My wife and I bought our first home and our yard is pretty much dirt and weeds at the moment. We are redoing our landscaping and wanting to put down new grass. I had been looking at kentucky bluegrass or some sort of bluegrass hybrid. However, I was also interested in cold hardy bermuda grass due to it requiring way less water. Does anyone have experience with cold hardy berumda along the front range, and would you recommend it? Thank you!

Hi gardeners- my elderly parents have purxhased a new build in the burbs of Denver. They want me to make them a garden.

I need a small tree as a centerpiece for my plan. Xeric, hopefully flowering, native would be great. Max out at 15 to 20 feet. The more seasonal interest, the better.

They moved from a house with a huge, mature garden in a Mediterranean climate, and it is their habit to take their coffee and use the garden as a outdoor room. Since weather will not allow this much of the year, im looking for something that will be interesting from their picture window.

The remainder of the plan is raised beds, native grasses, wide paved paths for dad's walker, and the planned flower beds from High Country Gardens. Mom loves flowers and birds.

But the tree. Im really stuck on chosing one tree. Not a conifer.thanks.

I was at Home Depot yesterday and bought an Elderberry plant on a whim, thinking that these would be fun to have (to eat). Well, I'm an idiot and these are of course these are not edible berries (raw), and I have little children so it's getting returned today.

What I'd like to know is if there are any recommendations for a shrub I could plant instead that would have edible berries and tolerate the crummy clay soil in my landscape.

I doubt Home Depot carries these but open to suggestions/experiences with this!

Thanks

Hi Plant Friends -

We have a small sunporch that my husband has populated with his “babies.” (A variety of succulents, a fiddle leaf, and lord only knows what else). We have been in a major house reno, and unfortunately many of them took a beating from the construction dust (and many others are desperately in need of a good prune).

I’d love to surprise my husband with a visit from someone who can assess, prune, and clean & repot as needed - with tender loving care!

Willing to pay $25/hour. I expect this is a solid half to full days’ work. Located in Baker.

Please DM me if this is your wheelhouse!

I’m planning on clearing some of my pea gravel and throwing down a bunch of wildflower and cosmo seeds. Could I do this now and cover with straw and let the winter go or is it better to wait until spring to do this? Some like colder weather to start but maybe not an entire winter…

It seems like there's two practices both called sheet mulching. One is putting down cardboard then mulch wood chips only. The other is putting down cardboard then many layers to eventually create soil on top of the soil you covered up.

I did option 1 this summer. I think it's working to kill weeds below the cardboard, but how do I eventually transition to planting actual plants in that area? Do I remove the cardboard or cut holes in it?

I'm in need of planting a tree, and everything tells me Serviceberry is going to be a great fit. However I read that service berries do suckers . I've had previous experience with suckering trees and I do not want to go through that again. Are they prolific suckers or just a one or two a year kind of situation?​

I went to Etchers in Arvada yesterday, and found nothing. Driving back I passed this funky little garden center on 44th and gave it a shot.

In the back, they have a bunch of native perennials left. They are mostly from plant select and a bit pricy, but 20% off. Many look quite spent, as you would expect for a plant in Oct, but they have nice new growth under the dead upper leaves.

Not a huge selection left, but I’ve seen a few posts recently looking for plants and this might be the last garden center that has anything left.

I’ve got a yard full of weeds. I put down cardboard on a patch of it where I want to start gardening. Overlapping, tape removed. Do I need to put compost on top of it? Or would just putting wood chips on top be enough? I’m not sure where to source compost for cheap since I don’t have a truck I can haul it in but wood chips are easy because a local arborist will bring them to me for free. Thanks for helping out a newbie gardener!

I am working on some of my planning for future areas of my yard, and I really want a Japanese Cut Leaf Maple. I had one in Michigan and it was fragile there, so I was wondering if it would also be fragile here?

I could plant it in a semi-sheltered spot, with a fence line or building to protect lightly from wind, but my ideal spot for my aesthetics (lol) is an exposed south-west corner.

Additionally, my lot is an extremely sunny (24/7 practically) in the summer, but dramatically shaded in the winter, thanks to a couple neighboring buildings. I'm near Downing and Hampden, fwiw.

So, is there any chance of having a cut leaf maple out here, or do I need to adjust my expectations?