So they can support us!
Last Friday Denver Botanic Gardens hosted a day-long conference on Tree Diversity. This timely subject arises because of the importance of trees to the livability of our cities and suburbs and the degree to which the effects of Climate Change have already begun to affect our urban forest. Trees help cool everything from our gardens and patios and parking lots to our cities and our planet. With stresses like sudden, dramatic temperature changes, drought, and severe windstorms, plus the devastation wrought by the Emerald Ash Borer to our millions of Ash trees, it’s time to re-evaluate the limited palette of trees we’ve been planting for many decades, and investigate new, more resilient possibilities. [Read More]
We are appreciative of the community support at our Holiday Market opening weekend! With the perfect autumnal weather, more people than ever were able to enjoy our local musicians, Sandra Wong & Jon Sousa’s world music, and Margot Krimmel’s traditional and original harp pieces.
First, let’s count our blessings: the cool and wet spring has been great for plant growth (and of course, weeds galore!). The profusion of wildflowers this spring has been glorious, the foothills are still green going into July, and conditions for gardening are now quite pleasant. And we will have fruit on most of our fruit trees! Don’t forget to thin them to keep branches and trunks from breaking.
We hope you will celebrate Earth Day, maybe all week. It is good to acknowledge that we have a planet and that it has been supportive of life and human life for a long time. Unfortunately, we humans have not treated Her well, Gaia, our Mother Earth. We were told the story that we humans are the masters of the earth and that all the creatures and resources are here for our use and glory. Not everybody believed that story. Chief Joseph told our ancestors: “The Earth does not belong to us; we belong to the Earth.” 
How did we possibly get this far? When we first opened in 1992, we had 2 acres a half mile down a dead-end gravel road, a dry well, a barn and a little greenhouse, and a few tables with plants. But we had a vision of a plant nursery that could serve Colorado’s Front Range and do it ecologically. We did have a country atmosphere and a great view. We had a lot of heart, but we only succeeded because an ever-increasing number of you found us and told your friends. 
Can we have human health if our domesticated animals, wildlife, plants, and all nature are unhealthy, polluted, poisoned, weak and struggling? The answer seems to be NO. Climate Change “…coupled with a species-extinction crisis, habitat and soil degradation, pollution, extensive destruction of forests and coral reefs…” are all leading to our current health crisis.
We might ask ourselves: Why does the USA, the richest country in the world, lead the world in coronavirus cases and deaths? With only 4% of the world’s population, we have 25% of all cases and 20% of all deaths. This cannot be blamed on mismanagement alone. Our government has for years favored business profits over public health and environmental health. For example, the EPA website warns that glyphosate (active ingredient in Roundup) at 700 parts per billion can cause “problems with kidneys or reproductive difficulties” and yet 700 ppb is the permitted level in U.S. tap water. Only .1 ppb is allowed in European Union tap water. Roundup also causes many problems with fungi, bacteria (like in our guts), kills insects, birds and in general undermines the health of our planet. It shows up in baby food and beer. This is one example of a poison in our ecosystem that is leading to the poor health in our nation and in our world.
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.
In October of 2018, we were asked by the 
April 22 is Earth Day, originally planned to bring a billion people into the streets to let our leaders know for sure that the health and resilience of our planet and our environment is of the Utmost Importance. Of course, neither a billion nor a dozen people are going to congregate on Earth Day this year.
We are having a real revolution in our relationship with our soils. The turning point is our change in focus from soil fertility to soil health. In the last 60 years of the “Green Revolution” (i.e. the petrochemical boom), soil was viewed as a physical structure and fertility was viewed as a measure of chemicals in the soil — primarily NPK, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The petroleum industry could make these macronutrients from natural gas, which make plants grow but often in poor health. Weak plants attract insect pests and fungal diseases, so more petroleum in the forms of insecticides and fungicides added to the success of the oil industry. But this approach has led to “Peak Soil” where land is losing productivity, crops are losing nutritional value, the soil is eroding at extreme rates, and the health of animals and people has declined.
Since the drought of 2002, there has been some real progress in understanding and appreciating xeriscape or water-wise landscaping. And yet some people thought ‘the drought is over, and we can go back to assuming that we have as much water as we want’. But it is predicted that with climate change we will have more and longer periods of drought, and it would be painful to be as unprepared as we were in 2002. That was our wake-up call. Fortunately, gardeners are generally smart and caring people, and their values are changing. They are more interested in sustainable landscapes, and they want more economical landscapes and gardens that need less water, time, energy, and money. And of course that means using plants and methods that are adapted to Colorado conditions. 