Friday, March 13, 2020

Jean Morgan's garden, from the 2019 GB Fling

The lady in the blue shirt and jeans is Jean Morgan and this is her garden. Jean's garden may win the prize for the smallest garden the Fling has ever visited, Jean herself may win the prize for most enthusiastic gardener we've ever run across.

The other lady in the photo above is Kylee Baumle, longtime Flinger and author of The Monarch: Saving Our Most-Loved Butterfly. Here's what she's photographing, a gorgeous blooming echinocereus...

From our Fling brochure: "I bought the house in 1971 when there was nothing in the yard. My neighbor...gave me some plants—that's where all the hens-&-chicks (Sempervivum tectorum) came from! Then I discovered Harlequin's Nursery in Boulder (still my favorite go-to-place) and began planting natives. Slowly but surely the garden is mostly natives—a xeric butterfly garden. If there's a plant I want and it's available, there is always a spot for it! I also have two small veggie gardens."- Jean Morgan

Jean had taped up a photo of the original house for us to see.

The official landmark plaques.

This Fling certainly had extremes. We saw this small 266 square foot home that sold for $3,200, and later a 2,870 square foot home that was on the market for  $1,511,900 when we visited (post here). Both owners were welcoming enthusiastic gardeners. There's a lesson in there about how gardening can bridge the gaps in our polarized society, don't you think?

Anyway, on to the garden!

Yep, that's a bathtub full of sempervivum with a shovel hippo face.

Every inch filled with plants.

Looking back towards the front of the side garden.

I adore Artemisia ludoviciana 'Valerie Finnis', sadly it doesn't adore me.

Somehow I managed an empty garden shot, before that gate was swung open and we bloggers invaded.

I didn't know Bugs Bunny lived in Colorado.

I won't lie, those narrow paths were tricky. We all tried to stay on them, nobody wanted to be the person who stepped on a plant.

There's another hippo face in the water feature. Aren't the rocks stacked to the left interesting? A tall crevice garden. Hmmm, I might have to try that.

Did you know there was a Louisville, Colorado? I didn't.

The dense groundcover was simple perfection, in my book.

Single file ladies and gentleman...

Finally just a couple shots of the narrow front garden.

And it was time to be on our way.

Weather Diary, Mar 12: Hi 56, Low 32/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

11 comments:

  1. A lot of gorgeous groundcovers happening in a small space. A great collection of lichen covered rocks and loved the hippos. So right, rich or poor we can still all come together and share over plants.

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    1. She's wealthy in sempervivium, I am jealous of her collection.

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  2. It just goes to show that you can garden anywhere you want to. I have an acquaintance here in town that has a tiny little garden like this and it is superb.

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  3. I love the history of the house. What fun to actually have historic markers on your house.

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    1. Indeed, she lead a small tour into the house too, but I missed that.

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  4. Eclectic garden! It really reflects her unique vision, and I mean that as a compliment. The history was interesting to read, too. An original 'tiny home.'

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  5. I love that the Fling included a house and garden this small! Somehow I missed that detail in earlier posts by other bloggers. As a cram-scraper I expect Jean was a gardener after your own heart.

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  6. This was surely the garden and gardener with the most personality. You got some great shots.

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