Ask Keith Your Colorado Gardening Question

Keith Funk has been answering Colorado gardeners on the radio for years. If something in your garden is failing, thriving unexpectedly, or you simply cannot identify it, send it here. Tell Keith where in Colorado you are gardening, what you are growing, and what is going on. The more specific you are, the more useful the answer will be.

What you can ask Keith

Anything to do with growing things in Colorado. The questions that arrive most often are about:

• Lawns and irrigation – brown patches, watering schedules, grass that will not fill in
• Pests – Japanese beetles, aphids, borers, and whatever is chewing the leaves
• Weeds – bindweed, thistle, and the ones that come back no matter what
• Trees and shrubs – dieback, planting depth, and what to plant where
• Plant identification – send a photo and tell us roughly where you are
• Vegetables – timing, containers, short seasons and cold nights
• Flowers and perennials – what survives, what reblooms, what the deer leave alone
• Soil – clay, alkalinity, amendments and compost

How it works

1. Submit your question using the form above.
2. Add a photo if it would help. The form accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG and PDF files. One clear picture of the whole plant plus a close-up of the problem is worth several paragraphs of description.
3. Keith and the Garden Wise team read the submissions.
4. Questions may be answered online or on the radio show where the answer would help other Colorado gardeners. Not every question can be answered individually.

Why Colorado-specific advice matters

Most gardening advice online was written for somewhere else. Colorado changes the rules: alkaline clay soils, thin dry air, hard sun at altitude, late spring freezes and early autumn ones. A watering schedule from a Pacific Northwest blog will drown a Front Range garden, and a planting date from a Midwestern almanac will cost you the tomatoes. Keith answers from Colorado conditions, because that is where he gardens and where the show broadcasts.

You can also read the questions Keith has already answered in Garden Wise Answers, or browse the Plant Personality Profiles for plants that earn their place in a Colorado garden.