Summer scenes
Morning light in the front garden, with Berkeley sedge aglow, a hulking ‘Green Goblet’ agave, and a silvery groundcover of woolly stemodia — this is a summer scene I enjoy before the Death Star gets high in the sky.… Read More
Via Libre, a free-spirited garden along the freeway
Many people wouldn’t consider buying a house sandwiched between MoPac expressway, a multi-lane highway with freight trains chugging down the center median, and its neighborhood feeder road. But Cynthia Williams Deegan and her husband, Bobby, have a talent for transforming an unpromising property into an indoor-outdoor paradise.… Read More
Keith Funk’s front-yard oasis: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 22, 2019The last private garden on the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling tour (June 2019) belongs to Keith and Retha Funk of Centennial, Colorado. When they bought their house in 2011, they inherited some lovely trees but also a tired … Read More
An exuberant, upcycled, scrap-art garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 21, 2019Colorful stucco walls! Upcycled metal garden art! Octopus planters! Agaves (atop caged columns) and alliums and poppies! Amusing vignettes! As soon as we stepped off the bus at Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019), I knew this garden … Read More
Steppe garden evangelist Panayoti Kelaidis’s garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
Boulder-native Panayoti Kelaidis, a world-traveling plant explorer, author, nationally known speaker, entertaining blogger at Prairiebreak, and senior curator and outreach director at Denver Botanic Gardens, has made it his life’s work to open people’s eyes to the beauty and value of the steppe’s unique flora. Among his other achievements, he designed the plantings of the superb Rock Alpine Garden at DBG and co-authored the book Steppes. … Read More
Steppe garden, foxtail lilies, and sculpture at Denver Botanic Gardens: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
All 80+ bloggers had lunch under a pavilion at Denver Botanic Gardens on Day 3 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019), and then we were set loose for about an hour. One hour is not enough time to see DBG, of course. One day hardly is. Happily, this being a garden open to the public, I’d already enjoyed a lengthy visit before the Fling officially kicked off. This is part 1 of my tour, combining photos from both excursions.… Read More
A dryland garden inspired by Mother Nature: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
After 24 years as a radio talk show host on gardening, Jim Borland may have retired, but his Denver garden continues to broadcast loud and clear about how to garden in semi-arid eastern Colorado (15 inches of annual precipitation) without using any supplemental water. His gardening inspiration? Mother Nature. “She perfected the notion of growing a vast number of species in un-amended soils with no mulch or supplemental irrigation,” he says.… Read More
A garden for relaxing with friends: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 14, 2019Kicking off the 3rd day of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling in, yes, Denver, we toured an inviting patio garden designed for relaxing with family and friends. The owners, Kirsten and Scott Hamling, had set up a long … Read More
Party under the willow tree in Judy Seaborn’s garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
A grand old willow in Judy Seaborn’s Niwot, Colorado, garden appears to be the friendly sort. Dubbed Grandma Willow by Judy and her family, the tree sheltered a half-dozen tables and 80-some bloggers at a lovely garden party that closed out Day 2 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019). … Read More
New steel planter and meadowy sedge in my garden
This summer I installed a new custom steel planter in front of the blue stucco wall by the pool. Tina Strarup of Affinity Metalworks created it for me out of 3/16″ gauge mild steel, which will patina to a rusty hue. I planted it up with water-thrifty, heat-loving orange bulbine and a few baby Mexican feathergrasses and mulched it with fines of Texas black gravel (sold by the bag at Whittlesey Landscape Supplies), and I LOVE it.… Read More
A fusion of nature and art in Scott Deemer’s garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
At the home of Scott Deemer in Niwot, Colorado, the garden is a true marriage of nature and art. … Read More
Unscripted beauty in Scripter meadow garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
Larry and Mary Scripter grew up in prairie country, Larry on a farm in Kansas and Mary in the Black Hills of South Dakota, surrounded by the Great Plains. So it’s not surprising that they’re drawn to grassy meadow gardens and have created one at their home in Niwot, Colorado. … Read More
TatTopia garden embraces stonework and sustainability: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
When the construction dust settled at Tatiana Maxwell’s new energy-wise home, studio, and guest house in Boulder, Colorado, in 2010, the yard was just an expanse of bare dirt. Her first thought was to build an English-style cottage garden. But after brainstorming with stonemason artist Thea Alvin of MyEarthwork and Boulder permaculturalist Marco Lam, she realized she could create something unique and much better suited to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.… Read More
Bowled over by Linda Boley’s garden: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
A copper tree, its muscular branches devoid of leaves, stands as an organic sculpture in the Boulder, Colorado, rock garden of Linda Boley. The painted Japanese lilac caught my eye as soon as our bus arrived during the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling tour (June 2019). It signaled a gardener with an artistic vision.… Read More