Dear Friends & Fellow Gardeners,
Thank you so much for hanging in there with us this year as we scrambled to adjust to new circumstances and new protocols! We are truly grateful for your patience and loyalty, which made it possible to help so many people, many of them new to gardening. In fact, one of the nursery trade magazines reported that in the US this year, there were 19 million new gardeners. There were days this spring when it felt like they were all coming to Harlequin’s! We have the hang of it now, and if the pandemic is still a threat in spring 2021 (which is probable), we will be able [Read More]
We’ve heard from some of you that your trip to Harlequin’s for holiday gifts was your first foray into shopping since the COVID precautions began! This is such a strong affirmation that we are offering something of real value and importance to you, and we are honored to have this level of support!
If you were lucky enough to get any mason bees nesting this spring, you’ll want to coddle them through the winter. Their populations are down throughout Boulder County because of the weather, and Tom Theobold, our usual supplier, isn’t even sure whether he’ll have any for sale next spring.
You can do the same with leaf cutter bees but handle them very carefully as they aren’t yet mature. Our supplier, Crown Bees, will be 
We know it’s not necessarily easy to access the ‘Holiday Spirit’ this early in the season, especially in the midst of local wildfires and a pandemic. These emergencies have separated us from each other, but in meaningful ways, they have also brought us together. Here at Harlequin’s Gardens and beyond, we have seen a real increase in mindfulness and caring for others. 
The Front Range is a hotbed of innovation and passion for quality food with real flavor and real nutritional value. Whether it’s the micro-brews, coffee, chocolate, heirloom vegetables, pasture-raised meats, or ancient grains, or the gluten-free, paleo, keto, or vegan diet, Front Range Coloradans have shown great support and enthusiasm for slow, locally-grown, organic, fair-trade and creative, locally hand-crafted foods.
Your bees have given you joy and honey (hopefully!) this summer. Now it’s time to give back to ensure they have a safe and cozy winter. They need three things:
We have some new varieties of Amaryllis, a long-time symbol of the holidays, as well as some classic favorites. We’re offering traditional red, white, and several blended, pink, and apricot varieties – a fun way to change-up your holiday decorating! (Pictured: Amaryllis Apricot Parfait, left, and Apple Blossom, right. Photo credit: Holland Bulb Farms.)
It’s a big week at Harlequin’s Gardens! Our 
One of the earliest harbingers of spring are flowering bulbs, which people and bees all seem to welcome. One aspect of bulbs that may be underrated is their scent. Many bulbs are fragrant, bringing an added dimension to their enjoyment. Some of our most fragrant bulbs include:
Children have a lively interest in the natural world. They love vivid pictures, but they are bored if we dumb it down for them. We offer children’s books that are fascinating even for adults, full of in-depth science, but graphic and fun—many with projects and activities that make facts real. Also great story books, beautifully and cleverly told and illustrated.
From your previous visits in the last eight years, many of you know that our Holiday Market is the most rewarding, enjoyable place to shop for your holiday gifts, relaxed and far from the madding crowd! But these are strange and challenging times, and the pandemic has altered just about every facet of our lives. So, for a while there, we wondered how we could present a holiday gift market under the current circumstances. We realized that the only way we could keep our customers (and staff) safe and happy while shopping our market was to move it up to October!
Harlequin’s Gardens love and support for bees is reflected in our Bee Barn’s great selection of bee keeping products
Have you noticed that your daffodils and narcissus have been struggling and lost their vigor? Here are several possible reasons why and ways to address reviving them.
Circa 1857, this delicate-looking yet easy-growing North American native has composite 3″ globes of star-shaped, sparkling white flowers with pale lavender stamens tipped with purple anthers and sturdy stems.
Dense columns of waxy, pure white florets appear in mid-spring on sturdy stems. Aiolos has an intense, sweet fragrance and is a long-lasting cut flower.
This is the perfect time to feed your roses, perennials, and lawn using a slow release organic fertilizer. This type of fertilizer won’t push undue growth now, but instead help your plants prepare for next spring. We recommend Mile High Rose Feed for your roses, Alpha One Fertilizer for your perennials, and Nature’s Cycle Organic Lawn Fertilizer for your turf.
On our hikes, it seems we’re often exclaiming, “What a beautiful plant combination!”. Mother Nature’s inherent beauty and functional placement provide an amazing guide and inspiration for what we can create in our home garden or ecosystem. Mother Nature also helps guide us on how we can best support our pollinators.
It’s time to buy your ‘seed’ garlic, which you should store in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place until planting time, from mid-October to mid-November. Seed garlic bulbs are specifically chosen for planting because they are the healthiest bulbs with the largest cloves, and they are intact. By planting the largest cloves, you’ll be rewarded with a harvest of big, juicy bulbs.
How to maximize your output
We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to protect one of the most unique parcels of land in Boulder in a way that would have lasting impact on the community for generations to come. In 2014, Boulder native Timothy Francis and his wife, Kerry, broke ground on a half-acre garden called Dharma’s Garden—named after a deer who was born where the garden now stands. Their nonprofit was founded to pursue the greater vision of the whole five-acre property as a fully integrated educational farm and homestead.
Hummingbirds are zipping and humming and sipping around our gardens, partaking of the summer’s bounty of nectar-rich flowers, many of which are ‘color-coded’ specifically to attract them. And you’ll want hummers in your garden, not only because they’re beautiful, not only because some plants depend on them for pollination, not only because migratory birds are imperiled, but also because they eat prodigious numbers of small flying insects like mosquitoes! And did you know, some hummingbird have been known to live up to 25 years!
For over a quarter century Harlequin’s Gardens has shared plants, Eco-products, and advice for organic methods of gardening with our community. We are proud of the success so many have had and have wanted to share their results! So, we’ve created Harlequin’s Virtual Garden Tour for our community to share not just photos of their gardens but also a little about gardening goals, styles and experiences–especially sustainable approaches. 
All spring we have been advising you not to prune out branches without leaves yet. After last October’s flash freeze and this March’s freeze of the new leaves, it was important to give shrubs, trees and roses time for a second set of leaves to come out before removing wood. By now we should be seeing new green leaves forming if the wood is still alive.
Pollinator week is a special time for Harlequin’s Gardens – a time when we can celebrate the hard-work of bees (honeybees, solitary bees, bumblebees) wasps, ants, flies and bee flies, butterflies and moths, beetles, some bats and birds, and some mammals. They’re all around us, connecting the dots between flowers and food.
Do you love the sweet fruits and vegetables of late summer as much as we do? Well then, PLANT THEM NOW! We’ve got the heat now, which they thrive on. To develop those natural sugars, these crops take more time to mature than many other veggies, mostly between 70 and 100 days from seeding. We’ve saved you some time by growing starts, LOTS of them, and most of the varieties we’ve chosen will mature relatively early.
The shelves in our Rose section are ablaze with colorful and fragrant blooms, which you can smell, see, touch, select and plant now!
In October of 2018, we were asked by the 
Incorporating edible flowers in your cuisine not only adds visual appeal, but also can offer high nutritional value and great flavors. Edible flowers have been used for millennia in many cultures to enhance everything from salad to beer and wine. A quick internet query on “ancient edible flower recipes” revealed many results. It could be a fun family event to recreate a heritage recipe!
The best time of day to plant your new vegetable starts, or any other container-grown plants, is after sundown, when the temperature has decreased a bit and the sunlight is not direct. Avoid planting in windy conditions, which can desiccate the fragile plant. If you plant in the evening, plants will have all night and early morning to make some adjustment to their new homes.
Have you found that rabbits are becoming more rampant?
Many odor repellents can be helpful, including our non-toxic Plantskyyd (in liquid and pellet forms), and Bobbex liquid concentrate or ready-to-use spray. Although non-toxic, you may not want to use these products on edibles. Also, remember to reapply according to directions taking into account current precipitation and irrigation rates.
THANK YOU!
The ancient proverb “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers” could be revised for Colorado as “March and April heavy snow, freezing temps, and strong winds bring forth May flowers”! And this year was no exception. Two recent cold snaps with temperatures reaching lows of 3 degrees F in our neighborhood, snows up to 36” in the foothills, and winds that will bring down any weak tree branches, wreaked havoc and impacted flower and fruit productivity. So now it’s time to help support our shrubs and trees to recover.
1-Place the wire cage on the desired spot, pressing the legs firmly into the soil so the bottom ring sits on the soil surface. 
We’re wearing our masks, keeping our distance, disinfecting, etc. It couldn’t be more obvious that we are all connected by the air we breathe in and the biology we breathe out and share through what we touch. It’s not all bad. The microbes in our guts are responsible for helping digest our food and supporting our immune system. Not only that, but 90% of the cells in our bodies are microbe cells, and only 10% are human cells. Kinda makes ya think.
It wasn’t too long ago when Harlequin’s Gardens only accepted cash (and we would extend credit to those customers who didn’t have cash with them). And now here we are, only accepting credit cards to help minimize contact and maximize social distancing. (Thankfully we had set-up our credit card system a few years ago.) We’re continuing to evolve by introducing