Any Other Colorado Springsians?

Hi Fellow Rabid Gardeners!

After over 14 years in the Springs, I have wed my gardening soul mate, and am living my gardening dream.

Okay, now for reality.

I have read and memorized several gardening books, and have actually planted dozens of plants, but have almost no practical experience in gardening! My ex-fiance' and I owned a home in town and I planted roses like a fool, which thrived beautifully, bloomed vociferously, and fed the local deer extravagantly. I planted plants all over the place, some of which were passed over by the deer (and rabbits), others of which went the way of the roses. I planted hundreds of bulbs that fall, and crossed my fingers they would see the light of Spring. Alas, I broke it off with my ex-fiance the next Spring, moved out, and never knew what happened to all my poor, poor flowers.

Now, four years later, I am wed to my LOML, and we are limping down the garden path, but arm in arm. We bought our first home together last August. It was an estate sale, and had been empty for several years. Being an idiot, I convinced my darling love to dig out several flower beds and plant several hundred bulbs last fall. I promised him a glorious golden mass of crocus winter blues busters; we got 1" wide butter colored disappointments.

"Is that as big as they get?"

Ouch.

The daffodils ROCKED. Glory of the Snow rocked too. Rainbow allium were pathetic. Big purple allium rocked. Then they just looked like garden skeletons. The Hellebores have us both scratching our heads. We can't seem to kill the sage. The Autumn ferns seem to be water meters. Or do they turn from brown to lime green in a day to mess with our heads?

What happens to bulbs that don't do anything? Are they like dud bombs that could go off at any time? "Careful honey! That's where those Crocosmia were buried!"

Thank you G-d for daylillies.

We bought about a dozen of those gorgeous white with fuscia and purple polka dots tall Asiatic Lilies from King Soopers. They were indeed gorgeous. For a week. Then, the flowers and the foliage turned brown and fell over. Just. That. Fast.

We bought bags of Tiger Lillies and Oriental Lillies from Ricks Nursery and Home Despot (you can't walk in without spending $100). The @*&$) squirrels got them. I'm sticking with that story.

My LOML bought a couple hundred glad bulbs from Sams Club, and the squirrels were asleep at the wheel while about half of them came up. I can't tell if the squirrels actually ate the other half of the bulbs or not; we found many, many bulbs and bulb, uh, dresses (?) laying on the ground on top of a deep imprint in the glad bed. It was a massacre. I cried.

Can regular glads survive our winters here? We're talking about mulching the @*&$) outta them this winter.

I think our deer are retarded.

I have a permanent crick in my neck from bending over the dirt, looking for signs of life.

Ain't life grand?

:D

Cheers,
Karen

Karen,

What a sad tale! At least you had luck with some of your bulbs. I lived in CS until May when I moved to Black Forest. I planted everything when I lived in town, and was lucky enough to be looked over by deer, rabbits, and most everything else until 3 years ago when a squirrel found me. I thought my grapes (yummy delicious green seedless grapes!) had a disease that made the baby grapes fall off until I realized it was a squirrel. My biggest enemy was the lack of rain.

Now I am starting from scratch with 5 acres. I've already learned that dogs are good at keeping squirrels at bay, but they wreck havoc with almost everything else, especially when they are puppies. This limits me to a smaller area, thank goodness. I have started putting in ornamental grasses, some Oregon grape holly, and a Japanese maple. I have knock-out roses, hydrangeas, and thuja Green Giants (to hide the neighbors) coming. We will see how long it takes for the deer to find me. If it gets too bad, I'll put up a greenhouse.

--Kris

Hey Kris,

I am soooo envious of your 5 acres! We have a Jack Russell Terrier who is *this* close to understanding what "do not, DO NOT run through that bed!!!" means.

I love Japanese maples, especially the more compact bushy ones. And we have several hydrangeas as well... are yours water hogs? Ours keep folding up their leaves until we water them, which is every day now, even with mulch.

Did you find your thujas online? I saw some I wanted to do the same thing with: hide the neighbors. Didn't buy them 'cause I ran out of steam clearing out beds.

Found that the hardy glads I planted last fall that have been green and bare since April are blooming!!

Cheers,
Karen

Yay, two friends in CoSp! I started pretty much fresh at the house my DH and I purchased a year ago. There was some plants, but not a gardener's garden in the least. I have completely redone almost the whole place (minus the big scary hill in the back...from my other thread) so I am there with both of you! We sure have a challenge with as little moisture that's fallen this summer, eh? Maybe we can all drive up to the DBG fall sale together. The Rocky mtn forum people meet there 2 times a year for the sale.

Susanne

Hi fellow CSers:

Just joined. We have 1/3 acres - mostly backyard that was completely trashed. (Nothing here worth saving said the landscape designer). So we have started from scratch, got a professional plan (best move we ever made) and are slowly implementing it. So far, a 60 ft stacked stone wall, winding paths, a 300 sf paver patio, 65 shrubs, 8 trees, a 400 sf wildflower bed, hundreds of perennials, a mountain of mulch, irrigation system, etc. 2/3 of the hard stuff is done.

My present puzzlement is with the wildflower bed. I bought a mix from High Country Gardens. So far only 4 of the 16 species it supposedly contains have come up - although I do understand that many don't come up until the second year. But I also had a huge invasion of intruders - a couple I like and one thing called pigweed that dominated 1/3 of the bed and had to be removed by hand.

Anyone else know if this is a common experience?

AHHHHHHHHH Pigweed. One of the BANES of my existence. I don't know about the wildflower mix though, let's hope the pigweed wasn't in any mix you bought. What were all the varieties that were supposedly in the mix?

I have had tough experiences with wildflower mixes, not very much success at all. I wonder if contacting High Country Gardens might help, though they'll probably just say wait longer.

Also, welcome to Dave's!

pigweed composts well.

That is my positive statement for the day. The end.

Lol Amy, met your quota? Pigweed won't get worse composted? Should I only put it in before it blooms?

put it in before it goes to seed, of course.

They stems have a lot of water, which makes it good for heating up the compost.

LMAO good one greenjay ^_^

Welcome Nurah, and hi again to Susanne, greenjay and Dahl!

Nurah, I am soooo envious that you got a designer! My beloved gave one of those looks when I suggested doing that. I call us guerilla gardeners.

You have really taken on a ton of big projects! And all on a 1/3 of an acre... wow! Our property is slowing coming together after almost year in the house. I've been feeling completely overwhelmed (and incompetent) until literally yesterday.

Our yard was let go for years, and the wind pushed the dirt into drifts in the backyard. We've been excavating archaeological layers. Yesterday we finally got through the deck layer, patio layer and part of the flagstone layer... hurray! Dreams of a path as well... what material(s) are you using for the path?

I hope you and Chris post here, and often! We CoSpers have the benefit of having Susanne (art_n_garden) in town; she writes for DG and is a wealth of knowledge.

I'd love to host or attend a get together with ya'll, or at least meet for coffee. Dmail me with interest!

Happy Monday!
Karen

Lol, I don't know how much I'm going to be of help! I'm learning this high altitude zone 6 thing as fast as I can though. I love writing the articles because I get to research things I'm curious about. Just finished an article about hardy vines and am working on one about the hardiest of hardy perennials (suggestions?)

It's amazing how fast a yard can go back to 'wild'. Our yard was only let go for a year or two, but it has been really hard work to get it presentable again. If you look at my DG blog, I have tracked most of my progress. (You can get there by clicking on my name) I think we're doing pretty well, but definitely have a ways to go.

Much as we like our gardens, we should be thankful that they go back to "wild" when unattended. Wild is what nature intended. Whereas I see no harm in creating our own plant environment with flowers and vegetables not native to our area, nature always wins in the end and we should keep that in mind as we build our gardens.
We are lucky to live in places where nature is attractive. Let us not forget that our little gardens are temporary in the grand design. Though, I might wish it were otherwise, I know that nature is a lot smarter than I am.

hardy perennials could mean several things. If you mean "hard to kill" there are shrubs like sumac, or elder that can be impossible to remove with anything short of a nuclear warhead. or 2

If you mean cold hardy and somewhat drought tolerant there are a surprising number of shrubs that qualify. Viburnums, species roses, barberries, etc.

If you mean cold hardy and VERY drought tolerant you are in a narrow margin between scrub (as in scrub oak ) and cacti. Cacti can be very beautiful, also yucca, some drought tolerant grasses, yarrow (ALL), coreopsis, gaillardia, and many ephemerals that bloom quickly in the spring and disappear until next year.