morning when it’s cooler. There’s more time to gather your harvest and bring it into the kitchen before it wilts. Additionally, veggies regain moisture they’ve lost during the day, leading to overall better produce. See more about the benefits of morning harvesting here.

When you planted last spring, you may have noted when your produce should be ready. Every seed packet has a number of days until harvest, as do the tags in starter plants. However, “days to harvest” is an estimate, as it will vary depending upon your growing conditions. Soil fertility, sunshine, heat, water, etc. all impact maturity. In my own garden, our red onions should be ready to dig, but they aren’t even close because they’re partially shaded by large Zinnias above. For specific estimates on days to harvest for each vegetable, visit this helpful link from the University of Minnesota Extension. While Colorado’s climate is quite different from Minnesota, we have a similar growing season.

While it may seem counterintuitive, the more you pick, the more a plant will produce. Don’t let those zucchinis and cucumbers get too big; they won’t taste great or could be inedible. Pick produce frequently and when they are smaller, versus letting vegetables that are ripe enough continue to hang out on the vine. To keep my garden producing at an optimal level when I’m out of town, I like to hire neighbor kids to harvest or invite a friend who loves fresh vegetables to stop by and fill a bucket.

This one was hidden and missed. Try to find and pick those zucchinis early! Photo by Molly Gaines

How to Harvest and Store

Harvest your produce gently and with care. Snapping off the end of your green beans or cucumbers will invite quicker decay in the fridge. It can also damage the plant, inviting disease and pests. If you’re not able to easily twist or pull a pepper or tomato or any other veggie from the vine, it’s time to use scissors or pruners. I always keep scissors close to my garden for easy use.

Speaking of proper storage, it’s disappointing to open the fridge and finding hard-fought basil browned, or last week’s fresh cucumber now mushy. We Colorado gardeners work very hard for our veggies, so it’s worth storing them properly until use. Visit here for a terrific guide to harvesting and then storing garden favorites, from when to pick to proper storage directions, including ideal temperatures.

What to Do with Excess Harvest

If you find yourself with more fresh produce than you can handle, there are a number of Denver-based organizations that will accept your extra vegetables. Here is a recent article listing some of those organizations. For more information about how to best contribute your produce locally, visit the Grow and Give website, for general donation information.

These harvest and storage tips should find you enjoying your summer bounty as long as possible, enjoying peak flavor and maximum freshness — and savoring every last bite.

Other Helpful Resources on Harvesting

https://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/vegetables/1842-harvest-vegetables/

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/tog/harvest.cfm

https://growgive.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/63/2021/01/Colorado-Vegetable-Guide-2.1.pdf

June Gardening Calendar of Tasks & To Do’s

By: Jessica Harvey
CSU Extension Denver Master Gardener since 2020

June kicks off the gardening season in earnest, especially after all the spring showers we’ve been enjoying as of late. If you’ve not gotten those warm season plantings in the ground yet, now is the time! Start enjoying the bounty of blooms and get ready for all the wonderful produce on our horizons! 

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  Spring weeds in my community garden plot by Jessica Harvey

Weeds & Weeding

• All the rain we’ve been getting is great for our plants, but unfortunately, it’s also great for those weed seeds hiding in our soils. Better to get weeding early and not give them the chance to reseed again.
• If you’ve got weedy beds that look like mine, work smarter and not harder by using the right tools. A scuffle hoe, or action hoe, in combination with a rake will make quick work of those weed seedlings and save you the tedium of hand pulling.
• Sometimes weeds can indicate issues within the soil. Check this list of indicator weeds to see what your weeds may be telling you.
• Once you’ve cleared the weeds, be sure to top dress with your mulch of choice to help keep those weeds from coming back again. Plus, mulching will help you conserve water as well, it’s a win win. Unsure what type of mulch is best for your garden? Check out “Selecting the Best Mulch for Your Plants” before you go shopping. 

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  Common garden weeds, speedwell and henbit by Jessica Harvey

Trees

• There’s been a lot of spring storm damage to our trees this year and you may be struggling to get on the schedule with any of the local tree companies because of it. Use colored ribbons or spray paint at the base of broken and dead branches now when they are clearly visible, then later you won’t forget or mistake which areas are in need of attention.

Perennials

• Check your shrubs and herbaceous perennials and trim out any branches or areas that haven’t started to show signs of leaf or bud growth. Before pruning, be sure you understand the plant you are pruning and its growth habit. For more information on when and how to prune check out PlantTalk “Colorado’s Pruning Shrubs” and CSU GardenNotes on “Pruning Flowering Shrubs.”
• For well-established perennials, consider fertilizing now. Much like with our lawns, we need to give perennials a little love early in the season since we aren’t regularly amending their soils. If you’re unsure what type or whether you should fertilize consult the GardenNotes “Understanding Fertilizers” for guidance.

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  Tomatillo seedlings with early flower buds by Jessica Harvey

Annuals

• Are you starting to see early buds or flowers? If so, it’s best to pinch or snip them to allow your plants to focus on vegetative growth. When freshly planted, you want your plants to focus on strengthening their root systems and putting on more foliage. You’ll see an increase in flowers and fruit later in the season for your efforts. 
• For plants where the foliage is the focus, think coleus or basil, consider strategic pruning now to help encouraging branching. Pruning the terminal bud, or topmost growth tip, will encourage lateral buds to further develop and thereby create a bushier plant. 

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  Coleus that could have benefitted from terminal pruning by Jessica Harvey

Vegetable Garden

• If you’ve not signed up yet, join the Grow and Give program to share the wealth of your harvest with those in need in our local communities.
• If you’re already signed up for Grow and Give, let CSU Online help you get your vegetable garden off to a good start with “AGBB 2084 – Summer 2021 Free Vegetables Course”
• Throughout the month make sure to check back on any of those climbers you may have planted and help guide them up trellises, netting or cages. Vertical plantings will save you space and helping them early will keep them from strangling other nearby plantings.

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  Snap peas climbing an A-frame trellis by Jessica Harvey

Got Gardening Questions?

Have a question we’ve not yet answered for you? Post your question at Ask an Expert or check to see if another gardener has already asked or answered the same question.

You can also reach a CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardener by emailing denvermg@colostate.edu or call 720-913-5278.

Meet the Garden Squad

Meet the Garden Squad is a new blog feature and a way to get better acquainted with some of our CSU Extension Master Gardener volunteers.

Meet Mark Zammuto

Retirement seems to agree with Mark Zammuto. Gardening, biking, hiking and volunteering keep this “recovering attorney” busy. Mark spent about 25 years working as an attorney in the public sector, including the Colorado Attorney General’s office.

Mark Zammuto and Charlotte Aycrigg are active CSU Extension Master Gardeners in Denver. (Photo courtesy of Mark Zammuto)

His work kept him from doing many of the things he always wanted to do, like becoming a CSU Extension Master Gardener. In 2009 his schedule finally opened up to allow time to attend classes and commit to being a volunteer.

He’s taken that commitment to heart. Many of his volunteer hours are spent organizing the plantings at the Harvard Gulch vegetable demonstration garden. For the last several years, he’s worked at the City Park Greenhouse starting seeds and tending more than 450 vegetable plants before they’re moved to the demonstration garden at the end of each May.

That’s when other Denver Master Gardeners and volunteers from Outdoor Colorado and Grow Local Colorado gather to complete a mass planting in the vegetable bed located at the corner of E. Iliff Ave. and S. Emerson St.

About 1000 pounds of produce are harvested each year and donated to the food pantry at the Community Ministry of Southwest Denver, as well as other food banks in southwest and central Denver.

Mark’s interest in growing plants dates to when he planted little gardens as a kid growing up in Illinois. He had older relatives there that gardened, too, but he credits one of his grandfathers as an exceptional garden inspiration.

“He had an incredible green thumb,” Mark said. “He lived in California and when I’d go out in summers to visit, I’d see him graft trees and other things like that. He was an Italian immigrant and grew all kinds of fruit trees, avocados, lemons, plums and many traditional Italian foods like squash, tomatoes, basil and eggplants.”

A path leads through the many plantings in Mark and Charlotte’s garden. (Photo courtesy of Mark Zammuto)

Mark and his wife Charlotte Aycrigg, who’s also a Denver Master Gardener, have a big vegetable garden, a water-wise perennial garden and whatever else will grow in their yard that’s steadily getting shadier. To make up for that, they have a plot in the Denver Botanic Gardens Community Garden at Congress Park.

When he’s not out hiking and biking with his wife, Mark volunteers with the Botanic Gardens answering questions at the Help Desk, working with the Plant Select division for the DBG plant sale and volunteering at the Steppe Garden.

Interacting with other Master Gardeners is what Mark enjoys most about being a Master Gardener. “They’re all pretty nice people,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot because there’s so much cumulative knowledge.”

If he had to offer advice for other gardeners, he’d say to concentrate on planting the right plant in the right place. That advice is especially important when it comes to the long-term consequences of planting trees, he said.

“Before we did the Master Gardener training, we were novice gardeners when it came to planting trees. Looking back, I would’ve made better tree choices but we didn’t know and nurseries were selling trees not suited to this environment.”

If he had it to do over, he said he’d take time to do the research and study what kind of trees to plant for the best results.

By Jodi Torpey
Master Gardener volunteer since 2005

Grow Local Colorado and the Harvard Gulch Park Vegetable Garden

The Denver Extension CSU Master Gardeners (CMGs) in partnership with Grow Local Colorado have been growing a vegetable demonstration garden at Harvard Gulch Park on the corner of Emerson St. and Iliff Ave. in Denver for several years.  Produce from this joint project is donated to the Community Ministry Food Bank and the Food Bank at the University Church of Christ.

Harvard Gulch Park vegetable garden – June 2016

Every year beginning in March while there is still snow on the ground, the CMGs start vegetable plants from seed at the City Park Greenhouses.   They nurse the seedlings until late May when the plants are big and sturdy and ready to be planted at Harvard Gulch Park.  With the help of Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado,  the CMGs plant tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, squash, peppers, cabbage,  lettuce and chard in the demonstration garden.  Over the course of the next several months, CMG volunteers water, weed and harvest the bounty for donation to local food banks.  As of the middle of August, the Harvard Gulch garden has produced more than 440 pounds of produce and the season is just kicking into high gear.

Our partner, Grow Local Colorado is an organization dedicated to promoting local food, local community and local economy.  The Harvard Gulch Vegetable Garden is one of several Grow Local sponsored gardens in Metro Denver including a number of Denver parks and the Colorado Governor’s Mansion.  These Grow Local sponsored gardens are providing thousands of pounds of fresh produce to communities that do not have easy access to healthy food.  The garden partnerships are just one of several projects Grow Local is engaged in to encourage Coloradans to grow and share produce with others in their communities.  Visit the Grow Local website to find out more.

If your garden is producing more vegetables than you and your family can consume, consider donating your garden surplus to area organizations that help those experiencing food insecurity.  The attached link at the Denver Extension website is a guide to organizations in your community that will gladly accept your surplus bounty.

Harvest from Harvard Gulch Park vegetable garden

The City and County of Denver is working with members of the community to ensure food security for all Denver residents through the Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council.  To learn more about the Sustainable Food Policy Council and Denver’s food system from production to distribution to consumption check out the Denver Department of Environmental Health’s Food Systems Policies website.    Find out how our food system works (or doesn’t) and its impact on the health of our citizens.

If your green thumb was too green this summer, join Grow Local Colorado, the Denver Extension CSU Master Gardeners and others in helping bring healthy produce to all members of our community.

Written by Mark Zammuto, a Denver County Master Gardener