Posted February 20, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Saving seed has become more t
han a passion – it’s pure joy. I think differently now about planning my garden and ordering seeds. When Cord and I got back from Seed School with Bill McDorman, we came home to a fall garden, dripping with seed, ready to be saved. Armed with a beginner’s knowledge, we gathered more seed that fall than I could have ever believed. The garden was so abundant and we had been so wasteful for so many years. We just let it fall!
You can bet the following spring – we were ready. We planted saved carrot roots in March for seed production in fall. It was the most beautiful thing to see hundreds of carrot flowers covered in
Read more »
Posted February 16, 2012 by Featured Instructor
We all know Colorado is the best place to live. The mountains, the weather, the people. It’s beautiful here. But every now and then we get the urge to hit the road. See the sights and make some images of a place that is not our own. Join me this spring in San Francisco for an exciting opportunity to make some great images and stretch your creative abilities to their limits.
From April 26 through 29 this spring we’ll explore the city streets, natural landscapes and gardens of the City by the Bay and come home with some really incredible images. San Francisco is the perfect city for a quick getaway. The flight is short and the vibe is so very different from Denver. In a few short hours you can be in a different world of subjects to frame in front of your camera.
On this trip we’ll eat, drink and dream about photography. Oh yeah, we’ll take a lot of pictures too! It’s all about exploring an unfamiliar place with a keen eye and a strong creative urge. Whether your interest is people, places
Read more »
Posted February 11, 2012 by Sarah Spearman, Education Sales Coordinator
Denver has just had a foot of snow, but the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory is glowing with humidity and learning opportunities. If you’re dying to get out of the house, Denver Botanic Gardens has just the solution for you. Often times during winter when we drive by or think of the Gardens, one word comes to mind: cold. However, inside the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory, the temperature is a balmy 70 degrees or higher.
Every Saturday and Sunday, free hour-long drop-in tours are offered. If you would like a tour at another time or for a larger group, call ahead (720-865-3539) to schedule your tour.
When I visited, a lovely docent named Nevin led us through the Boettcher Tropical Conservatory. I wouldn’t have imagined that over 350 species grow within the poured cement walls. But in the short 60 minutes we spent with Nevin, I learned that plants have lobster claws, some wood is so dense that it sinks in water, and poison dart frog babies (not truly poisonous) have been released into the observatory
Read more »
Posted February 6, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Vines bring a sense of enchantment to a garden. When you have planted every square inch of ground in your garden but still want to plant more, vines will help you maximize the vertical space in the garden. Vines can be used to create a living screen that helps break wind, absorb sound and provide privacy and enclosure. An arbor or pergola covered in vine creates shade for relaxation, entertaining and growing shade-loving plants. Vines can also be useful when used as a groundcover in certain situations and can help control erosion on slopes.
Groundcovers are the answer when you want to fill a space with plants rather than mulch. They often can be considered a living mulch and work well in shrub borders and beneath trees to bring
Read more »
Posted January 30, 2012 by Featured Instructor
After several months of bare tree branches, I am ready for the arrival of spring and with it returning to Colorado’s flower filled natural areas. The gardeners I know spend these short days and long cold nights perusing seed and plant catalogs to gear up for the next season.
In lieu of shiny catalogs, botanists, like myself, and mycologists work with specimens (mycologists study organisms in the kingdom Fungi). Specimens are individual plants or fungi that have been dried and archived into a collection. These plants and fungal specimens are collected as part of a scientific study to document species diversity and distribution.
The specimens themselves serve as a voucher or as a representative of the population for future botanical and mycological research. For botanists, anxious to get out into the field, specimens allow us to continue our work even when the plants or fungi are dormant for the season. Likely for this reason, in the 1500’s, the Italian botanist and physician Luca Ghini developed the practice of preserving plants by pressing and drying them when freshly collected, and then
Read more »
Posted January 27, 2012 by Matt Cole, Director of Education
A Tangelo blooms in the Denver Botanic Gardens Orangery in winter.
Winter is busy, and not just for Colorado skiers. Gardeners are planning, dreaming and preparing; growers are tending indoor blooms; and propagators are starting plants to be ready for warm weather: busy! Evergreens are balancing photosynthesis and drought, orchids are delivering on the promise of color and beauty, and seeds are trying to intuit the fine line between germinating too soon and too late: busy! For some gardeners, winter means that their busy, short days can’t hold time to appreciate each bloom and everything that is happening.
You can’t always look ahead either. It was pure chance that I saw this white Tangelo blossom on a snowy day. (The Orangery at the Gardens looks lovely with the orchid showcase throughout.)
Read more »
Posted January 21, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Usually I get to see the look on people’s faces when I give them a bag of delicious produce in winter from my passive solar greenhouse. You should have seen MY face the other day when Cord came home with a large bag of vine-ripened, delicious, juicy winter-grown tomatoes! From somebody else’s greenhouse!
Cord finished building a 44’ state-of-the-art totally sustainable passive solar greenhouse late last August and the owners lost no time in getting tomato plants in the ground soon after. They planted large potted tomatoes in deep beds at the base of the wall of stored water – the thermal mass.
Now, in January, they are 10 feet tall and bursting with tomatoes. Not only were they grown in winter – but with passive solar. And, oh yeah, at 8,000 feet in the mountains!
No tomato ever tasted so good. The juice ran down our chins. I started laughing while I was eating
Read more »
Posted January 17, 2012 by Featured Instructor
Urban beekeeping has been all the buzz, lately. And for as many people that keep bees, there are that many reasons WHY people keep bees.
One of the most important reasons to keep bees is for pollination. Bee pollination is needed for the production of an estimated one-third of the food crops grown in developed countries. When it comes to fruit, the number of bees visiting a plant affects the size, uniformity and amount of fruit it produces. Bee pollination also has an impact on other foods we eat, such as meat
Read more »
han a passion – it’s pure joy. I think differently now about planning my garden and ordering seeds. When Cord and I got back from Seed School with Bill McDorman, we came home to a fall garden, dripping with seed, ready to be saved. Armed with a beginner’s knowledge, we gathered more seed that fall than I could have ever believed. The garden was so abundant and we had been so wasteful for so many years. We just let it fall!
Posted in: At the Gardens, Conservation & Ecology, Education, Green Living - Comments(0)