PO Box 2458, Tijeras NM 87059

Mountain Gardens--finding success with plants for the high desert and East Mountains of New Mexico

Saturday, November 5, 2011

November 5, Snow Again

They said we'd get wind, and boy, we've already had gusting well over 50 mph, and into the 60's possible. Rain, grapple, sleet, snow.  All the little gaps in the insulation are showing! But the work we got done earlier in the fall has made a difference. The kitchen is much warmer, and we're burning less wood. When the wind drops, we'll cut the wind generator back on. So far the power is good but we'll probably have to fire up the diesel generator sometime today. Ah, life off the grid...

The real downside to this storm is that my warm, sunny greenhouse is cold and dark just when I really need to be working in there. My plug shipment came unexpectedly, and those plugs need to be repotted soon. We're expanding our selections of Plant Select material.

The Plant Select program is a collaboration between the Denver Botanical Garden, CSU, and growers to produce plants especially suited for Rocky Mountain growing conditions. At our altitude, we've found these plants to be exceptional performers, and better choices than many plants that grow well in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. The program adds new plants to their palette every year--we've selected nineteen, some new, some old favorites.

We love the Diascia, Coral Canyon, because it goes on heavily flowering into November despite freezing weather. The agastaches are drought tolerant natives that take our clay, are wonderfully fragrant, and came back for us after -30, despite their zone 5 designation. We'll have Sinning, Coronado Red, and Sunset.

Lavendar Mist is a perennial osteospermum. In addition to penstemons Pike's Peak, and Red Rocks, we'll off Bridges and Shadow Mountain. The Denver Daisy rudbeckia is new for us too, as well as a buckwheat, Psdowns, and Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle. More about these later...

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