The Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, Colo., has a delightful Children’s Garden that made me wish I were a kid again.

On my way home from CSU after the short course a few Fridays ago, I took a little detour to The Gardens on Spring Creek and I’m so glad I did.

I learned about The Gardens earlier this summer because it’s a Plant Select demonstration site. The Gardens is a community botanic garden on 18 acres along the Spring Creek corridor and is a public and private partnership. The Gardens are located at 2145 Centre Ave.

It was late in the afternoon, so I didn’t get a chance see everything I would’ve liked to see, but I did get to spend some time in the Children’s Garden.

In addition to its annual flower trials, CSU has three garden beds devoted to testing new perennial plants.

Across the street from CSU’s Annual Flower Trial Garden are three beds for testing new perennial plants. Perennials undergo two years of testing and include cultivars that have been introduced within the last three years.

The top performers from the 2007-2008 perennial trials are available now.

Plants being tested in the gardens include one bed of Achillea, Geranium, Lavendula and Pulmonaria; a second bed of Heuchera and Salvia; and a third bed of Achillea, Coreopsis, Echninacea, Euphorbia and Gaillardia.

Seeing all the different varieties of Coreopsis gave me the idea to create a bed in my yard featuring only tickseed plants like Coreopsis ‘Red Shift’, ‘Full Moon’, ‘Sienna Sunset’, and ‘Big Bang Galaxy’. With all the different flower colors and plant sizes I think it would make an interesting and beautiful new garden.

Welcome to the first guest blog of a brand new Western Gardener’s feature called Garden Clippings!

Amy Grisak is a garden writer who’s been playing in the dirt for nearly 30 years. She loves pushing the envelope on her Great Falls, Mont., garden where she grows fruits, vegetables and herbs for her husband and two young sons.

To keep track of Amy’s gardening adventures, please visit her blog called Living in Season. If you have questions on what’s eating your garden, post a note on her Pest Patrol blog at PlantersPlace.

“When my family moved to Great Falls, Mont., on the east side of the mountains a couple of years ago, its reputation for being a windy area preceded it. The relentless gales do not disappoint. I quickly had to learn how to protect my garden and tender seedlings from a force that causes neighbors to chain down their barbecue grills and sends trampolines flying.

A healthy garden can be destroyed by a hail storm in a matter of minutes.

The thunderstorm last night in the Denver Metro area was a destructive one. High winds, drenching rain and hail destroyed the hopes of many gardeners who woke up to find their gardens in shreds.

I heard from one gardener this morning who told me the community garden she was working with in Lakewood was “completely destroyed last night in the hail storm…bad day in the neighborhood.”

This is another one of the challenges of gardening along the Front Range in Colorado. The eastern half of the state is especially prone to severe hail storms because of where the plains sit in relation to the Rocky Mountains and clashing wind currents from the east create a perfect thunderstorm.

CSU’s Annual Flower Trial Garden is one of the top tourist attractions in Fort Collins, Colo., at 1401 Remington Street.

I was in Fort Collins on Friday attending the “Knowledge Stimulus Package” program presented by CSU and the Green Industries of Colorado.

During the full day of classes I learned about organic lawn care, what might be bugging veggie gardens and small fruits for the Front Range. I also had the chance to tour the perennial and annual trial gardens and I’ll share much of what I learned in future posts.

CSU’s Annual Flower Trial Garden has 1200 different varieties of annuals undergoing testing there. The flower trial program helps plant and seed companies evaluate how well their new plants will perform in the landscape.

Colorado is an ideal test site because of its high light intensity, low humidity and dry climate. Companies are interested in seeing how their plants perform in the Rocky Mountain region as compared to other areas of the country like California or Florida.

Flowers in the high country are especially beautiful this summer.

We had the chance to take a short trek over Berthoud Pass to Winter Park this past weekend and I can’t remember a time when the flowers looked more vibrant.

Every bloom, whether wild or not, was calling for attention.

In the summer Winter Park ski resort offers different kinds of thrills including biking, alpine sliding, miniature golfing and a lot more.

At the base of the ski area was one garden bed overflowing with flowers. See how many different flower varieties you can identify in this picture.

This garden serves as an inspiration for anyone who lives and gardens in the mountains. Some of the challenges of gardening above 8,000 feet includes poor soil conditions, extreme temperature fluctuations, a short growing season, wind, and hungry wildlife.

CSU Extension has a good fact sheet on gardening in Colorado’s mountains that covers everything from soils to selecting plants. One key to success is using microclimates effectively.

I spotted garlic scapes at a farmers’ market, scooped some up and grilled them for a delicious summer side dish.

Yesterday when I wrote about the garlic growing in my garden I mentioned the mature scapes on the hardneck varieties were telling me it was harvest time.

It was a happy coincidence that I happened to spot some tender young scapes at a vegetable stall at a farmers’ market later in the day.  Of course I had to buy them.

The scapes are the flower stalks that shoot up from the center of a garlic plant on varieties like Rocambole, Porcelain and Purple Stripes. Hardneck varieties like these are preferred by chefs for their rich aromatic flavor.

When scapes are cut before they mature, they have a fun curley-cue shape and they can be used in cooking like scallions: raw in salads, sauteed in stir frys or grilled for other recipes or eaten by themselves.

If you planted garlic in the fall, it should be ready to harvest right now. The mature scapes on hardneck varieties signal the bulbs are ready in my garden.

I haven’t had the best luck growing garlic in my garden, even though most gardeners says there’s nothing to it; just plant it and it will grow.

But that technique didn’t work for me and I was always disappointed with the size of my garlic bulbs at harvest time.

So last fall I decided I’d put some real effort into it to see if I could improve my yield. I researched websites and then attended the Garlic Festival at Tagawa Garden Center to learn every possible best practice for growing garlic. Then I went to work in my garden.

Because soil is the most important part of growing good-sized bulbs, I really worked at improving drainage and fertility. I added compost and top-dressed with fertilizer when I planted.

The Leatherman Hybrid pruner multi-tool features 11 tools in one and I was lost in the garden without it.

One of the best gardening gifts I’ve ever received is the Leatherman Hybrid pruner. John gave it to me several years ago for my birthday and it’s the best multi-purpose gardening tool a gal could have.

In addition to the pruning shears, it has two screwdrivers, a saw, a grafting knife, weeder, bottle opener, wire cutter and more.

I’ve carried my Leatherman with me every time I walked out of the garage and into the garden since I first unwrapped it. I’ve used it for just about every kind of pruning and clipping, digging weeds, sawing branches and cutting, cutting, cutting.

It has a nifty sheath with a clip for a belt, but because it folds up so neatly I just slip it into my pocket while doing chores.

Turning trash into garden treasure is an art form of its own.

Most of the gardeners I know recycle found objects to add interest and personality to their gardens while turning waste into a resource.

The weathered wooden chair with a missing seat becomes a way to prop up droopy plants, a leaky birdbath makes a fine feeder and an old leather work boot planted with hens and chicks really adds some kick to the rock garden.

Repurposing objects, whether whimsical or functional, stretches a gardener’s creativity and provides another frugal outlet for artistic expression. Just about anything can be recycled into a work of art for the garden.

Instead of throwing away a rusty iron headboard, it can be planted with an assortment of colorful annuals to create a real bed of flowers. A leaky metal bucket can find a new life when placed it on its side on a small berm and planted with blue and purple flowers making it look like water spilling out.