Hey Steve, always nice to "meet" another parent of twins (since they are the only ones who truly know what it's like - all the wild and wonderful times!)

My twins are boy/girl (spontaneous, no family history - big fat surprise when I had an ultrasound at 6 weeks). They'll be 2 next month. I also have a little boy who will be 5 in May. All three of them LOVE LOVE LOVE to be outside with us, helping hubby build the deck or helping me with the project of the day. We're starting seeds for a veggie garden next week so they'll love that - poking their little fingers into cups of dirt and dropping seeds in. Our summer veggie garden will be an annual family project/activity (and it's a great way to get them to eat their veggies!) My 4yo dubbed green beans "laser beans" and has loved them ever since.

See you on the forums! :)

Steve...will gladly share pics as soon as the area "really" springs to life. This is my first year here, driven through it many time, but can't remember the exact time it happens.

A great big howdy and welcome to everyone coming out of lurkdom and new to the board! These are some really great folks around here who are very knowing and will go out of their way to help.

A few months ago I asked GW about an exchange, so go over there and pleasantly pester them a bit about that and a gallery or conversations.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/suggest/msg0111585228836.html?1

Hiya!

I'm a newbie in Colorado Springs. My husband and I just bought our first house last June, so this is my first season with my own garden!!!! I don't think I've ever been so excited about spring in my whole life!

It's interesting to see what's coming up this year as I didn't plant much. There are a couple rose bushes that I knew about, but now I'm seeing lots of bulbs coming up (though I don't know what they are???).

I did get a chance to plant a few things last year, crocus and daylily- I got my first crocus bloom on St. Patrick's Day :) I started some seeds indoors about the same time. My impatience is REALLY getting the best of me...

Dipping in (belatedly as usual)... TWO little daughters now keeping me away from posting much but by heck they're coming out to garden with me this year. I catch up on RMGF in the wee hours after they're asleep.

On the Western Slope, CO... way south, outside of Durango on Florida Mesa.

cheers to everybody!

Dutch

Jaliranchr,
I'll post in your request for an exchange forum if you post in my request for a gallery forum.

I'm thinking I'm going to need to thin my SDB iris this summer and an exchange forum would be a good place to post them.

Welcome, maeceand welcome to Colorado Springs too. You have a bunch of RMG buddies down there in the Springs. Im about to post the list Ive extracted from this thread so everybody can see whos near them, so keep an eye out.

And, welcome Dutch. You have at least one RMG neighbor down there somewhere near you tooDavid52. And, its time to get those girls out in the dirt to get their addiction started!

And susanka and supermommy, glad to see the two of you here too. Im getting quite a list! Ill try to get it into postable form and get it up here tonight yet.

Happy spring everyone,
Skybird

Hi all,

Since this thread has slowed down, heres the list of everybody whos checked in here so far. Ive also picked up a couple names off of other threads if I noticed a name I knew wasnt on the list yet. A couple of the names (with the question marks) Ive noticed seemingly contradictory locations on separate posts. And the two on the bottom, if any location was posted, I missed it. If I got anything wrong, or anybody wants to change anything, or give more specific information, post it, and Ill change it. This is all public information already anyway, so I hope nobodys upset to have it condensed this way. I think its fun to know whos near youand very helpful to know where someone is when youre posting replies. (If anybody wants their name off the list for future postings, just let me know!) If youre not on the list and would like to be, post yourself here, and Ill add your name.

I hope this reads ok for everybody! Since were very limited with what we can do here with underlining, bold print, and spacing, it took a while to figure out how to make it come out as useable as possible. If we get many more additions to this thread, Ill update the list later.

Im going to also start a separate thread with this so RMG neighbors have a place to say "hi" to each other.

Skybird

P.S. DenverMetro and Colorado Springs were in a dead heat for a while, but Denver has pulled out into the leadfor now at least! Keep those cards and letters coming folks! ;-)
----------------------------------------------------

DENVER METRO
amester--------------Highlands Ranch
cnetter--------------West of Arvada
conace55-------------Southeast Aurora or SE Centennial ??
Denverdidi-----------Littleton
greenj1--------------Centennial
hummingbird---------Arvada
matoad--------------Arvada
oakiris--------------Westminster (across Sheridan from Arvada)
peace rose-----------DEN
sabotabby------------Five Points-ish
shadygarden co-------Aurora
shaunab--------------NW Denver - Berkeley area
supermommy---------Broomfield
yago-----------------Lakewood

DENVER WEST (foothills)
primeribs------------WAY UP in Jefferson County
redrockgarden--------West of hogback near Morrison

DENVER - SOUTH
animemom-------------Parker
nrynes---------------Black Forest/Monument - or near Elizabeth ??
singcharlene---------Castle Rock
twhgardener----------Elizabeth

DENVER - NORTH
amserelda------------Livermore
diamonic-------------Ft. Collins
doug z5 co-----------Lyons
jah742 foco co-------Ft. Collins
robinco--------------Northern Colorado
tajel-----------------Wellington

DENVER - EAST
jalirancher----------Eastern plains "Cedar Breaks" (I know what that means! LOL)-- (Whats the closest recognizable town to you, Jali? Limon?)
milehi-----------------80 miles SE of Jali!

WESTERN SLOPE
belight 11-----------Glenwood Springs
david 52-------------SW Colorado
funky dutch----------Ignacio (near Durango)
helene111------------Glenwood Springs
highalttransplant----Between Glenwood & Rifle
mission impossible---Buena Vista (I know BV isnt on the Western Slope!)

COLORADO SPRINGS
binnesman------------North side of COS
emagineer------------South COS - Broadmoor area
goatgal--------------Moving from AK
lindy loo------------South COS
maece----------------COS
nancy in co----------COS
nicole---------------Manitou Springs
plantladyco----------COS
pookyspal------------COS

SOUTH of COS
shudavies------------Canon City
susanka--------------Greenhorn Valley (Rye, Colorado City)

IDAHO
digit----------------(NW Idaho near WA)

MONTANA
missoula s-----------Missoula
mthawki

NEW MEXICO
Bombus

UTAH
bpgreen
stevation------------Utah Valley

WYOMING
jlynn----------------Near Casper
windwhipped--------Casper

??? NO LOCATION
wishcrr
debcatz--------------Just moved to 6500'!

Hey Dutch, I've got two little ones keeping me busy so I'm a late night lurker too. I did some gardening/posting a couple of years ago but since then mostly changing diapers. I get a little bored with virtual gardening but return to the forum occasionally to see what everyone is chatting about. Hey- the hot topic is still bindweed! LOL I'm north of Denver, in Berthoud. Hi everyone!
Steviewonder

Skybird...thanks again for keeping this list. A big job, and like numbers for me which I would just mess up. You can just list me as SW CS, am in the same area as Nancy, Nicole, etc.

Wasn't there someone from Grand Junction. Plus...nccod and junkmanme from NM? spyfferoni from UT? Hopefully I'm not intruding by catching these. Probably tells you I am this thing more than I should be.

Just found this post... it's great to "meet" fellow gardeners in the area. I am in SE Aurora. You'll find me mostly lurking in the roses forum, love the gallery section most of all.

This will be my third year at my current home.. previous owner did a wonderful job of setting up flowerbeds, berry bushes for the birds, and fenced veggie garden.. with several small garden areas throughout the yard. So every year as I work the gardens I find surprises and joys I didn't see or forgot from the year before. When I bought my home it was for the number of bedrooms (three kids), the neighborhood and schools, and the price was right.. I didn't reallly even take note of what the yard had to offer. What a wonderful garden haven I have found here.

My first summer in my new home I just spent the time working the gardens and assessing what was where. The second summer I planted a few things, moved a few things, planted asparagus, and continued to discover what I have here. The third summer I put in a pond and flagstone patio... added a few perennials, planted garlic, pruned and reshaped the shrubs, put in a raised bed, and replaced the retaining walls around the rose garden beds as the wood was deteriotating.

This summer I want to put in raised veggie beds, plant perennials in the raised flowerbed, plant the bog garden, and clean up the compost area and chip the pile of branches that are accummulating in the back corner.. (future fruit trees).. I have a small yard, but lots of little areas for planting. BUT, spring is not cooperating with my schedule... when I am at work the weather is nice and when I have time off the weather is cold and wet.. (not that I am complaining about the wet and rain!!!). I have close to twenty rose bushes around my yard and found one that needs replacing. Just hope I can get out of the garden center with only ONE rose bush for now. I have plans, lots and lots of plans for what I want to add to my yard.. a rock garden, an arbor with climbing roses, fruit trees and bushes. So you will see me around here a lot, asking questions and getting advice.

I consider myself fortunate as I work at Tagawas Garden Center in Centennial, CO where I can check out all the new plants and offerings. They actually pay me to deadhead and mess around in the plants. But Spring is hopefully soone around the calendar corner!!!

I live near Santa Fe, NM, climate like Durango, CO. I sometimes lurk here, but haven't had much time to garden since my twins were born (b/g 5 years old). Last summer they got interested, though, and we planted a veggie garden for DS and me. DD is more interested in flowers, so she had her flower beds out front. They are slave drivers now. They helped me plant strawberries and potatoes two weeks ago, peas last weekend, and spread mulch, and are already insisting it is time to start the tomatoes and some flower inside (and they are right, darn it).

This is fun, but kind of exhausting. ;-)

Catherine

Hello all,

I live in Ouray, CO elevation 7800 feet.
Surrounded by high mountains so getting 12 hours of actuall sun, makes growing a challenge.

I experiment a lot. I have Boysenberry plants that have produced for 4 years now (even though they should not grow here.

Horseradish does real well here. I am always giving new plants and root cuttings out. And one lady in town stops when some of the leaves are 3 foot tall and asks for the leaves. I never ask her for why??

Of course all the cool weather crops do real well. I have had harvests of corn, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes. Last year the sweet cherry blossoms got nailed by frost.

Flowers do well, but some plants that should grow here do not. And others that are not suppose to grow here does.

Living in this valley presents many micro-climates. So I listed no zone... Each zone map gives the town many different zones. Seed suppliers all list us in different joins, so plant shipments get messed up at times.

I got a peach tree in Early april from one suppler, and yet another supplier wont ship glad bulbs yet, another is holding off on perrinals like poppies and such.

Well Ive been kind of remiss in my welcomes around here lately, so let me say welcome to each of you who have signed in since my last post. Were glad you all found us and we hope to see more of you around here.

Steviewonder, glad to see youve been able to find some time to be posting hereand youre rightbindweed never goes out of style when it comes to gardening!

Gardengal co, it sounds like you must have quite a yard there! What fun having new surprises coming up for you all the time! I didnt get many surprises when I moved into this house three years agojust a whole lot of rock mulch on top of landscape fabric! Oh, well, at least once I got the rock out it gave me room to put in the things I wanted to. Just wish the yard was biggerwhich is what I was looking for when I bought the house, but I really liked the house itself, so I caved!

Its wonderful that your kids are already "cultivating" their addiction to gardening, catherine nm. I always love to see kids getting into it. Its such a "healthy" thing to do. And for the BIG kids, its so relaxing, in spite of the hard work. We only have one other "officially checked in" member from NM as of now, Bombus, but I dont think shes been posting real recently. Probably lurking though!

And Dave1949now we have TWO Daves down in the southwestern corner of Colorado! David52 is down that way too, but I think hes southwest of you. AndLOLhorseradish does real well anywhere, doesnt it? It seems to me it would take over the world if it were allowed to. Wellit might get some competition from bindweed! :-D

Ive added you all to the "list," and hope to find time to repost it in the next couple weeks since there have been a lot of additions since the last posting.

It looks like its going to be a pretty good weekend for gardening in the RM area, so have fun everyone,
Skybird

Hello to all - I'm new on this forum. We live at 7900 ft right outside of Estes Park.

Last summer we put in a lean-to greenhouse on the north wall of our garage, and I successfully overwintered almost all my container plants, which spend the summer on our front and back decks. (The elk and mule deer eat pretty much everything that's not up on the deck -- someday I'd love to have a walled/fenced garden, but that's w-a-a-y down the road!)

I'm looking forward to getting to know other high-country gardeners. This will be our 4th summer here, and after several building projects, I'm just beginning to implement a long-range garden plan for our house. (We moved here from Kansas City, and needless to say, all my "old favorites" aren't going to work here!)

Cheryl

Hi, Cheryl,

Glad you found us here! Ive added you to the list and plan to repost it soon.

When it comes to basic trees, bushes, and perennials, I think you may be pleasantly surprised to discover a lot of them will work here too. Well, at least to the extent that you can protect them from the "critters!" If you havent already found it, you may want to check out the "Deer Candy" thread down a little ways on this page right now. It may at least help a little bit to know "youre not alone!" ;-) And there are links to a couple deer resistant plant lists on that thread.

Just let us know when youre looking for things that will work out here. Youll get lots of information and opinions.

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

Hello everyone. I posted here a few times last year, but vanished over the winter.

I live and garden in Westminster, just east of Standley Lake. I used to live and garden up in Coal Creek Canyon at about 7500 ft., so I know a little about mountain gardening too.

"just east of Standley Lake"

That's pretty close to me.

Hello all! i'm up in cheyenne Wy, and would definitely be interested in a swap or exchange or something. My work schedule is ridiculous so i don't post very regularly, but i love to garden just the same. Nice to meet you all!

Jeffco gardeners unite :)

I see you're zone 4, (cnetter). You must be further west than we are. Mostly we are a warm zone 5, but honestly the weather varies so much here it's kind of a toss-up from year to year.

Hi Jnfr,
When I moved here 20 years ago, we regularly got zone 4 winters, but in recent years it's definitely been zone 5. Some things I could grow in Thornton, definitely would not grow here back then. We're still two weeks behind the center of Denver.
I'm thinking I better change to zone 5.
I'm south of Rocky Flats. I regularly drive past Stanley Lake and go down 100th or 108th.

I don't read much on this forum (just not enough time!) but came over here to post a question regarding native CO (or at least mountain) iris & thought this post looked interesting. I'll post my iris question in a separate note.

I am in Henderson - just east of Thornton. I also am going into my 2nd year of 'gardening' a bit north & west of Livermore at 8,000 feet. Visited up there today & the herbs are popping up so I'm anxious to see what else made it through the winter.

Mary

Hi I'm new here...I live in Sisters OR (high desert) 20 mile north west of Bend OR. I'm new to the area from Hawaii and will have LOTs of questions...:) Nan

Sisters, Oregon, huh? Very cool. I remember well a trip to Sisters when I was a teenager -- my stepdad sold a horse to someone up there and I went along as we trailered him up from Northern Cal. I remember some beautiful mountain scenery with lava flows winding down through forests. Three Sisters Mountain is very cool, too. Hey, at least you have lava to remind you of Hawaii! I hope you enjoy it there!

I just found this forum (I'd been hanging around in the tree and perennial forums) so wanted to say hello to all the fellow RMGs.

I am in Erie, CO, in a new construction (2 years old now) home. I have lots and lots of mulch beds to fill, and have lots to learn. Other than watering and pruning at my old house that had an established yard, I don't have much gardening experience to speak of, so have learned a *lot* from Gardenweb already.

I had to laugh at the post above about the bindweed. I actually pretty much gave up the fight at my old house... Just couldn't keep up with the little devils, so I decided to enjoy them for their pretty flowers and not worry about getting all their roots out. In our new yard I'm aggressively pulling them when I see them so they don't get established, and so far so good.

Happy gardening!

Welcome to RMG, Almondstriations. Youre not too far from mewell, compared to pretty much everybody else at least. Im in Thornton. Ive added your name to the list. There are a bunch of people north of Denver now, but most of them are further north than you are. Watch for the list reposting probably the end of this week.

Did you look around enough to notice theres going to be a Spring Swap on the 18th down in Castle Rock? Just in case youre interested! And Im going to have one in late summer or early fall, so that one would be closer to you. I thought you might be interested since you have a new yard to "fill up." And you dont need to be able to bring anything to swap if you dont have anything. If youre interested, see the Spring Swap thread for more info. Wed love to meet you.

Good luck in your battle of the bindweed!

Were glad you found us,
Skybird

I'm new here, but after lurking all day to find out about the grapes and blackberries I planted today, I decided to join. I'm in SE Aurora and it's only my second year planting in the ground rather than pots on a balcony, but so far I've only killed a few plants. :)

Hi Dafygardennut. We're glad you decided to register. I've added your name to the list of RMG neighbors, and I'll be reposting it in a few days.

Just let us know when you have questions. There's always lots of good help around here.

Welcome to RMG,
Skybird

Hi - I am in Fort Collins, zone 5. We recently moved to 1.5 acres with some great mature trees, and lots and lots of reworking to do. So far, we've turned a ratty old gravel circle drive into a front yard with a (completely intimidatingly) huge perennial border. So far this season, lots of tending, weeding, and dreaming of the plants I will put in after I return from an early June vacation. I am practicing my most elusive of virtues -- patience.

Now... that Oenothera discussion is going to keep me up at night...

Hi everyone! I've posted a handful of messages in the past and I always appreciate reading all of your insights. I live in Arvada....in the clay! Loving spring and dreading the hot summer!

Finn

Here! I am a long-time lurker of many GW forums. I live in Utah, in the Ogden area. I moved here from Wyoming almost a year ago, and I absolutely love it. This is my first full growing season here, so I will be checking in alot. :) Nice to meet you all!

Amanda

Well, thank you for asking!

I am new to this board and to Nederland, since July of last year, but only just started on my garden. I've been on gardenweb for about four or five years...or something like that. I had been frequenting the bonsai and container forums, then moved on to bamboo and still bonsai. I have now focused on Rockies, for obvious reasons! I updated my gardenweb account to reflect the change, just in time to miss the swap by one day!

Thanx,

Jennifer

Wow! This thread has become popular again! Welcome to RMG everyone! Thanks for letting us know you're here!

Jennifer---and anyone else who may have discovered they just missed the Spring Swap---I just want to let you know that there will be another one in late summer or early fall at my house. So keep an eye out in a couple months for a Fall Swap thead where we'll be posting information and keeping track of everyone who wants to come.

Welcome all! We're glad you're here,
Skybird

Hi all.

Not exactly new here, but have been away from the computer for quite a while, and when I came back the old handle wouldn't work. I got such marvelous help from tech support that it was simpler to come up with a new name.

Sign me up for the fall swap! I will have hostas, and heucheras, and who knows what else. I garden for a living, and a lot of what I do is recovery of gardens gone wild, so I end up with a lot of plants. Rough job, huh. I frequently donate what I can to Habitat for Humanity to use in their homes, but not everything is appropriate so it usually finds a home at my house. My house currently looks like a pot factory exploded. And I don't think the neighbors are buying my story about letting the grass grow to hide the pots.

So I better go mow. :-(

Hi Shady,

Glad you decided to work your way through the iV maze to sign back up. I haven't been able to change my password--or anything in my profile for a couple years now, and I don't get follow ups and PM's don't work for me! iV support! What's that?

We'd love to have you at the fall swap. I'll be starting a thread in a couple months for info, so keep an eye out for it. Where are you located?

Skybird

Hello all!

I'm following some Utahns from the Gardening in Utah forum to get more advice specific to our region. I'm in Utah Valley, west of where stevation lives and south (I believe) of bpgreen. I used to live even further west, in California, but we made the move to Utah in spring/summer 2005.

This year, I'm starting an orange tree indoors! I'm also trying to get fruit trees established for the future, although it may not be soon enough as my son is already starting on solids! Our two daughters are also big fruit and berry eaters, so I'm working on expanding there as well, and doing a little better planning for our vegetable garden.

Lastly, I'm trying to eventually build up our roses, since I miss the ones we left in California (I grew up in the rose (plant) capital of the world in Southern California, or so we believed growing up, a huge jackson perkins/bear river farm location where they bagged fields of roses for sale in other locations). I'd also like to find and start growing other flowers for my wife to cut and bring in the house, which will involve planning and organizing our backyard into something more than wall to wall grass.

Anyway, I've found reading very helpful and entertaining, so hopefully I can also contribute at some point!

You can call me Cycler - (because there are already too many "Steven"s here - We named our son "Steen" about as close to a "junior" as we wanted to get! It means "stone" in Dutch, so we aren't making it up!)

I just found this site last week. Great fun and full of info. I am in Wyoming. Jenn

I'm here in Colorado Springs!! I have been a "member" of this site for years, but do not put my name out there much. I do more looking, I guess.

Now that I am putting my name out, I am wondering if anyone has any input on Snow in Summer for use as ground cover/erosion control on an extreme slope that gets more full sun than shade. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanx and Happy Gardening to you all, eh?

We're just completing our new house in Colorado City; might get to move in the end of next week. We have our landscape pretty much planned with a Pueblo firm, but I plan to post some questions. I tried to do it earlier, but can't get my pix to post. We live on a wiiiiiiiiiiiindy ridge! (The dots above the i's are for the hail that came with the storm.)

Good luck to all of us gardeners this year! And thanks for all the help I've already received from you.

Susanka

Here in Greeley Co. My wife and I have been going on our garden for the last 6 years here."changes every time". This time I think I'm gonna win our yearly Tomato contest we have with each other !!! First time starting from seed this year and some of my plants are already 5' Tall !! Growing a bunch of Mortage lifters, Joe's Giants and tons of plants this year ! Very fun stuff !! Great thread !!! Also built some homemade Earthboxes and they are working very well !!!

Jailranchr invited me to stop by. I live in very SW KS next to the CO line. Hot dry arid conditions. I actually work in CO processing the natural gas for many areas of the front range. I have a few flower beds but concentrate on veggies. Tomatoes and peppers are a priority. I've been gardening for 40 plus years. My area is probably a little earlier than many of yours. Still nice to find a site where they experience some of the same weather. Hail, wind and wide temperature swings. And drought is a yearly occurence. Had hail last Saturday. Best gardening to all and will stop in occasionally. Jay

Hello all,

First of all, I am not longer in Steamboat so will need to change my "handle" I guess. I moved back to Denver in January and have been living in a patio home while waiting for my house in Steamboat to sell and find a place here - which I did. I am moving to Applewood (est Lakewood) in late July - finally, thank goodness, being without a garden in the spring is torture... I did plant some annuals and lilies in pots, but most of my pots are in boxes somewhere in the garage/basement/???

Steamboat was an adventure gardening-wise - colder than heck in the winter, dry and sunny and really windy in the summer. I bought a house with no landscaping and spent most of the two summers I was there buidling about 600 linear feet of dry stack retaining wall (I have two broken fingertips to show for it). They turned out beautifully and are now planted with an assortment of shrubs, peonies, etc (including my favorite, the perennial butterfly bush, which did really well). I will certainly miss the garden, but my neighbors have said many times that they will enjoy it for me.

So now I am back in the tropics of Denver and very much looking forward to starting another gardening adventure in my new house (backyard is pretty bare; how can you live in a house for 35 years and not plant any shade trees in the back yard????) and I will be turning to all of you wonderful gardeners for ideas, help, and just plain camaradarie.

Julia

Hi all,

Well, its been a while since Ive replied to this thread, so welcome to each of you who has checked in in the last few weeks. Were all glad to know youre around here.

Cycler, its too bad youre not in Colorado. Ride the Rockies starts today, and it sounds like it would probably be your kind of thing! Its a week long, 400 mile bike ride around Colorado. Frisco to Steamboat Springs to Craig to Rifle to Glenwood Springs to Aspen to Leadville to Frisco this year. And thank you for giving us an alternative name---Steve! :-)

Karla, Snow in summer would work on your slope, but you might also want to consider doing a combination of all different kinds of sedums, ice plants, and hen & chicks. It would give you more interest than just having all one thing, and the succulents are the easiest thing to take care of. If you should decide to come to the Fall Swap, Ill have cuttings for 5 or 6 different types of sedum available. There will be at least one other person coming up from the Springs.

Whyrag, your tomatoes are WAY ahead of mine!

JayIm glad to hear Jali has somebody else out there in that general direction. You guys sure get the worst of the weather! By the time it gets out there, its always so much worse than it is here in the Denver area. Ive totally lucked out this year and havent had hail at allso far. Of course I havent had much rain either! Im in a dry pocket compared to the rest of the metro Denver area.

Juliano longer in Steamboatwelcome back to the tropics! Fall is a great time for planting perennials, so you might want to consider coming to the Fall Swap too, to pick up a few things. Everyone is invited whether they have anything to bring to swap or not! And its a great way to meet some fellow RMGers.

And, Susanka, glad to hear your house is finished, and I hope by now youre in and getting settled. Have fun with your new garden.

Have a good summer, everyoneand stay cool,
Skybird

I'm a transplant (no pun intended) from the deep south to Salt Lake City. I miss the lush green and being able to grow virtually anything, but can do without the humidity, bugs and tornados!

Three years ago I bought an older home with a fairly decent lawn, three rose bushes, three varieties of grapes, an apple, pear and plum tree........and basically no flowers. About half of the back yard had been used for vegetable gardening, but was mostly weeds and a walkway-in-progress, comprised of around 300 concrete pavers.

Several projects later...starting with the "childbirth" experience of removing the pavers(had I had ANY idea how difficult that was going to be I would have considered learning to love those pavers...:), ... I have a few veggies and several perennial beds. The latter is an ongoing surprise.

For the first two seasons, when I knew essentially nothing about "serious" gardening, I pored over gardening books and websites and planned ad nauseum. I've now mixed in a healthy dose of the "stick in the ground and see what happens" theory.

I've posted a couple of questions and appreciate your responses.....the dish soap solution worked for the aphids on my plum tree - thank you! I have several projects in process and look forward to your advice!

Magnolia

Hi All,
I'm Very near CO in western KS (I can see Colorado from my back window)..lol..We do most of our major shopping in Denver, only 2 and 1/2 hrs away..closest shopping to us believe it or not. We sort of live in the middle of nowhere, but I love it.
My husband's a farmer and rancher..for all his life. We love the country.
I've been to a couple plant swaps in Denver and looking forward to this years!
You are a friendly bunch, glad to find this forum.
Skybird, thanks for starting this thread...
Ksplanter

I have posted several times but didn't get listed. I am south of Hamilton Montana. Have been on the forum for about 10 years. You will find me on Market and Tomatoes. I work for Ravalli County Extension, am a Master Gardener, Market Gardener. I grow tomatoes, cukes, peppers, carrots, peas, beans, squash, beets and have a small orchard of apples,pears, plums and apricot trees.

Thanx for your input, skybird, it is appreciated. As it turns out, this year I do have a combination of things that I am attempting to grow on "my mountain" (recently dubbed "snake mountain" for obvious reasons) just to see what will grow. We planted morning glory, feverfew, kinickanick (or however ya spell it) and coreospis. I have some snow in summer and a hunk of yarrow still to plant. It will be interesting to see what will stay up there and live.

When and where is Fall Swap and what takes place there?

Hello all -

I am mostly a lurker but have posted a couple of times in different forums after I joined about 3 or 4 years ago. My husband and I moved to Salt Lake from northern Virginia in 2002. We bought our first house in 2003 and put in some nice raised beds for veggies two years ago. I've had ok success with them (including some from seed started inside), but otherwise I am pretty much a complete newb when it comes to gardening. We lost the only two large trees in our front yard in less than a year...so things are looking rather bare and ugly. :(

I am trying to come up with a plan for the front yard but am kinda terrified when it comes to perennials (and really anything else that's not an annual). I've had no experience with them at all, I'm just sure I will screw up something in their care and hurt or kill them somehow! So I have some pretty dumb questions - I have read alot but there are so many things to learn that are just "hands on." And I get overwhelmed/confused/paralyzed by all the choices and all the factors that go into choosing plants...which is why I have done nothing yet...bleh! (LOL at Magnolia - "stick it in the ground and see what happens" - that's pretty much what I need to do and stop obssessing!)

So please try and be patient and not laugh too hard if I post a really stupid question, ok? Thanks! ;-D

I cant believe how active this thread has become again! Hello, everyone, and welcome!

I like your pun whether you intended it or not, Magnolia! If youve gotten to the "stick it in the ground and see what happens" stage, youve learned a LOT! And it sounds like youve gotten a lot of exercise in the process! When I moved into my house 3 years ago, everything was covered with rock mulch on top of landscape fabric. After 3 years Ive FINALLY gotten rid of most of it in the backyard, but still have more to beam somewhere in the front yard. Oh, how I wish I COULD just beam it somewhere!

KS, Ive said hi to you on the Swap thread, but Ill do it again here! Hi! Sorry to hear you have to drive all the way in to Denver to go shopping, but my husband (at the time!) and I used to drive from Denver to Hutch to visit friends, and I know all too well that theres nothing out that way. But isnt Limon closer to you than Denver? Tho I dont know how much "major" shopping you can do there! So glad youre planning to come in for the Swap. Ill enjoy meeting you, and Im sure youll enjoy meeting a bunch of other RMGers. (And I WILL answer your email!)

Margaret, you must not have checked in on either this thread or the original "List" thread before I posted the second list. Thats where I was picking up the names from. But youre on MY list now, if that helps! If I have time, I might repost The List again late next winter, when were all stuck inside again!

So youre growing snakes on your mountain, huh, Karla! I think theyre pretty xeric! Keep the sedum in mind in case you find some of the things youre trying dont work for you. And, the Fall Swap is at my house in Thornton on September 8thbut go to the Fall Swap thread to get a lot more info. Ill link it below. The thread is just starting, so theres not a whole lot there yet, but if you want to get more of a feel for a Colorado-style Swap, check out the Spring Swap thread. Heres a link to it.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg031322207320.html?102

And what we do is meet a bunch of friendly RMG gardeners and, for those who have them, bring perennial divisions or seedlings or seed along to swap with peopleor basically just give away. In other words, you dont need to give something away in order to get something. And at the fall one were going to have a couple demonstrationsand lots of good food! Check out the 2 swap threads, and post any questions you may still have on the Fall Swap thread. Theres AT LEAST one other COS person coming up at this pointand I hope a couple moreincluding you hopefully. Keep an eye on the thread. (Emagineer is the other COS person so far.)

Tunnymowg (Whats a tunnymowg???), there arent any stupid questions around here, so you dont need to worry about that! And---we may laugh with you sometimes, but nobody around here is going to laugh at you! If you can grow veggies and annuals, you can grow perennials! Positively! But you do need to start practicing the "stick it in the ground and see what happens" style of gardening! And you probably ARE going to kill some of them sometimeswe all do! Thats just part of the fun of perennial gardeningin the rarified Rocky Mountain air! Its WAY more fun to be out digging in the dirt than it is to be reading a book, so hit us with your questions, and its time to get your hands dirty! You might want to check out this thread for some possible long-blooming, easy to grow perennials to start with.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0611554020061.html?12

Welcome all,
SKybird

Thanks Skybird! Heehee..."tunnymowg" is short for Tundra and Mowgli, our two Maine Coon cats. :)

Thanks for your encouragement. It will be exciting to finally get started this fall...provided I follow through with all the hard prep work before then and I have enough $$$ for all the plants I want. Pity I'm not in CO or I would surely come to the swap!