Thursday, October 10, 2019

The Borland Garden, a stop on the 2019 Garden Bloggers Fling

I really enjoyed this garden, one from the 2019 Fling in Colorado. Unfortunately my photos don't much back-up the experience.

Maybe because the front garden was so densely planted. Layers and layers of green with an occasional flower or spike.

Looking at these photos left me feeling good about my front garden though, which I know people find a little overwhelming. Too many plants! This makes my garden look sparse...

From our Fling materials: "I started with a typical front yard planted with bluegrass, a large crabapple, one topped honey locust, and a silver maple. Whereas the initial first year planting of 10,000 plants was watered overhead for establishment, subsequent plantings were started in tubelings and planted in late winter with no water applied then or thereafter. Almost all the seed for the plants was personally acquired in the field"

"I know of no other garden in Colorado devoted exclusively to dryland native plants and not supplementally watered—Jim Borland"

Interesting, right?

There was definitely a lot to look at in the garden.

In fact when I asked Mr. Borland about agaves, and why I wasn't seeing more of them in the Colorado gardens we'd visited, he mentioned a surprisingly large number he had growing in the garden. He admitted they were small, still, I missed them.

Fallugia paradoxa, Apache plume

There's a corner of the house...

Getting closer...

There were plants all along the deep overhang.

And several containers on the porch. Not all of them full of plants.

Working my way up the side of the garden (it was on a corner lot) things eventually opened up...

An Iris even!

I did find out the name of this shrub, which we saw in several gardens, of course I can't remember it now.

Here's the back garden. Quite the different look...

The semicircle doesn't appear to be used much, which is a shame, it's an interesting feature.

Those rings off the back of the house certainly grabbed my attention.

I have no idea what their actual use is...

But I want to grow vines up them.

They would hide the electrical equipment quite nicely.

Perhaps this lonicera could be trained?

Here was another interesting back-garden feature, a walk-in compost corner.  Although truth be told it looks a little like it might collapse on you at any given moment.

A wide-angle look at the back of the house...

And then it was out to the front sidewalk and back on our bus...

Weather Diary, Oct 9: Hi 57, Low 37/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

17 comments:

  1. I think the shrub was a type of Amorpha, not canescens, which is a bit smaller. This one got much taller, maybe A. fruticosa? I don't remember seeing any Agaves there either. But I also don't remember seeing those rings, or the compost bin.

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    1. I did a complete circle around the house, maybe that's why I saw the compost area and the rings...

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  2. I really like that Fallugia and should look into whether it'd grow here. Densely planted gardens can be hard to capture in photos unless there's a lot of foliage color contrast, something I have to remind myself of every time I add a new element to my front garden.

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    1. So true, lots of similar grey greens tend to blur together.

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  3. The front garden and porch were definitely my favorite of the trip. I loved how the house had one of the more generic suburban locations yet managed to feel a world away. And it certainly doesn't hurt that I have a thing for jungle cactus, especially that Pfeiffera monacantha(?) in bloom!

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    1. I thought of you while I was going through my photos, I remember you liked this garden a lot. There was another garden, that I didn't like much at all, that was the favorite of another PNW blogger. Isn't it interesting what we're attracted to? I guess that's why it's good to have such an assortment on a tour like this...

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  4. What a contrast from the front to the back. The semi-circle looks plain naked in comparison. A few potted agaves, etc. would look great there, eh?

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  5. I really enjoyed this garden too, and it would be interesting to see what it presents in different seasons. They are so distinct in CO I can imagine dramatic changes through the year.

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    1. Excellent point! I bet the front garden doesn't change much, even in winter.

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  6. Like Eliza, I can't think of 2 more starkly different looks when comparing the front and back gardens, like two different gardeners created them. Not having to supplement the water in the front at all is quite amazing.

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    1. I wonder if he once had plans to transform the entire lot?

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  7. Don't know when I've seen Iris look so dramatic and exotic. That seating circle was lovely. Maybe they need cushions to make it more comfy.

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    1. Cushions and a nice big umbrella or shade sail. Then again when you have a front porch as nice as this one was, maybe that's all you need?

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  8. I loved that porch. So generous of these peeps to let us crash their garden. That was a fun place. And yes, so much contrast between front and back. We talked about the semi-circle and its relative nakedness. Bet it doesn't stay that way. What an opportunity for cool containers.

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  9. I really loved this garden, thanks for reminding me! The gardener was fun to talk to as well.

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  10. Thanks for taking all these photos of this amazing garden, it is great to "virtually revisit" the garden again here - what an amazing fling it was, and so nice to meet you as well as all the other flingers. :)

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