The Big Lie

A garden has this advantage, that it makes it indifferent where you live. A well-laid garden makes the face of the country of no account; let that be low or high, grand or mean, you have made a beautiful abode worthy of man.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we move to Colorado, we are quickly conditioned to accept the fact that gardening here means that you maintain a little patch of bluegrass, and surround it with sterile rock mulch, throwing in a few obligatory shrubs hoping that this will make it feel more like a garden.

The fact is that our climate is perfect for many plants. A garden in the High Desert can absolutely explode with yellows and purples and blues all summer long. With good soil, our abundant sunshine is soaked up by the prairie plants, rewarding the wise gardener with a lushness unlike anything that a woodland gardener could ever achieve.

The endless of acres of rock mulch create a sterile environment that is overly hot in the summer and completely boring in the winter. While the rock mulch is cheaper to put down the first year than is a well-designed garden, it provides costs that go up with time, and looks that deteriorate over time.

So don't succumb to the hopelessness that results in large tracts of sterile rock and water-wasteful turf grass. Plunge into your garden vision head-first, and you will achieve a high prairie gardening dream. Create something beautiful!

Eden, after all, was probably a Garden in the High Desert. Our objective is to help each gardener to uncover their Eden.