I can't believe it's 5/1/2012 already. Almost half of 2012 is GONE.

I've enjoyed my garden a lot though I've done very little "gardening". For the time being that's a good thing.

I've made 4 quilt tops and completed 3 quilts as of today.

"How does your garden grow?"

I sure wish your were saying you can't believe it is October ! Not looking forward to this summer after all the evap. cooler problems we had last summer and the way higher humidities we seem to be getting the last couple summers. Plants are all growing well. Lot of buds getting close to opening on the 14 daylily pots I have going. A big Whooperee X should open tomorrow.

I am grumpy over this heat! My electric bill justr came for last month! It was $25. Yes, you read that right. This month will not be so low.

Wow Becky I thought I was a miser power wise. You have beaten me. Our last electric bill was $45.74.

Mine was $80. 1500 sq ft house. My bill has gone up about $10 a month since I'm now retired and home most of the time .... TV and computer, sewing machine and iron.

I wish I had electric bills like that!

I love cold Marie! I rarely use the heat unless Michael was coming over. But in the last cycle we had perfect weather so nothing but the TV and computer plus regular appliances were on. I live alone so do only 2 loads of laundry a week.

Can I join in w/the SW Gardening peeps? I'm kinda SW...

Of course, Toni!~!!! Glad you're here with us!

Some people don't feel that Colorado is Southwest.. mainly people in Colorado! But we have our own crosses to bear when it comes to gardening.. and just how miserable it is to do so! Glad to be here! (well, on this forum, not here in CO)

Toni !

Hi Toni,
Of course! Welcome! Over the years I've seen some pretty nice pics of great rock gardens in CO. So you do any of that?

Susie - No, I tried the rock garden thing & found it to be too boring. I have 1 rock bed, but my irises & yarrow are slowly taking over that section, which is fine by me. I also have some Russian Sage & a butterfly bush in that particular bed (very very tiny bed, it's a thin pie wedge about 20' long, but comes to a point at the tip & is about 4' wide at the widest point in the back. I had another rock bed in the front, but that became a weed bed, so said to hell with it & plowed it under. I had lots of Ice Plant in that particular bed, which grows nicely, but my dogs like eating the flowers, so I had a very boring rock area. I have another rock area that I'm slowly going to be removing the rock out of.. all that is growing there is milkweed (a true weed as I didn't plant it), a purple Thundercloud plum, & some blanketflower. The entire rock area is slowly being re-landscaped.. the front part I don't even classify as part of the rockbed 'cuz it's got lots of roses (Orange Velvet, Rose Marie Viaud, Charles de Mills, Betty Boop, Henry Fonda, Ruby Ruby, & a Lady Banks that's going entirely crazy). I also have a Theresa Bugnet next to my fireplace (this rockbed is right next to the house) and that rose is growing like mad as well. The other rockbeds I'm plowing under or scraping out. I hate rock.. as hot as it gets! Bleh! I love mulch, and that's what I'm doing everywhere.. mulch mulch mulch. Keeps the soil much more cooler & healthier. There are some absolutely GORGEOUS rock gardens here.. the Xeric Rock Garden in Colorado Springs is to die for, but I love my roses too much & they hate rocks.

I'm surprised that Lady Banks survives zone 5 winters. I keep ordering it and it keeps on not arriving.

Not surprised that yarrow is taking over a section. Except for Moon Shine, I'm downgrading mine to weed status and planning to eliminate it. There's one spot that I planted with white yarrow last fall where there are no other plants. I'm going to let that bloom this year, then clear it all away.

I understand why people plant milkweed; I've done it myself. I like the blue-green foliage and the ease of culture. I have even been very fond of a milkweed that makes big, white, fragrant flowers; but it will take over your garden given just half a chance. It will make inch thick brittle roots that criss-cross the garden a foot deep making eradication something that requires professional help. Roundup will kill it, but the soil will not grow anything but weeds for years. Had the same problem with some thistles, once.

Steve - Ugh. If necessary I guess i can just dig out that section of the garden, dump it (or put it on Craigslist as backfill) and replace it with topsoil. I probably will end up doing that anyways as I hate that section... too much riverrock! I'm going to do a before-after thread one of these years .. the people who owned this house before me completely and utterly ruined the landscape with all the rock they brought in. From what a few older neighbors have said, the original people who owned the house when it was built in '83 had the place looking like a golf course. Then it got sold, then sold again. The 3rd owners were ... lazy? Not interested in keeping up a yard? I don't know. But they basically turned almost the entire property into various ugly rock areas. River rock or pea gravel. There's even a section where they didn't even remove the old rock (Colorado Red), they just plopped the river rock on top of it! Bleh. But I saw where I could overcome the rock and make it much more interesting (and cooler) than rock! Would you like me to send you a Lady Banks? I see them here regularly..

The seasonal stream at my house was treated with river rock, too. I know this not because I can see it, but because when I plant roses there, I encounter a layer of river rock about a foot down. I've been tempted to use river rock to define that same area; but I can never be sure whether the rock would be buried or washed away in a storm. So I'm "stabilizing" the area with roses. I'm sure I need to find some good heavily rooted short grasses to plant between the roses to actually hold the soil in place during heavy storms. Then maybe I can put down some river rock between all the plants. I actually like the look of river rock. I think it could serve well as mulch in places that get ample amounts of organic material from other sources. Yesterday DW pointed out that last month's water bill was $200, so I realize I could not keep expanding the rose garden to be much much bigger than it is now, even if I had the space. Indeed, right now river rock is looking better and better. Of course, in the middle of winter when I'm trying to figure out how I'll ever fit seventy more roses into the garden I'm sure most of its charm will disappear entirely.

Steve, I'd think river rock would be a good option. The grasses pose lots of negative consequences down the road: thirsty, prolific and spread from flowers and base growth both around the yard and into the forest, very difficult to remove once it's established and of course, fire. I had some Fountain Grasses at my previous home and ran into all those issues except fire fuel.

Good points, Susie. I hadn't thought of fire at all; but this is a pretty good time to consider it! Because this area can be a rushing stream bed, occasionally, I do need something that will stop erosion; not sure roses will be enough. Until I planted roses it was just native grasses and weeds. I'm afraid that the native grasses will keep cropping up there for a few years. But what I'd love to do is to mix some low-growing xeric perennials and/or grasses in with the roses to hold the soil.

There's a place in the garden where I have cerastium tomentosum, a gray leaved ground cover that makes white flowers. It looks great growing between red roses. There's a place where some pale orange marguerite daisies grow between yellow, red and orange roses - at least that's what I imagined as I was planting things. I have a bed of lavender and jupiter's beard interplanted with daffodils and although this design is kind of inside-out, it has roses skirting most of the edges. It looks a little unruly right now with the daff. foliage dying, but it looks great in March and in summer when the dead foliage is gone. And I have a bed of yellow and soft orange roses interwoven with blue flax. I just have a lot of fun interplanting rose areas with other plants. In any case, I would like to have something other than just river rock between the roses. I wonder if there is a kind of thyme or a blue veronica that might work well - especially near the path? Maybe some monarda or phlox near the fence at the back?

Steve - How about salvias? I have a Purple Rain salvia that has quadrupled in size since I bought it. I bought it as a 1 quart pot 2 years ago. I treat it VERY xerically.. hardly EVER watering/feeding it and it lives in rocks. It's now about 4' across and produces these beautiful purple flowers that last for weeks. You can also go with Little Trudy neptia (catnip)... I have wild catnip that grows like friggin' weeds here, so I'm not about to plant more, but I know that Little Trudy is very xeric & grows well in rocks, too.

Here's Purple rain Salvia (I don't have pictures of mine) http://www.plant-encyclopedia....

I'd also mix in there different Speedwells (http://www.bgperennials.com/in...) They do quite well in a xeric environment as well.

Of course, you can throw in some Silvermounds as well. But, be warned: they get HUGE!!! (http://njplantsandtrees.com/in...)

These are all plants that I know work well in rocks, in a xeric (ie: no water 'cuz I'm lazy), and HOT (well, not 100+ but my altitude would compensate) environment, plus they all survive my winters just fine w/NO protection. Plus they (well, maybe not the purple rain, but if you want one, I can definitely send you a cutting) are all readily available at Home Depot/Lowes.

Salvia seem like a great solution, Toni!