Rainmaker

I seem to remember some movie somewhere, where the rainmaker shows up. You know the senario. Someone is in an impossible situation and the bad guy brings in an even badder guy and says "Make it rain." or "He's the rainmaker." Something like that. Then he makes it rain. Not really. He just punches out some poor schmuck or something.

Anyway, the rainmaker is a notion that those of us in the desert just love. Make it rain. As if. Well ladies and gents I am here to tell you that I made it rain. Granted it was in the greenhouse and I didn't really have much to do with it. The air in the upper echelons was hot and then the vent opened and the misters came on. The hot air cooled, consdensation occurred and gravity happened. It was very exciting finding out that I am a very, very bad dude. Yeah, I'm the rainmaker. I make it rain. Don't mess with me or you'll get wet. 

Partay!

I'd almost missed it. The Party. It was in the community gardens this morning. Kathy and Sharon got together and made an egg bake and had cinnamon rolls and fruit and yogurt, coffee, the works. It was quite a party. And they threw it to celebrate how great their garden looks. It does, too. You may remember back to the delphinium post of a couple of weeks ago. Yup that was them. And you should see the rest of what is in there. Just don't tell Max about the larkspur.

Vacay

Hi All! I've been on vacation these last few days. It was nice getting out of our Gardens and getting into nature's gardens. I hiked up in the Monument, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyonlands and Glenwood Canyon. Tremendous! It is no wonder our mission is to connect visitors with the beauty of the Colorado River Basin and Plateau.... It is amazingly beautfiul out there. And I can't help but hope we all start bringing "out there" home. Pansies are nice and all but cowboy's delight is too and hardly takes any water. Plus if you put it in your yard you are taking to first step to creating your own conservation area, giving back to nature, who has given so much to you. I'm coming down off the soapbox now.

The Gardens is spiffing up for the Garden Tour this weekend. I've the Workenders weeding their hearts out and we've been adding some annuals and getting some plants into the Children's Garden. Remember that you can only get your tickets to the Garden Tour the days of the event exclusively at the Gardens or the CSU Extension. See you Saturday or Sunday!

Rock Roses

I couldn't resist a quick post about the rock roses (helianthemum). They are one of mine, and definitely on of Kenton's, favorites. It was like an electric wire to the eye this morning as I walked past them. Their sunny, yellow hearts looked so good with the sedum behind I had to snap a couple of pix. I like the first one even though it is a little blurry, it harkens back to the drug addled 60's when bright yellow, electric pink and chartreause looked just fine together.

Here is a nother more sober view. Just lovely, don't you think?

Irises

Irises smell just as good as they look. And the irises look gooood. Oh and look. There is our new sculpture!

Delphiniums

Before you read any further you should probably put on your sunglasses. The blue of the delphiniums in the community garden are so bright it'll blind you. Really. The photo doesn't do them justice you have just got to take a gander at them for yourself. But remember. Bring your eye protection.

Tuesday

For those of you who are regular readers have no doubt read my rants on landscape cloth. Get ready for another one. We were renovating a garden today and ran into some landscape cloth. The photo below shows the awful interface that happens when landscape cloth is used. The roots are from a bindweed that has tunneled through the landscape cloth. The good news is they couldn't grow through the compacted soil. Good for weeds but what about the nice plants you want to grow? They need good soil not dead compacted soil that has been suffocated by landscape cloth. There is no such thing as a maintenance free garden. You'll have to weed even if you use landscape cloth, especially if you are a chucklehead that puts down organic mulch on top of your landscape cloth. So suck it up. Pull up the landscape cloth and do a little weeding. It is good for you plus it keeps you in touch with your garden. 'Nuff said.

The first thing I did on Tuesday was stop and get a pick-up-truck-load of plants. What a way to start the day! I highly recommend it. You should try it some time. All these lovlies are going into the Children's Garden. What fun!

Here are three friendly faces. On the left is our new intern. In the middle is Ginny, expert gardener and keeper of the Children's Secret Garden. On the right is Derek, my right hand man for two days a week. We are getting a great crew together. It is going to be a wonderful summer.