Our compost tea will be ready this week, hopefully by Friday. Our tea has always been good, but this year we are working on making it even better. Please let us know if you can see good results from using it, and if it seems to be more effective.
Say Hello to ECOPLUS Organic Compost! We are replacing our A-1 Eco-Grow compost with the newly-available ECOPLUS Organic Compost, an OMRI certified organic compost made by A-1 Organics in Colorado.[Read More]
They’re hardy, evergreen, fragrant, gorgeous! Some of you are familiar with Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’, a much sought-after semi-evergreen shrub with cream-edged leaves that try to be evergreen all winter but usually defoliate by February.
But there are less well-known, compact, mounding Daphne shrubs, like ‘Lawrence Crocker’ and D. neapolitanum that are much easier, completely evergreen, and even more gorgeous and fragrant, and we’ve got some very nice ones right now! [Read More]
Miss planting bulbs last fall? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Choose from miniature daffodils, chionodoxa, hyacinth, tulips and more.
You can enjoy these in their pots while they bloom and plant in-ground later, or plant the blooming flowers now. Either way, you’ll have blooms for years to come!
The fields and the foothills are turning green! So many trees are blooming or beginning to leaf out! There is so much energy bursting forth everywhere I look! After the lovely rain last weekend we emerged from our Sunday class to be greeted by the singing of frogs in a big puddle in the parking lot! How can they develop that fast???
To help celebrate Spring, we’ve got a really exciting line-up of local live music and dance for this coming weekend and for Mother’s Day, too! And some great deals on beautiful, Harlequin-grown, pesticide-free plants.
It could have been worse. We are grateful that the severe winds didn’t cause any fires, blow down very many trees, kill or maim anyone (at least not that we’ve heard) or tear off roofs. It must have been a terrible time for anyone that was unhoused.
We lost one small hoophouse that was empty at the time, but the others made it through with little damage. And we were forced to stay closed on Saturday with no electricity, no heat, no water pumps, no internet and no phone. Our huge thanks go to the customers who came out on Sunday and helped us recoup a bit of our Saturday losses. Our phone and internet are still down, but we were blown away by the gracious patience of our customers as we tallied their purchases by hand and if they didn’t have cash or checkbooks, we wrote down their information so we can call them and complete credit card transactions over the phone when we have our service restored. We will continue to provide this service until our internet service is back, and we hope you will come and shop at Harlequin’s with cash or checks. [Read More]
There’s much to do in the garden in April, from finalizing your garden plan, attending to your tools, to the annual spring clean up and pruning and lawn and vegetable garden prep, and PLANTING, DIVIDING and TRANSPLANTING!
We have your checklist and the information and products you’ll need this month, here.
Cherokee Purple
THE FIRST TOMATOES!
Anasazi
Black from Tula
Black Krim
Bush Early Girl
Cherokee Purple
Glacier
Green Zebra
Large Red Cherry
Mexico Midget
Moskovitch
Pink Berkeley Tie Dye
Pink Brandywine
San Marzano II
Sun Gold
Taxi
ANNUALS
Poppies: Papavar glaucum (scarlet), Papavar paeoniflorum (“Purple Peony” and “Violet Blush”), Papavar somniferum (“Heritage”)
Yellow Wonder, courtesy PracticalSelf Reliance.com
FRUIT
Strawberries: Fragaria vesca, Alexandria Alpine Strawberry and Yellow Wonder Alpine Strawberry
HERBS
Chives; Cilantro; Mint ‘Kentucky Colonel”; Greek Oregano; Creeping and Arp Rosemary; Lemon and German Winter Thyme; Stinging Nettle
PERENNIALS
Agastache, Blue Fortune Anise Hyssop
Aquilegia barnebyi, Barneby’s Columbine, native
Aquilegia chrysantha, Yellow Columbine, native
Berlandiera lyrata, Chocolate Flower, native
Coreopsis lanceolata, Sterntaler, native
Delosperma nubigenum, Yellow Hardy Iceplant
Dianthus arpadianus
Digitalis x mertonensis, Strawberry Foxglove
Eriogonum umbellatum, Sulfur Flower, native
Gaillardia aristata BoCo, Yellow-rayed Blanket Flower, native
Gaillardia grandiflora ‘Goblin’, Dwarf Blanket Flower
Gallium odoratium, Sweet William
Hablitzia tamnoides, Caucasian Spinach Vine
Lallemantia canescens, Dragon Head
Monarda fistulosa, Bee Balm, native
Monarda ‘Jacob Cline’
Oenothera berlandieri, ‘Siskyou Pink’
Perennial Poppies – Papavar nudicaule, Icelandic Poppy ‘Champagne Bubbles’, ‘Matador’ (scarlet), ‘Meadow Pastels’; Papavar orientale ‘Beauty of Livermere’ (deep red), ‘Brilliant’ (scarlet), ‘Fruit Punch’, ‘Prince of Orange’, ‘Princess Victoria Louise’ (salmon pink)
Physaria bellii, BoCo, Bell’s Twinpod, native
Ratbida columnifera, Yellow Prairie Coneflower, native
Salvia nemorosa, ‘East Friesland’, ‘Cardonna’
Scabiosa columbaria, ‘Flutter Blue’
Thymus, creeping thyme ‘Pink Chintz’; praecox ‘Elfin’, serpyllum ‘Magic Carpet’
Veronica ‘Waterperry Blue’
VEGETABLES
Nutribud Broccoli, OP
Radicchio ‘Fiero’
Rhubarb ‘Glaskin’s Perpetual’
Japanese Tree Lilac, courtesy Morton Arboretum
While supplies last (some in very short supply)! All are container-grown so they have complete root systems, ready to adapt to and grow in your garden right away!
Japanese Tree Lilac, 5 gallon @ $60 (was $140)
Compact, water-wise patio/accent tree, very showy large ivory flower clusters, cherry-like bark, cold-hardy to Zone 3
Snowdance Tree Lilac, courtesy FirstEditions
Snowdance Tree Lilac, 15 gallon @ $80 (was $140)[Read More]
PANSY VARIETIES:
Pansy Ullswater
Ullswater
Claret
Jolly Joker
Silverbride
Beaconsfield
Frizzle Mix
Pansy Jolly Joker courtesy National Garden Association
Ultima Morpho
VIOLAS:
Chantryland
White Perfection
Viola Chantryland courtesy National Garden Association
Lots of Fruit Trees: the best cherries, plums and apples for the Front Range!
Lots of Berry Bushes:
Gooseberries: Hinomaki Red, Pixwell, Captivator
Currants: Imperial White – great flavor!, Gwen’s Buffalo Currant, and more
Nanking Cherries – Orient, Black-fruited
Fallugia paradoxa -Apache Plume
Lots of great water-wise shrubs, many native!:
Fernbush (Chamaebatieria millifolia) native Plant Select!
Seaberry (Hippophae rhamnoides) – High Vitamin C berries
Western Snowberry – native, white berries, likes shade
Guernsey Emerald Green native creeping juniper – Plant Select
Artemisia Wormwood ‘Leprechaun’ Plant Select!
Rock Spirea (Holodiscus dumosus) xeric native, supports beneficial insects
Mountain Ninebark (Physocarpus montanus )native, part-shade
Lilacs – at least 12 great, fragrant varieties!!!
Viburnums – many varieties
Soongari Rockspray Cotoneaster – Plant Select!
Potentillas – native, many selections
Boxwoods – Hardiest types!
Forsythia – best two varieties, including Meadowlark
Western Bigsage (Artemisia tridentata) fragrant and super-tough native!
Yucca glauca and Y. baccata – both native!
Hardy Manzanita – (Arctostaphylos selections) Choice native broadleaf evergreens
Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa) native super-xeric, long-blooming
As part of HG’s commitment to supporting local ecology and local economy, we have the pleasure of connecting with and (mutually) supporting small growers in our state and our region. Yesterday, I paid a visit to our immensely talented and dedicated off-site custom propagator, Sue J., in Fort Collins. Sue is a self-taught organic grower with decades of experience. She is a nurturer by nature, singlehandedly managing three large hoop houses full of thousands of vegetable, herb and annual flower starts, many of our most interesting and hard-to-propagate perennials, and some woody shrubs. And when she gets home, she raises award-winning alpacas and llamas and tends to a sweet rescue dog who never leaves her side.[Read More]
March is bringing us a characteristic tilt of the see-saw that this month always brings. Tank tops can go back in the drawer for a little while, as this week we will see night-time temperatures dipping into the mid-20s. We are expecting rain (~1.6 inches in Boulder, ~3 inches in Denver!), and heavy, wet snow, too. We’ve been here before; no need to panic. And we need the moisture!
This is when it’s important to make sure your seed furrows are level (so the seeds don’t all wash down to the low end), and when row cover fabric comes to the rescue.[Read More]
Bastan Pepper, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds
HARLEQUIN’S GARDENS 2024 PEPPER STARTS
SPICY PEPPERS
| Anaheim |
| Adaptive Early Thai |
| Aji Cristal |
| Ancho Poblano ‘Bastan F1’ |
| Big Jim Anaheim |
| Chimayo |
| Czech Black OG |
| Early Jalapeno |
| Fish |
| Hot Red Cherry |
| Hungarian Hot Wax |
| Jalapeno TAM (milder) |
| Korean |
| Lemon Spice Jalapeno |
| Long Red Narrow Cayenne |
| Caribbean Red Habanero |
| NuMex 6-4 (milder Anaheim) |
| NuMex Sandia |
| Pasilla Bajio |
| Mosco (Pueblo) Mirasol |
| Purple Tiger |
| Santa Fe Grande |
| Serrano Tampiqueno |
| SWEET and MILD PEPPERS
Aurora |
| Biquinho, red |
| Italian Pepperoncini |
| Lanterna Piccante |
| Shishito |
| Aconcagua |
| Buran |
| California Wonder |
| Cambuci |
| Cubanelle |
| Golden Treasure |
| Gypsy Queens |
| Habanada |
| Healthy |
| Jimmy Nardello’s |
| King of the North |
| Carmen F-1 |
| Marconi Red |
| Mini Belle |
| Purple Beauty |
| Sheepnose Pimento |
| Sweet Chocolate |
| Sweet Pickle |
| Sweet Red Cherry |
| Yankee Bell |
HARLEQUIN’S GARDENS 2025 TOMATO STARTS
| Anasazi |
| Big Rainbow |
| Black Ethiopian |
| Black from Tula |
| Black Krim |
| Black Sea Man |
| Burrell’s Special |
| California Sungold – NEW! |
| Carmello |
| Cherokee Purple |
| Chianti Rose |
| Chocolate Cherry |
| Chocolate Stripes |
| Coyote Currant |
| Cour de Bue |
| Carbon |
| Cosmonaut Volkov |
| Green Zebra |
| Glacier |
| Gold Medal |
| Indigo Cherry Drops |
| Isis Candy cherry |
| Juane Flamme |
| Koralik |
| Maglia Rosa |
| Matt’s Wild Cherry |
| Martino’s Roma |
| Magic Bullet |
| Market Miracle |
| Mountain Delight |
| Native Sun |
| Orange King |
| Paul Robeson |
| Pink Bumblebee |
| Pink Brandywine (Sudduth) |
| Pink Berkeley Tie-Die |
| Pinocchio |
| Pruden’s Purple |
| Rutger’s Indeterminate |
| San Marzano |
| Sasha’s Altai |
| Sungold |
| Super Souix |
| Tasmanian Chocolate |
| Taxi |
| Tidy Treats |
| Thessaloniki |
| Tommy Toe |
| Yellow Pear – Beam’s |
| Dwarf – Vilma (a 2024 Customer Trial Selection) |
| Dwarf – Awesome |
| Dwarf – Hundreds and Thousands (a 2024 Customer Trial Selection) |
| Siberian |
| Aurora Indeterminate |
| Azoychka |
| Italian Roma |
| Moskvitch |
| Northern Light |
| Siberian |
| Sweetie |
Sorghastrum nutans
Instead of maintaining a Kentucky Bluegrass lawn, why not try an area of Natural Meadow, combining well-adapted grasses, wildflowers and perhaps some shrubs too. Such a Meadow can conserve water and fertilizers and should not require pesticides or herbicides. Like all gardens, the first 2-3 years will require more weeding, then less after plants grow together. It can be beautiful, provide habitat for birds, butterflies and beneficial insects, while taking water into the ground, preventing erosion and capturing carbon. [Read More]
Purple Majesty when cooked
Heirloom Tohono O’odham Multiplier Onion plants
ALSO, Leeks and Shallots.
JERSEY KNIGHT (roots, 5 per bundle)
All male hybrid with big spears. Does not make seed, so doesn’t become weedy. Best selection for dense clay soils. Very productive and disease resistant. Hardy to Zone 2.
PURPLE PASSION (roots, 5 per bundle)
Beautiful deep burgundy-colored spears with high sugar content, delicious, tender, less fibrous, great in raw salads.
We just received word that our onion plants were shipped today and should arrive and be ready for sale by Friday or Saturday! We’ll be offering onion plants in bundles of approximately 60 to 70 plants, and half-bundles of approximately 30-35 plants.
Dear Friends and Fellow Gardeners,
Welcome to Spring, and to another gardening opportunity to partner with Mother Nature, grow healthy food, increase the population of native plants, create beauty and learn more about caring for our planet and local habitat. Some people would call this work; we gardeners call it fun in the Colorado sun.
This year Harlequin’s Gardens is going to perform as usual, but we are not sure about the future. We’ve come to a Fork in the Road. We would like to continue to provide plants, soils and services into the future. And we are almost able to do this. We have gotten to the point where we need some help to continue. We’ve been giving a heck of a performance for 32 years, with a small hard-working crew on a shoe-string budget, but times have changed and expenses are growing faster than profits.
Dear Friends and Fellow Gardeners,
Welcome to Spring, to Harlequin’s Gardens and another opportunity to partner with nature. This season we can all grow healthy food, increase the population of native plants, create beauty and learn more about caring for our planet and local habitat. Some people would call this work; we gardeners call it fun in the Colorado sun.
The theme of this newsletter is the Resilience of the Human Spirit and the survival instinct. We can’t speak for the whole world, but everybody we know is in pain and suffering. This is the Elephant in the room. This is a painful time. Of course there is happiness and even joy, but we can’t deny the dark cloud over humanity. Who can ignore the suffering of so many wars? Our world economy is based on guns and bombs, there are poisons and plastics in our food and water, climate extremes are normal, money in politics makes a mockery of democracy, and slime molds know more about symbiotic relationships with their neighbors than humans.[Read More]
This morning the window-shades were opened to reveal a perfect winter day with big, soft flakes of snow filling the air, sticking to the trees and covering the ground. Less than two hours later, the snow has stopped falling and the sun keeps peeking out between the clouds. I know that the snow will soon melt off the early species Crocus and Iris blooms I photographed yesterday, some scouting honeybees will be out gathering their nectar and pollen. I will soon see other spring garden ‘pioneers’, like primroses, species tulips, Bearclaw and Purple Hellebores, Winter Aconite, and our local native Townsend’s Easter Daisy (Townsendia hookeri) making their entrance. It’s all good!
Harlequin’s Gardens is back this Friday, Saturday and Sunday to start another year of exceptional plants and seeds, empowering and cutting-edge classes (see this weekend’s classes below, and our full class schedule here), the best soils, amendments, pest solutions and tools, and everything you need to grow your own plants from seed!
Let’s start SEEDS:
Now is the time to seed many spring greens indoors for transplanting in early spring, such as lettuce, pak choi, mustards, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, and hardy herbs such as parsley, chives, sage and thyme.
[Read More]
Helleborus niger
February is always an exciting time for me. The snow is melting in my south-facing front yard, revealing the first few spring blooms and rekindling my passion for gardening. In my garden, the Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) and Crocus ‘Firefly’ and our tiny but hardy and tough native treasure Townsendia hookeri are the earliest flowers this year. And at the warmest part of the day, I’ve also seen a few honeybees visiting them. They are the unmistakable, irrepressible signs of spring!
In just a couple of weeks, there will be a lot more flowers blooming , and Harlequin’s Gardens will be open for the 2024 season! We’ll be opening through March in Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays beginning on Friday, March 1st. Classes, soil products, seeds, seed-starting supplies, tools and houseplants await you![Read More]
At Harlequin’s Gardens, we’ve been reusing and recycling black plastic nursery pots since day one. It is very important to us that we minimize our plastic waste. We have always encouraged our customers to bring back to us the nursery pots that came with the plants you purchased from us, and you have responded with enthusiasm, which we appreciate!
But many people have brought us pots that we cannot reuse and cannot recycle, and this has been costly for us. For us to be able to afford this pot drop-off service, we need your help! This year we would like to clarify exactly which pots we can accept and use. Following these requirements is the first way you can really help us out![Read More]
Photo Credit: Aaron Favila – AP, and The Daily Camera.
Our Soil Products for 2024 include:
Here are descriptions of many of the soil products we’ll have available at our store (sorry, we are not able to make deliveries). All of these are sold pre-packaged, and we bag many of them ourselves in refundable, reusable plastic bags. Our Compost Tea is sold in refundable, reusable 1-gallon jugs, or you can bring your own.
We currently do have straw in (not organic).
COMPOSTS
A1 Compost
A1 Eco-Gro: We nearly always have this premier compost in stock. A1 Eco-Gro is a Class I compost made from leaves, grass, chipped branches, and beer wastes. It contains a healthy population of microorganisms and diverse nutrients. It is very stable and will not burn or steal nitrogen. Fine-textured, low in salts, with some woody particles. Use in vegetable and flower gardens, lawns, trees, shrubs. The pH is 8.3; the
NPK 1-1-1.
EKO Compost: Made locally from forest and recycled wood products composted with egg-farm poultry manure. Use in vegetable and flower gardens, lawns, trees, shrubs. Improves soil’s physical, chemical, and biological health.
EKO Lawn Topdressing: a finer textured sifting from Eko Compost, ideal to topdress lawns following aeration and fertilizing; gets food and water-holding capacity to roots; great on perennial beds, too.
Organic Mushroom Compost: from a local organic mushroom farm. Premium food for soil life and wonderful in vegetable gardens, helps to loosen heavy soils and improve aeration and porosity. Limited quantities.
FERTILIZERS
Harlequin’s Gardens Fertility Mix: Harlequin’s blend of certified organic fertilizer, humate, rock minerals, dry molasses, land: sourced coral calcium and mycorrhizae. Great for veggie gardens and all plants. Increases root mass, top growth, soil life, and productivity naturally. This is not just a fertilizer. The combination of ingredients and mycorrhizae act synergistically to support soil fertility.
Yum Yum Mix: 2-2-2 Vegan/Organic fertilizer for alkaline, nutrient-poor Western soils, feeds plants and soil microbes. Made from alfalfa, cottonseed meal, kelp meal, rock dust, green sand, humate. Great for native plants, Xeriscapes. Available in large and small bags.
Richlawn 5-3-2 organic: made in Platteville, CO from poultry manure and wood wastes. Excellent for shrubs and trees and is recommended for raspberries and other small fruits. Also economical and effective for fertilizing lawns.
Alpha One Fertilizer: locally made 7-2-2. An alfalfa-based product with a high organic matter content, very high humic acid value, low pH for Colorado alkaline soils, and is non-burning. It also contains blood meal, cottonseed meal and bone meal. Excellent for vegetable gardens and lawns. 20# and 40# bags.
Age-Old Liquid & Granular fertilizers: For foliar sprays and soil application. GROW formula – great, smell-free choice for houseplants, seedlings, container gardens; BLOOM formula – supports plants ready to bloom and fruit; FRUIT FINISH – perfect at fruiting phase for berries, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, squashes, cukes and zukes.
Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fertilizers: We carry several of these excellent liquid fertilizers derived from the mineral-rich North Atlantic Ocean, including Neptune’s Fish & Seaweed Blend, Neptune’s Seaweed Supplement, Neptune’s Tomato & Veg Formula.
Fish Bonemeal – A natural source of phosphorus which is responsible for root development, fruiting and flower production in plants.
Earthworm Castings – Worm castings are soil or compost that had passed through an earthworm. What comes out contains 5x more nitrogen, 2x more calcium, 7x more phosphorus and potassium and many minerals and beneficial microorganisms all in water-soluble and plant-available forms. Worm “manure” will not burn and is safe for all plants, including houseplants. Worm castings support growth, root development, and disease resistance.
Rose Fertilizer: Down to Earth Rose and Flower Mix is our substitute for Mile Hi Rose Feed, and it looks good: OMRI Certified: Fish Bone Meal, Langbeinite minerals, Blood Meal, Seabird Guano, Rock Phosphate, Humate, Kelp.
Corn Gluten – a truly safe Weed & Feed; keeps weed seeds from growing, fertilizes with 9% Nitrogen. Lasts 6 months, Apply in March/April and again Sept/Oct for good weed suppression. Perfect for lawns.
SOIL-BIOLOGY BOOSTERS
Compost Tea: In our Vortex brewer, we make compost tea with a biodynamic compost, a mineral concentrate, kelp extract, molasses, trace minerals, etc. Compost tea increases the beneficial micro-organisms in your soil, which can bring more nutrients and water to your plants and make them stronger and better able to cope with stress. It can be used full-strength as a mild organic fertilizer, or it can be diluted in water up to 3 times as a soil inoculant. It can also be used to inoculate compost piles to make materials break down faster. Available when temperatures are frost free. Bring your own jugs, or use ours for a $1 deposit (refundable upon return).
Humate
A natural trace mineral, carbon, and humic acid soil conditioner. It is not a fertilizer, but it has a significant effect on fertility by feeding soil microorganisms that make nutrients in the soil available to plants.
Humic Acid
3% humic acid derived from Leonardite. A natural liquid product with the same benefits as Humate – soil conditioning and feeding soil microorganisms that make nutrients in the soil available to plants. It is applied as a soil drench to established beds where granular materials can’t be dug in.
Big Foot Mycorrhizae
Water soluble symbiotic fungus, combining four species of mycorrhizae with biochar, worm castings, seaweed, and rock minerals to provide a strong population of plant allies to bring water and nutrients.
Endo Mycorrhizae
Water soluble symbiotic fungus, inoculate roots to bring water and nutrients. Easy to use and very effective. Good for shrubs, trees, all plants (even cacti!); dissolve in water, wet roots.
Myke Vegetable & Herb
Enhances growth, development, and production; dust the granules on wet roots or sprinkle in seed furrow to improve germination and growth.
POTTING SOILS
Fort Vee: Compost based, peat, rock dust, blood meal, kelp, bone meal, gypsum, vermiculite, biodynamic preps; Proven locally at Kilt Farm for seed germination and transplanting of seedlings and potting up house plants. Bag 20 qt (18 lb.)
Ocean Forest: FoxFarm’s top grade with sphagnum peat, kelp meal, bat guano, fish emulsion, crab and shrimp meal, nutrient rich, performs well for seedlings and gardening in containers of all sizes. Bag 1.5 cf
Coco Loco: FoxFarm potting soil uses Coconut fiber (coir) instead of sphagnum peat, perlite, worm castings, composted forest products, sandy loam, bat guano, kelp meal, granite dust, oyster shell, dolomitic lime. Looks good, performs well for seedlings and gardening in containers of all sizes. Bag 2 cf (41.7#)
CLAY-BUSTERS
Expanded Shale: a shale product that is mined and fired near Boulder to create a light-weight, porous “gravel” that holds both water and air, and creates optimal housing for microorganisms. Aids water penetration and aeration in tight clay soils (a Real ‘clay buster’).
OTHER SOIL PRODUCTS
Raised Bed Soil Mix
Azomite: 70 minerals from volcanic source, to increase health, crop yields, root development; support immune function, resistance to diseases, and overall vitality of plants; prevents deficiency problems; good for fruit trees, berry bushes
SOIL-RELATED CLASSES – Learn from Harlequin’s expert educators on topics including: building soil micro-biome, composting, soil selections for Front Range gardening, and much more. Sign up early to ensure your seat — our classes fill up fast!
What You Need to Know about Front Range Soil, by Mikl Brawner
Nobody would want to spend their winter weekends pouring over soil catalogues. To humans, soil just isn’t sexy. To plants, on the other hand, soil is very intimate, and as we humans know, intimacy can be wonderful or awful. So even though we don’t have any sexy soil pictures for you, we’d like to seduce you into looking under the covers where your plants roots are sleeping, because this is where the action will be getting warmer in a little over a month.
By now, most of us know that plants get aroused by soil, not dirt. We used to think soil was just physical; stuff to hold the plant up, so we could add a strong chemical fertilizer to make that plant, or grass, grow Fast! But we’re smarter now, because we know that soil is also biological—full of fungi, bacteria, and if it’s healthy, hundreds or even thousands of different organisms—all living and dying in a mutually supportive relationship with the plants. The plants share their carbon nutrients from photo-synthesis, and the soil life shares water, phosphorus and other riches with the plants. This is symbiosis—and symbiosis is sexy, because it supports Life.
So even though there is nothing you can do at the moment, very soon, before it’s warm enough to plant, you can start making your bed sexy. Sexy soil sprouts seeds, grows roots and leaves, builds strength, makes flowers and fruit, and defends against pests.
Why bother digging and amending? Why not just plant natives and other tough plants and skip the work? You can….some plants will do OK without much help. But Colorado soils are not Iowa soils. Colorado soils are characteristically deficient in nitrogen and organic matter, and mixing certain amendments with our tight clay allows oxygen and water to penetrate. Oxygen and water are essential to support healthy soil bacteria and other soil organisms. They encourage growth and support plant health.
So how can we support the soil life? Think how Nature does it: tree leaves fall to the earth, dead stems and leaves fall over and after years of snow and decay, a rich layer forms that feeds the soil. We humans are looking for faster results, so we can add already matured compost, healthy animal manures or organic fertilizers and rock minerals, plus, if the clay is very tight, we can add expanded shale. Too much of anything is not a good thing: add 20%-30% compost to new plantings, half the recommended organic fertilizers, a handful of rock minerals, scattered, and no more than 10%-20% expanded shale.
Let the biology do a lot of the work. It’s not hard to add more later; it’s very hard to correct too much. Keep the soil covered with mulch or living plants. Even native plants appreciate some compost to hold moisture and provide a light feeding when they are young. One more thing: avoid poisonous pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, like the plague. They kill or undermine the health of your allies—the soil life. Toxic pesticides are the opposite of sexy; they are like inviting the Grim Reaper into the bedroom. There are effective, non-toxic alternatives.
What about no-till? Not turning the soil makes sense once you’ve got the soil life in a good environment. Then you don’t want to disturb the symbiotic networks. Then you can feed from the surface; good tilth and worms will take the food down.
Harlequin’s Gardens has been guiding gardeners with soil care for many years. We source our materials mostly from local suppliers, and we’re very picky: we don’t sell feedlot manure or bio-comp with human wastes, or composts that are too hot or too raw. We don’t sell chemical fertilizers because they burn the soil life, disrupt the plant-soil relationship, limit plant nutrition and contribute to global warming. Our potting mixes are expensive because they nourish plants without chemical fertilizers. Sexy soils support the health of the plants and the health of the gardener who grows and eats those plants.
With some deeply chilling temperatures on the near horizon, gardeners can gain a little comfort by fast-forwarding to spring in our minds as we plan for our 2024 gardens. The predictable and unpredictable consequences of climate change call upon us to observe our gardens more closely, revise our expectations of our gardens, broaden our vision of what makes a garden, and make our gardens more resilient and less dependent on uncertain resources.
We have been absorbed in seed catalogs; the past couple of nights my bedtime companion has been has the always-fascinating J.L.Hudson Seed Catalog, which is much more interesting in print than it is online. Our seed orders have been arriving and our propagators have been cleaning our precious wild-collected seeds, applying treatments to break dormancy (mostly hot water, physical scarification, and refrigeration), and making new plants from old by division and cuttings.[Read More]
Bald Cypress, courtesy Marilyn Kircus
Take advantage of our new stock of very choice container-grown trees, just being brought out for sale! (like the Bald Cypress pictured here). We have grown these hardy, Colorado-adapted trees organically at Harlequin’s Gardens from bare-root stock, and they are potted in large containers – from 5 to 15 gallon pots. They are in our own nutrient-rich, special potting mix with mycorrhizae. They will make an impact in your landscape quickly.
In our culture today, Valentine’s Day immediately brings to mind Romantic Love, Flowers, Gift-giving and Chocolate. And though this very old Saint’s Day has now been commercialized to the Nth degree, it’s still one of the happier occasions we celebrate, so why not enjoy it in our own way? Romance, Love, flowers, gifts and chocolate are all very positive and uplifting. And we have some recommendations for all of those categories except Romance (you’re on your own there!).[Read More]
Agave seed stalk
The day before Thanksgiving in the Reshetnik-Brawer home was largely spent cleaning the house, but we also decided it was time to cut down the towering inflorescence of our Century Plant (Agave utahensis x parryi v. couesii). I held the 3”- thick stalk while Mikl cut through it with his folding hand-saw (a great tool!), then we laid it down on a ground-cloth to catch the copious seeds that fell out of the hundreds of pods. To me it felt as if we had just felled a large and noble animal or tree, and there were several quiet minutes of awe and reverence. Now that it was horizontal, we were able to get an accurate measurement of the bloom stalk’s height, 14.5 feet, and I counted 34 branches! We will be planting the hundreds (or thousands?) of seeds to produce new plants for you.
As I write, the ground and rooftops are blanketed in snow, and the sun is streaming in the windows. Gotta love the Colorado winter! In less than a month, we’ll be open for our 32nd year as a nursery and garden center, and we are quite excited!
I don’t think we’ve ever had an easy year, but ‘easy’ isn’t an option in this business. So many aspects of running a nursery have never been predictable, and we’re always relating with thousands of details and challenges.
BUT we have a great crew and there are many things you can always count on finding when you visit Harlequin’s Gardens, and we hope you will appreciate the value you receive when you shop at our big little nursery.
For 31 years, we have always been committed to non-aggression, health and environmental stewardship in horticulture and all other spheres of Life. And this commitment will always continue!
We’ll never use toxic pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers.
We are the best source for Colorado and regional Native Plants on the Front Range.
We have and will always specialize in Water-Thrifty plants, Native and Colorado-adapted plants and Pollinator-Supporting plants.
We are always broadening our plant offerings, often bringing into cultivation wonderful local wild plants that were previously unavailable in commerce. (*see below for examples)
Our staff, e-newsletters, classes, and hand-outs offer empowering, cutting-edge organic and environmental gardening advice and education gained from our 31 years of research and experience.
Our customer service team is exceptionally knowledgeable, helpful and accessible.
We grow most of our own plants and supplement with plants from other local and regional growers that never use neonicotinoids.
We grow our plants in our own carefully formulated potting soils that grow healthier, stronger, more resilient plants that will establish successfully into your garden.
Our pest management products are always non-toxic, child-safe and pollinator safe.
We compost and make our own powerful Compost Tea.
We aim to be a zero-waste business: we bag compost and mulches in returnable plastic bags that we reuse to reduce plastic in the environment. We also reuse nursery pots, and sell our compost tea in returnable/reusable jugs.
We offer superior, CO-specific resources and advice for supporting bees, butterflies, birds and other pollinators and beneficial insects.
We test and evaluate our soil products (composts, organic fertilizers, mulches and other amendments), and most of them are sourced locally.
We recycle and use recycled materials for our building projects.
Our greenhouses don’t use fossil fuels; our heat and energy come mostly from the Sun, with a little electricity from renewables. And this year we are installing a heat-pump system for our store!
We are located in unincorporated Boulder County, where sales taxes are only about half the rate of those in Front Range cities.
We support local growers, artists, artisans and musicians as well as non-profit environmental efforts.
We connect our customers with events and other educational and activist opportunities related to environmental, agricultural and horticultural issues.
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Wild Plants we are Propagating in 2024. We have our fingers crossed that good germination and growth on the unique native plants described below will allow us to bring them to you this season.
The plants we offer will contribute to a beautiful, thriving garden that will be a joy to behold, but they can also provide so much more than a pretty picture to look at. The ecosystem services that our plants provide add much more value to your gardens.
Celtis reticulata, courtesy Oregon State University
Celtis reticulata, Netleaf Hackberry
You may be familiar with the larger Celtis occidentalis or Western Hackberry, which makes an excellent long-lived, water-wise deciduous shade tree. Netleaf Hackberry is substantially smaller, fairly slow-growing to 15’ to 25’ with a spreading canopy, interesting sculpted bark, an attractive twisting branch pattern, rough green leaves and reddish brown or purple berries. The leaves support the caterpillars of Mourning Cloak and Hackberry Emperor butterflies and a number of moths, which in turn, along with the sweet berries, attract and feed many birds. In Colorado, Netleaf Hackberry occurs in the wild in the Front Range foothills and on the western edge of the plains. It is rarely available in nurseries. We’ve seen some handsome specimens growing around Lyons. Cold hardy and highly adaptable to many soils, moisture levels and exposures, it can be grown as a small to medium-sized tree that will not require any supplemental watering after initial establishment.
Mertensia lanceolata
Mertensia lanceolata, Prairie Bluebell, Languid Lady
Dropping way down in scale, we are hoping for good germination on this lovely local spring wildflower that inhabits a wide range of Rocky Mountain habitats and elevations, from the plains to alpine habitats, in dry partial shade under deciduous shrubs and trees, on north-facing slopes, near rock outcroppings and in sunny meadows. In mid to late spring (May and June in Boulder) the delicate bell-shaped flowers nod from slender stems, opening from plum-colored buds and maturing to blue. The leaves are blue-green due to a waxy coating, with a prominent center vein. Prairie Bluebells are in the Borage family, prized for its many striking blue-flowered constituents. The plants can produce sizeable colonies, several feet across and can range from 6 ” to 14” tall. Prairie Bluebell goes dormant by early summer, dying back to its substantial roots.
Argemone hispida, courtesy Mik Kintgen
Argemone hispida, Rough Prickly Poppy
This is one of my favorite local wildflowers. It took me awhile to notice that it was different from the Prickly Poppies I had met before (Argemone polyanthemos), being more stout and shrubby, with grey-green foliage and much more dense, numerous and slender golden prickles on all parts, from stem to bud to seed-pod. The fabulous silky white flowers are just as big (4” wide) and just as stunning as the more commonly found Argemones, but the plant is more compact, up to perhaps 15” tall where I’ve seen it growing. They both grow in the same habitat, so Rough Prickly Poppy is also happy growing dry and hot, and blooms at the same time – May to August. Found in Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Astragalus utahensis, courtesy James L. Reveal and the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center
Astragalus utahensis, Utah Milkvetch
Utah milkvetch is in the legume family (Fabaceae). One finds quite a few plants in this family in the arid west. They are probably making life better for themselves and the plants around them by fixing nitrogen from the air and transferring it to their roots and the soil. Native to Utah and several adjacent states, this very pretty spring-blooming milkvetch is particularly abundant in the Wasatch Mountains. Its typical habitats include rocky hillsides, sagebrush openings, and pinyon-juniper areas. A rock garden, crevice garden, or the front of a Xeriscape garden with excellent drainage will suit it well. The plant is lovely even after bloom, with its wavy silvery pinnate leaves.
Yours in support of abundant Life,
Eve Reshetnik Brawner & Mikl Brawner
We still have LOTS of gorgeous spring-flowering bulbs! When these ‘buried treasures’ emerge, they are among the first signs of spring and are welcomed not only for their beauty, but also for providing early pollen and nectar sources for our pollinating insect as they, too, emerge.
Customers have been inquiring about which bulbs can thrive in the particular circumstances of their gardens. Whether you have a rock garden, native garden, xeriscape, fragrance garden, traditional flower border, cutting garden, or meadow, or you are living with deer, squirrels, chipmunks, limited water, baking sun, shade, clay soil or decomposed granite, there are spring flowering bulbs you can grow successfully, and we still have plenty of them! We carefully curate our selection to provide the best of the best for our climate and all our various garden types.
Well, that was a false alarm!
You heard it from us (and all the weather guessers in the media) – we were going to have our first freeze, possibly a hard freeze, late last week. As my friend Elise put it, after harvesting all of her dahlia blooms, tomatoes, etc., “Huh?”.
In fact, Mikl and I did clear counter space and we did spend all day Thursday harvesting, cutting down and cleaning up much of our vegetable garden, and starting up the dehydrator to dry what seemed like thousands of tomatoes. And we hauled in all the houseplants that spent the summer outside. Our winter squash harvest was remarkable, especially considering that the bed where they were planted had been neglected most of the season, with only 3 or 4 intentional waterings.[Read More]
It’s time to clear counter space in your kitchen and bring in final harvests of tomatoes, peppers, basil, ground cherry, beans, and squash for whatever processing you like to do. My dehydrator has been churning out dried tomatoes to snack on and use in soups, sauces and stews through the winter. Frost is predicted for Friday and Saturday nights (29-30 deg. F) and can be damaging or fatal to these summer crops. On the other hand, if you’re not ready to say goodbye to them this week, we have the knowledge and tools you’ll need to protect your plants! (see this article for more)
Our annual, month-long Holiday Gift Market, open through October 29th, is the perfect place to warm up and enjoy perusing the work of many local artists and artisans. Some of our offerings are available this month exclusively at Harlequin’s Gardens, and nowhere else! From art for the home to personal adornment, the best books for adults and kids, from gardening gifts to delicious treats for foodies, you’ll find unique and beautiful items.[Read More]
If you’ve been to Harlequin’s Gardens, you know that what Mikl and I and our wonderful staff have collaborated on these past 31 years is much more than a place to purchase plants. We believe “our primary product is knowledge”, and much of our work has been to develop and support deeply knowledgeable gardeners who value sustainability. We grow many of our own plants, but truly, thanks to you, we’ve also grown a community.
Our annual, month-long Holiday Gift Market, open through October 29th, is our yearly gift to you. For the past 12 years we have been making space for a community of artists and performers to share their talents, and it’s our great pleasure to introduce the gardening community to these members of Boulder County and Colorado’s artistic community. Please be our guests this month and come take a look at the abundance of beauty available – both from the natural world and crafted by human hands.
We go the extra mile to bring you special bulbs that other nurseries just don’t offer. Many of them are delightful smaller beauties at home in the front of the border, under deciduous trees and shrubs, and in the rockery. They are selling quickly, so be sure to come in to be sure of the best selection. Here is a list, and descriptions, of the fall and spring-blooming treasures for your home garden!
Our staff has been busy, busy, busy transforming our store into our 13th Annual Holiday Gift Market! We work hard to create a beautiful and interesting display of our local artisanal products so that you can shop for your holiday gifts in a relaxed and homey atmosphere.
Be sure to browse our 2025 HOLIDAY GIFT MARKET CATALOG, we will be adding several new artisans and products all throughout the sale!During the Holiday Gift Market you’ll be able to shop our Flowering Bulbs for indoor forcing just in time for the Holidays – and to find houseplants, soil products, and more! Just as in our plants and nursery products, our standards are high. We offer goods from dozens of artisans that are Local, Sustainable, Pure, Non-toxic, High-quality, Beautiful, Unusual, Innovative, Practical, Delightful, and Durable.
VIEW OUR 2025 HOLIDAY GIFT MARKET CATALOG!
We are so appreciative of your support and invite you and your family and friends to visit our Holiday Gift Market again this year!
DOOR PRIZES!
Weekly Drawings for Harlequin’s Gift Certificates
Entries will be collected every day of the market, and at the end of each week we’ll draw 3 entries to receive $15 gift certificates to use at Harlequin’s Gardens during our 2026 gardening season!
From your previous visits in the last eleven years, many of you know that our Holiday Gift Market is the most rewarding, enjoyable place to shop for your holiday gifts, relaxed and far from the madding crowd! When the Covid pandemic began, we realized that the only way we could keep our customers (and staff) safe and happy while shopping our Holiday Gift Market was to move it up to October!
As the year is drawing toward a close and much of the garden and natural landscape is dormant, we can still appreciate the beauty and interest of plants: the silhouetted structure of our leafless trees and shrubs, the textures and colors of their bark, the berries and seedpods ornamenting their branches, and likewise the colors and textures of dry grasses, cattails and sedges. We can also admire the color and form of our evergreen trees and shrubs, and realize how many of our favorite perennial flowering plants and groundcovers provide evergreen (or red, or silver, or purple) foliage through the winter!
The Winter Solstice season is a time for celebrating the return of the light, both literally and figuratively, and as our daylight hours increase in the outer world, we will also try to keep our inner light burning for love, justice, and compassion for all life on earth. It’s a time for generosity, opening hearts, kindness, sharing, and spreading good news. Here are a couple of our suggestions for valuable gifts you can share:
[Read More]
SAVING YOUR TOMATO SEEDS
If you’re thinking about starting your own tomato plants from seed, you’ll be glad to know that it’s easy to save the seeds from heirlooms and other ‘open-pollinated’ tomatoes. One reason for this is that tomatoes are self-pollinating. This means that each flower is ‘perfect’, containing both male and female parts, and the arrangement of those parts is such that the female part (the stigma) is rarely exposed to the outside world before having been thoroughly ‘impregnated’ by the surrounding pollen-bearing anthers. Bees and other insects don’t really figure into the pollination of tomatoes. There are some older varieties derived from wild tomato that may be more vulnerable to cross-pollination, but don’t worry about that now. Do not bother to save seeds from hybrid varieties – only about 25% of them will resemble the plant from which you saved seeds.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
Clear cups, small jars or glasses
Small fine strainer
Paper towels
Adhesive tape
Permanent marking pen
Non-chlorinated water (filtered, spring, etc.)
The weather’s looking to be mild for the holidays, but a bit DRY! All this sun and wind, with just a little snow, is stressful to our plants, so don’t forget to give your plants some water.
This is especially true for new plantings, evergreens, and roses and most any plant that was planted in September or October. These plants are especially vulnerable and are more likely to suffer or die from dehydration than from cold.
With this week’s unseasonably warm weather, there’s more time this fall to be out in the garden than usual.
DON’T BE TEMPTED TO CLEAN EVERTHING UP!
It’s important to leave many of those leaves and plants alone to support our insect, bird, animal and soils! It might be the most sustainable thing you can do this season.
This fall, two of our Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra) bushes performed especially well: ‘Mikl’s’ and ‘Marge’. Black Elder is considered the most beneficial species for herbal use.
We harvested a bounty, and are happy to share our favorite way to use them.
A healthy herbal remedy used for centuries, we love making Elderberry Syrup from berries harvested from the gorgeous elderberry shrubs and trees we can grow right here in Colorado!
This easy-to-make syrup recipe comes from Boulder wellness coach and herbalist Mitten Lowe.[Read More]
Are mosquitoes bugging you?
Mosquitoes are a problem this year. “Mosquito Man” Bob Hancock at Metro State University of Denver stated recently “We are not only breeding crazy numbers of mosquitoes here in Colorado with our rainy year, but we are keeping the ones that we’re breeding alive because it’s not getting as hot as it usually does.” Mosquitoes can be vectors for various diseases including West Nile Disease. Be proactive!
As Colorado gardeners, we’ve come to expect snow in October (last year it was October 10). It looks like this weekend might give us our first real freeze and chance for snow (the earliest recorded area snowfall was in 1961 when Denver received over 4″ of snow on Labor Day).
This translates into a lot of flower, fruit, and vegetable crops that are still productive that you might want to protect, harvest, and preserve. [Read More]
Purple Smokebush
MIKL’s ‘MACRO BONSAI’ PATIO TREES FOR YOURSELF!
Every so often, one of the trees or shrubs we’ve grown or received from a grower displays interesting twists, bends, curves or dwarfing that suggest the character of Bonsai specimens, but much bigger. Mikl has been collecting and cultivating these ‘Macro Bonsai’ for quite a few years. We have some available for sale right now.
There is so much to look at when you visit Harlequin’s Gardens, it isn’t easy to take it all in!
Today we’re highlighting Special Products that may have escaped your notice, but which will greatly assist your gardening efforts.
Fall is among the best times to plant perennials. While we may begin to wilt from late summer heat, many plants rise to the occasion and burst into bloom! As days begin to grow shorter, perennials spend the next few months developing root systems or taproots that delve well below the hot, dry surface soil. Pollinators depend on finding pollen and nectar sources through the entire summer, so it’s important to include late-summer and autumn bloomers in your garden.
Here are a few suggestions for successful planting.
Bill McKibben, environmentalist, educator and founder of 350.org recently wrote, “If the last year has been about a phase change in our planet’s climate, the next year has to be about a phase change in our planet’s politics.”
This past week we did get significant good news about climate action, and we want to share it with you.
Summer is waning. Nights are cooler and we’re even closing some windows again. Lots of plants are producing seeds. The most comfortable planting season is here, and so are thousands of plants. And to sweeten the season even more, here come our Fall Sales! Next week you will receive our Fall Sale E-Newsletter, with complete information about our special Member’s Sale at the end of August, and our progressive Fall Sale for everyone! In the meantime, we have some pop-up sales appropriate to the season – see below for the details.
As Colorado gardeners, we’ve come to expect snow in October. But on September 9, 2020 we saw a temperature swing of more than 60 degrees, going from record-breaking heat to one of the earliest recorded snow falls in the state.
This translates into a lot of flower, fruit, and vegetable crops cut short, and a lot of unanticipated work protecting vulnerable plants, harvesting, and preserving. There are measures you can take now to be prepared to protect your gardens from cold weather and snow when they arrive, suddenly or not. The following tools, techniques, and ‘props’ can make the difference between life and untimely death of your plants during inclement weather.
Sweet Autumn Clematis
Vines are very valuable for their versatility, variety and vigor, especially in the vertical plane. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Many of us live in urban environments full of walls and fences, and closely packed homes with narrow side-yards. Those of us in townhomes, condos or apartments have only tiny patio gardens or balconies offering little opportunity for greening our outdoor spaces. Or, we live in new developments built on open farmland without mature trees and shrubs for shade or screening. In all of these situations, vines can quickly provide short-term or long-term solutions to provide privacy or shade, maximize our connection to the earth, block unpleasant views, cover ugly surfaces, or add a vertical dimension to the garden. And some vines can also work as groundcovers in tough situations, like under evergreen trees.
We’ve got a wonderful selection of vines right now! Last week we gave you an overview of vines and how to use them, based on their mechanisms for climbing. This week, let’s get into the details of some individual varieties.
