Denver Fling Preview

A delightful, lush garden awaits us.

This garden was so well-planned with a nice mixture of colors, heights, textures, and bloom times. Every inch has its item. That's a Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) the state tree, on the right.

It's not a large yard, but offers so much to look at, smell, and feel.

Meandering paths offer something new at every turn.

An arch doesn't have to be at a gateway. Here it stands alone as a decorative element. This must be a new garden item, as something is being trained to climb up it. We shall see.

Here's a snippet of one of the crevice gardens; a wonderful contrast to the rest of the yard.

One more week down! The Fling draws closer...                                                    ~Laura

High Plains Environmental Center: Denver Fling preview

On our first Fling adventure day, we will visit the

High Plains Environmental Center (HPEC)

in Fort Collins

HPEC's mission is to "educate communities to become replicable "living laboratories" which demonstrate restorative examples of land-stewardship, native plants, and wildlife habitat."

There are many sections to HPEC. One is the Native Plants Demonstration Garden, which showcases Colorado native plants and emphasizes a regionally appropriate style of horticulture that supports pollinators and water efficiency. 

The over 30 native flowers and shrubs here have evolved to survive, and even thrive in Colorado's extreme climate. HPEC is committed to native plant conservation.

HPEC has a relatively new, and successful nursery. They grow native plants from seed, many of which are valuable for restoration projects. HPEC is an affiliate organization of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin (we were there at the 2018 Fling!) with a shared mission to support native plant preservation, conservation, and use.

Members are overjoyed to be able to buy almost impossible-to-find Colorado native species that they wish to enjoy in their own gardens. Here is a most happy customer!

HPEC did an intensive study to identify all the birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and amphibians that live at, or visit the 275 acres of open space here, which includes 2 reservoirs. 

Adorable barn owl 

A resident mink crosses the path.

We enjoy lots and lots of hummingbirds in Colorado.

A Colorado mountain lion rests in the snow, but is looking very alert.

~Laura

Rob Proctor Garden: Denver Fling sneak peek

A Denver Garden Extraordinaire

Rob Proctor, as mentioned previously on this blog site, is a gardening expert and author with a weekly gardening segment, Proctor's Garden, on Denver’s local channel 9 news. He’s has written 16 gardening books and has an expansive backyard filled to the brim with gorgeous ornamentals, both annuals and perennials, in a beautiful, English-garden style. 

What a variety of colors!

Such a devoted gardener, with tons of potted plants; plants that would never make it in the ground through the Colorado winter. That’s a banana tree in the corner!

A recurring theme, the cobalt blue pots work so well with all the plants.

It will be interesting and fun to see what he has planted in the yard gardens this year. 

It appears that, like me, he is a lover of yellow marigolds.

I can't wait to walk through this garden! ~Laura

See who is registered for Denver Fling so far!

We'll be visiting this beauty on our Boulder day. The landscape design won a Silver Award in the 2016 International Landscape Design Awards from the Association for Professional Landscape Designers in the category, “Residential Projects under $25,000”. The project’s focus was to create a sense of arrival at the front entry, maintain open views and create a design that would provide shelter and food to migrating and local birds.

The property itself rests on the edge of dedicated open space with a clear view of the mountains from inside of the home. “Open space” is a term I had not heard of before moving to Colorado. In Colorado, open space is commonly defined as: Publicly-owned land that is preserved from urbanization (paving or building). There is, thankfully, a lot of that in this area. Colorado open space is usually accessible to the public, but may also be leased for agriculture. 

A custom water feature was designed to serve as a focal point from inside the home and to upscale the entrance. The stone for the water feature was hand selected and precision cut at a stone mill, preassembled to check for fit then transported and built on site.

It snows year-round in Colorado (just kidding!). You do see a lot of snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum ) though. It makes a very nice accent with the pink dianthus, bronze penstemon, and golden spirea that line the driveway, along with various grasses, and other flowering perennials.

Beyond Denver: Things to Do Before or After the Fling

BEYOND DENVER!   Part I

For those of you interested in extending your stay 

in Colorado and venturing into the mountains, here are 3 close-by destinations. 

From Denver, take Hwy 6, and in about 30 minutes you will be in Golden (elevation 5,675) where you can enjoy the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines, Buffalo Bill Grave and Museum, Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Colorado Railroad Museum, Lookout Mountain Nature Center, Coors Brewery - the largest single-site brewery in the world offering free tours daily, go paragliding, whitewater kayaking, hiking, and shop and dine in the quaint downtown.

From Golden, if you get on I-70 and go west, in just a few more minutes you will come to Genesee Park (elevation 7,648 mi.)

Genesee Park is the largest park in the Denver Mountain Parks system, with a total of 2,413 acres. I-70 traverses the park between exits 252 and 254 along the Lariat Loop Scenic & Historic Byway. On I-70 just west of exit 254, there are scenic overlooks for both directions for viewing the historic bison herd, which live on maintained pastures on the north and south sides of I-70. The park offers trails for back country hiking as well.

Continue on I-70 west from Genesee, and you come to Idaho Springs (elevation 7,526), nestled in the mountains.

Nowhere in Colorado is the state's mining history more obvious than in Idaho Springs. Gold was first discovered in Colorado here in 1859. Several mine tours give visitors insight into local mining history.  In town is the Argo Gold Mine and Mill where you can see what a working mill looked like, and try your hand at gold panning. Not far from town is the Phoenix Gold Mine, a working mine, where you can learn about modern and historical mining techniques and do a little gold panning yourself. 

Stop into the Heritage Museum and Visitor Center to get more ideas for exploring the area and peek at the free exhibits on the towns colorful mining roots
.

Whitewater rafting anyone? Visit Clear Creek Rafting Company to learn more.

After a long day of playing tourist, enjoy the hot mineral waters of the springs for which the town is named. Visit the geothermal springs and caves at Indian Springs Resort. They also have a hot-spring-fed indoor pool. Under a translucent dome lies a tropical paradise, complete with flowering plants and live banana and palm trees. The swimming pool is continually fed with hot mineral water at 115°F, with an average pool temperature of 90° to 100°F.

This is, of course, a very small sampling of all there is to enjoy in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. We hope many of you will be able to explore the beauty here.