Native plants for winter interest- lesser used edition

 By Irene Shonle, CSU Extension, El Paso County

With climate change creating warmer, drier winters, Colorado gardeners can't rely much on a snowy landscape to hide a garden that has lost its summer pizazz.

This post is devoted to native plants that seldom make the winter interest lists, but will help make your yard maintain some flair during the dullest time of year.  Not only that, but they are also waterwise stars -- we are also experiencing hotter, drier summers, and need to consider our overall water use directed towards landscapes.

                                               

I am  in love with yuccas. Their spiky leaves look fantastic all winter, and there is the added bonus of white stalks of flowers in June.  If you do get snow, the drama only increases:

I 

Most woody sages keep their leaves all winter.  Western Sage (Artemisia tridentata looks great, as does the smaller Artemisia bigelovii pictured above).

Prickly pear cactus (Opuntias) maintain a solid presence throughout the winter.  Some even turn purplish in the winter.  And, of course, in the summer they produce beautiful flowers beloved by bees. And, often, showy fruit in the fall.

                                Opuntia spines can look fantastic in low-angled winter light.

                        A plant I have often overlooked is the humble four-winged saltbrush (Atriplex canescens). It keeps its gray-green leaves in the winter, and the female plants produce interesting seed pods that persist into the winter.

                                Broom Snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), in my opinion, is a much under-utilized                                     plant. It has tidy blooms of yellow in the fall (appreciated by pollinators), but then in the                                 winter, the seed heads dry out to created a charming presence. A bit like a rough-                                        around-the-edges baby's breath.

                                    Winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata) is a much under-utilized shrub. It is extremely         waterwise and provides food for many bird species, including  horned lark, Brewer's sparrow, sage             thrasher  black-throated sparrow, loggerhead shrike, and other birds.  Not only that, but it keeps its narrow, grey-  green leaves in the winter, and the seed heads look wonderful in the morning light.

Here's a plant I did not expect to put on this list, but I am taken with how the seed heads persist into the winter, providing interest and seed for birds.  This is hairy golden aster (the extremely variable Heterotheca villosa).

Consider planting some of these plants in your garden in a sunny dry area, and reap the rewards of providing habitat as well as winter enjoyment.

Operation Kentucky Bluegrass Eradication!

Posted by Nancy Klasky, CSU Extension, City and County of Broomfield

The title refers to what I’ve been calling the efforts my partner, Jim and I have been doing to transform our four-thousand square foot, corner lot, turf yard into something that I’m pretty passionate about, Xeriscaping. Some people think this mean “Zero-scaping” but it is anything but.  The word xeriscaping comes from the Latin xero, meaning dry and scape meaning landscape or view. There was a trend not long ago where people would remove turf and have a rockscape. The problem with rockscapes is that they are heat sinks. They just absorb the suns heat raising temperatures around your home and aren’t very attractive. They also accumulate organic debris and eventually just become a weed breeding ground that is challenging to manage. I experienced much of this during my many years of landscaping work . Xeriscaping, on the other hand is creating a garden that relies on your natural climate. I live in a neighborhood where daily I hear sprinklers going off and lawns being mowed, including our own.  A good portion of Colorado’s population moved here from parts of the country that receive a lot more annual moisture than we do.  What people need to realize is that Kentucky Bluegrass is aptly named, and is not suitable for the Colorado’s semi-arid climate where the average annual precipitation is 17 inches.  Compare this to Kentucky who receives between 42 and 52 inches of annual precipitation.   

Raised bed garden 

We started removing turf by solarization to put a raised-bed garden in the backyard two years ago. We did this by laying down plastic and weighing it down around the edges and in the middle. This process takes about 1 to 2 months depending on how warm the weather is. We had some black plastic which worked well, but since then I’ve learned that clear plastic is actually more effective.  We then built our raised beds and surrounded them with mulch. We live in Longmont where city residents can go get free mulch at the city’s limb diversion center. This works great for this type of area. We add more every year since mulch breaks down and actually will improve the soil composition over time.  The next area we removed the bluegrass from was the other side of our backyard where we are installing a patio. We opted for the plastic solarization method here too.  These two areas eliminated approximately 1/3 of the grass in our backyard. We converted our sprinkler system to drip lines for our vegetable and flower gardens which greatly reduced our water usage. 

This summer we started working on the front yard. This area faces southeast with no shade. The grass has to go! I was a bit daunted just thinking about starting this endeavor because we live on a hill and our front yard has slopes in two directions. There is a 3 foot grade going up to the house, and another slope that is not quite as steep going down the length on the street side. I was worried about drainage and how we would create level gardens.  This hasn’t stopped me however because I’m determined to be an example of a low-water yard in a sea of thirsty Bluegrass! 

Future pea gravel border garden. 

I had drawn up plans based on the square footage and what we want to do. Like many Colorado neighborhoods we do not have any yard between the street and sidewalk, so the heat from the asphalt and cement make this area even hotter. We have finished a 5 foot wide section bordering the sidewalk where we have created a pea gravel garden. This is what we did. After the grass was sufficiently dead we tilled the area and mixed in good garden soil to around a foot deep. Then we added a rock sand mix to add much needed drainage for this area. The top has a 2 inch layer of pea gravel and some bigger rocks for interest. Our plan is to include the most drought tolerant plants in this space such as Ice plant, hens and chicks, yucca, agave and cactus.  I had some hens and chicks that I’d kept in a plastic container for over a year and they are the first addition to our new space.  Hens and Chicks thrive on neglect and do not like a lot of moisture.

Pea Gravel Garden Completion and next levels on the way!

My objective when planting in the front yard is to use all native and water wise plants. Plant Select© is a non-profit initiative that was started by Colorado State University, Denver Botanical Gardens and horticulturists to find the very best plants for our intermountain and high plains regions. I’ve been inspired by the many Plant Select© plants that the Broomfield Master Gardener Demonstration Garden has.  Another important piece to my planning is to benefit the native pollinator populations, and the best way to do this is by using native plants. There are some great books and guides to Colorado and western native plants, and the Plant Select© website also offers many great plant ideas for our climate.

One last area we have started transforming from turf to garden is an area of the side yard. We have removed a lot of soil from the areas already mentioned and this is another very sunny and hot area where the grass was struggling and had to be removed. I wanted a large space to plant gourds and so we

Future Pumpkin Patch 

cut the grass as short as possible and laid down cardboard. Then we just started piling all that soil we’ve been removing from garden and the patio areas. We capped the sprinkler head which will be changed to a drip line and by next spring we should be ready to plant some pumpkins and other fun autumn gourds!   

So far we have removed around 1,000 square feet of our 4,000 square feet turf yard in the two years since we moved in. We are far from done. My hope is to have three quarters or more of that Kentucky bluegrass gone from our lives and to save thousands of gallons of water every year by eventually having established native and drought tolerant plants surrounding our home.  After that is all said and done maybe I’ll look into replacing whatever grass remains with a buffalo grass alternative to save even more of Colorado’s precious commodity that is water!

For information see:

Colorado Water Wise

Water Wise Landscape Design Steps

Xeriscape Turf Alternatives

Xeriscape Soil Amendments

Learning More About Xeriscaping

Encouraging Pollinators in Your Garden and Community

So when people talk about pollinators, what do you think of?    Well, most people go to Honeybees.  Did you know that the common Honeybee is actually from Europe?  They are great for pollinating our Rosaceae (Rose Family) fruit crops, which includes peaches, cherries, apples, strawberries and raspberry among many more.  Honeybees will feed strictly on my flowering plant at a time, such as peaches, before they move onto other plants.

Honeybee, Lisa Mason CSUE Agent

 Our native pollinators including native solitary bees, syrphid flies (hover flies), bumblebees, beetles, butterflies, moths and animals like bats.  Most of these native pollinators need a variety of resources to get enough nutrients.  They are grazers or buffet eaters rather than eating just one item at a time.  I am sure you know people that fit into both those categories. 

Common blue butterfly-TRA

Of course, there are native pollinators that have specific relationships with one plant such as the yucca moth, Tegeticula yuccasella, which lives its entire life in some way on or within the Yucca and the Gaillardia moth, Schinia masoni.  So always exceptions to the rule.

Yucca moth- Malisa Science Source photo

In Colorado, we have 946 native bees, 250 species of butterflies, 1000 species of Moths, many wasps, beetles and flies.  This information can be found at https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/agplants/native-pollinators

Of the syrphid flies, aka hover flies aka flower flies there are 900 species in North America.  Many of these look like bees so birds and other creatures do not try to eat them.  I personally find them quite cute. And they are also beneficial insects!

syrphid fly-bugguide.net

So what can you do in your garden and your community?  You can plant a variety of plants, native plants, and do your homework on what each specific pollinator needs.  For example, solitary bees need bare soil to build their nests.  It may appear that there is a colony, but there it is actually more of an apartment or town-home situation where one bee lives in their own condominium. 

Solitary bee- MaLisa Spring Photo

Or take note of what pollinators you are attracting.  Some of our agents do citizen science projects, which help us to track what people are seeing.  Some pollinators will need a source of water other than just pollen and nectar.  So shallow water sources can be a benefit in the garden.  Planting a variety of types of plants will assist as well.  Some of the native bees like to nest at the base of native grasses such as Little Bluestem https://xerces.org/blog/plants-for-pollinators-little-bluestem

Standing Ovation little bluestem- Colostate

Do not only plant a variety of plants that bloom at once, but that grow and bloom throughout the year.  For example, we had a yarrow in our demonstration garden blooming last November and I observed syrphid flies hovering over and feeding on the yarrow.  Use natives from your area.  Some cultivars are so far from their origin that they are not good sources of pollen and nectar.  Typically, plants with double or triple the number of petals, tetraploids, are NOT good for a pollinator garden.

Pollinator on Columbine

 For more information on pollinator habitat see our factsheet: https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/creating-pollinator-habitat-5-616/

Take care of weeds!  Weeds compete with natives and garden plants and typically are not a good source of pollen and nectar for the pollinators.  Weeds also affect the environment and agriculture but out competing, stealing resources, attracting insects like aphids and overall just look messy.  Support conservation efforts of plants in your area.  If you need education on native plants, which ones are good pollinators, historic uses, plant id and landscape sustainability, check out the CSU Extension Native Plant Master’s Program.  We have 13 counties that offer this series of classes. http://conativeplantmaster.colostate.edu/

By Susan Carter, Horticulture and Natural Resource Agent in the Tri River Area

The Beauty of the Prairie

Posted by:  Carrie Shimada, Weld County Extension

 

With the 4th of July right around the corner, I thought pictures from a day-trip I recently took would be apropos.

I have lived in Colorful Colorado all my life and during that time I have traveled West, to the mountains many (many) times, South, all the way to the New Mexico border, and North, up to the Wyoming border (never stopping to visit any of the towns or recreational areas) - but the furthest East (in Colorado) I had ever been was Ft Morgan and DIA.  (Okay, so that’s a bit of a lie, I did go on a few family trips to Missouri when I was under the age of 6, but who can remember that far back!)

Like many Coloradoans, when I think of Colorado hiking trips or vacations, I think of mountains- not of the plains, but after a couple of recent trips, I suggest you consider a day-trip to the Colorado Plains.

Yesterday, we jumped into the car, last minute, and ventured out to the Pawnee Buttes, located within the Pawnee National Grasslands.  This trip, according to US Forest service, is 25 minutes northeast of Greeley, 35 miles east of Ft Collins, which seems like a quick trip, right?  But, beware if you want to venture into the 193,060 acre region or to the Pawnee Buttes area- be prepared for very bumpy gravel roads.  While facilities are limited, recreational opportunities are not.  This area is an internationally known birding area (May-June are the best) and a good place for a grassland hike.  Instead of ponderosa pines or aspen tress, there are yucca plants, cactus, and a quite serenity that is only found on the prairie.  Here is my trip....in pictures.


We finally arrived....after a very bumpy ride.



The Map.

Beware of the gate...it took two of us to figure out!





The official Pawnee Buttes.

 

It wouldn't be a hortie blog without plant pictures!

This is one of the only places yucca belongs :)

The interpretive signage.  At one point in time titanotheres
(a rhino-like creature) roamed here.

My dog, Magnolia Jean- if you take you dog,
bring plenty of water and watch out for cactus.

My Selfie :)

                                       


Thanks for joining me on my adventure!