* drumroll please *

Photos in comments

In late June, I hired somebody to prepare the soil. We added compost and pea gravel, then Rotatiled the area and after smoothed out the surface. We also added a natural fertilizer to the soil that was recommended by the nursery where I bought the dog tuff plugs.

I bought eight trays of 70 plugs each and used all but about 20. I planted in early July (by hand). I kept the 20 extra plugs alive for a in their trays for two additional weeks and, as time went by, I used them to replace a few plugs that weren’t doing well or that the dog had dug up.

My area is about 9 feet wide by 50 feet long. I wanted to plant in a very organized manner so I use landscaping flags to mark every 10 inches on both the left and the right side. I then used a long wooden stick and placed it between the flags. The plugs were planted 10 inches apart.

Not much happened for the first two or three weeks. But then suddenly at around the month mark, the grass really started filling in. Unfortunately, the weed started coming at that point too. There was a week of two of constantly picking which almost made me regret going down this path. I picked thousands of weeds. Grrr. Ugh. You must be prepared for this!

And now here we are a little over two months, and the grass is thick and soft and has almost completely filled in. I did just take off about 3 inches with shears and a weed whacker because it was looking really messy. Now it just looks a little wild but natural. I was told to mow it very short in April and that might be all I need to do for the year. I don’t know if that’s the case but I certainly like the fact that I won’t have to mow much. Now that it’s established, I barely water at all.

Thank you to all who gave recommendations for nurseries. I ended up going to Pine Lane on Saturday, which was new to me. It is spacious, well-stocked, and well-organized. They also had a generous selection of all sizes of evergreens, which were also on my list.

All of the trees were in great shape, each with their own drip systems. The older guy, Tom, is my new best friend, as he helped pick out a very nice 25 gallon tree, drove me all over in his cart telling me about other species, and then told me to wait to buy until today because the sale would go from 20% to 30% off.

The lady who helped today wasn’t quite Tom, but also quite knowledgeable. She doubted I could get it in my Prius V, but I knew we could. We had to stick many of the branches out the back and I drove home slowly. She also doubted I could get it out myself, but that was also fine.

Here’s a pic of my current backyard construction zone.

First time growing imperial star artichokes. I have 2 plants and have harvested 43 artichokes to date. They’re small/med size and taste great!

I harvested these from my garden yesterday and we’re having fried eggplant tonight! 🍆🤘🏽🍆🤘🏽🍆🤘🏽🍆🤘🏽🍆

I have grown far too much for what my family(and even our neighbors) consume. I would gladly give this out to anyone who could use it. I would much rather it be eaten instead of composting. Some leaves have some hail damage but otherwise they are clean. Some light neem oil was used 4+ weeks ago but thats it.

My house in Dolores is quite the fixer upper but I just noticed these grapes fruiting in one of the old greenhouses. I’ve owned it for 4 years & was pretty sure these were grape vines but they’ve never fruited before.

I tried a few & they were delicious! Some not quite ripe yet but still tasty.

Are grapes consistent for folks in CO? I literally never water them, it was a drought year…but now I have grapes???

Can I clone cuttings in the spring?

I never thought about growing grapes in CO but now I’m intrigued!

I bought two garden in a box packages (painted prairie and butterfly haven). When we picked them up, a lot of the plants looked very sad. the next morning, half of them looked dead.

The instructions say to not plant them when they’re wilted so I’ve been following the instructions and watering them every other day but they aren’t getting better. It’s been about 5 days since I picked them up and I’m really upset I spent so much money for a bunch of dead plants :(

edit 2: I’ve got them in the ground per everyone’s advice! Hopefully they’ll bounce back. Some of the boxes the plants are in had more roots than they did dirt.

edit: added some photos

The condo I live in has been spending too much on water and seems motivated to try some cheaper options to address this. There are two large shared lawns with sprinklers that need to remain aesthetically like lawns. One is medium to high traffic with a lot of dogs, and the other larger one is very low traffic. There are several mature trees so there's a mix of light, but no really dark corners. They're turning to me for advice but my gardening expertise is basically everything but the lawn. Overseeding different species has been discussed, but I don't think we're ready to do more intensive methods like cutting out sod or spend a season solarizing.

I want to make sure we take advantage of this situation and I have been doing some research, but I don't want to share and bias people's recommendations. What prep steps and plant types would you suggest for our needs? Something other than overseeding?

My foxtail lily crowns arrive in couple weeks. I’ve read that they are brittle and like their space. Bit I would like a clump in my garden. Suggestion or best practice with them. First time planting them.

In this episode we visit Summer Home Garden in Denver, Colorado to see what's possible with native plant landscaping on the front range. Denver only receives 11-15 inches of precipitation annually, which is quite dry. winters can also be quite cold, yet here we have a great example of a landscape that embraces nature rather than rejects for the deranged illusion of Aristocratic European ideations.

Im Jensen with many years gardening experience just wondering if anyone needed any help in Denver. Shoot me a message. Thanks

Not a typical question for this sub but I know that if you all understand the plight of gardening here, you'll also understand my challenge of finding the right outdoor furniture for our harsh environment.

We just added a shade structure so that I can sit and admire all of my hard yard work. I'm trying to figure out what to replace my current, mismatched, beaten up patio furniture with. Plastic wicker breaks down in the sun. Cushions are always getting wet, blown away, or sun faded. Anything dark gets too hot. I hate having to constantly cover or uncover furniture, put cushions away, etc.

Has anyone found anything that works exceptionally well in our climate? I'm generally looking for lounge furniture (a sectional or sofa with chairs), but I'm wondering if there's such thing as a comfortable sofa that maybe doesn't use cushions? If cushions are the best option, is Sunbrella my best bet? I'm ideally buying used because lord knows I don't have the money for a $2K set, but I can be patient and wait for the right thing to come up on Marketplace if I know what I am looking for!

I'm considering adding a serviceberry shrub or tree, but I keep reading mixed info about their preferred environment and watering needs. I need something that won't require supplemental watering (outside of severe dry spell) once established.

I look to our natives for this type of plant, but I'm not sure if serviceberry is okay in our typical front range conditions once mature, or whether it needs more regular irrigation.

Can anyone with a serviceberry share whether it needs more water or does okay on its own, in your experience? TY!

My absolute favorite flower is the Black Locust tree with its long, wisteria like flowers and amazing fragrance. The wood is incredibly dense (and therefore more useful for fence posts or other applications, better firewood, etc) and the thorns make it great for edging barriers, protective bird habitat, etc. I have room for one more canopy tree in my little wildlife food forest garden, but the only locust trees available in the nurseries here are the Golden or Honey Locusts. Is there a good reason for that other than simple human convenience? I know the Black Locust is more “messy”, can send out suckers, has big thorns, etc, but to me the flowers alone are worth it. Is it not native? Struggles in Colorado alkaline clay? No supporting species available? I can definitely prop it myself if needed, but wanting to know why it isn’t commonly planted out here before I make some giant ecological mistake! 🙃

We have some big boxes made of heavy cardboard that a gardener might want for under the mulch to suppress weeds. We’re in Central Park Hill.

Vivosun 3x3 complete grow tent/////must sell - $450 (Denver)

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300 obo. Must sell today or tomorrow otherwise will have to go to auction

3x3 Vivosun complete grow tent with 2 earthboxes with build a soil 3.0 that's over 3 years aged.

I have over 400$ in build a soil products.

This is a perfect setup for seasoned grower or newbie's.

The reason I'm selling is cuz I can no longer afford the payments for my storage unit. Please contact me for detailed pics.

Only serious inquiries will get pics has I've since lost the key and will need to cut the lock.

The link I provided is essentially what I'm selling with the exception of the lights, I have 2 lights, 100w and a 200w.

I need this sold, I also will include some fire seeds from Humboldt seed co, dominion seed co, Wes slo collective. The seeds alone are worth over 400$ easy, honestly closer to 600. This is an absolute steak of a deal for Anyone serious about there meds.

https://vivosun.com/en-US/vivosun-smart-grow-system-grow-tent-kit-3x3-smart-kit-36x36x72-lumalight200w-aerozesh-growhub-p164609661357825468-v164609661357825467

and its coming along nicely, some gaps but i predict they will fill out over time… or i can replug them next season

Cherry tomato finally fruited, but the tomatoes look like this.

Additional photos of my other tomatoes and tomatillos. https://www.reddit.com/r/DenverGardener/s/hINQmcWW6y

Hi! I’m new to this sub, super glad to have found it! I bought a home 5 years ago and now that I’ve recouped some costs, I want to tackle the lawn. It’s an especially good year since it’s mostly dead anyway due to drought/water restrictions! Also I didn’t care about weeds and they’re everywhere.

I’ve been thinking about trying to spread clover seed and hope it will take over. I just saw a post about dog grass and buffalo grass plugs too? I am really not a gardener, so any suggestions and help would be very welcome and appreciated!

My front lawn is south facing and just gets sun blasted. Back yard is a bit better shaded, and the lawn is smaller back there.

Thank you!!