Wow, gj, you can sure tell some man and woman hours went into this. The place looks fabulous! Thanks for sharing!

Barb

How fun, Greg - thanks for doing the video and sharing :) My, you and Leslie have been very busy!! Looks wonderful - such a wide assortment of plants, too! Love it!

Marj

Wow looks great! If you or Leslie want any suggestions for xeriscape plants let me know. Xeric soil/native plant gardening is my favorite for ornamental planting.

My my favorite part of this video is looking at the contrast between your neighbors yard that is just a pure monoculture of KBG and your yard that looks so much more vibrant and full of life!

Thanks for the comments.

Zach, we're enrolled in a program with the city and they are to send us an assortment of plants. When i get the final list I can post it and see if you have any comments.

The people behind us absolutely hate what we've done to the landscaping. Go figure. She's going to put in a 6 foot privacy fence so she doesn't have to look at our "ugly" yard. Most of the yards in this neighborhood are still mostly what the builder put it. 3 to 4 trees way too close to the house usually aspen, pine or spruce and then KBG. It looks tidy but to me it is exceedingly boring. Then people water, fertilize and use herbicides to extreme levels. Overall it's a very sterile neighborhood.

Greg, your garden looks so full of work and love - real gardeners enjoy the beauty of it all. The 6 ft. Privacy fence made me chuckle as our neighbors to the north put in this monstrosity on 2 sides of their sitting area - it looks like a 12’x15’ partial fence with the bottom 1/3 slats removed. Privacy. They are in a different neighborhood and can’t do anything with the builders fence.

Very nice tour! I love all the variety. You and Leslie will be eating well this summer.

Well xeric and native plant gardening is my favorite since it’s easy, haha. Set them, help them establish the first year, then basically forget them (other than to enjoy them). That’s cool there’s a program through the city to promote waterwise gardening though, is that in Aurora?

I would say it’s your neighbors loss wanting to hide your yard from view. I hate suburban landscaping, sterile is perfect word for it. At least even my weeds have character haha.

Zach, it's the city of Westminster they send a garden in a box. I think we are getting two boxes. Aurora also has a program where they rebate/discount your water bill for numerous years if you apply and convert your front and or side of your landscaping. Plus in theory you'd be using less water also which should also lower the water bill and conserve a precious resource.

Awesome tour!! I really like the way you've interspersed things in your layout. Wow. Very cool. :) Your staking systems are a neat hybrid of twine and cages, which I've not seen before. A couple questions: what are you using for mulch (i.e., where is it from, how thickly is it applied, etc.) and what variety of oregano is working best for you? My oregano didn't make it over the winter, so I'm looking to try again.

Now I'm inspired to make my own garden video to share. Things have been sooooo slow to grow here in Fort Collins due to the 90 degree heat (and blasting wind) that there hasn't been a whole lot to show until recently. Hopefully as we move into "monsoon" season this will change...

lol, gjcore, on the drunken monkey reference! Not sure what you mean about 'best answer' - I'm not seeing anything like that. I just see that you can change the sort the posts from Newest or Oldest, and that annoying 'Read More' where you have to click to read the entire message.

Good tip on the leaf quick compost! We also use the chips from the city limb recycle - we've done a good portion of out back yard with that resource! I will have to check out the Westminster garden in a box program - I've heard of it, but never checked it out. That is awful of your neighbor calling your yard ugly - it most certainly is not!!! Well the pro when she puts up the fence is you don't have to look at her lackluster yard! ;)

I've never posted a video on youtube. Is that the only/best option for posting one? Tips on how to do that? It would be a fun way to "visit" each others gardens - especially now :)

Very cool-- thanks for the tour! We've never planted dill, but have gotten volunteers in our garden many times :)

Hi Marj, youtube does seem to be the best way to post videos. Fairly easy to do but you do need a google account. As far as tips are concerned I prefer to do videos twice that I post. Do it once and then watch it and critique it then the second is easier. For a more professional look use a tripod and a regular camera (not a cell phone) with someone else operating it though most newer high end phones do make good videos. Also if using a phone it's almost always best to hold the phone with the longer end being horizontal.

Ok gjcore - I made a video using my cell phone, and braved getting it posted to youtube! I set it as 'unpublished' so only people who have the url can see it, so hopefully this works for everyone here.

Just a brief walk-thru some of my backyard garden beds. Just ignore the weeds you see ;)

Mstywoods, that was a great tour! I really enjoy seeing others gardens. Thanks for posting it.

Mstywoods -- What a cool tour!! Love, love, love your iris walk, the shade garden, water features, the Gnome house, and your "beach". Your Black Krims are way bigger and bushier than mine are at this point. They must really love being in those custom built beds!

I was thinking of filming my garden today, but it's been "duck and cover" time with all the lightning and thunderstorms sweeping over the Front Range. Had to put everything under hail protection and scurry indoors. Oooof.

Looks good Marj! The raised beds look nice and easy to work on. The Iris row looks great. I bet when in bloom it looks spectacular. Your yard looks LARGE!

Thanks Laura, mmmmm and Greg :) Yea, our backyard is a good size (front yard is a postage stamp). I love all the different colored irises I've gotten from swaps and it's fun to see them bloom all along that border! The Black Krims I started from seed (ordered online). I used a heat mat for the first time this year, and that seemed to really help. We also transplanted them into larger pots before we felt the weather was right and they were sturdy enough before putting them in the ground, actually later than usual (end of May, I think). My husband made combo tomato cages/hail protection for them, to avoid what happened to them last year. We've had the hail cloth covers on almost since we put the plants in the beds, and he took them off just a few days ago. Then luckily we got the text messages for hail warning and dashed out to get them covered again! It was quite a rush, lol. Then, of course, no hail - but better safe than sorry!

Anxious to see more garden videos!

I guess I'll share a couple of mine as well. The first one was taken back in May. I need to work on more of steady move. The second one was taken this past weekend. I accidentally pressed "stop" while I meant to make it longer but I'll leave it as is for now. Background music is piano recording by my daughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--sTZyExb0M&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1x4pnljezCCuwlUm-yqtqoPXCg3Hj5-0u472_8Iqr4oTTgOudGJOjZofE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDuhd4w0M9Y

Gorgeous Gardenchloe! So smart to take them during different times of the year to capture the blooms. I'm going to do that next year.

I echo mmmm's comments! So neat and tidy, and love all the peonies, and you iris! Your daughters piano playing is lovely :) And what's the little fluffy plant called? lol

lol, mstywoods,

The fluffy plant's name is actually "Fluffy". :)

Thanks, Mstywoods and mmmm12. It's funny that this is the first year that I thought about making a recording (maybe I'm just to bored at home) but then we get to share them with the group. :)

Gardenchloe, what a wonderful display of color!

Loving the tours! GoardenChloe I love all of your peonies and iris, and your daughter's piano playing was the perfect soundtrack to your beautiful garden. I've never done a garden recording but take lots of pictures. Such a great idea!

Soooooo pretty, GardenChloe! I've heard that piano piece before, but can't recall the title. Do you know what it's called? Your daughter's rendition really went well with your gorgeous flowers. (At first I didn't notice the date and was like, "How on earth does she still have iris blooming like that in July?") Hehe.

So this morning I hastily put my own video together before the neighbors started repairing their roof. Think I'll do another one in a few weeks to show the pollinator garden again, as it's currently in the mid-season "in between" phase where not a lot is blooming yet. Stay tuned...

Link to my tour: https://youtu.be/gZIQ7ftIqN0

Sharing our gardens is so fun!

Laura - I so enjoyed your video tour! Wow, so many different plants!! I recognized a few that are in my garden as well - the chocolate flower is one of my new ones that I started from seed. They are doing well, but are still very small and I don't know that they will flower this year. I also use the dollar store baskets for hail and snow protection, lol - I love your idea, though, of having a stake next to the plant to slide the basket over to secure it in place. Think I'll steal that! Great tip also on the extra strong pinwheels. Where did you find those?

Lol - when your video ended, the next one started and I almost couldn't watch it when I saw the snow! Music went with that perfectly :^D

Laura,

That was a fantastic tour! You have done so much with the space. I called my husband over right away to look at your pin wheels. What a fantastic idea. I also loved the idea of the dollar store laundry baskets as hail covers. So clever! I never thought of using hardware cloth for hail so we may look at how to do that also and avoid so much hail damage to things.

Mstywoods -- I got them on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TVLTY65/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Unfortunately that particular seller looks to be currently out of those pinwheels, so I'd check back periodically. Maybe someone else is selling them....?

It took the chocolate flowers a couple seasons to get going. I've no idea why they're not more robust (I honestly thought they'd all died last year) but their scent is so amazing it's worth babying them. If they set seed this year I'm gonna collect it and try to start some chocolate flower plants indoors so I'll have even more next year.

I have a few more garden/weather videos from years past, but apparently haven't uploaded them to YouTube. If I get really bored I might do that.....

Mmmm12COzone5 -- It's a teeny-tiny yard, but it's larger than most of my neighbor's lots (and my front yard, which is just 15 x 20 ft.) Our houses are spaced a mere 11 feet apart, as well. My husband bought the property before he married a gardener, obviously! Haha.

And yeah, hardware cloth is the way to go for protecting stuff with large leaves from hail. Someday I hope to build an overarching structure, sort of like a pergola but with hardware cloth on top.

Wow. Wonderful videos.

Laura, the music from my May garden tour is called River Flows in You by Yiruma. The one from June is called Ballade Pour Adeline by Richard Clayderman.

An update to the earlier video. Things are coming along.

https://youtu.be/ASojmGYCjzg

Thanks for the update, gcore. Very healthy and lush growth! I'm relieved to see that I'm not the only one having tomatoes that aren't ripening up much yet. I think its been because of the record heat we had in July. After watching your video, I'm definitely gonna try "Red Freddy" basil in my garden next year. (P.S. Does the "No Trespassing" sign work on keeping the rabbits out?) ;)

I've filmed an update, as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADWMZnvVOIY . Unfortunately some of the pollinator garden footage didn't get recorded, as it was a bright morning and when I thought I was filming, I was accidentally turning the camera "off" instead of "on" -- so I may film those segments again. It's nice having a video record of things, in addition to a garden journal. It's so easy to forget what went where, especially because I'm always trying new things every year.

If all goes well, I think it'd be fun to do another update for September -- if the grasshoppers and hail don't take out everything by then!

Thanks, Laura. Now that we're past Lammas the harvest season is taking off. We had an awesome Hungarian Strawberry tomato yesterday. The Gete Okosomin Squash is taking over the Aurora garden and producing enormous sized fruit. I will definitely grow the Red Freddy basil again. This is the first year I grew it mostly because I couldn't find the usual basil seeds for sale that I grow.

The no trespassing sign doesn't seem to deter the rabbits. It's part of the property dispute going on with the neighbor. She plans on putting up a 6 foot fence with a gate so she can come on this side to weed. Grrrrrrr.

Laura,

Very nice video!

Laura, can you post a recipe for your refrigerator pickles? (Maybe on a different thread.) I tried some a couple of years ago and they were tasty but too much salt. At the same time, I feel the need to follow a recipe because - I don't know what I'm doing!

And, those Shishito peppers - are you thinking of pickling those as well?

I grew some and was surprised that the wrinkles are on the fruit, not because of pickling! Those are tasty too but I was happy enough to just use them fresh. DW wasn't very interested in them. She hasn't been eating very spicy food in recent years but I also think that the wrinkles ... uh ... upset her. That's too strong of a word ... disquieted her? (People's appetites and tastes - no accounting for them. ;o)

Steve

Wait a minute!

I am thinking of pepperoncini peppers.

Shishito only look hot! I was sprinkling hot pepper on my lunchtime soup when I thought of that.

Steve

@Laura (Z5a Fort Collins, Colorado) lol, love the shots and music with the grasshoppers! They have chewed on my iris, and many other plants, as well. When I water my plants, there is this sudden rustling everywhere as they make a dash to get out of the way - I helped them along a bit with the sprayer set on jet!!

Glad the hail you got wasn't too large - yea, crazy Colorado weather for sure!

I was surprised by our little hummingbird visitor today! The calm before the Denver area winter storm blast due to start tonight!

How cute, mstywood. Red Bird in a Tree is a humming bird magnet. I also took a video yesterday as I needed to cut things down before the storm. here is the video. The air looked pretty smoky when I took it due to the wild fire. https://youtu.be/jCx3s-jXBZc

Very cool mstywoods. We've had quite a few hummingbirds here in Westminster this year. I have a hard enough time trying to get a picture nevertheless a video. Anytime I get anywhere close they fly off.

I might do a before and after "the storm" video if I have enough time to get it started today.

Mstywoods, I took my feeders down yesterday morning because I had not seen a hummingbird at the feeder in several days. Well about 2 hours later, there she was, sitting right on the hanger where the feeder had been. So I refilled it and put it back up. She's been around quite a bit today going from the feeder to the redbirds in a tree back and forth. I guess she is bulking up!

gardenchloe - your yard is gorgeous!! Wow - so many things in bloom! I love all the placements you made as well, very well designed. Kudos to you for a fabulous green thumb.

gjcore - I couldn't believe it when it flew up so close to me where I was standing! It did the same thing a few minutes before I got the video, and actually even closer to me, but I wasn't able to get my camera up in time. But when it came back, I just slowly pull my phone out of my pocket and it didn't seem to mind. One of those lucky unplanned encounters :) Too bad the quality of the video suffers once posted.

popmama - so funny! Guess she was saying 'Hey, I wasn't finished with that!' Do Hummingbirds migrate for the winter? Sure hope they make it through this blast of cold and snow alright.

Mystywoods, Great video! We never get hummingbirds so I really enjoyed watching it (which I did at least 3 times).

Gardenchloe,

You color flowers are fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Lovely, lovely flowers, Gardenchloe! Wow.

Mstywoods -- Gorgeous visitor. Thanks for sharing. :) My hummers have possibly migrated early, due to the wildfires up this way. (Cameron Peak fire is now over 100,000 acres and still burning.)

In the rush to protect my veggies from the recent wild weather, I forgot to post my September update that I filmed on the 2nd. I hope to add one more in October to document all the ash and snow drama.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6m7BSXUdi0

Here's for hoping for a gentle end to the season,

L

Laura, It looks awesome! The hens and chicks that you mentioned looks like one I brought to one of the swaps a few years ago. Sorry I don't know the name. That does indeed look like a brussel sprout. You might get some harvest in October. They've never done well for me so I stopped growing them. Probably they do better in a climate like the Pacific northwest. Your peppers and tomatoes look great! Jalapenos are hard to figure as to how hot they'll be even on the same plant they can vary. I assume it's mostly soil, water and weather that makes the variability. The reason the squash flowers fall off is that they are male flowers. By this time you are probably getting female flowers and fruit. Yes the carrots would do better not under the shade cloth.

I love all the pollinator friendly flowers you have, Great job!

Thanks a lot for sharing it. I must say it looks amazing

Thank you for this video. It brings me so much pleasure to take care of my garden. For sure, it takes a lot of time and energy. But it is so pleasant to enjoy what you have managed to do with your hands. Thanks to my favorite flowers, my garden looks colorful. Every morning I delight in the sweet and fresh aroma of the plants. At https://www.growgardener.com/5-enchanting-bell-shaped-flowers/ I managed to find some useful information about flowers that grow in my garden. I mean Siberian Bluebells, Foxglove, and Western Teaberry. What I can say with confidence, you can get good results only if you do everything with love and care. Besides flowers, I have some fruit trees, and I love to cook fruit salads using them.