Planning a Less-Lawn Yard

By Linda McDonnell, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener since 2013

Many Coloradans are swapping out their bluegrass lawns for less water-hungry and more regionally appropriate landscapes. This change in attitudes may be motivated by this summer’s brutal heat, need to conserve water, wildfires, desire to support pollinators, or the goal to spend less money on lawn upkeep – or a combination of these factors.

Governments are also getting behind the concept. Aurora recently approved legislature limiting the installation of turf grass in new housing developments starting in 2023.

The state of Colorado is developing a turf replacement program for homeowners to go into effect next year, possibly with monetary rebates, and administered by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. (Keep up with the board’s progress by subscribing to their newsletter.)

If you are considering converting all or part of your turf grass to a water-smart landscape, fall and winter are good times to begin the planning process.

Late summer at The Gardens at Spring Creek in Fort Collins. Photo: Linda McDonnell

Here are some practical suggestions to help you get started.

Form follows function is a time-honored design principle. Applied to a yard rehab it means considering how your yard is used before you ever think about how it looks. Do you need space for kids to play? Dine or entertain outdoors? Have dogs? Consider practical needs such as wide pathways to doors and seating areas (36-42” is recommended), storage for trash carts and clearance to roll them to the curb, and landing spots for passengers getting in and out of cars.

Lawn conversions don’t have to be all-or-nothing. Consider starting with a back or front yard, or a difficult to irrigate section of the lawn. Xeriscaping: Retrofit Your Yard offers excellent suggestions on selecting a site.

Keep what you can. Take a hard look at the plants in your yard and how they fit in the new scheme. You can’t move a 25’ conifer but relocating shrubs and xeric herbaceous perennials is doable and budget-friendly.

Hardscape – pavers, gravel, and rocks – may already be in place or can be relocated. Think about it: hardscape doesn’t need to be watered or mowed! If the budget allows, be generous with the use of hardscape in your new plan.

Gather inspiration and knowledge. Visit public gardens with xeric gardens such as Denver Botanic Gardens, Aurora’s Water-Wise Garden, or The Gardens at Spring Creek. Take photos and note plant names and combinations. If you need help identifying plant names, send your photos to the Denver Master Gardeners at the Denver Botanic Gardens for identification (gardeninghelp@botanicgardens.org).

CSU has a treasure trove of helpful information here.  Colorado Native Plant Society, Plant Select, and Denver Water are good resources, too.

Be realistic. Consider how much time you have to devote to this project, your skill level, and your budget. Will you do all or some of the work, hire help, or enlist family and friends? If you are not sure where to start, you may want to consult a garden designer who’s in sync with your goals.

Expect less work, but not no work. Xeric plants need to be irrigated until established, which could run one to two seasons, and during periods of prolonged drought. It is also critical, especially in the early days, not to let weeds take over. Initially there will be a lot of open ground and weeds would love to fill it up.

Don’t forget community regulations. If your neighborhood has covenant restrictions or a review process for landscape changes, you will need to submit your plan with enough lead time to have it approved before the project begins.             

Denver neighbors embracing less-lawn gardening. Photo: Linda McDonnell

Once you’re armed with your plan you can tackle removing grass. Fall is a good time to start, particularly if you want to use the solarizing process, an herbicide-free method to kill grass. Find instructions here. CSU also provides instruction on the proper and safest use of herbicides to eliminate turf here.

Exchanging traditional lawns for creative, ecologically sustainable landscapes is a smart practice that is likely here to stay. If you’ve converted a traditional lawn and have additional tips, we welcome your input in the comment section.

Planning a Dry Shade Garden: Making Lemonade with Dusty Strawberries

Lori Williams, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener Since 2016

Bergenia cordifolia is well-suited for dry shade. Photo: Flickr

This is a dry shade garden story of happy accidents, fortunate timing due to 100+ degree temps, and purely unexpected research wrapped in a beautiful day at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms.

After more seasons than I’d like to admit there is part of my yard that has silently been waiting for attention for many years. It’s fully dry shade, anchored with a lovely oak tree that has reliably made this space look pretty good despite lacking design and plantings, and receiving water only for the tree’s sake. Lackluster turf is more grayish than green and sparse to say the least. Hello Sad Spot, it’s finally time for your makeover.

With these hot temps I’ve retreated inside and have been pouring over xeric plant guides, watched the uber helpful presentation ‘Dry Shade Planning and Planting’ by Amy Lentz of Boulder County Extension, and investigated various garden designs and plant suggestions offered by the fine folks at Plant Select, Denver Water, and our very own CSU Extension.

The added bonus was finding myself immersed in a treasure trove of design and plant specimens at Denver Botanical Gardens Chatfield Farms a few weeks ago. Dry shade garden inspiration abounds!

A clear pattern of attack is laid out for not only dry shade but any new garden spot:

• plan ahead
• improve the soil
• limit turf
• efficient irrigation
• select plants
• mulch
• maintain

Plan ahead…hmmm…plan ahead….me? Oh but it’s a heat wave and due to travel plans and work obligations I’m doing research for a garden spot that I won’t be able to implement or plant until early fall. That sounds like I’m planning ahead!

Step one? Check! I even have time to have my soil tested.  And I’ll have time to actually amend the soil. This is going great! Look at me, planning ahead. It’s a new and different approach but I think I like it.

Next, I literally trip over one of the oak’s roots while collecting dusty soil samples and find myself looking at something that wasn’t half scorched turf but rather a mixture of barren and fruiting strawberries with yellow and pink blossoms. They were as dusty as the grass, but they’ve voluntarily planted themselves in this neglected space. Brazen little things! Congratulations, guys – you’ve just won the ‘Right Plant, Right Place’ award. Based on your gumption I decided on the spot that strawberries are the ground cover of choice.

I’ve spent time on cool mornings removing the patchy grass with my hori hori, providing more space for the strawberry tendrils to reach out and set roots. It’s delightful to see them take hold.

When Mother Nature gives you strawberries, make a strawberry lawn. Photos: Lori Williams

Thankfully, we have a sprinkler system, but the heads are all wrong (have been forever) for this area and I’ve been hose watering this dry shade zone instead for years. Once I fully determine the plants’ placement and they are well established, soaker hoses will replace the sprinkler heads to water the new guys more effectively. I’ll stick to the garden hose with my ancient frog eyed sprinkler during the establishment phase.

Photo: Lori Williams

One of my best-ever gifts from Mom was Denver Water’s series of xeriscape books.  They developed the whole xeric gardening concept to begin with, so Colorado-proud of them. Highly recommended reading!

Mulch selection is still a bit up in the air, but I am a diehard fan and believer. I feel like mulch is kind of the reward topper-offer at the end of newly planted garden spaces. It really makes things pop and look fully finished while stealthily helping manage weeds and providing moisture retention in the garden. Win Win Win!

As mentioned earlier, I happily found myself at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farm recently. I was expecting a lovely visit of course, involving a great stroll while surrounded by beauty. Perfect! Embarrassingly, I think I’ve only been to the arboretum for holiday lights during the winter.

This visit turned into Christmas in July as I opened my eyes and mind and phone camera – a dry shade plant selection opportunity extraordinaire! Lenten rose? Bergenia cordifolia? Siberian Bugloss? Now I only need to ‘weed’ through approximately 47 plants to select the 3-5 for my make over garden. But as I’m planning ahead, ahem, I have time.

Additional sources:

Kinds of Shade

Zero Water Gardening

Dry Shade Solutions

A Gardening Project for the Hell Strip

By Gail Leidigh, CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardener since 2021

One of my goals this summer was to fix up a small 9’ x 6’ section of the hell strip area that I have ignored for several years while the weeds thrived. Between weeds, trash, and being a favorite spot for the neighborhood doggies, it was quite an eyesore. So, I finally decided to tackle this project and do something that would be sustainable, pleasant to look at, and attract pollinators.

Sad state of the hell strip in early April 2022. Photo by G. Leidigh

Over the winter I worked on a plan, and first, needed to do some research! Since I live in a historic district, I consulted the guidelines published by the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission, which recommends that homeowners “Maintain grass and/or low-water ground cover in an existing or new tree lawn (the landscaped area between the street and the sidewalk).” Since the tree lawn (isn’t that term so much more charming than hell strip?) was long gone, and I did not wish to irrigate the area, I wanted to go with low-water plantings.

For inspiration, I did lots of reading from various sources, including an earlier post on this blog, Reimagining a Denver Hell Strip, which detailed the process Denver Master Gardeners Elizabeth and Daniel Neufeld used to transform their space. If they happen to read this, I’d love to know how it looks now!

5280 magazine also has a helpful article from 2015 with locally specific suggestions on planting in the hell strip.

I also borrowed the library book Hellstrip Gardening: Create a Paradise Between the Sidewalk and Curb by Evelyn J. Hadden (2014) for some very interesting gardening ideas from around the United States.

Once the weather began warming enough to work outside, I started clearing the area of debris and had a small elm tree that had grown itself from seed dug out. I did not know what to expect as far as soil conditions and anticipated that I’d need to remove and replace loads of dirt. But to my pleasant surprise the soil was quite loose, loamy, and I would be able to plant without amendments!

Naturally, as the weather continued to warm, the weeds were growing like crazy, and I spent many, many, hours digging them out and getting their roots as best I could. I will need to stay on top of these weeds throughout the season this year, and hopefully the healthy new plants will eventually crowd them out.

In choosing plants I looked at information on recommended native plants on the CSU Extension website, and using the wonderful “Find a Plant” feature on the Plant Select website.

Plant choices were narrowed down based on my must-have criteria: safe for kids and pets, low-height (24” or less), low water needs, poor soil (non-composted) tolerant, and overall tough plants that could deal with being in a busy high traffic area.

I ended up selecting Kannah Creek Sulphur Buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) and Wild blue flax (Linium lewisii). The area is 54 square feet, and I drew up some plans to help with arranging things.

After some friend and family feedback, our top choice plan. Photo by G. Leidigh

In typical Colorado fashion, as soon as I finished planting everything in mid-May, after I thought the danger of frost had passed, we got one of our wild late spring snowstorms extra late this year.

Protecting plants from snow on May 19^th. Photo by G. Leidigh

Thankfully, the snow in our area remained mostly wet slush which prevented most of the heavy build up on plants and trees that causes problems. Unfortunately, other areas were not so lucky: while driving through Washington Park after the storm, I saw significant damage to older trees throughout that neighborhood.

I put a small fence around the area to keep out wandering feet and covered the garden bed with pea gravel (the suggested mulch for these two plants). I have been watering about every 2-3 days by hand, which is more frequent than I would suggest for clay or rich soils, but this small space has exceptionally well-drained soil and I want to make sure to get the plants established during this rather warm and dry spring and summer. All of the plants have shown good growth in the last two months, and for now they appear to be happy in this place!

I can’t wait to see blooms here in the future! Photo by G. Leidigh

Designing a Garden Using Xeriscape and Colorado Native Plants

By Terry Deem-Reilly, CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardener since 2003

Sustainability has become a byword in many areas of life, so why not apply the concept to our gardening by using the plants best suited to the challenging Colorado climate, as they love sun and low irrigation and flourish in soils with very little organic material and no fertilization? 

Planting xeric and Colorado native species in our gardens isn’t only a smart choice during drought conditions, but will save time in the garden, improve the looks of our properties and our neighborhoods, and support necessary pollinators and other wildlife in our ever-expanding urban areas.

Island Grove Demo Garden, City of Greeley (Flickr)

Basic Garden Design

Before selecting and buying plants, consider basic design principles (as slightly modified for a xeriscape/native garden):

• How big is the garden going to be, where will it be placed, and what other uses will be made of the site and the surrounding area? 
• Is the ground level, sloped, or a combination of the two? (Water will run down a slope to collect at its foot, which will affect the placement of plants: more xeric plants belong at the top, less xeric at the bottom.)
• Consider the soil type (clay, sand, or loam), sun exposure (full sun, part shade, or full shade), wind exposure, and accessibility of water. (Xeric and native plants require regular watering in their first year.) Organic amendments are not indicated for this type of garden, but drainage can be improved by tilling in pea gravel.
• How much time are you willing to spend to establish and maintain the plantings? (Native and xeric plants are easy-care after their first season, but tasks like weeding and pest and disease control are forever.)
• David Salman of High Country Gardens recently posted a great article incorporating basic design pointers with suggestions for the xeric garden: 9 Tips for Professional-Looking Garden Design. 
• If you’re converting a yard from turf to xeric/native plantings, consult the Extension fact sheet Xeriscaping: Retrofit Your Yard for ideas on how to proceed and suggestions for xeric substitutes for popular plants.

Swallowtail on Jupiter’s Beard, City of Greeley Xeriscape Garden (Flickr)

Think About the Contents of this Specific Garden

• What varieties of plants do you like, and what does well in your area? Take a look at neighbors’ yards, demonstration gardens, and local-nursery offerings to find your preferences. 

• Look at the ‘Native Plants’ section of this list of CSU Extension fact sheets to read and download information on Colorado’s native trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses.
• Links to the native plant guides for five regions in Colorado published by the Colorado Native Plant Society are available on this page.
• For xeric plant suggestions, consult the page listing xeric demonstration garden plants on the Adams County Extension website. Most nurseries here have caught on to xeriscape principles and have added many xeric plants to their stock, so spend some time prowling their aisles.
• Will you plant for a lush look, which may entail buying many plants and a great deal of work, or space plants widely and use groundcovers or mulch to fill in between them? (This might be a good strategy for the first-year garden.)
• What are the space requirements for the selected plants? Remember that perennials, trees, and shrubs will take more than one season to attain their mature sizes. Take the mature sizes listed for xeric and Colorado native plants VERY seriously; these plants like our short growing season and will grow to the sizes shown much more readily than plants that originated in less rugged climates and longer growing seasons than ours.
• What are the cultivation requirements for the plants? Group plants that have similar water, soil, and sun requirements together – many Colorado natives have adapted over the centuries to our clay soils and might falter in the sharply-draining soil loved by xeric varieties. Check the tag for water needs or research the plant to be sure.
• Be prepared to mulch; what is used is a personal choice, but DO NOT use landscape fabric. Groundcovers are a good living mulch if you like them.
• Consider how the garden will look throughout the year. Plant tall grasses and evergreen shrubs and groundcovers and leave stems and seedheads on perennials for winter interest (and to feed and shelter wildlife in colder months). Look for plants that fruit and/or display colorful fall foliage.

That’s the skinny (or most of it) on xeric and Colorado plants. Remember to take your time with selection and establishment, and to contact your local Extension office with any questions. 

Creating a Colorado Sensory Garden

By Felicia Brower, CSU Extension – Denver Master Gardener since 2020

Sensory gardens – gardens that appeal to one or more of the five senses – are a great way to get both children and adults excited about the natural world. Featuring plants that appeal to sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch turns a stroll through the garden into an immersive experience where you can engage with the grasses, trees, flowers, shrubs, and hardscape elements.

Sensory gardens can be any size and can be designed to target just one sense (a garden with exceptionally bright or fragrant flowers is a good example) or as many senses as possible. Some senses are easier to find plants for than others, which is where hardscape elements come in handy. Texture from boulders, walkway stones, stumps, woodchips, and other permanent structures can take away the need to touch the plants directly, though there are plants that make finger-friendly additions to the garden.

Always make sure that your sensory garden is safe for visitors. Avoid putting harmful plants within easy reach of pathways or using toxic pesticides on plants that are easily accessible, especially if your garden is geared towards younger, curious children.

Before you plant anything, check your location to make sure that you’re choosing plants that will thrive there. Putting plants with high water needs by those with low water needs can result in plants being over- or under-watered and not surviving. Make sure you accommodate for sun and shade needs as well.

If you want to give your sensory garden an added environmental bonus, make one with native plants! These localized plants are adapted for our climate, soil, and water needs and serve as important habitats and food sources to native birds and bugs.

Here are a few plants that would make a great addition to your Colorado sensory garden:

Sight

Plants that are brightly colored or with distinctly shaped flowers, seeds, or leaves draw the eye and can be a great source of excitement in the garden. Shrubs like serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) are great multi-season additions to the garden, with clusters of small white flowers, blue-black berries, and an orange to red coloring in the fall. Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus montanus) has distinctly shaped, feathery corkscrew seed heads. The undersides of the leaves are furry, and the flowers have a sweet smell, which allows you to cross off three senses (sight, touch, and smell) with just one plant.

^{Mountain mahogany}

Sound 

Ornamental grasses are an easy way to appeal to sound in your sensory garden. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) is a native grass that grows as a 3-foot-tall arching clump of blue-green leaves in the summer. Flowering stalks emerge in late summer and grow as tall as six feet, and the seedheads that form resemble a turkey’s foot. Listening to the sound of the grass swaying in a late-summer breeze is a great way to unwind in the garden. As an added sight bonus, the leaves turn pink, orange, rust, and purple in the fall. Despite the name, Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is a different plant entirely that also goes through beautiful color changes (powder blue, darkening to purple, and ending with dark red stalks in winter) and provides a nice soothing sound when it sways in the summer and fall winds.

^{Big bluestem}

Touch

As mentioned earlier, adding hardscape elements like stumps, boulders, smooth walkway stones, and woodchip paths is a simple way to add texture to your garden and check off the touch box in your sensory garden. There are some native plants that have textures as well, including the blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata) with its fuzzy leaves and stunning yellow and red daisy blooms and Blue Grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis) known informally as “eyelash grass” due to the shape of its seed clusters.

^{Blanket flower}

Smell

Smell is one of the easier senses to find plants for, as many flowers have fragrant blooms. A popular native plant that works well is aptly named chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata) with its chocolate smelling daisy-like flowers. Agastache sunset hyssop (Agastache rupestris), another native, appeals to both sight and smell with its vibrant spikes of orange and purple flowers that emit a root beer fragrance.

^{Chocolate flower}

Taste

Always exercise caution when eating anything out of the garden. Make sure that you’ve correctly identified the plant and that it’s safe to consume before eating it or encouraging others to do the same. The golden currant (Ribes aureum) is a safe-to-eat shrub with sweet yellow, red, or black berries that emerge in the late-summer and fall. These berries can be eaten fresh off the plant or be used to make jams and jellies.

^{Golden currant}

Sensory gardens add another layer to a garden. Whether you’re passing through quickly or spending more time in one to take it all in, you’ll feel more connected to the plants during your sensory experience.

Denver Master Gardeners Look Back at the Growing Season – Part 2

Compiled by Linda McDonnell, Denver Master Gardener since 2013

Welcome back to part two of our garden season recaps. We hope you enjoy this look at the wins, challenges, and surprises from Denver Master Gardeners. If you missed part one, you’ll find it here.

HUMMINGBIRD BANQUET  Barb Pitner, Denver Master Gardener since 2012

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  Can you find the hummingbird? Photo: Barb Pittner
  

This season’s goal was to create a garden to attract and feed hummingbirds. I started by removing a twelve-foot-wide circle of lawn with a two-foot-wide circle or “bullseye” in the center. The soil of this center area was prepped with compost into which four scarlet sage vines (Salvia coccinea) were planted around a four-foot-high decorative tower.

The remainder of the full-sun, brightly colored pollinator garden was filled with containers, which encircled the scarlet sage and descended in height from the center.

The tall scarlet sage vines were surrounded by containers of vibrantly colored ‘Giant’ zinnias alternating with containers of crocosmia varieties including ‘George Davidson’ (yellow), ‘Lucifer’ (deep red-orange), ‘Emily McKenzie’ (red-orange-maroon with a yellow eye). Cypress vines (Ipomoea quamoclit) were added to the crocosmia displays.

The outer ring of the garden was made up of smaller containers, brimming with lower growing annuals such as marigolds, blue Victoria salvia, red calibrachia, and red-yellow lantana.

Daily watering, regular feeding, and deadheading insured constant blooms from July to September. In addition to hummingbirds, the garden was regularly visited by native, honey, and bumble bees. All have been kept in good supply of nectar and pollen.  

WINTER-SOWN BAPTISIA  Susan Tamulonis, Denver Master Gardener since 2018

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  Baptisia plants (center) in August. Photo: Susan Tamulonis

Last December I was given thirty-eight Baptisia seeds (Baptisia spp; variety unknown, aka wild or false indigo) from a neighbor. This gift launched a multi-season challenge to nurture, document, and transform the seeds into healthy plants. Baptisia is in the Fabaceae (bean) family and requires cold temperatures to germinate – perfect timing for this project.

The dense, hard-coated seeds were treated to two boiling water baths and then soaked for two more days. The seeds were then planted in “mini-greenhouses,” constructed from milk jugs (one 1-gallon and two ½-gallons). The uncapped containers were cut in half horizontally and drainage holes were poked in the bottom. Seeds were sown in the base of the containers, lightly covered with soil, and watered. The top portion of the containers were replaced, creating dome-like planters. The containers were placed in a shady outdoor spot immediately after planting and were regularly checked for moisture and good drainage.

In April, to allow for more light, the top half of the containers were removed; germination began in May. By mid-June, seedlings were four to five inches tall with three sets of leaves. It was now time to plant them in full sun. In August, the seeds yielded seventeen healthy plants for a 58% germination rate.

And here’s where the story takes a turn…I returned from a fall vacation to find the young plants were mowed down by a hungry visitor, likely a rabbit. So while the winter-sowing process was successful, the plants didn’t survive!

A FUN & BENEFICIAL SURPRISE  Jodi Torpey, Denver Master Gardener since 2005

• 

  Photo: Jodi Torpey

My biggest gardening success this season gave new meaning to the old saying about keeping one’s ear close to the ground. That’s because I grew an ear in a container of radishes.

Although I didn’t set out to grow a body part in my garden, I was delighted to see this flesh-colored, earlike growth pop up among the radishes during this year’s cool, wet spring. My “ear” was most likely a type of cup fungus belonging to the genus Peziza. These fungi are real bodies – the fruiting bodies – of cup fungi that usually live underground but can grow above ground in mulch or compost when conditions are right.

While they don’t all look like ears, they’re all good for gardens because they break down organic matter to make nutrients available to plants. An ear growing in that container turned out to be a real fun guy.

A TREE WORTH WAITING FOR!  Lori Williams, Denver Master Gardener since 2016

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  Photo: Lori Williams

After a four-year delay in planting any tree, finally this summer a long-awaited, lovely peach tree found a home in our yard. It came with baby peaches all over, but we popped most off so the energy would go to the roots. The only decent gladiolus I planted this year were around the new peach tree – and we enjoyed nine very tasty peaches in mid-August. Highlight of our summer!

NATIVE POLLINATOR GARDEN: YEAR TWO  Ann Winslow, Denver Master Gardener since 2019

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  A mass of chocolate flowers Photo: Ann Winslow
  

Last year, I shared my adventure creating a pollinator garden using native plants on this blog. You’ll find the posts here and here. This year, I’ve watched and recorded what has flourished and what has struggled – maybe because of weather, where the plant was sited, and in some cases, for reasons I can’t tell.

One big success was chocolate flower (Berlandiera lyrata). At one end of the garden, three plants became massive, merging into one enormous display, which will be divided in the Spring. They have been abuzz with native pollinators since June. Just what I hoped for!

In contrast, wine cups (Callirhoe involucrata) has struggled. It’s possible that the heavy spring rains caused it to grow leggy, splay out on the ground, and have few blooms. I’m cutting back the long, dead stems now as I see it’s getting new growth in the center.

Always something to learn. Every year is a new adventure in gardening.

Many thanks to the Denver Master Gardeners who allowed us to peak into their gardens, learn from their experiences, and be inspired by their results.

Keeping a Garden Journal for a Successful Next Season

Written by Felicia Brower, Colorado Master Gardener since 2020

As you reflect on this year’s summer gardening season, it might be tempting to believe that you’ll remember everything important until next spring. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work out, and you run the risk of doing a lot of guesswork when you’re getting started again next year. The solution? A garden journal! If you don’t already have a garden journal, now’s a perfect time to start one.

Instead of trying to remember what went well and what didn’t each year (or even from month to month), write it all down to refer back to at a later time. If you take the time to write down a list of what worked, what didn’t, and what changes you want to make, you can easily improve your garden in the future.

You can make your own garden journal out of something basic (I use the Composition Notebook pictured above), or you can purchase one at your local bookstore. There are also garden journal apps you can download if you prefer to go in a digital direction.

STARTING A JOURNAL

To get started with your garden journal, decide what information you want to remember. Many people choose to record things like sketches or photos of their gardens, planting dates, problems they ran into, and things that went well. Some people also like to add in general reflections about nature and the time they spend in their gardens.

WHAT TO RECORD

If you choose to make your own journal, you can customize it however you want. Keep track of anything you think is important to remember.

If you aren’t sure where to start, consider the following questions:

• What did you grow this year?
• What grew well?
• What didn’t grow as well as you would have liked? Any idea why?
• What took up more space than you anticipated?
• Were there any nearby trees or structures that covered parts of your garden?
• Was the sunlight too intense for any of your plants?
• Did you struggle with pests or disease?
• What do you want to plant next year?
• Where do you want to plant everything?

If you plan on doing crop rotations, drawing a sketch of where things were this year can be extremely helpful, especially if you’re not quite ready to plan your 2021 garden yet. Instead of wasting time trying to remember in the spring, you can flip open your garden journal and get a map of exactly where everything was.

It’s also worth noting when external events happen each year. Was there a certain time when you noticed a certain pest appeared? Were the storms worse during some months more than others? Keep track of things as they happen so that you can predict them in future years and work to avoid preventable damage to your plants.

You can also record any expenses (seeds, pots, fertilizer, etc.) to keep track of how much you’re spending on your garden each year and to find ways to possibly reduce the costs.

Note the repairs you have to make around the garden and how often you’re making them. If you’re spending a lot of time repairing something, it might be time to replace it.

If you just want to note the major things, keep track of what you plant, the exact date you plant things in the spring, and what brand of seed you use. The frost dates are great guides for when you should plant things, but it also helps to know specifically when you started, planted, or transplanted things in previous years.

Keep track of where you purchase your seeds, how much you paid for them, how well they performed so that you can make any necessary adjustments.

Wrap down the season in the fall with a review of how things went the previous summer. It will be a great resource to rely on when you’re planning for the future.

WHEN TO RECORD

There are no set rules about when you have to record things in your journal, but it’s easier to keep it updated if you make a regular practice of it. Taking five minutes to write small updates every time you’re out will paint a picture of what’s going on in your garden to look back on when you’re planning for an upcoming season.

TIPS FOR HAVING A SUCCESSFUL JOURNAL

Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, set aside regular time to write in your journal. Write down anything that feels important at the time. (You won’t remember specifics a year from now, so if it seems important now, write it down.)

Make sure that you can read your handwriting and understand what you write. It’s easy to scribble something down in the moment, but if you don’t go back and make sure that it’s clear, it’ll be a mystery when you read it later.

Your garden journal should be beneficial for you and with it you can learn how to manage problems more efficiently and increase your harvests. What you record in your garden journal is up to you, so have fun with it and do whatever you need to do to get the most out of it.

Meet the Garden Squad—Gardening Help at the Denver Botanic Gardens

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

Meet the Gardening Help Volunteers

The CSU Extension Master Gardeners usually pick up the gardening helpline at the Denver Botanic Gardens or answer questions when people walk-in the door. Even though buildings at DBG are closed for now, gardeners can still get their gardening questions answered by Gardening Help from Colorado Master Gardeners at Denver Botanic Gardens, only remotely.

The interest in gardening has soared ever since people have had to hunker down at home and find ways to keep busy. First-time gardeners will likely have questions on how to get started, what to plant now, what can grow in containers, and much more.

Even gardeners with some experience have questions, too. All gardening questions can be emailed to gardeninghelp@botanicgardens.org and a CMG, working remotely, will reply by email.

Gardening Help volunteers include: Back row, left to right: Jan Fahs, Jan Davis, Ken Zwenger, Mark Zammuto, Gordon Carruth, Fran Hogan
Middle row: Lynne Conroy, Harriet Palmer Willis, Kathleen Schroeder, Leona Berger, Cindy Hanna, Mary Adams, Nancy Downs
Kneeling: Dee Becker, Charlotte Aycrigg, Jan Moran
Not pictured: Mary Carnegie, Linda Hanna, Maggie Haskett, April Montgomery, Ann Moore, Kathy Roth, Amy White

Gardening Help is a project of the CSU Extension-Denver Master Gardeners at the DBG. Volunteers provide reliable and research-based information to thousands of home gardeners each year.

Volunteers commit to at least one year in the role, with a minimum of six shifts spread across the year. The commitment starts early in the year with an orientation and training from Nancy Downs, project coordinator.

Many volunteers are GH regulars and they return to the project every year. In addition to being an active CMG, they have to satisfy DBG volunteer requirements, too. That means they’re a member of the DBG and enrolled there as a volunteer.

Some of the key characteristics of GH volunteers are good research, plant identification and diagnostic skills. Because the project is located at DBG, volunteers need to keep on top of what’s blooming at the DBG by season, so they can answer common questions that might pop up.

Photo provided by Nancy Downs

Text by Jodi Torpey
Master Gardener volunteer since 2005

No More Buds? Turn to Earbuds.

By this time in the year, I’m at the point of good riddance! with the weeds and careful tending (shout out to this cold spell for sealing the deal). Pretty much everything is done and put to bed. I then spend the next two weeks really dialing into my houseplant game before I get bored and start Spring dreaming. My Fall break from the garden is short-lived so I start listening to old episodes of now-defunct podcast series and dream with new ones.  Here are a few of my favs:

Gardenerd Tip of The Week

Gardenerd.com is the ultimate resource for garden nerds. We provide organic gardening information whenever you need it, helping you turn land, public space, and containers into a more satisfying and productive garden that is capable of producing better-tasting and healthier food.

https://gardenerd.com/

My thoughts: The host lives in LA, so this one is great for winter listening as we get chillier, I love hearing about the warmth of Southern California and what’s coming into season. Interviews with other experts and educators in the horticulture field discussing plants, but also cultivating grains, discussing bees, and seeds. Each episode ends with the guest’s own tips, many of which are news to me and have been incorporated into my own practices. 

On the Ledge

I’m Jane Perrone, and I’ve been growing houseplants since I was a child, caring for cacti in my bedroom and growing a grapefruit from seed; filling a fishtank full of fittonias and bringing African violets back from the dead.

https://www.janeperrone.com/on-the-ledge

Houseplants, if new to the podcast start here for an overview, and guidance.

Jane is a freelance journalist and presenter on gardening topics. Her podcast has a ton of tips for beginners, and more advanced info for longtime houseplant lovers, as well as interviews with other plant experts. The website is also useful to explore the content of an episode if you aren’t able to listen. I could spend an entire morning traveling in and out of the archives. 

My thoughts: As the growing season comes to a close, my indoors watering schedule starts wobbling between what the plants need and my summer habits of watering too many times per week–welcome back,  fungus gnats! Here’s an entire episode on them

Plant Daddy Podcast

We aim to create a listener community around houseplants, to learn things, teach things, share conversations with experts, professionals in the horticulture industry, and amateur hobbyists like ourselves. We also want to bring the conversation beyond plants, since anybody with leaf babies has a multitude of intersectional identities. We, ourselves, are a couple gay guys living in Seattle, Washington, with a passion for gardening and houseplants. A lot of our friends are the same, though each of us has a different connection, interest, and set of skills in this hobby, demonstrating a small amount of the diversity we want to highlight among plant enthusiasts.

https://plantdaddypodcast.com/

My thoughts: Plants are visual, podcasts are auditory- episodic overviews with links to viewable content available on their website. Are you also seeing Staghorn Ferns everywhere? They have an entire episode (photos included!) on the fern and how to properly mount it for that vegan taxiderm look. Matthew and Stephen are self-identified hobbyists with a passion for plants all the way down to the Latin–it’s impressive.

Epic Gardening

The Epic Gardening podcast…where your gardening questions are answered daily! The goal of this podcast is to give you a little boost of gardening wisdom in under 10 minutes a day. I cover a wide range of topics, from pest prevention, to hydroponics, to plant care guides…as long as it has something to do with gardening, I’ll talk about it on the show!

https://www.epicgardening.com/

My thoughts: The Netflix-episode-when-you-just-don’t-feel-like-a-movie kind of podcast. Addresses the best varietals, composting, soil pH, and troubleshooting some common issues in the garden. With daily episodes archived back to December 2018, there is a quickly digested thought for some of your own curiosities. The website is also a wealth of knowledge. 

Eatweeds Podcast: For People Who Love Plants

Eatweeds: An audio journey through the wonderful wild world of plants. Episodes cover modern and ancient ways wild plants have been used in human culture as food, medicine and utilitarian uses.

http://eatweeds.libsyn.com/

My thoughts: most recent episode (and appropriately timed!)  On edible acorns. My fav topics include foraging and wild yeast fermentation; and when I really start missing the Pacific Northwest, The Wild and Wonderful World of Fungi sends me back to a misty forest wander politely decorated by les champignons. Posting of this pod is sporadic–only 25 episodes since 2014.

You Bet Your Garden

(no longer on air, but archives available)

 

You Bet Your Garden® was a weekly radio show and podcast produced at WHYY through September, 2018. The show’s archive is available online. It was a weekly syndicated radio show, with lots of call-ins. This weekly call-in program offers ‘fiercely organic’ advice to gardeners far and wide.

https://www.wlvt.org/television/you-bet-your-garden/

My thoughts: Host, Mike McGrath, spends much of the show taking calls and troubleshooting, reminiscent of another public radio behemoth with Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers. McGrath incorporates a lifetime of organic gardening tips with humor. McGrath features one tip to find a local “rent a goat place” (no joke) to get goats to eat the most troublesome weeds to a concerned caller considering setting much of her yard on fire.

Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden

Jennifer Jewell, the founder of Jewellgarden and Cultivating Place, achieves this mission through her writing, photographs, exhibits about and advocacy for gardens & natural history and through her weekly public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place: Conversations on Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden, on gardens as integral to our natural and cultural literacy.

https://www.cultivatingplace.com/

My thoughts: sort of like On Being, but for gardening.

A fav episode:

If you aren’t so sure about this podcast thing, and just want a place to start, start here.

Do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? To remember? Or even learn? Well, it depends on who you ask. Jad and Robert, they are split on this one. Today, Robert drags Jad along on a parade for the surprising feats of brainless plants. Along with a home-inspection duo, a science writer, and some enterprising scientists at Princeton University, we dig into the work of evolutionary ecologist Monica Gagliano, who turns our brain-centered worldview on its head through a series of clever experiments that show plants doing things we never would’ve imagined. Can Robert get Jad to join the march?

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/smarty-plants

A Denverite Visits New Orleans in July, Leaves in Awe That Anything Grows in Colorado, Like, Ever.

Image by McKenna Hynes

I recently returned from a little summer vaca in the South. New Orleans in July (a questionably timed vacation, albeit) is showy and fragrant; the ferns suckle lovingly to any crack and crevice providing green brush-strokes and blots everywhere, palms fill beds and pots alike, all of my houseplants are thriving in the wide open, the sun is scorching, and as our pilot reminded us as we prepared to de-plane, its humid enough to confuse a frog. I was constantly amazed at how effortlessly everything seemed to grow.

While in New Orleans, I was frequently amused by how the rest of the country (mis)understands Colorado living conditions. For the most part, folks think we spend most of the year dreaming of gardens as we stare out our frosty windows waiting for the snow to melt, visiting floral places abroad, and wearing multiple layers of socks at all times. Soooo… basically gardening at 10,000+ feet? While these perceptions are laughable, I started thinking that even though we don’t live in perpetual wintry wonder, the challenges we face to make anything grow aren’t necessarily less surmountable than our fam in the lofty-actual-mountains.

We were welcomed back to Denver with a remarkable storm featuring lightning, torrential rains, booming thunder… and hail. Of course, the very next day was smokin’ hot with nary a whisper of the siege.  Maintaining a vibrant garden in the Front Range is an extreme sport with our baffling daily fluctuations; the entire notion of keeping anything alive here seems impossible at times, but we’ve gotten pretty good at strategizing. Here are a few resources I’ve tracked down this year to help us all maintain beauty, build our skills, and be stewards to our land and community.

Image by McKenna Hynes

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Resource Central is a nonprofit organization based in Boulder that helps communities conserve resources and build sustainability efforts simply and cost-effectively. Their water-saving initiatives include native plant sales with simple designs for home gardens and often include low water perennials. They also have a tool library in Boulder where you can borrow for a couple of bucks per day so you don’t just buy the tamper, hedge trimmer, turf roller, or post hole diggers you need so infrequently. 

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The cities of Boulder, Lafayette, and Louisville partnered with Resource Central to give customers a Garden In A Box for turf-removal. Their Grass to Garden initiative is available to all communities with tips and resources to convert high water-consuming turf to low water garden areas. For the North Metro area, they have resources for assistance removing and disposing of turf, landscape architect recommendations, and more.

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Denver Water coined one of our most successful water-wise strategies with xeriscaping. And to keep sharing the good water word, Denver Water also partnered with local landscape architects to provide us mere civilians with some FREE! FREE! FREE! creativity. For those of us who are new (it’s me) who struggle with vision (all me), and are easily overwhelmed by the thought of starting fresh with a blank canvas (still, totally, all me), they’ve curated a bunch of plans for a variety of situations. They have plans for sloped xeriscaping, budget-friendly xeriscaping, narrow bed xeriscaping, year-round beauty designs, and many more. July is also Smart Irrigation Month! Head to Denver Water for tips on maintaining irrigation systems, watering rules, and efficiency strategies.

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And for the grand finale top-notch gardening game-changer, check out Plant Select for all your future dreaming. Plant Select is a nonprofit partnership between Colorado State University, Denver Botanic Gardens, and professional horticulturists to identify smart plant choices for the Rocky Mountian Region. Their mobile-friendly site has a tool to help you find plants that will suit the conditions you’re facing. I tend to challenge the tool to see how obscure or specific I can get, and it always provides me with something unique and gorgeous. Plant Select: taking “right plant right place” to an accessible and fun platform. Say So Long! to the multiple Google tabs researching the same plant with contradicting information on each site; Goodbye! Big Box Store swindlers promising “You REALLY can’t kill this one!” and go get yourself some good, wholesome, ACCURATE information quickly and easily from Plant Select. They also feature some garden designs and ideas.

Image source

By McKenna Hynes

Apprentice Colorado Master Gardener since January 2019