Alpha One: The Only Thing I Use

I till Alpha One into the soil at planting time, then dress plants with it mid-season.  Here is some information about the stuff from Alpha One's website:

Alpha One Natural Organic Lawn & Garden Fertlizer is manufactured in Colorado for the soils of the Rocky Mountain States.  It has the highest organic matter content of any fertilizer on the market with a homogeneous nutrient blance without the non-essential elements of some fertilizers. Alpha One provides the plant ready natrients in a natural time release for an extended availability for the plant.  The Alpha One formulation enables a uniform leaf growth without teh typical lush growth syndrome following application of commerical fertilizers or some "organic fertilizers" made with nitrogen from chemical sources.  The organic aminor acids of Alpha One counteract the high pH calcareous soils of our Rocky Moutain Region creating a better soil environment for all varieties of turf grasses.  Alpha One contains no manure, sludge or waste.

Product Benefits:

Highest organic matter content
Highest humic acid value
Low pH for Colorado alkaline soils
Granulated for uniform application
Balanced nutrient solubility for controlled nutrient release
Provides mineral and organic nutrients naturally without loss to the environment
No odor
No heavy metals
No salts
Non-toxic
Non-burning
Non-staining

Contents:  Alfalfa, Blood Meal, Cottonseed Meal

Source:  www.alphaoneinc.com

The North Wing

Gaillardia aristata (Native Blanket Flower) and
Stanleya pinnata (Prince's Plume) steal the show



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
(click to enlarge)

Rabbitbrush Sno-Cones
(click to enlarge)

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

Click once on the picture to view a larger image

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!