The latest from our backyard garden melodrama. A squirrel just climbed up and started riding around on the new wind whirley-gigs that Mike re-painted this past week…
First she climbed this one but I didn’t have my camera ready…
Then she went up this one and started to enjoy the ride!
Next, it was up to the upper level….
For a quick run around upstairs!
Maybe she went up there for a better view.
Then she turned around, took a bow and waved byebye!
The answer to that question is just about everything I’ve ever planted! Loving the ubiquitous lavenders, yellow and pink yarrow, catmint, and volunteer sunflowers! We just deadheaded the catmint and Jupiter’s Beard this week, and had over two inches of rain so far this July on our ridge overlooking the Sangres de Cristo Range! Let’s hear it for the monsoons!
My Blue-Mist Spirea bushes on the right and left foreground are acting a little bit shy with just a few flowers so far, but all five should be full out in a week or so!
And this Magenta yarrow is in its first year, so its taking its sweet time to bloom. A couple plants got damaged by that late May snowstorm we had. The Russian Sage and Showy Four-O’Clocks are very late in blooming.
But overall, I’m quite happy with our results this summer!
This is the second time I’ve noticed a snake climbing up the wall outside of my glass door! This photo is taken from inside my bedroom!
I also noticed some bluebirds swooping down and a small bird bleeding on my patio.
I went outside to take this picture….
Here’s the dismount…. I saw him later crawling through my garden.
My father, Dr. Jack L. Carter, was a well-known botanist and strong advocate of growing native plants in the areas they are native to. We lovingly called him a “native plants nazi” because he was always commenting on how inappropriate certain plants and trees were in our yards and neighborhoods. In his honor I would like to mention a few natives that have either volunteered or been transplanted into my garden up here at 7,000 feet, west of Walsenburg Colorado.
My favorite is the Showy Four O’Clock. This one just happened to be properly placed to come up every year under my Buddha. It starts blooming in the late day in mid-July and continues for quite a while. The only year it did not bloom was in 2018 when we had a wildfire nearby.
A plant I love to see down here is what I know as the Cane Cholla Cactus. They are common along Highway I-25 from just north of Pueblo to the Colorado-New Mexico state border and they are blooming right now. I liked them so much that I started a few of them in my garden four years ago, because I know they take a long time to grow and bloom.
I just cut off the end of one cane and planted it in the ground. This is a plant two years later….
I am so excited to see that one of my four year old plants actually had a bloom this week! I didn’t know how long it took to get these to bloom. Gardeners must be AMAZINGLY PATIENT.
I have also added a nice evening primrose, which has always been one of my favorites, and of course we have much more yucca than we want!
Finally, we have had hundreds of native sunflowers here ever since we moved in. I love them. They remind me of my Kansas upbringing.
If I had to choose one plant that LOVES it the best up here at 7,000 feet, it would be lavender. Every year my plants get larger and larger and ever more happy and beautiful!
They are just coming out now in all of their glory with my different colored yarrow plants!
And they mix so well with many different types of flowers and plants.
Lavender was one of the first plants I planted, before I even had a garden going south of our home.
This is my first plant in October of 2018. I have found that is smells wonderful and absolutely no critters are anxious to take a bite of it 🙂
This is that plant today!
It seems that there is a new lavender farm in our county called Spanish Peaks Lavender Farm, 10 miles northwest of Walsenburg, off County Road 521. I’ve contacted them for more information about their operation and I’ll get back to you with more if they answer me.
In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about choosing the right lavender plants for your high country garden, please go here!
WOW, it was plenty HOT here yesterday! We got over 90 degrees, which almost never happens up here at 7,000 feet. My new plants were not pleased, but those that have been here for the past few years were fine. Here’s a photo summary of what is happening in my garden.
First of all, this is what my “sky garden” looked like in June 2019. We had just completed the hardscaping at this point!
These day in the far east end I am nursing a new plant, an Icelandic Poppy, and so far so good in spite of all the wind we’ve had lately. My Jupiter’s Beard at the end is struggling but still hanging in.
Lavender absolutely loves it up here! And that large Jupiter’s Beard on the left is thriving too.
I forget the name of these cute little yellow flowers, but they sure are tough! Then I have a couple of different penstemons in this grouping near one of my lavender plants. The Blue-mist Spirea bushes with start blooming in July.
This is a view of mid-garden with the steps. Yarrow dominates this area. It seems to be pleased with itself. My native Four-O’Clock is slowly creeping out from under Buddha and that big Catmint plant. It got hit hard by the big snow we had the end of May, that almost froze all the flower heads off! My green shamrock is in the foreground. Thanks Mike!
My west end is mostly new or native plants. So excited to see that yellow Evening Primrose start to bloom this morning! The native sunflowers are everywhere over there and I just planted a “Little Kim Lilac” bush over there. Sure hope it survives the wind! Check out a few of Mike’s creations, the metal sculpture and his horseshoe wind chime under the Bluebird’s box.
I should also include this central square of flowers, the first place I planted anything about four years ago. Can you find my metal coil dog? That’s one of Mike’s more recent creations.
Adventures of the NEW Old Farts 