cool gardens in a hot climate™
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
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
At the home of Scott Deemer in Niwot, Colorado, the garden is a true marriage of nature and art. … Read More
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
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
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
It’s hard to compete with a grand view of the Rocky Mountains. And why would you? TLC Gardens instead created space-defining, bird-sheltering, pollinator-friendly beds around the Lafayette, Colorado, home of Jim and Laura Strouse, which I toured on Day 2 of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019). … Read More
As our tour bus of 40+ bloggers arrived at the Louisville, Colorado, home of Jean Morgan, one visitor reached down to pick up a stray piece of trash in Jean’s garden. Only the crumpled Hershey bar wrapper wasn’t trash. It’s part of a cheeky vignette — Happily Dying of Chocolate, complete with chocolate daisies (Berlandiera lyrata) — tucked in her streetside garden.… Read More
From the street, cottage garden favorites greeted us. Owner Jan Devore planted the small front garden with Rosa glauca and purple irises — nearly black ones adding drama — framed by a backdrop of soft pines and weathered wood siding.… Read More
Night-blooming datura greeted me when the sun went down. As dusk fell, it unfurled platter-sized, white blossoms with a lemony fragrance. Moths and other night pollinators, here’s your welcome mat.… Read More
Step through the gate into Lucinda Hutson’s side garden, and a seashell wreath hints at what’s to come: mermaids in an under-the-sea garden.… Read More
Stepping onto our front porch the other day, we spotted a shy visitor who wasn’t quite prepared to come all the way to the front door, although she was close. A doe was nosing around in the sedge lawnette, seemingly noshing on the cut “hay” from its recent trim-by-weed-whacker (the electric mower is on the fritz). … Read More
An invitation to tea — the real deal, with scones, clotted cream, cucumber sandwiches, lemon tarts, and champagne — was treat enough to entice me to the San Antonio home of two sisters I’ve gotten to know through a friendship with their mother. But when I arrived at their house, I realized another treat was in store: a lovely garden designed for relaxation and decked out for company.… Read More
Three years ago my friend Cat Jones and her husband, newly empty nesters, sold their house and Cat’s lovely garden and moved to a different home in their Steiner Ranch neighborhood, not to downsize but — fellow gardeners, can you relate? — to upsize their lot. A canyon view in the backyard, perfect for summer sunset-watching, sold them on the house. Out front, Cat has been steadily turning the standard lawn with foundation shrubs into a beautiful pollinator garden with a low-profile evergreen backbone.… Read More