Hen and Chicks

The house leeks are growing crazy large this season. I am encouraging them to grow in all the spots that the dogs enjoy because they seem to leave them alone!

Being a succulent they are a great choice for the Colorado gardener. They need less water than many other ground covers.

I have found that it is illegal to save water from the roof in Colorado, so I am going to divert the down spout to help keep this bed watered. It is mostly day lillies and hen and chicks right now with a thriving cat mint plant that is a volunteer.

Roses are blooming

It is not raining and that seems good today as I am beginning to worry about root rot. Deoxygenation the people on the news called it.
I have decided that growing roses without chemicals is going to be a challange. Though one of the benifits I have found is that the finch and other small birds love to eat leaf rollers!
Bit of neighbor hood wisdom here... if you put leaf based compost on the lawn dandelions do not grow well. So you can reduce your weeding load if you add more leaf compost. Some say that the application will reduce the growth up to 80%. I don't know where to find the details or studies or anything.

Neice had the baby...

so last week was completely taken up by baby drama.
I have found no real way to express myself with this so far. I wanted to say that the garden is coming along in some wonderful way, but the truth is it has be very chilly and so nothing is really growing hard. I am going to post some pictures later in the week of the new stuff once it is more than seed leaves.
The compost pile is cooking away, and I think if it gets much hotter I might look for a way to really cook with it! LOL Turning it seems to be hungry work some days and it might be left to just sit and digest soon. I get tired so easily.
I have been checking my account at hyperlocalvore and not finding anyone interested in gardening with me as yet. However I do think that in the fall when the greenhouse is up and ready that I might find someone that is more interested in learning season extending ideas.
We went out to the dog park today and picked up some litter in the area and found a place to dispose of it properly. I suppose I believe that even the microenviornmental efforts should add up eventually. Perhaps in the hundredth monkey kind of way.

trying not to feel like a slacker...

But I am not so active this week. The MS jumped on me again and I took a few days to recover my sense again. Now that the temper fit is over with I think I am doing alright.
Since all the gutters are off the house except on I think that I am going to continue to design a rain operated fountain. I am designing a gargole (please forgive the spelling today it seems to come and go) to go at the top of a short piece of guttering that will be on the back deck cover. It should drop water to a rain chain that has some bells on it, and then on to a water fall to a rain garden. The idea seems to be valid.
Materials should include much hypertufa as it is something I like to do. Several large clay pot bottoms, or perhaps found objects that will hold water. This should be rain driven so it will need no pump.
Something that I am playing around with so that I can keep some of the run off on the property.
Not much but I am hoping that the 1% rule will keep me happy until I can figure something else out.