The end of the year–and the decade–is a good time to look back at some of the changes I’ve seen in the world of gardening.



The exceptionally dry summer of 2000 caused me to change the way I thought about my suburban landscape.

Using only a spade and an old wheelbarrow, I dug up most of the front lawn and replaced the bluegrass with drought-tolerant flowers and shrubs.

Now I’m seeing more yards with less lawn and more homeowners interested in planting xeriscapes and learning about sustainable landscaping practices.

Here are a few other positive gardening and landscaping trends I’ve noticed over the last 10 years:

1. More people are thinking about how their individual lawn and garden choices impact the environment.

2. Nurseries and garden centers are carrying more environmentally-friendly lawn and garden products.

3. There are more xeric and native plants to choose from.

4. The eat-local movement took hold and more vegetable gardens are being planted.

Old-fashioned hollyhocks are the perfect plant for gardeners who like to go to seed.

When I was in Albuquerque for the annual Water Conservation and Xeriscape Conference in February, I bought several envelopes of hollyhock seeds at the book sale. A local gardener must have collected them from the garden, packaged them for sale, and donated the proceeds to the conference organizer, the Xeriscape Council of New Mexico.

I’d been wanting to add more hollyhocks to my cottage garden, especially the old-fashioned kind with large single flowers and, at 50 cents an envelope, the price was right for me.

I started the seeds in a planter as part of the patio container garden this summer with the idea of planting in fall so they’ll bloom next summer. Fall planting means these plants will have time to develop a strong root system before the ground freezes.

If it’s October, it’s time for the annual New Mexico sunflower show in my backyard.

It’s easy for me to forget about the big patch of Helianthus maximiliana during the summer. These easy-to-care for sunflowers don’t ask much of me except for a little water now and then.

The nice green leaves make such a lovely backdrop in the perennial garden, that it seems they’ve always been there.

It isn’t until the yellow flowers start to bloom up the tall stems that I remember how much I like this plant.

The flowers start as tight buds that slowly unfurl one by one to create a beautiful hedge of green and gold.  I’ve written about sunflowers many times before, but may have neglected to mention this steady performer.

One of my favorite things about this native prairie plant, in addition to its drought-hardy nature, is that it’s the last plant to put on a show in my garden. It waits until late September or early October to start blooming and won’t quit until the first hard freeze.

The dedication of the new Darlene Radichel Plant Select Garden was part of yesterday’s Celebration of Collaborations hosted by Plant Select and the Denver Botanic Gardens.

I was happy to be included in the Celebration of Collaborations that honored the synergy and cooperation between the green industry and the Plant Select program.

Plant Select members, propagators and green industry representatives met at the Denver Botanic Gardens to recognize the program responsible for “bringing the industry and its customers the best plants for western gardens.”

An important part of the event was the dedication of DBG’s new Plant Select garden. I had the chance to see the garden in June after it was first planted (shown in the image above) and I couldn’t believe how a few short summer months had transformed it.

I’m a big supporter of the Plant Select program and enjoy sharing information about how these plants do in my own xeriscape with other Western gardening enthusiasts.

The Brown-eyed Susan is a native biennial plant that acts like a perennial because of its prolific self-sowing.



I’ve been talking about my vegetable garden a lot lately, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the flowers in my cottage garden. One of my all-time favorites is the Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) because it brightens up every corner where it appears.

My crop of Brown-eyed Susans started years ago with one plant I bought at a garden club plant sale. That one plant bloomed the following summer and I loved its little yellow flowers with dark brown centers.

The next year there were more Brown-eyed Susans that had self-sown along the side of my driveway. The next year they had spread to the front bed. And sow they’ve sown themselves, year after year to create fabulous fall borders. These flowers make gardening so easy.

If you’ll be traveling to New Mexico in early August, you may want to plan a stop in Taos for the Los Jardineros Garden Club’s annual garden and home tour.

I got a nice note from Jeannie Admire of the Los Jardineros Garden Club in Taos inviting WesternGardeners.com readers to join the group for its annual garden and home tour. This sounds like a terrific event for any gardener headed to New Mexico August 7.

The tour includes four private homes with fabulous southwestern gardens. According to the garden club’s website, the tour includes:

A custom built, free form adobe that sits on two landscaped acres featuring a meditation garden.

A contemporary adobe filled with one-of-a-kind furnishings surrounded by architectural outdoor entertaining spaces opening onto natural pinon and sage.

A family home in Ranchitos with water features and an abundant vegetable and flower gardens.

A rambling rancho in Las Colonias surrounded by an orchard and specimen gardens filled with roses, succulents and edibles.

Today’s edition of Workshop Wednesday will appeal to those who like small-scale gardening.  Alpine plants, succulents and other low-growing plants grow well in trough planters. Here’s how to plant a hypertufa container garden.

I’ve always enjoyed planting container rock gardens, so I was delighted to find a table of hypertufa trough planters at the recent Denver master gardeners’ plant sale.

I’ve loved the look of hypertufa planters ever since my in-laws made a batch years ago, but I haven’t worked up the gumption to tackle the process to make my own.

Hypertufa planters look like they’re made of stone or rock, but they’re a light-weight container made from cement mixed with other materials like vermiculite, perlite, peat moss and sand.

If you’d like to make your own hypertufa trough planter, there are good tips included in a recent Denver Post article on using alpine plants to create container rock gardens or miniature xeriscapes.

Last summer I planted Echium amoenum ‘Red Feathers’ and here’s a current update of how it’s growing in my xeric garden.

At the Plant Select annual meeting last year, I purchased several of the 2010 recommendations to test in my landscape.

After seeing how well ‘Red Feathers’ grew, I can say it’s a favorite new perennial for my xeriscape.

I planted two Echium amoenum ‘Red Feathers’ in different parts of the yard.

The one planted in the hottest, driest spot was well-established by fall. It grew a large mound of dark green leaves, but didn’t bloom.

The other was planted in another perennial bed in a spot that receives moderate amounts of sunshine and water. By the fall, it was still a small mound of green leaves, so I transferred it to the other bed.

Winter 2009 was an especially wet one and there were times when this bed was covered with a thick snow cover. In fact, it was such a wet winter, I didn’t have to do any supplemental watering at all.

Thursday’s Name That Plant contest featured Lonicera reticulata ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ a hardy honeysuckle with unusual-looking flowers.



A few years ago I picked up a ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ honeysuckle at the Plant Select annual meeting and planted it next to an arbor in my sunny backyard and practically forgot about it.

This spring, the hardy perennial vine reminded me why I was attracted to it in the first place. Without any care from me over the winter, it sprung to life late last month.

It’s now one of the loveliest, most reliable plants in my garden.

Scott Skogerboe, a plant propagator with Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery, discovered the vine while driving around the city one day. He liked the looks of this honeysuckle, especially its round, silver-dollar size bracts with small yellow flowers.  The bracts resemble eucalyptus and turn from green to silver-white and remain on the plant throughout the summer.

Today’s Name That Plant contest features a plant in my yard that is a beautiful surprise every spring because it grows without any extra care.

To enter today’s contest, study the picture, read the clues and write your guess about this plant in the comments section before midnight MDT tonight. The winner will be selected at random from all the correct entries and will receive a cool prize from aHa!ModernLiving. Good luck!

This plant is an heirloom passed down to family members since the 1880s.

It was brought to Colorado in the 1960s.

It was discovered by a plant propagator while he drove around a Northern Colorado city and released to home gardeners around 2006.

This plant is said to grow 8-12 feet tall, but it’s likely it can grow almost double that size.

It’s an extremely hardy perennial and is rated for Zones 4-8.