Summer 2015: A Season in the Garden
· Escape Garden Design, Aspen, Colorado
Summer in the high country is short and generous, and we spend it mostly watching people use the gardens we planned all winter.
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.
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 perennial beds peak in July, and steady deadheading pushes a second flush of color into the cooler nights of late August. The native grasses come into their own as the season ages.
Aside from the weather, here is what was on our minds in the garden this season. From about mid July into September the afternoon storms roll in most days, and a smart garden takes advantage instead of fighting them. When a real soaking comes through, turn the irrigation off for a few days rather than letting the timer run on schedule. The storms also bring hail and hard wind, so stake tall perennials early and accept that a July hailstorm can shred big leaves overnight.
Stake tall perennials early against the afternoon storms, which bring hail and hard wind along with the welcome rain.
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.
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.
We will see you next season.