Hey there! This blog is about gardening in Denver, Colorado.
I am not a botanist or scientist. Or a horticulture expert. I am in real life, a critical care nurse. I am a gardener, and have a passion for drought tolerant perennial flowers, grasses, and succulents.
It’s a serious challenge to grow things here. We often have water restrictions, so irrigation is limited and also expensive. Our weather fluctuates from hot to freezing in a day. Our soil is awfully dry, full of clay, and often alkaline. We frequently have hail storms, wickedly destructive hail that strikes at any random time during spring and summer. Many of us are not originally local here, and several midwestern, northern, and east coast plants such as hostas, traditional roses and rhododendrons may not thrive in our arid environment without amendment and special precautions. Desert plants and succulents may not be cold hardy enough or adapted well to our environment. We have weeds, noxious weeds such as kochia (Kochia scoparia), and several invasive weedy trees. Gardening is not easy here. Many Denverites simply give up, throw down some artificial turf grass or a ton of gravel rocks, and call it done.
And yet there is so much beauty we can grow. This is where I hope this blog can be helpful. I grow water wise drought tolerant perennials, mainly flowers, grasses, and succulents, that are well adapted to our harsh environment. I have been a Colorado gardener for several years, with many failures and a few wins, It’s tricky and definitely challenging, but it absolutely can be done. We have a large list of beautiful drought tolerant flowers, bulbs, grasses, and groundcovers. And succulents! There are several types of cold tolerant sempervivum, sedum, agave, yucca, and cactus that can thrive and grow well here in our mile high semi arid climate.
Our high altitude and harsh hot and cold gardening conditions are not only unique to Denver, Colorado, but also apply to many areas of the southwest and western US, including Wyoming, northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, Kansas, North Texas, Kansas and several areas of the Great Plains and prairies of the US.
Let’s all learn together. Let’s create low maintenance xeric landscapes that will not fall apart if we ignore them for a while. Let’s create beauty in our gardens without wasting water, and provide a habitat for birds and pollinators in our backyards.