I love a good chain of inspiration, seeing how one gardener’s efforts can fire up the imagination and determination of another, and so on and so on. Heidi Harris, aka Denver Dry Garden, is a great example. She bought her home in Denver’s Regis/Berkeley neighborhood in 2018, inheriting a back yard of dried-out turf, badly pruned lilacs, and “a defunct veggie garden with tumbleweeds and red mulch.” She pulled out the lilacs, tried and failed to revive the lawn, and then quit, feeling stuck. “I literally did not know what to do,” she said.

And then someone sparked an entirely new direction for her yard. She attended a native plant conference, where she heard the late David Salman speak. Salman, an esteemed plantsman and founder of High Country Gardens, convinced Heidi to replant her yard with waterwise, climate-appropriate plants that attract pollinators and birds. Obsessed by this new vision, Heidi said, “I watched almost every David Salman video on the @hcg YouTube, listened to several podcasts that he was a guest on, and read countless online articles written by him.”

The result, three years after tearing out the lawn and replanting a mostly native garden suited to Denver’s arid steppe climate, is a beautiful, colorful, and waterwise paradise for pollinators — and for Heidi and lucky visitors like myself.

I met up with Heidi while I was in Denver in late September, and she kindly gave me a tour of her garden one afternoon. It was hot — at the tail end of a long, hot summer for Denver — but her garden didn’t show the strain. It sparkled with pink muhly grass, shone with silvery foliage, and offered up a rich assortment of yellow, purple, and pink flowers for bumblebees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

Naturally I neglected to write down the names of plants as Heidi ID’d them, being far more focused on taking photos. You can find many IDs on her Instagram, as Heidi is great about sharing her plant knowledge there.

And that’s the next link of the inspiration chain that it makes me happy to see. Heidi took the ideas that David Salman shared and applied them to her own garden, and now she’s paying it forward on her ‘Gram.

Who knows how many other frustrated and stuck would-be gardeners Heidi has inspired? I bet it’s far more than she would guess.

As this long view shows, Heidi’s backyard is long and skinny. It has the advantage of full-sun exposure, which allows rock garden and flowering plants to thrive.

She refrained from planting a shade tree, which takes restraint. We’re all urged to plant trees, plant trees, plant trees — for shade, wildlife habitat, and urban cooling. Trees are important, for sure. But a single tree can quickly shade out a small yard. Flowering meadow gardens offer urban habitat too, and they want lots of sun.

Heidi opted instead for a desert willow, a smaller, airy tree that will eventually provide light shade near the house.

This spring her friend Kenton Seth, famed for his crevice garden designs, added a small rock/crevice garden along the driveway. Yucca thompsoniana stands beside the rolling ridges of pink rock, their gravelly crevices studded with small cacti and creeping groundcovers.

The plants are already filling in nicely.

Silver power!

Melon-hued sempervivum caught my eye too.

Stepping stones offer pathways through the gravel-mulched garden.

Cholla raises skinny fingers in salute.

From another angle you see the cholla’s xeric companions, including cacti, agave, and flowering perennials.

Sky-blue Salvia azurea

Agastache, a hummingbird favorite

I love this combo of a purple sedum and Tetraneuris daisy.

Excellent from every angle

One more

Along the fence, a grouping of round pots — some turquoise, some sand colored — makes a multi-level display for succulents and a little conifer.

Goldenrod was the star of the show in late September, and bees were loving it.

I walked around the garden two or three times, enjoying all the angles. It’s SO much better than a wall-to-wall carpet of lawn could ever be.

Just past the carport, Heidi half-enclosed a little patio with layers of potted plants.

Succulent “pictures” hang on the fence, their painted frames adding a dash of turquoise.

A shaggy trunked conifer shades this little hideaway.

Stainless steel pots of succulents hang from the wire window on the gate, bringing greenery to eye level.

A pretty arrangement of succulents in a tall Corten pot welcomes visitors at the front door.

Heidi turned her front yard into a flowering dry garden too. Rosy flagstones run the length of the small space, which sits a few feet above the street.

Heidi shared a sweetly funny story about a neighbor who told her he wanted to get rid of his lawn too and “have no maintenance, like your garden.” Gardeners know the truth: there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance garden. As Heidi points out, the garden requires “pulling weeds, spring trimming of some ornamental grasses and other perennials, and supplemental water, especially for the first year or two as plants are becoming established.” But she promises this as well: “Your garden will bring you so much joy, both aesthetically and also in the knowledge that you are helping pollinators, songbirds, and all types of lovely insects that will join you in your oasis.”

I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for the lovely garden visit, Heidi, and for sharing the joys of a dry garden and inspiring others!

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Digging Deeper

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