Hi Michelle and welcome both of you to Rocky Mountain Gardening!

I don't live in Denver so I may not be of much help. Regarding what-to-grow, you are probably on the right track with trying to grow what your children like to eat. Don't grow what no one wants.

One Veggie -- Most gardeners find greenbeans easy to grow. I can plant bean seed for about 2 months and expect good results from each sowing. You just have to wait in the spring until the danger of frost has passed and give the last sowing about 2 months before the weather really cools off. It doesn't seem to matter a lot for production but, of course, the beans can't survive a frost. Still, I've harvested beans in very cold, rainy weather very late in the growing season. A couple days later, the plants have more beans for the picking.

There are a few varieties of beans to make things more interesting but you gotta like to eat 'em!

Steve

Hi CheeseWhiz,

Welcome to RMG!

Good advice above! About the only small fruit that would be difficult (to impossible) to grow around here would be blueberries, because of their need for acidic soil. Most other things should do well for you.

And, as said above, almost all veggies grow well around here--the more organic matter there is in your soil, the better they'll do. In addition to the things mentioned above, I'll add the root crops, beets, carrots, and parsnips. and I'll add wax beans to Digits' green beans. Both VERY easy to grow. In my experience lettuce and spinach need a fairly good soil to succeed--mine always bolt immediately and I attribute that to the heavy clay I have grow most of my stuff in! Next year definitely grow a few tomatoes! There is absolutely no comparison of store-bought "tomatoes" with the REAL THING! Once you grow some you won't be able to live without them again. And nobody has mentioned cukes which are easy to grow too.

You can also grow all the basic herbs--basil, chives, parsley, etc.

I will dispute one thing Digit said! (Sorry, Digit!!!) I don't have kids, but from what other folks I know have said, it seems to be an interesting phenomenon that when kids participate in the gardening they seem to suddenly start to like veggies they never liked before! Helping to grow them, and watching them grow seems to have a "supernatural" effect that changes the "flavor" for kids! So I'd say even if you think they won't eat it, try at least a little bit of everything, and you may be surprised at what they suddenly decide is yummy!

Keep an eye on RMG for threads about the different veggies. And we usually have at least a couple different tomato threads every year. If you're wondering about something in particular, just ask and somebody around here is bound to come up with an answer for you. Since this year is almost over, you'll have all winter to plan how you want to start next spring! Keep an eye out for seed catalog threads over winter--when we're all dreaming of next spring!

I'm in Thornton on the way north end, BTW!

Skybird

P.S. Welcome, Blossom, to RMG, too!

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I live in a townhouse, so I have a very, very small area to work with. My husband has started a compost which is doing well and when he amended (I think that's what you all call it!) the soil it had cantaloupe seeds still in it which are actually growing very nicely. Since we've grown things accidentally I figure we may as well just make a bigger garden.

My boys adore veggies, too, but I find the berries are super expensive out here so I thought they'd be a better investment initially.

Is it better to grow from seeds or from established plants? Also, where does one get a seed cataloge?

Hi Cheese,

We almost always have a couple "seed" threads every year too, and here are links to a couple from last year. The one linked in the box below is just about seed companies, if you google the names to get to their sites you can find the page to order their 2013 catalog which will be mailed around the end/beginning of the year.

And here's a cut & paste link to another thread that also has some seed companies listed and also has info about local places to buy stuff.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0110310124709.html

If you want to look for more, go to the bottom of the main RMG page and put something like "catalogs" or "seed catalogs" in the little search box that searches this forum only. You'll come up with all sorts of stuff!

That's all I have time for right now! Trying to get ready to leave on vacation in a few days and probably won't be back around here to post for a few weeks.

Definitely do get your name on some of the seed company mailing lists--so you can come salivate with the rest of us over winter when we're all longing to be out digging in the dirt!

Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Catalogs 2012

How much ground do you have to play with? And do you have a patio, and what direction does it face? All kinds of possibilities.

And if you're already making compost in a town house, I'm thinking you'll do just fine.