After the broccoli and cilantro have bolted and it's gotten too hot for the peas what do you plant in their place? What does well with just half a growing season during the hotter part of the summer?

Just about any hot weather vegetable with less than 90 day DTM summer squash, snap beans, southern peas, corn etc.

I plant my beets, turnips, and onions in rows two feet apart in the fall and, as they mature, I plant melons and cukes in between in March. They are at first kind of dwarfed, but I remove occasional shading leaves (at least from the beets and turnips, the onions don't shade anything), and in a month or so, the beets, turnips, and onions will have been mostly harvested. The melons and cukes get a big head start this way.

If you want to know what grows well in the summer in your locale, just head to your local extension website. More than likely they'll give a planting calendar for oodles of crops.

In Colorado, you likely haven't yet had your last frost so, as of now, you're looking ahead to a full summer growing season (which is not that long, I guess).

Yes, green beans are a good choice!!

Ditto snap/bush beans. I even got a great yield doing them after corn here. Cucumbers? seem pretty quick.

My lettuce is planted 'around' where my summer squash hills will go.

To follow on what @DougL said about your local county extension office, many of the offices have websites where you can download all sorts of information including planting calendars. I've got one for my area and lots of other specific articles on growing different crops. I've even got articles from other states' extension offices that I've looted borrowed from them.

Here's a calendar that is right here on garden.org that seems pretty good: https://garden.org/apps/calend...

And here's a calendar from the Old Farmer's Almanac: https://www.almanac.com/garden...

And here's a link to a CSU Extension article on basic gardening in the mountains. There may be a calendar buried in there somewhere: https://extension.colostate.ed...

Best wishes!
Ed

This is pretty handy. Enter your zip code, and it points you to your local ag extension.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.c...

Hmmm...

I was just tinkering with the calendar app here on garden.org and came upon something confusing to me. (Remember, it doesn't take much to confuse me! ).

I entered my zip code and it came up showing a suggested earliest planting date of March 27. This is, in my opinion, really too soon for warmth-loving okra. But, again, I'm no genius. It did make me start tinkering around with the calendar a bit.

I entered a zip code for a town roughly 65-70 miles to the north of me and maybe 40-50 feet lower elevation and it suggested the earliest date for planting okra is March 22. That is five days earlier than it states for my area and I'm a fair distance further south.

So then I moved to the west to a town about 65-70 miles to the west of me at roughly the same latitude and elevation and the calendar suggests the earliest planting date for okra as being April 9.

I looked back at the Alabama Extension Office's suggested earliest planting time at it shows April 10.

Through my own records of freezing temperatures I've averaged that the latest freeze date is April 15.

And, finally, most folks around here wait a bit later than the April 10, state recommended date so that the soil has warmed up more.

Just some gleanings from an early morning computer frenzy...

So...is your head hurting yet from reading all of this?

Ed

Just FYI, last-freeze (and first-freeze) dates are not given consistently. Sometimes, they are 50% dates, which is the AVERAGE date of first or last freeze. That is, you have a 50% chance of not having a freeze after this last-freeze date. That can be risky. Other times, 20% dates are listed. For last-freeze dates, those are later, and you can assume that there is only a 20% chance of seeing a freeze after this date. That's a lot safer. So use these dates smartly.

Thanks, Doug, for your explanation. What is throwing me, though, is that I'd think the more northern area would have had a slightly later "last frost" date.

I wouldn't think 100 miles north would necessarily have a later frost date. So many factors like elevation and air currents can affect it.

I am located between to large manmade reservoirs and they definitely have changed the weather patterns and freezes over the years.

pod said:I wouldn't think 100 miles north would necessarily have a later frost date. So many factors like elevation and air currents can affect it.

I am located between to large manmade reservoirs and they definitely have changed the weather patterns and freezes over the years.

It was actually that the more northward would have an earlier planting time than my location. But, yes, mountains, bottoms, large bodies of water, air currents, etc., all come into play. Just seemed a little odd. But, there again, I'm a little odd.