In 1990, while I was living in my little house in Aurora, a box arrived in the mail. Oh! A present from my Mother! I wonder what it is?
At the south hedge of the rear patio
I opened the box to find a mess of tangled, completely dried out roots, that looked dead. what in the world? She’s crazy! She’s no doubt killed whatever this poor flower used to be. I called her up on the phone: “Mom, I got your present” . . . . long exhale.
“Oh great!” she says. “Now don’t worry, I know they look dead.”
“They ARE dead Mom.”
“Just divide the roots into equal piles and plant them in the ground, about 4″ down. doesn’t matter what direction, just horizontally not vertically. They need lots of sun and water to get going.”
“No Mom, they’re dead.”
“No they’re not, trust me, just plant them.”
Next to the mat hatters table
So I did as she said, cause she has been gardening longer than me after all, and she’s my Mom. Then Lo and behold! the angel came down from the heavens and threw golden yellow all around my yard! They grew. And they grew, and then I divided them, and they grew some more, and over the 15 years I lived in that house, I divided them several times and gave away cuttings to everyone I could convince to take some.
In the center of the butterfly garden
OF course, I divided them one last time and took them with me to our new house in Brighton and spread them around everywhere. They are truly a weed – yet they are truly beautiful. They are the last thing blooming in the garden well into the fall, such a joy!
The Maximilians provide a bright spot in the fall butterfly garden
Iris is a staple in my garden. It’s so easy to grow, and it seems to like this crappy soil (although I do cheat and put down some gravel for drainage in the planting bed). I splurged and bought these fancy black, white and pink iris from Iris-4U, they’re local here in Denver, CO. (https://www.iris4u.com/ )
Black, white and pink
The store is just a private residence, who grows Iris on both sides of his house, on a large lot. He does a wonderful job, they are all labeled and organized well, and they have a catalog too. He opens the garden in the late spring when the Iris bloom so you can see what you like. the pick them out, and in the fall he harvests the tubors for you, and labels them. then you go pick them up.
InmortalityBlack magic
And two varieties of pink, Pink reflection which is a very light pink and a dusty pink Iris. they were beautiful the first year, but now they need to be moved – the Canadian Red Cherry leafs out too soon and puts down too much shade. That’ OK, I’ll find them another location in the garden that they will like better.
I planted a mix or yellow, orange, bronze and rust colored Iris on the street-side of the south berm. They also did extremely well, and had to be moved,
Orange, Yellow and Rust colored Iris
as the blue rug juniper overtook the hill they were planted on. I sent a bunch to my Mom in Utah, and then a transplanted the rest into the south noodle gardens.
First year for the Orange and Rust Iris, south berm, street sideOrange/bronze Iris moved into the noodle garden fall of 2017.
They are much happier here!
Shades of purple, peach and white mix with the darker purple salvia at the base of the west berm. I planted some exotic “Safari” mix (Brecks bulbs). Purple, hot pink and orange with stripes and spots. AMAZING! the first year, but then all the
Iris and Salvia, base of west berm
stripes and spots disappeared. they replaced the bulbs the next fall, and again the first year they were beautiful, and then the second year all the spots and stripes disappeared. Sigh. this is what they were supposed to look like:
I received a large quantity of dark purple Iris from a friend, whose nieghbor was tearing them out. I love freebies! And these are spectacular. I have no idea what the variety is though.
Purple Iris, free from Kimberlee
Mom’s yellow iris and some new purple ones I thought would look good with them. These Iris remind me of my childhood; Mom always had Iris in her garden, she still does.
Mom’s yellow Iris and some new purple ones I added 2 years ago.
“Since Iris is the Greek goddess for the Messenger of Love, her sacred flower is considered the symbol of communication and messages. Greek men would often plant an iris on the graves of their beloved women as a tribute to the goddess Iris, whose duty it was to take the souls of women to the Elysian fields.” Hana No Monogatari: The Stories of Flowers
Some people have said I have a strange way of creating this garden. In my mind, I can see where everything is supposed to be; and when I began to implement my plan I would measure off space and outline the edges of a garden with outdoor spray paint. So the herb garden went in first, right in the middle, then the fire pit garden to the south of that and the womb of the earth to the north. Then I carved out space for the south willow garden and the butterfly garden. Sometime in there the lawns went in. The front lawns first in 2006 and then the rear lawn in 2012. To get from garden to garden you either walked across a lawn or through a dirt trail, which during part of the year was impossible because the clay turns to a slippery sticky mess.
Walk way on the south side of the house
It is time to put in some official, hard surface and dry, walkways. The walkways have already been delineated by the rock edging of the gardens or by the edging of the lawns. So all that was needed was to put down some weed barrier, tuck it under the rock edging and bring in the rock.
I bought a heavy duty, 1/8″ thick felt product from Gardener’s Supply. Yikes! was it expensive, but it really works. by the time I got half way done with the entire walkway, I had ran out of fabric, and I didn’t want to wait to order more by mail so I put down double layers of the standard grey weed barrier. I went through 2 rolls of fabric, 12′ wide by 300′ long.
Looking out the 2nd floor window, facing south
The walkway curves around the rear fescue lawn and extends all the way past the firepit. This stretch of walkway is pretty straight, due west, and is 8′ wide to allow easy access by multiple people to the firepit for ceremony and drum circle.
South/west end of the walkway
The walkway ends at the beginning of the Garden of Pain because that garden will have a walkway made of different materials. But not this year.
I brought the rock in one pickup truck load at a time. Our old 2000 Ford F-150, 1/2 ton has close to 300K miles on it, so I had the materials yard load the truck in 900 pound loads – making them weigh it as it was loaded. I was a real pain in their butt, I know it, but I was not going to break that old truck’s back. She is a trooper and has done us right. In the spring I was able to drive the truck right up to where I was spreading the rock; but towards the end of summer, I had to load it wheel barrow at a time, and push it across the yard. In June I had Jester dig out the giant Rosa Rugosa’s from the front rose garden and plant them at the edges of the Garden of Pain, so the truck would no longer fit through there.
As you can see by the last picture, it took till fall to get it all done. I used “rainbow granite blend” from Pioneer Sand and Gravel, 3″ thick.
The butterfly garden finally looks like a garden. I am still experimenting with adding new plants, seeing what will thrive here, tucking things in to the bare spots.
Early spring
The river rock dry water bed is complete, after two summer’s of hard work. It really delineates the space throughout the garden. The butterfly garden grows on both sides of the dry river bed, it’s the biggest garden in The Garden.
The dry river bed runs through the center of the butterfly garden.
Early spring is such a barren time in the garden. Especially after everything is cut back and trimmed. Last year when we expanded the rear patio we also added a 9′ diameter circular patio to the north west edge of the butterfly garden to provide a seating area. I drug a big heavy steel piano harp out her and propped it up next to the patio to provide a backdrop. I haven’t decided whether it will stay here or not. Looking out over the cleaned up garden, I realize I need to add some more evergreens or sculptures or something to add interest in the early spring.
Spring
Any suggestions?
As spring progresses, the butterfly garden begins to “spring” into it’s growth stage. The 4 pom pom shrubs bloom in a riot of 3″ white snow balls. Eventually I’d like to have a trellis between them, straddling the dry river bed, to provide a hidden
Summer
passageway to the circular patio. I haven’t found the right arch yet. During summer the butterfly garden really comes to life. White, red and purple predominate. I’m looking for some orange plants that will grow here and that butterflies like. It was important to me to provide a place for butterflies and bees in my garden, and I brought many divisions of perennials from my aurora garden to our new home in Brighton.
Late summer
As the season turns towards fall the Maximillian sunflowers steal the show. Their yellow is so bright that they glow in the moonlight. They keep their flowers until the first hard frost.
Looking back at photos from 2013. It looks like there is between 6 and 8″ of snow on the ground. Now, in March of 2019, as I am posting this,
Snow cushions
we haven’t had more than 3″ of snow at a time for the past 6 years. So far this winter (from November through March, I have had a total of 14″ of snow falling 1/4″ to 3″ at a time. Mostly 1/4″.) 1/4″ of snow is all but worthless. It melts off the 3″ deep layer of mulch before it even gets to the ground below.
6-8″
One of the things I love about Colorado is that it can snow 3″ over night, and all that snow will be melted into the ground by 3pm the following day. But not if you only get 1/4″ to begin with. It literally evaporates away.
The winter of 2006 the skies opened and snow fell for 24 solid hours. 3 feet of it. The snow filled the ditches which surround the property, making them seem like slight depressions at the side of the road. 4 neighbors drove their cars into the ditches at various points around the neighborhood (wish I had got pictures!) and were buried up to the windows in snow, having to be towed out.
The three frozen muses
Recently, I have had to drag 300′ of hose around the yard to water in the winter for the past 4 years. It’s back breaking, shoulder pulling, time consuming hell. It takes me 10 solid days to get the yard watered, 3 hours a day during the peak heat of the day – if there’s heat. And by heat, I mean 40-50 degrees. Otherwise, you can’t water, because it just freezes around the roots of the plants and that’s worse than not having any water at all.
Many are pining for spring. Not me, I’m praying for snow, lots of it. THIS is what climate change looks like. End of rant.
