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u/MarmoJoe

r/rockgardening r/DenverGardener
Image 1 — Rock Garden Project
Image 2 — Rock Garden Project
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Rock Garden Project

The front edge of our yard has been a nightmare since we moved in about 4 years ago. We've been wanting to do something about it for a while, and the drought/water restrictions this year were a good motivator.

We pulled the worst of the grass (and will likely remove more later) and replaced it with boulders and low-water/xeric plants. Mostly native, like mountain mahogany, fernbush, sagebrush, dwarf rabbitbrush, penstemon, pussy toes, manzanita, and a bunch more. Also some non-native guys who are well suited to our climate, like horehound, various sedums, and smokebush.

Everything is holding up pretty well so far. We've only lost a couple of plants (some parts of the bed are very harsh and dry). We're hoping that once everything is established, it will need very little supplemental water.

Did you do any fun projects this summer?

u/MarmoJoe — 6 days ago
▲ 16 r/DenverGardener

Fruit tree status

Has any fruit survived on your fruiting trees and shrubs? With the warm winter, early flowering, and repeated cold snaps, it looks like we’re going to get very little. Not that this is surprising, as I think we got a little colder than some other parts of the city (down to 26 or 27), but I’m curious to see if anyone had better luck this year. We didn’t do anything to protect our trees (most are too big to cover).

  • Black cherry (sour cherry): killed in the first storm.
  • Nanking cherry: nuked.
  • Apples (multiple varieties): appeared to weather the first couple of storms, but after the most recent cold snap, all appear to be falling off.
  • Plums (Italian): a few blossoms seemed to make it through the first storm, but I don’t see anything on the trees now. This is the biggest loss, as there were hundreds of healthy fruits starting to form.
  • Serviceberries: the one success story (knock on wood), these seem to be very tough. We put in the native Saskatoon variety last spring. They’re still small (2-3’ tall), but loaded with apparently healthy berries. These are in a slightly protected spot in the yard, which may have helped.
  • Chokecherries: also survived, at least on some of the trees, but we don’t generally pick them (the birds can have them).

I planted a few small Utah serviceberry starts this spring, grown up at High Plains Environmental Center. These bloom a little later in the season, so hopefully they will be productive as well.

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u/MarmoJoe — 5 months ago