When I lived in central Kansas I had an acre of land surrounding my house with lush flower gardens, a vegetable garden and an herb garden.

Prize KS Sunflowers

From April to October there was always something in bloom. I couldn’t really grow grass, but anything else did well in my yard. I really miss playing in the dirt so I am gardening again this time in the mountains, well trying…between the animals and the climate I am ready for a war.

I have lived here for 4 1/2 years and last year was the first year I actually put anything in the ground. Before that I had containers all over my deck and front porch. I got tired of replacing plants after they were destroyed by a herd of elk grazing through the neighborhood so I gave up for a while. After we got our dog, Haley, we put up a fence and so that helped keep the elk away, but they still eat flowers in the front yard. Haley is Garden Enemy #1 in the backyard. She stomps on my plants constantly. I think I had two tomatoes last year and only a few peppers.

Haley=Garden Enemy

Elk love Petunias

There was a existing raised bed that I have cultivated so I can experiment. I have mostly perennials in one half and veggies in the other. So far I have Columbine, Hyssop, Daisies, Purple Coneflowers, Poppies, Sunflowers, Yarrow, and Gaillardia. In the other half, I still have a few flowers but planted Blue potatoes, Russet potatoes, Roma tomatoes, Rhubarb, Cucumbers, Sweet Baby Watermelon, Canteloupe, Zucchini, and Strawberries.

Strawberries

Veggie Side

I also have two hanging planters the upside down kind. They stay soggy all the time I am doubtful they will work, but I planted Toms in one and Peppers in the other. I was only able to do this in the last two weeks because it got so cold late in the year. Last weekend I took all the containers in the garage and tarped the bed. Now it is warm and sunny and we should get growing soon. Tonight I laid out my soaker hose and tomorrow I will stake it down. I will keep you posted about my progress and hopefully I can inspire some budding gardeners who are frustrated with gardening at 7500′ of elevation like me. Please post any suggestions!

What is an Estes Park Snow Day?  Here it means that we have a foot of snow on the ground,  it’s still snowing and quite possibly the weatherman is going to be wrong, but we aren’t sure which way.  Last Wednesday was our first day of canceled school for the year.  You can check your calendars again, yes it was October.  I can never get my kids up in the morning, but at 7:30 am they were outside with me shoveling snow and for the rest of the day sledding and building forts.  Fortunately it stopped snowing that evening so we missed the 3 feet that was forecast.  Across the rest of the state it continued to snow that night and the next day with up to 2.5+ feet in some areas.

In Estes, we have our own little micro-climate.  We are completely surrounded by mountains and usually that works in our favor.  When big storms come through we almost always get less snow than the Front Range.  It was a regular work day for me so I headed to the office, later at the grocery store it was a social occasion I saw so many people I knew.  The snow didn’t keep most folks home.  There was school on Thursday, all the roads and paths were cleared.  The park department is so great usually the walking paths are cleared before the roads are.

walking path

I could have gone snowshoeing or hiking, but decided since it was so pleasant on Thursday I was going to take Haley for a run and we ended up at the dog park.  She loves the dog park and pulled me the last quarter mile.  When we got there she was so sad, there were no other dogs there. She really didn’t know what to do with no dogs to chase.

She loves the snow and dove into a snowbank on our way back.

snowbank

Mt. Olympus

Elk on 18 hole golf course

Well now as I write this almost a week later it was 60 degrees and breezy with beautiful blue skies. Other than the January winds there is not much that keeps us inside. Please visit us in the winter, you will be not be disappointed!

For those of you concerned with Estes Park getting overrun with condos you can attend the upcoming meeting of the Estes Valley Planning Commission in the Board Room of the Town Hall on Tuesday, October 16th at 1:30 p.m. Topic of discussion will be the application for the planned 42 condominium units on S. St. Vrain (HWY 7) and Lexington Ln on an almost 6 acre parcel that is a grassy meadow where elk herds are seen often and other wildlife too. We have 167 condos on the market right now. Honestly do we need more. Prices are falling to 2005/2006 values. This would depreciate the values even more. Anyway, come and voice your opinion.