Mountaineering Ideas, Tips & Guides

Hi GPODers!

Keeping up with a family’s worth of laundry is a chore no matter what the season, but when kids head back to school and everyone’s calendar fills up with work, class, and nonstop activities, it becomes a mountain of mess.

Growers in cold climates often utilize various approaches to extend the growing season or boost their crops, including cold frames, hoop houses, and greenhouses. Greenhouses—typically glazed structures— are often expensive to construct and heat throughout the winter. But, they have their benefits, which is why underground greenhouses can be viable alternatives.

Last week, a federal judge struck down a Trump Administration decision to take wolves off the endangered species list, restoring federal protection of some gray wolves in the country—meaning they can no longer be hunted.

Annuals are a topic that elicits strong responses from many gardeners. With the word come visions of manicured plantings, most frequently including foliage obscured by a lavish floral display. While some folks love the bright and reliable spreads of color, others meet them with disdain for their intensive use of resources and stiff appearance. Typically, when I think of annuals, I think of a different group and look entirely: increasingly, I usewater-wise annuals as texture-rich fillers that compete with weeds in new or revamped plantings, and as filler color where I expect to have a dull spot in the perennial beds and meadows. I’ve begun using them also as cut flowers, complementing the smattering of perennial blooms I cut for the kitchen counter. Such annuals blend effortlessly with naturalistic and cottage plantings, and reliably reseed each year. Many of these plants aren’t what come to mind when someone says “annuals”; if you’re more interested in annuals that complement your beds rather than replace them, read on.

Danielle Walker remembers how hard she worked to feed her family, just a few years ago. In 2013 and 2014, her mother was undergoing cancer treatments, and her two sons were homebound, dealing with their own health issues. Walker had to find ways to keep everyone healthy and fed. 

Happy Monday GPODers!

The thought of a professional organizer entering your home may send you into a cleaning frenzy. Even if you’re naturally tidy, piles of items can easily stack up, whether due to a lack of storage or a lack of a system.

Wild mushroom collecting is a practice that helps people discover local food sources and the bounty generated by their own neighborhood forests. Of the many different species in North America, almost all of the mushrooms are technically edible, but many are too fibrous to consume. Only about 250 are considered significantly poisonous.

Hi GPODers!

Name: Mahonia repens syn. Berberis repens

It’s always a treat when award-winning landscape designer Jay Sifford sends in photos of his fabulous home garden in the mountains of North Carolina. Today, we have an extra-special treat:

How to Plant and Grow Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum) Pycnanthemum spp.

Anybody who has spent time in the woods or other wild surroundings is familiar with ticks, those blood-sucking arachnids that seek out creatures, including we humans, on which to feed. Most of us also know that ticks are carriers of numerous diseases, the most known being Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. However, many people are unaware of a recently recognized syndrome related to tick bites that can cause serious health conditions, including anaphylaxis and death. This condition is called alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), also known as red meat allergy or tick bite meat allergy. People who develop this condition show symptoms typically 3-4 hours after eating meat from mammals (beef, pork, venison, mutton, etc.). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms can include:

Despite working predominantly in ornamental—especially naturalistic—horticulture, I hold an “interdisciplinary minor in organic agriculture” from Colorado State University. Early in my career I worked primarily in food crops, and before I was 20 years old I spent summers in bean-breeding fields, diversified food-cropping systems, and home gardens. Through my years of food gardening, I’ve found that growing tomatoes even at 5,000 feet here on the “Front Range” is a gamble. With frequent cool, wet summers or late spring frosts—or worse, early killing frosts in fall—ours is not a favorable region in which to grow classic, meaty tomatoes.

In his article Weaving Vignettes Together, horticulturalist Dan Johnson gives us a look into his home garden in Denver, where he uses repeated plant groupings and consistent hardscaping to unify the design of a wide diversity of plants. Dan considers himself a collector, and if he finds a new and interesting species that will thrive in his garden, then he will find the perfect place for it. When I visited his home garden, he showed me some of his favorite natives endemic to the Western United States. Having lived in both Tucson and Denver, Dan is familiar with a wide range of species that thrive throughout both the Southwest and Mountain West, including:

If you’ve run into a garden rut, we’ve got you covered. It’s time to start planning for your first trip to the local nursery or garden center. What plants will you need for a new garden area? Are you noticing a lack of excitement or color outside (we call this the midspring slump)? Just itching for an exciting new addition to a well-established bed? Now is the time to make a list of the perennials, shrubs, and/or trees that will fill those needs.

Popular for their striking vivid flowers, these plants also have some doppelgangers growing in the wild! Welcome to the world of weeds that look like hollyhocks!

Brightland

From the eye-catching Edelweiss that thrives in the majestic Alps to bright and playful Cornflowers that are a common sight in the lush countryside, all German flowers have a story to tell, which we will discover in this article!

My career in ornamental horticulture has led to the development of a working theory: Ornamental grasses are an acquired taste for most gardeners. This theory grew from personal experience (my tastes have changed significantly since growing up gardening on the Front Range) and from similar opinions expressed by several folks I’ve coached. I think this delayed appreciation stems from a realization that grasses can excel where perennials fail. Ornamental grasses may lack flash, but they offer four-season appeal, eye-catching forms and textures, and superior tolerance to harsh weather; in addition, they give gardens an immersive feel thanks to their penchant for gentle movement.

Jillian Rosone

Arizona’s landscape ranges from deserts to tall mountains and is home to several bushes that thrive in these unique climatic conditions that range from USDA Zones 5-10.

These Boxwoods for Containers can be pruned to to be manageable and look lush all year round. You can also pair a few of them together to create a privacy screen.

How many 4 Petal Flowers can you name? One? Two? Perhaps five? Well, we have more than the fingers on your hand!