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Three Great Antioxidant Fruits to Grow in Colorado

Todd Rutherford — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:08:51 +0000

I recently wrote about growing your own antioxidant ‘superberries’ as part of a designed low-water landscape, and not just as part of the typical fruits and vegetable garden area. Another group of ornamental plants that fits this category and needs to be given more attention are the currants and gooseberries.

Red Lake Currant

These plants are small to medium shrubs that are mostly drought-tolerant and, for many of them, adaptable to sun or filtered shade. Best of all these shrubs provide healthy edible berries while providing landscape interest, with some even giving nice fall leaf color.

Red Lake Currant (Ribes rubrum) is possibly the best choice for Colorado gardeners who are looking for a mild-tasting red berry. It prefers full sun, but benefits from some afternoon shade in hot summer areas. It matures to 3-4’ high and 3-4’ wide.

If you’re more concerned with ornamental criteria, the native Golden Currant (Ribes aureum) will fit the bill with its yellow flowers and red fall leaf color. Golden Currant prefers partial shade and low to moderate water conditions, and produces red to black berries that are most delicious when left to dry on the shrub to a raisin-like fruit. Its common name comes from the beautiful yellow flowers and it has an open, rounded form, growing 4-6’ high and 4-6’ wide.

Ribes aureum – Golden Currant

Close cousins to the currants are the gooseberries. They are native to Eurasia, and grow as rambling shrubs with arching spiny branches. Gooseberry berries are larger than currants and sometimes have hairs on the skin. They are usually green colored, but some variants may range from red to deep purple. A recommended choice for Colorado is the Pixwell Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa ‘Pixwell’). Pixwell’s ½” size fruit are light green, becoming soft pink with maturity. The plant grows 3-4’ high and 3-4’ wide. Plant one of these in your yard so you can one day make a classic gooseberry pie!

Definitely consider making room in your landscape for a currant or gooseberry shrub. Many of them are well adapted to our dry Colorado climate, are moderately sized, provide ornamental interest and will reward you with antioxidant-rich berries to savor.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Photo of the Day – Spanish Gold Broom Ready to Burst into Bloom

Matt Corrion — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:33:07 +0000

Have you noticed how amazing the Brooms around Denver are looking right now? This one I photographed in Aurora is just beginning to explode into bloom. Sadly, many of the flowering trees and Lilacs along the front range got zapped by the late cold spells we had, and few will produce showy flowers this year. It is nice to have amazing drought tolerant plants like Cytisus purgans ‘Spanish Gold’ to pick up the slack.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

How Long Should You Run Your Lawn Sprinklers During the Drought?

Matt Corrion — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:30:17 +0000

Despite the recent rain across Colorado, much of the state remains in a drought.

The watering restrictions that Denver Water put in place for this year remain in place, having gone into effect on April 1st.

You may be aware that watering restrictions mean you can only water two days per week, but how long should you run your lawn sprinklers on those days? Denver Water recently released this chart, which includes recommended watering times for different types of spray irrigation. Note that due to the drought, these watering times have been reduced from their standard recommendations.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Grow Your Own “Super Berries”

Todd Rutherford — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:04:35 +0000

A recent trend in the food world has been the craze for antioxidants. Many tasty and healthy fruits and vegetables have been touted for their antioxidant components. Many of the best known antioxidant plants, such as green tea, coffee, cranberries and blueberries, are not easy or are impossible to grow in the Colorado landscape.

Aronia arbutifolia – Red Choke Berries

However one of the fruits highest in antioxidants can be easily grown in Colorado, providing spring flowers, edible berries, red fall color, and drought tolerance all in one package. Recent news reports have mentioned that Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) shows one of the highest values of antioxidants ever recorded by researchers. In fact, scientists have placed its antioxidant powers above blueberries and cranberries.

While the chokeberry has twice as many antioxidants as blueberries, its taste is a challenge. As you may have guessed from the common name, the berries’ juice is astringent and not sweet. But juice from the berries can be made into wine, jam and syrup. The red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) is slightly sweeter, and was used by Native Americans to make pemmican. But the red chokeberries probably don’t rank as high as the black ones on the antioxidant chart. The red chokeberry shrub does provide one of the best fall colors available, some saying it’s even better than the fall color of the burning bush.

The two Black Chokeberry species that do well in Colorado are Aronia melanocarpa elata (height 5-8’ x spread 4-6’) and the dwarf Aronia melanocarpa Iroquois Beauty (height 48”-54” x spread 30-36”). These shrubs can tolerate periods of drought once established but prefer more moisture, and are adaptable to various light conditions, but do best is partial shade. Prefers neutral to acidic soil with higher organic content. They do have a suckering habit.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Photo of the Day – Barberry Berries

Matt Corrion — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:03:58 +0000

The small red berries of this Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) stand out against last week’s gray snowy weather. The berries have persisted all winter, providing a food source for birds long after the previous year’s leaves have fallen off.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click h ere .

An Old-fashioned Shrub for New Gardens

Todd Rutherford — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:28:29 +0000

I recently discovered a flowering shrub that I thought was a new introduction, but has actually been a gardening staple for generations. I thought it might be a new shrub on the block because I’ve not encountered it in any public or private gardens in our region. Some sources state, however, that it was familiar to gardeners from previous generations. This shrub would be none other than Kolkwitzia amabilis, commonly referred to as the Beauty Bush.

As the common name would imply, Beauty Bush provides a stunning display of gorgeous bell-shaped pink flowers with yellow throats in late spring. The habit of Beauty Bush is vase shaped with sprawling, upright stems. It grows 10-15’ high and 12-15’ wide at maturity. This size would make it a good candidate for a large yard that needs a flowering shrub along the sides or back fence areas. Consider it as a choice for a large flowering hedge.

Best of all, this shrub is drought tolerant, though it can handle moderate watering, and prefers well drained soil. It can grow in full sun to filtered shade, but flowers best in full sun. Luckily for Colorado gardeners it tolerates clay soil and is adaptable to varied soil pH.

PLANT STATS

Scientific Name: Kolkwitzia amabilis

Plant Type: Deciduous Shrub

Mature Height: 10-15’

Mature Spread: 12-15’

Cold Hardiness Zone: 4 – 8.

Water Requirement: Medium, but has moderate drought tolerance. Give it an occasional deep soaking.

Exposure: Sun (will tolerate filtered shade)

Flower Color & Bloom Time: Pink. Spring.

Winter Interest: Exfoliating bark on mature stems.

Best Features: Profusion of small, pink, bell-shaped flowers in spring. Tolerates clay soil, grows in a wide range of soil conditions.

Disadvantages: Twiggy, wild look in winter may be undesirable for some.

Maintenance Tip: Prune out dead wood to reduce twiggy appearance. However keep in mind that it blooms from old wood.

Availability and Sizes: This plant seems to be regularly available. Various cultivars to choose from.

Wildlife Value: unknown

Have you used this shrub in your landscapes? If so, please comment on your experiences below.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Lessons from the Desert – What Principles Can We Apply in Colorado?

Matt Corrion — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 20:39:17 +0000

Two weeks ago I took a road trip to Phoenix to visit some old friends. We had an amazing time! The desert landscape is so interesting. Since I was visiting in late March, I was not subjected to the 100 degree + temperatures that come in summer, it was a comfortable 80 degrees most of the time.

My friends Brian and Colleen were nice enough to allow me to stay with their family. I brought my camera everywhere, with an eye on photographing and studying the landscape to see what ideas could be incorporated into our landscape designs back home in Colorado. Below I list some of the highlights of places I visited and observed.

Residential Landscapes

Brian and Colleen’s back yard with “totem pole” cactus – Beautiful!

Saw some interesting things- good and bad… Most homes have no lawn in the front yard, and large back yards typically have a limited amount of lawn. I think this is a good approach that saves water.

So what was used in place of lawn? It seems that at least 50% of the homes have swimming pools, and I saw some very well designed large outdoor patios and outdoor living spaces. For the landscaped areas, the ground cover of choice is small rock mulch (about 3/8″, angular rock).

Within the landscaped areas, I thought some of the plantings were a little thin. Creeping groundcovers, ornamental grasses, and massings of plants could be used more effectively to help cover the rock areas. Other features used in place of lawns were sport courts, outdoor kitchens, and shade structures.

Visiting the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix

Purple Prickly Pear at the Desert Botanical Garden

This is truly an amazing garden! So many interesting cacti, agave, succulents, and native desert landscaping. They also were featuring some incredible glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly. I highly recommend visiting this garden if you are ever in the area! They have a great Facebook page as well, check it out.

Highway and Roadside Landscaping

One of the more striking features as you drive through Phoenix (and it is a very automobile dependent city) are the large swaths of roadside landscaping along the highways. Most of these areas are highly maintained slopes of rock with a few plants here and there.

My friends told me that there is a constant battle trying to eradicate the weeds from the rock- seems like a silly design solution to me. The nicer areas, in my opinion , had more plants grouped together in random, natural plantings. Other areas had formal planting in patterns and rows, or even just different color rock placed in patterns…

Aerials of Phoenix highway landscaping. Left- one of the nicer designs I saw, with random natural plantings. Right- this section had no plantings, with patterns of colored rock- not a fan of this approach.

Touring Local Nurseries

I had a chance to tour a local suburban Phoenix Nursery. I was interested to see what plants and materials were commercially available. I was happy you see that the trend of edible landscaping was equally as popular in Phoenix as it is in Denver, with a large selection of herbs, fruit trees, and other culinary delights.

Agave, yucca, and cacti at a local suburban nursery

This nursery also had an impressive collection of sculpture and pottery- These items can add interest to a residential or commercial landscape, require little maintenance, and can serve as interesting focal points to the eye that break up large areas of rock.

One of the more interesting items for sale were packages of two Praying Mantis eggs- for natural pest control.

Hiking in the Superstition Wilderness

On my last day in the Phoenix area, my friend Brian and I went hiking in the Superstition Wilderness area. This turned out to be a very challenging hike to the top of the “flatiron” with amazing views and even more amazing native plants! I couldn’t help but think, – Why couldn’t some of those roadside highway areas be allowed to naturalize like some of this wild landscape, which received no maintenance and no irrigation?

Native wildflowers- the orange flowers are Desert Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), which grows great in my Denver garden!

Native landscaping in the Superstition Wilderness area- Why can’t the highway roadside areas be naturalized like this?

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Low Water and Edible Too

Todd Rutherford — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 23:19:43 +0000

Culinary Sage

Many people may think that low-water gardening and edible plants are mutually exclusive. However, some of the tastiest culinary herbs are perennials that can find a home in your water-wise landscaping. So don’t just grow herbs in your vegetable garden, mix them into your perennial beds. While some of the culinary herbs need more water than extremely xeric plants, some of the best and most popular herbs are fairly drought tolerant, thriving in Colorado’s front-range climate.

Thyme is one commonly used herb that is fantastic when fresh. Even if you don’t intend to cook with fresh thyme, just picking a fresh sprig to crush in your hands, releasing the wonderful aroma, is reason enough to grow this versatile and hardy herb. Lemon thyme (Thymus citriodorus) is a great addition to cooked fish or chicken.

Lavender is one classic herb that loves Colorado’s growing conditions if you amend the soil to make it well-drained. Lavender is not commonly used in most American kitchens, but can be part of some amazing deserts and drinks. The best varieties for Colorado are Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’, Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’ and Lavandula x intermedia ‘Provence.’

Oregano is perhaps one of the easiest herbs to grow in Colorado. In fact I’ve found that some varieties area so easily grown that they can become invasive due to their ability to re-seed. As with many herbs, some oregano varieties are better suited for cooking than others.

Culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) is more shrub like than the above listed herbs. As with the other herbs (most of which are in the Mint family) culinary sage produces gorgeous flowers that bees and other pollinators go crazy for. Culinary sage’s flowers are a gorgeous purple, blooming profusely in early summer. As with thyme, you may be familiar with its dried version, but fresh sage is much better.

A less drought tolerant group of herbs but that are still hardy and a nice addition to small pockets in flower beds are the chives. Regular chives and garlic chives are easy to grow and provide edible leaves and flowers. Toss in some fresh chive blossoms to your next breakfast egg dish, and you’ve turned an ordinary dish into something extraordinary.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click here.

Infographic – How to Benefit From a Water Efficient Landscaping Renovation

Matt Corrion — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:53:30 +0000

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click h ere .

‘Whirling Butterflies’, Gaura lindheimeri – Summer Long Flower Power from a North American Native

Todd Rutherford — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:55:48 +0000

This captivating plant lives up to its common name as it produces many small flowers on long arching stems that truly give the impression of whirling white butterflies in the garden. The charming small white flowers last only one day, but are reliably produced from early summer through to late autumn. While it is native to the Texas / Louisiana area, it has shown an ability to survive long dry spells. A distant cousin of Evening Primrose, ‘Whirling Butterflies’ has lance-like leaves more numerous towards the base of the plant, becoming smaller and more sparse above the base. The gradually less leafy and thin flowering stems enhance the soft texture and whirling impression the flowers give. Somewhat attractive to bees, I have not seen many butterflies visiting this plant. ‘Whirling Butterflies’ provides white flowers, while the variety called ‘Siskiyou Pink’ has pink flowers on a slightly shorter plant.

Gaura lindheimeri mixes well with low water plants, especially ornamental grasses with which the flower stems can intermingle in a summer breeze. It doesn’t mind the heat, so it is also great along a wall with southern or western exposure.

PLANT STATS

Scientific Name: Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’. Several cultivars such as ‘Siskiyou Pink’, ‘Pink Cloud’, ‘Cloud of Butterflies’, and ‘Summer Breeze’.

Plant Type: Perennial

Mature Height: 24”-48”

Mature Spread: 24”-36”

Cold Hardiness Zone: 5 – 9. Protect roots in colder areas with mulch. Some cultivars may not be as cold hardy as ‘Whirling Butterflies’.

Water Requirement: Moderate water needs, but is drought tolerant. Prefers well-drained soil.

Exposure: Full Sun to light shade.

Flower Color & Bloom Time: Flowers are white in ‘Whirling Butterflies’, pink in some cultivars such as ‘Siskiyou Pink’. Blooms appear in early summer and continue in fall through the first frost.

Winter Interest: The long wispy flower stems remain, peppered with seeds produced from the former flowers.

Best Features: Attractive four petaled flowers that appear over a long period. Flowers are borne on long wispy stems that whirl in the breeze. This plant starts flowering in the middle of summer and continues flowering through late in the fall.

Disadvantages: The flowering stems arch and can flop over onto to neighboring plants. ‘Whirling Butterflies’ reseeds easily; unknown if the cultivars reseed as easily.

Availability and Sizes: This plant seems to be regularly available. The pink cultivars are seen more often. White-flowered ‘Whirling Butterflies’ is propagated easily by seed.

Maintenance Tip: If you’d like the white ‘Whirling Butterflies’ to naturalize, leave the wiry stems through winter so seeds will be dispersed in your garden. If you want to avoid reseeding, cut and remove the stems with seeds. Pinching it back in early summer may thicken the plant, providing more blooming stems.

Wildlife Value: Bees are moderately attracted to this plant. With its long flowering season, it is one of the last flowers available to bees in fall.

This is the official blog of Outdoor Design Group, Colorado Landscape Architects. For more information about our business and our services, click h ere .

Lot Lines

Three Great Antioxidant Fruits to Grow in Colorado

Related Posts:

Photo of the Day – Spanish Gold Broom Ready to Burst into Bloom

Related Posts:

How Long Should You Run Your Lawn Sprinklers During the Drought?

Related Posts:

Grow Your Own “Super Berries”

Related Posts:

Photo of the Day – Barberry Berries

Related Posts:

An Old-fashioned Shrub for New Gardens

Related Posts:

Lessons from the Desert – What Principles Can We Apply in Colorado?

Residential Landscapes

Visiting the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix

Highway and Roadside Landscaping

Touring Local Nurseries

Hiking in the Superstition Wilderness

Related Posts:

Low Water and Edible Too

Related Posts:

Infographic – How to Benefit From a Water Efficient Landscaping Renovation

Related Posts:

‘Whirling Butterflies’, Gaura lindheimeri – Summer Long Flower Power from a North American Native

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