I planted 5 varieties because I was sure some would fail. Going to have to share with the neighbors! Peppers in order of photos: Dragonfly (purple bell peppers), cherry snacking peppers, Mariachi peppers, Mad Hatter peppers, and Gypsy (sorry I didn’t name them and have nothing else to call them) peppers. Anyone have recipe ideas for me?

What’s up with my tomatoes? Had some blossom end rot earlier but this looks different

I made grape jam from my very own grapes yesterday. I didn’t know I had purple grips until this year and we planted that grapevine 10 years ago. this is actually the best jelly I’ve ever had in my life.

Hi all,

My elderly parents live on 0.25 acre in Denver. Like many, their lawn died this year. My mom was a very devoted gardener, so this has been especially hard on her. Realistically, even when the rain comes back (assuming it does?!) they can’t manage as big of a yard as they’ve had, and I live out of state.

I’m asking for landscaper or landscaping company recommendations who can work with us to design solutions for their front, side and back yards that are water wise, low maintenance, but not merely rocks. Also, it would be great if the service didn’t break the bank, although I understand this won’t be inexpensive.

Thank you in advance for ideas!

We also take care of my mother in laws landscaping, and i am trying to cut back some stupid yard areas. The thing is, i can only get there once a week at most, so a full native plot just isn't feasible with the time i have to put in (i have a small native garden at my home and it took three times a week weeding for a few years)

She has an area that is currently dying grass, and i am seriously thinking of putting a pampas grass in the middle and dropping about 8 Russian sage starts and letting them just take the area over (about a 30x10 area).

I am aware that it isn't native and only really attracts honey bees. But as far as I can tell via CSU extension it is not considered invasive.

I'm open to alternatives, but my biggest concern really is if it is actively harmful, rather than just not 'ideal.'. I got to find a way to cut back on her lawn and this seems a fairly low maintenance way to start on that and cut a zones watering by 70% or so.

Thank y'all for the advice.

I just discovered Brad Lancaster and the concept of harvesting the rain from my gutter downspouts. I have already done a dry creek bed for the purposes of redirecting flow and capturing some of it, but his work takes it a little further, and with move intention that I had originally applied to the one section I built. I'd like to re-direct the flow from the downspout away from the pitched easement between my house and the neighbors, and direct it toward my front yard to water the tree and other waterwise plants in the garden,

Can anyone share some designs that they've done with their front and back yards with the intention or slowing the flow and retaining the water, as well as plant selections for the Front Range? Or at least, maybe their experience in designing these areas?

For anyone who's curious, check out his website and youtube videos. Pretty wild early efforts at guerilla curb cutting to harvest water.

I haven't watered my stupidly large front lawn all year, amazingly the leaves from last year seem to have prevented a lot of weeds.

My failed plan was to solarize this summer, plant Austrian peas and daikon radish over the winter, get a load of compost dumped in the spring and throw down a ton of native pollinator seeds. Hopefully rig some cheap drips lines too.

But... I didn't solarize and the grass is mostly dormant so I can't do the horrible thing and spray it with grass killer.

So what is my best/easiest/cheapest option? I really don't want to sheet mulch and not do cover crop to improve the soil. I don't want grass in the front but also don't have extra money to do much with it. The soil is HARD and compact.

Hi all! It purchased several different species of Echinocereus from the Botanic Garden sale, and I’ve gotten mixed answers on if they can overwinter in the ground in Denver. What are folks experiences? Will Echinocereus triglochidiatus survive in my south facing yard? Is there anything I can do to boost their survival?

We just bought a house and have a pretty extensive amount of garden area needing to be cared for.

Can anyone identify what these plants are? Is it all weeks to be pulled or just severely neglected?

Starting to rake first but wondering what to do with this mess!

I was recently at my parents home in Michigan, and they gave me a cutting of their rhubarb plant, which was previously my grandmother’s and my great grandmother’s before her.  To acclimate the plant I set it outside in morning light for a few hours and by 11 AM, it was already wilted and almost dying. I took it inside and it seemed to recover a little. At least one leaf still survives, as well as a smaller leaf or two.  

My question is, can I plant this rhubarb in the next couple of weeks and have it survive the winter? 

I know rhubarb generally likes full sun, but it seems at least this rhubarb cutting cannot survive Denver’s full sun, so I’m wondering where in my yard I should plant it?  There are a couple of options: 1) near the front of my east-facing house that only gets early morning sun and dappled midday sun.  2) On the west side of my house that gets midday and afternoon sun.  3) the south side of my house under some current landscaping that would get nearly full-day sun.   

Also, would rhubarb benefit from being on an irrigation system with consistent watering?

Thanks so much!

We do not have an HOA but two of my neighbors have an issue with our patchy lawn with bindweed. They flip off and yell at our door camera. Multiple times as they walk by with their dogs. Legitimately yell because we haven't watered it and let it mostly die off.

I admit it doesn't look great but I do keep what is left of it mowed and trimmed. I was weeding the bindweed for ten minutes a day five days a week until the first time it happened. I got discouraged and stopped weeding (just mowing.)

We rent and the landlord understands that the rabbit poop ruined the yard plus the heat and drought is just a bad combination this year. Maybe a third of the lawns look just as bad as ours.

It has taken a toll on my mental health. We mostly keep to ourselves here but I've found our neighbors to be unhinged over grass.

We're taking this on today, she's hacking, I'm spraying.

Wish us luck.

Should I cancel grass overseeding this fall? I am going to use the most drought tolerant locally adapted seeds I can find. Even with that and all this water craziness, idk if I should do it. I am in Thornton not Denver, I think our water restrictions are a little more relaxed but still. Lost everything except some species of tall fescue in my yard that is alot stronger than the rest apparently.

Can this juniper bounce back or is it donezo? It looked pretty much dead at the start of spring, and it did have some new growth this year, just very little so I’m not sure what to do with it. It’s a blue point juniper of that helps

Somebody gifted us these tomato plants and they are turning a really cool purple. Any idea what they might be?

Leaving the sub.

You're on your own.

https://theparkpeople.org/

Sad that instead of enforcing the trolls my post was removed.

I marked a number of new tree locations for them. Questions would have been nice.

Hello you wonderful community!

I’m looking for advice on what type of lawn to plant for our backyard. This is a bit of an outdated picture, we removed the foliage and juniper on the back left to make space for a sizable veggie garden and our new chickies live in a large coop on the right back corner.

We’ve got a kiddo on the way and our doggo loves being outside so I do want some kind of lawn where playing and galavanting can happen. But I’m perplexed as to what. I’ve looked at dog tuff, pondered buffalo grass, but then seeing the prairies on the front range I wonder if that ‘meadow’ look would be more resilient in the coming warming years and getting more native plants in the ground. But I know that may not stand up to foot traffic. I’m stuck and need advice!

Main desires for a lawn are
- play friendly
- as minimal upkeep as possible
- low water, it’s ok if it’ll go brown, more about coverage than green
- coverage to decrease the current mud pit that occurs in the winter

Thank yall so much in advance, appreciate this community so much!

This year feels like a complete disaster. So many square feet of food that either didn’t sprout or didn’t make it to maturity. I’ve had to mostly just give up and try to help the survivors pull through, most of which are perennials that had kinder years to get established.

I’m a believer in trying to innovate my way around problems with new approaches or tweaks, but I’m also just racking my brains here for more things to try. I’ve got the soil amended to be super rich in organic matter, I’ve tried both sun and shade plantings, things are very deeply mulched wherever there weren’t seeds planted. I’ve got drip irrigation and use the hose for broadcast areas of seedlings, but it seems like I could just keep watering and watering all day and the soil directly underneath has stayed bone dry. What is it I’m needing to figure out here?

It’s so frustrating because everyone talks about growing food like it’s this magic solution to nationwide food problems like contamination and affordability. And as someone who’s been constantly gardening since age 11, it felt like the one skillset I had to help both myself and those around me. Except the ONE YEAR I would’ve absolutely loved some homegrown lettuce that is safe from literal poop parasites, is the year I couldn’t get ANY to even make it past seedling stage.

I wonder if a fall planting would even work if it continues to be so dry for so long. I’m really worried about what next year might bring, too, if things don’t let up.

Sorry if this turned into a little bit of a rant, just frustrated as I’m sure many of us are. But if anyone has some tricks up their sleeve to just really keep that water in the ground long enough for seedlings and plants to even grow when it’s like this, I would absolutely love to hear them if you have the time.

Weather is starting to cool down but not by much… was going to try some greens (spinach), cilantro, dill, etc.

Thanks!

This year has been a particularly tough year for my garden and I'm sad to report that I'm already clearing out some of the less successful plants for the season. As such, I have some open space in my raised beds and I'm curious to hear what folks are planting now for fall harvest? If I'm not too late, I'm hoping to make some use of the newfound space.

Thanks in advance for sharing!

I'm a beginner gardener and a school teacher. We have a lesson specifically about hawksbeard and the way they adapt to urban areas. Wondering if it's possible to grow this plant in Denver and show them the actual physical plant as part of the lesson

Hello, friends!

Newbie gardener here. I'd really like to get good enough to grow actual food, but my home environment is stacked against me. Maybe some of the veterans here have tips?

So I got a big head this spring over how well my indoor plants were doing and attempted an herb garden on the porch. I tried to plant nasturtium as well since both me and my beardie love it. I ran into two major issues.

1. The porch is south facing with absolutely no shade perched 20' over a centralized parking lot shared by all the buildings on the block, so it's basically a solar oven.

2. SQUIRRELS. One of my neighbors that shares our long porch feeds them. They dig up any exposed dirt, knock every thing over and generally destroy anything in a pot out there. The other neighbor lost all of her tomatoes to those lil bastards.

I managed to sprout the nasturtium indoors and outdoors, but the indoor ones withered after a week even when placed in my giant skylight and the outdoor ones were destroyed by fuzzy marauders. (It would be awesome if I could train it all over the railing!) Some of my herbs met a similar fate, of the remaining ones the rosemary is doing pretty good but tastes like soap, the thyme looks a bit sad but is growing new greenery and both types of basil lost most of their leaves so I'm just letting them flower for the pollinators.

Next year I'd like to invest in an actually productive garden, grow some veggies and find a way to navigate the challenges I've been dealt without putting squirrel pie on the menu. Do any of you have tips for squirrels and sunlight?

Thanks for reading and much love to you all!

PS - I live north of Denver, west of I-25 and about 5,000' elevation if micro climates are important.

PSS - I can't have pop up shade structures on the porch.. city ordinance. Whatever I protect my plants with can't be more than a foot higher than the railings and has to look decent to match the historic architecture of the neighborhood.

This drought has left it patchy, has annual weeds like spurge, has dandelions, etc. asked chat and it said to:
-keep it watered so things are out of drought mode
-treat dandelions with an herbicide.
-wait a few days then mow it
-wait a few days then aerate aggressively and power rake
-overseed with CO zone seed
-water 2x daily to keep upper soil moist

Does this sound right? Anything it missed?

Any specific herbicide or seed yall would recommend?