Summer 2001: A Season in the Garden
· Escape Garden Design, Aspen, Colorado
By midsummer the valley is at its peak, the perennials full, the water features earning their keep through the heat.
It is also fire season, never far from anyone's mind in this valley, so we keep the ground near the house lean and green and stay aware of how dry the hills get.
The afternoon monsoon storms arrive most days from mid July, brief and loud, and a smart garden leans on them, pulling back the irrigation after a real soaking instead of running the timer.
Water is the constant concern. The features run on a closed loop, recirculating the same water, and the planting is grouped so the irrigation only runs where it is needed. In a dry climate, a beautiful garden and a frugal one are usually the same garden.
We also spent time this season on the everyday craft of the garden. If a plant could be designed for the Colorado high country, it would look a lot like a penstemon: spikes of tubular flowers, deep roots, and a real love of lean, fast-draining soil. There are dozens worth growing, from the low pineleaf penstemon to the tall Rocky Mountain species, and hummingbirds work them all summer. They hate wet feet, so we plant them on the dry side of a bed, often in gravel, and water sparingly.
Stake tall perennials early against the afternoon storms, which bring hail and hard wind along with the welcome rain.
More than anything, a garden up here rewards patience: it takes a season or two longer to settle than people expect, then looks like it was always there.
We design, build, and maintain our own gardens, so we live with the results for years and learn from them.
The land around us is the best teacher there is, and the gardens we like best borrow from the hillsides more than from any catalog.
Everything in this valley runs on the same short calendar, and the gardens that thrive are the ones designed around it rather than against it.
Our soil is mostly alkaline clay, the air is thin and dry, and the sun is strong, so the plants that last are the ones that have made peace with all three.
We take on only a handful of gardens each year, which is the only way to give a place like this the attention it asks for.
That is the season from where we stand. We will check back when the next one turns.