Garden Tour Caveat

My dryland garden will be one of eight gardens showcased in this year's Wheat Ridge Garden Tour on Saturday, July 12.  WARNING:  This suburban front yard horticultural collage is a work in progress and is completely devoid of fairies, blown glass mushrooms, sundials and tin sculptures!  It is, however, an example of how to transform a large patch of lawn on a sunny and arid southeast corner (with the help of a only a little well water) into a tapestry of blues, greens, silvers and greys; xeriscape without an over-reliance on monochromatic humps of gravel and cacti. This summer's tour is later in the year so the bees' buzzing will be in full effect!  Stop by anytime between 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., on bicycle if you like.  Visit www.wheatridgegardentour.com for details.


Eurotia Lanata, case in point 

Succulents Love Snow

 

Sedum looking like some fabulous sea creature
Mother's Day Weekend, 2014

Winter Texture

Panicum in Sun
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Rabbitbrush Sno-Cones
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Salt of the Earth

Atriplex canescens

Since there are no cattle roaming the neighborhood, this plant has survived several winters, and morphs into a new sculptural form with every season.  Four-winged Saltbush (a.k.a. saltsage, wafer sagebrush, buckwheat shrub, chamiza) is valued as a forage plant.  For us suburbanites, it lends structure to the dryland garden in winter.  I wonder if I will like it as much once it reaches its estimated height and width of five feet...

The Oxymoron of Prickly Buns

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They don't call it Prickly Thrift for nothin'.  Acantholimon is the Latin name, borrowing from the Greek word akantha, or thorn (I only know this because I purchased my first pair of reading glasses today and was thus finally able read the definition in my new Latin for Gardeners book, which had up until then been lying around, mostly unopened, since Mother's Day).  Contrasting with Acantholimon's thorniness is the mound-like shape and delicate, soft pink blossoms.  The garden is replete with such dichotomies!  This corner site adjacent to the sidewalk is basically a sand bed (also greatly appreciated by Eriogonum jamesii).  Turns out in Wheat Ridge our soil is equal parts of sand and silt, not mostly clay as I had initially thought.  No wonder the soil was pretty easy to crack through that first year.  Thanks to Kenton Seth for so freely sharing this plant!

A Mind of One's Own

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This Four-Winged Saltbush did not look like this a month ago.  It looked boring and grey and lackluster, its twiggy branches barely covered with puny and brittle leaves.  Nothing a little pruning by an amateur with dull tools couldn't fix! I cut half of it off (the dead-looking part) and almost right away it leafed out beautifully.  It has even started to take on the contour of the irregularly-shaped plot of soil in which it sits! Jim Borland says not to plant these, and especially not to prune them, lest you have an untameable beast on your hands!  My interpretation of this was "Great, I'll put one of those right next to the front door!"  I guess part of my emerging philosophy is that one must throw caution (and good advice) to the wind and try things out for oneself...

Three Dryland Favorites

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Gutierrezia sarothrae (Broom Snake Weed) is bright green, waves in the breeze like an ornamental grass, and is especially lush-looking this year with all the spring rain.  Tiny yellow flowers will arrive mid-summer.

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Though Amsonia jonesii is also known as Colorado Bluestar, its blooms are decidedly lavendar, especially in contrast to neighboring Linum (Blue Flax), below.

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