We recently passed Boulder Valley’s “average last frost” date (May 9).With all this rain, it sure feels like Spring! Lots of gardeners are asking if it’s safe to prune now, especially roses and shrubs. The answer is YES! But…..
Pay attention to the characteristics of the particular shrubs and roses you’re thinking of pruning. [Read More]
Rock Garden Iris
It’s probably safe to assume you’re as anxious as we are to get our hands in the dirt, and happily, Harlequin’s Gardens is opening for our 31st season this Thursday March 2nd. We’re so looking forward to seeing you all again! We’ll have everything you need to get started for the season. Here’s what we’ll have available for you on March 2nd.
Our youngest gardener Baby Bonnie, with her Mother and Grandmother
This Sunday, May 8th we celebrate Mother’s Day! There are several different claims to the inception of the Mothers’ Day or Mother’s Day holiday in the US, inspired by ideas of helping less fortunate mothers, reducing infant and maternal mortality, voicing opposition to wars, and honoring motherhood. All of these share the common core idea of honoring Nurturers.
So even if you’ve never functioned as the mother of human children, you can still be a Plant Mom. When we prepare our soil, plant our seeds, keep them moist until they germinate, and give them the care they need until they are grown-up enough to fend for themselves (or require less attention), we are Mothering them. By planting for pollinators and native life-forms of all kinds, we are nurturing our ecosystem and helping to bring it back to balance and health.
This week, we invite you to visit us and choose some new plants to nurture and mother. And honor the Mothers in your life with the plants, garden items, books, classes or healthy products they’d love. We have a beautiful line of glazed pots for patios, entryways and balconies. Our organic pepper, tomato, and herb starts are pouring in, as are many new perennials and shrubs, roses, vines, grasses, and annuals, all neonic-free. We also have plenty of fruit trees and berry bushes, and seeds for delicious summer crops like beans, basil, cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin, and melon, and glorious pollinator-supporting flowers like Lace Flower, Poppy, Zinnia, Sunflower, Nasturtium, Gloriosa Daisy, Cosmos, Morning Glory, and many, many more!
We have a limited number of choice Peonies in 2-gallon pots, ready to make a long-lived presence in your garden! These varieties are different from the ones we will have in stock in a couple of weeks, which will be in 1-gallon pots.
Peonies are classic garden plants that add a lot of charm and beauty to the garden, increasing in size and beauty for many decades. Their gorgeous, fragrant blooms and lush foliage have made them popular for many years. When a peony is finished blooming, the attractive foliage mound makes a great seasonal ‘shrub’. And, of course, the sensuous flowers make stunning bouquets. Cut them when the buds have swelled and are beginning to open slightly. [Read More]
Okay, you prepared your soil and planted your vegetable garden with all kinds of wonderfully flavorful, nutritious foods, you’re watering and watching them grow, and wondering ….. When can I start to eat them, how do I harvest them, and how do I get the most out of these plantings? Here are some tips on vegetable crops harvest timing and techniques that may not be self-evident. Even if you’re a seasoned gardener, you may not be aware of some of these procedures! [Read More]
Our friend Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness is a fan of bone broth (with actual bones, as well as one that’s vegan) whenever the season changes. What’s more gratifying than taking fresh vegetables and herbs you’ve grown, or bought by supporting our local farmers, and simmering them for a fragrant, nutrient-dense health and spirit builder when the temperatures plummet?
photo courtesy: Garden in the Kitchen
Beet and Nettle Broth
This mineral-rich, vegan broth offers many of the benefits of traditional bone broth! As we slow down, herbs and plants you grow from Harlequin’s Gardens can nourish you this winter. Many thanks to Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness for the recipe.
Though commonly associated with culinary traditions of the Southeastern US, collards originated in Europe, along with kale, cabbage etc., and are easy to grow in cooler climates, too.
Grow collards in full sun (for fastest growth), or part shade. Give them plenty of space, 18” apart. Collards appreciate moist, fertile soil with plenty of organic matter (compost) and applications of compost tea. [Read More]
Give yourself a break by putting away your lawn mower for the month of May with the additional benefit of feeding our early bees!
Lawns are generally a sterile environment for pollinators, but we can turn them into a temporary food source to give bees a leg up in the crucial spring season. By allowing plants typically identified as “weeds” (think dandelions, violets, clover) to flower they can provide food and fuel for our early pollinators that are emerging from hibernation. In turn, these bees go on to pollinate our fruit trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. [Read More]
Bring fauna into your yard, and let others know you’re in solidarity with our other-than-human neighbors!.
It’s nesting season, and we can do a lot to support our feathered friends. Consider a birdhouse, and garden signs to express your care.
This Friday, April 22 we will celebrate Earth Day, originally planned 52 years ago 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. Since then, a lot has changed on our planet. Fortunately, many of us have awakened to a new paradigm that respects, honors and stewards the planet and its intricately connected living systems. New generations are growing up with the inspiration to live more simply so that others may simply live, and to make the regeneration of Earth’s balance their life’s work. [Read More]
Monarch butterflies previously considered Threatened, have now been classified as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s most comprehensive scientific authority on the status of species. Two major driving factors are habitat loss (and thus, food loss), and climate change.
“The numbers of Western monarchs, which live west of the Rocky Mountains, plummeted by an estimated 99.9 percent between the 1980s and 2021. While they rebounded somewhat this year, they remain in great peril. Eastern monarchs, who make up most of the population in North America, dropped by 84 percent from 1996 to 2014. The new designation of endangered covers both populations.” (New York Times.) [Read More]
We are here for you! You’re in the high desert/steppe now, with short growing seasons, sudden temperature changes, unpredictable precipitation, low humidity, drying winds, alkaline soils that are low in organic matter and nitrogen, hot summers and cold winters. Despite these challenges, gardens can thrive here, and be productive, rewarding and beautiful!
Our gardens can support us by providing beauty, nutrient-dense food and plant medicine, and shelter from temperature and weather extremes. At the same time, our gardens can give us an opportunity for nurturing that goes beyond our own garden plants, supporting our entire local ecosystem, including our essential insects, birds, native plants and other wildlife. [Read More]
Opening Day will be here in just a few minutes (or it seems to our busy-bee staff!) and our doors will re-open this Thursday, March 3rd at 9 AM. We hope to see you then! Our hours for the month of March are Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Then beginning Tuesday, April 1st, our hours expand to six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday. [Read More]
The bad news is that last week’s small delivery of tomato starts froze when the wind blew open the back door of our greenhouse in the middle of the night.
The good news is that the next 38 flats will be ready for sale on Friday! (and there will be many more becoming available through April and May). This week’s tomato starts include: [Read More]
This morning’s broadcast of This Week In Water on community radio station KGNU announced that results of a 5-year study conducted by the U. of Washington found that using regenerative farming practices such as not tilling the soil, growing cover crops, and having plant diversity affect the nutritional content of vegetables.
It all starts with the Soil, and we have some very special products to benefit your Soil Life and Your Plant Life!
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.[Read More]
What a glorious spring! Having been blessed with generous snow and rain, the land is bursting with energy, greener than green, and flowering in kaleidoscopic exuberance! Migratory birds have been arriving or passing though our region this month, offering sightings of avian treasures like Lazuli Buntings and Western Tanagers, not to mention the hummingbirds. We do live in a wondrous world!
Our Annual May Day Festivities and Spring Sale begin May 4th!
At Harlequin’s Gardens, we love to celebrate May Day. It is an ancient festival welcoming Spring and celebrating the beauty, fertility, and abundance of the earth. [Read More]
Like miniature iris emerging from the warming soil, March launches Harlequin’s Gardens early spring season, and our doors will re-open on Thursday, March 3rd. Our hours for the month of March are Thursday through Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Then beginning Tuesday, April 1st, our hours expand to six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.
Beginning in March we will offer onion, potato, and asparagus starts. We will be stocked with seeds, seed starting kits, and potting soil. Our soil products (composts, mulches, fertilizers, etc.) will be available. And, as temperatures warm, we will stock our over-wintered perennials, shrubs, and trees, and best of all, our spring organic vegetable starts! In the meantime, you can always purchase a Gift Certificate or join our Membership from our website any time of day.
Stay tuned for our 2022 class listings, and as your spring-flowering bulbs emerge, refer to our Bulbs Page for timing and description details.
We’re getting excited for the 2022 gardening season and hope you are too!
With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, we’d like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for another great year, our 30th!, at Harlequin’s Gardens.
We are grateful for all of you who support us by buying our plants, products, and memberships, and grateful that our customer base continues to increase as more and more people realize the pleasures, benefits and wisdom of growing plants without chemical warfare and for more than our own benefit. We are learning that a livable world can only be achieved or maintained through understanding, respecting and working with the intricate interdependency of all beings. [Read More]
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]
(Durango Before and After Fire. Photo Credit: Colorado State Forest Service.)
We are so grateful that nearly all the folks in the Marshall Fire burn area were able to evacuate quickly and safely. The horror of all the lost homes and their contents, the pets trapped, and the gardens obliterated is outweighed by the survival of all but two residents.
Dear Friends and Fellow Gardeners,Gardeners can’t be faint-hearted. No matter how much we know, we have to be prepared for the unpredictable. Last winter’s three waves of below zero weather caused some woody plants to die back that have been hardy for decades. Then we were blessed with rain. Denver’s 6” of rain in June broke a record. At the same time, we are having the “hailiest” year in Colorado history. And while other regions have suffered extreme heat, our area has had a record number of days under 90 degrees. Many of our gardens have never looked better.[Read More]
Harlequin’s Gardens in 2000 as painted by Eve Reshetnik Brawner
This year, 2022, Harlequin’s Gardens is celebrating 30 years in business! Thanks to you and the many folks who have bought our plants and products and taken our classes, and thanks to a great staff, we have succeeded in becoming a valuable resource for Boulder County and beyond.
We’ve been focusing on growing and providing plants that are well-adapted to Colorado conditions and will thrive without applications of chemicals or excessive amounts of water and fertilizers. [Read More]
Our hearts go out to the many people who suffered devastating losses in the Marshall wildfire. It may be possible to rebuild homes, but their contents may be irreplaceable and the sudden disruption to lives will present great challenges. Communities will also need to be rebuilt, and we are hoping the larger community will continue to step up to offer long-term support to all those in need. It takes a village! [Read More]
Fungus Gnat. Credit CSU Extension Service
Houseplants, especially ones that we keep outdoors in the warm season and bring back inside when frosts threaten, are likely to harbor Fungus Gnats. These tiny black flying insects (about the size of a fruit fly) can be very annoying but are mostly harmless. Adults lay 75 to 200 eggs that hatch in a week in the top 1” of soil, and when the larvae hatch, they survive mostly on soil fungi, but also feed on tender root hairs. This life cycle lasts about five weeks, although the adults only live about five days. One plant infested with fungus gnats will easily and rapidly spread the insects to nearby plants. [Read More]
Historically February is one of Colorado’s snowiest months, and finally we’re beginning to see evidence of that this year! Additionally, the forecast indicates more to come. It remains to be seen how some of our marginally hardy garden plants have suffered from the below zero temperatures.
Many of us may have the tops of ornamental grasses and various perennials peeking out of the blanket of the snow, which provides habitat for overwintering beneficial insects and it helps to keep the plant roots and crowns warmer. But very soon it will be time to cut back Cool-Season ornamental grasses before their active growth begins, which will allow light to penetrate the entire clump. See Eve’s instructions, below. [Read More]
Snowdrops in February (Galanthus), courtesy Bob Nold
Your landscape is not just something to look at. It is an opportunity to support your values by:
We are all enjoying and appreciating the exceptional fall colors this year. The yellows are especially rich, and the reds are especially vivid. What is going on when the green leaves turn colors and why are the colors so spectacular this year?
We know that the green color of the leaves comes from the pigment chlorophyll that makes it possible for plants to capture energy from sunlight and use it to make the sugars that feed the whole planet. When the long days of summer get shorter and shorter, highlighted by the fall equinox this year on September 22, the plants get less and less sunlight and less and less energy to make chlorophyll. When leaves contain less chlorophyll, other pigments become more dominant. [Read More]
This year the Winter Solstice will fall on Tuesday, December 21st. This astronomical event is the time of the year when the Earth’s north pole is tilted farthest from the sun, so that night is the longest and daylight is the shortest (in the northern hemisphere). This day has long been celebrated because it signals the lengthening of the days until Summer Solstice on June 21. Even though there is a lot of winter left, there will be more day light. It is the promise of Spring to come. [Read More]
We’ve restocked our Holiday Market shelves with many new and popular items including
Semi-precious stone earrings from Kate Head, Pebble Art Jewelry
Amber Lights Candles in a stunning array of creative designs
Indigo Blues natural hand-dyed napkins, shawls, and clothing
Eve Weaves handwoven scarves, so beautiful and soft
Eve’s Gluten-free Pecan Shortbread Cookies; a fresh batch has just arrived!
Jen Grant creates these cheerful and artful flags with her original designs. Display your affection for wildflowers, bees, birds, bicycles, etc. by garlanding a doorway, deck, porch, window or wall. She makes her original block-printed designs on cotton fabric in Lafayette, CO.
We are very excited to feature Marie Foucault-Phipps’ stunning, intriguing, and elegant glass tableware again! When I came upon her work, I found it entirely unlike anything I had seen before. Using a technique that dates as far back as 9th century Turkey, Marie paints her
original designs with ‘Silver Stain’ (silver oxide) on clear glass pieces. They are then fired in a kiln and emerge with a rich and exciting color palette ranging from yellows, golds, and browns to deep coppery oranges, and molten reds! She describes it as “a wild medium, not reliable, and always surprising” and says she enjoys “exploiting its freedom”. You will love her tableware and other pieces!
Marie studied Stained Glass Conservation in Paris and became an accomplished conservator of historical stained-glass art across France and the U.S., where she relocated to Colorado in 1984. An accomplished glass painter, Marie freelanced for other studios while working on her own exhibition glass. She has exhibited around the world with the Women’s International Glass Workshop to places such as Japan, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Wales, France, and Golden, Colorado!
Cobalt Creations’ Debe Frazer is a mom to 5 boys, and stumbled into glass art quite by accident while exploring creative outlets with her youngest. She fell in love with the medium by starting with one very small kiln and now has over 5 — including a life-size one! Her glass designs are handcrafted with layers of art glass in a vibrant array of colors. Each piece is cut and constructed by hand and kiln fired multiple times.
Courtney Puig Thompson is a Fort Collins ceramicist and photographer. Courtney is a Cuban American artist who was raised in southwest Louisiana and northern Colorado. In her twenties and thirties she made her home on two islands – New York City and Kauai. “Chasing unique glaze results and firing in different kilns environments excites me. With Ceramic art there is so much to explore and many paths to pursue. At the Boulder Potter’s Guild I experiment with Salt, Soda, in Heavy Reduction, and Oxidation environments.”
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.
This week we roll-out new artisan arrivals, with some photos below. [Read More]
Artist Jenna Geldreich specializes in creating unique and stunning pressed flower art, jewelry, and home decor. As a self-taught artist, she is passionate about her craft and strives to create items that are beautiful, original and one-of-a-kind. With a focus on sustainability, Craftionistas uses upcycled materials and real pressed flowers from her garden in Leadville to create her products. Jenna constructs her ‘leaded’ glass pieces with copper instead of potentially-toxic lead.
Our customer and friend Diane Patterson makes these wonderful ornaments, called Temari, which date back to ancient Japan, where Temari was originally a handcraft of upper class women. Intricate designs were embroidered on handmade balls using silk threads from kimonos. The balls were used as toys.
Temari are unique, beautiful, colorful gifts. Attractive hanging as a single ornament, grouped in a bowl, used in a centerpiece, given as a housewarming gift, or simply to hold and admire, they will be treasured for many years.
Erin Huybrechts Davis says she has been a painter for as long as she can remember. She grew up on the east coast, has her degree in painting and printmaking, and a masters degree in education. She now lives here in Longmont, CO, where she is a freelance illustrator and teaches art to young people.
We were struck by her flowing, stylized and poetic depictions of the natural world. She is inspired by patterns and imagery from Asia, where she has traveled, and this influence is evident in her work as well. We were struck by her flowing, stylized and poetic depictions of the natural world. We are delighted to offer Erin’s cards, prints, and original paintings again this year!
Fresh Cut Paper Bouquets
Brilliant, wilt-proof paper flower bouquets that are maintenance-free and will last indefinitely! These easy-to-mail gifts pop open with just a squeeze. Perfect for hostess gifts for gardeners this season, or for cheering up any person or space you love! We offer a variety of beautiful designs.
Any gardener will be thrilled to receive a Gift Certificate to Harlequin’s Gardens! Our Gift Certificates are available in any denomination. With a gift certificate, your recipients can select from our wide array of neonic-free plants, soil products, gardening and bee-keeping tools and supplies, and more!
Visit our website, or our store, to purchase your Gift Certificate.
Heather Doyle-Maier is a Denver artist who makes unique and small-edition handmade books. Trained in book arts and conceptual art, Heather recently shifted her studio focus to creating books that are delightful and celebratory, as well as books that are supportive and encouraging during life challenges and changes. In particular, her “Permissions” books strive to meet people where they are and give themselves permission to meet themselves there, too. Heather also teaches workshops on creative bookmaking and on supporting the creative process along the Colorado Front Range.
Mason Bee populations plummeted throughout Boulder County due to harsh spring weather, so it’s especially important to coddle them this winter! Mason bees normally nest in holes in tree trunks, which offer stable temperature, moisture, and protection from predators. To provide extra assistance, bring your Mason and other native bee tubes/cocoons into a sheltered place with ambient (outdoor) temperatures, but with less fluctuation, like a garage or refrigerator. Cocooned bees are now adult and safe to handle in their cocoons. If you used liners or reeds, take them out of the guard tubes and shelters and store them in the fridge. Ideally, unwrap the liners/reeds and just overwinter the mason bee cocoons. Place them in a Humidi-bee chamber (in stock), and keep the lower pad moist. [Read More]
Our 2022 Fall Members-Only Sale has finished, and now our Big Fall Sale has begun, with 20% off for everyone! Plants included in this week’s sale are:
We’ve been growing houseplants to brighten your indoor spaces all winter long! Among our great selection of healthy houseplants large and small you’ll find old favorites as well as very cool specialty plants, for bright, medium-light, and low-light conditions. Included are small sculptural succulents, assorted table-top specimen plants, hanging vines like Pothos, Philodendron varieties, flowering Hoya and String of Hearts, and larger floor-standing specimens like Sanseveria, Rubber Tree and Monstera.
And to personalize your gift, we have the perfect pots for every room, as well as plant hangers.
Years ago, Julie and Eve were classmates at the Boulder Potters Guild. Julie’s passion for clay subsequently led her to create her own home studio in Longmont, where she applies her hand-building skills and sense of whimsy to making delightful decorative and functional pieces.
Now a Guild member and a teacher there, Julie says “I am drawn to texture and find my roots coming through in my work. I am inspired by nature and by the patterns of repetition: the simplicity of a house, the design formed by bicycle gears, the delicate texture in a leaf, the rolling rocks in a rambling stone wall, and the ridges on a sea turtle’s shell.”
This year, Julie will bring us her holiday ornaments, eyeglass stands, and cloth rope-coiled coasters, mats and bowls.
We have wonderful Amaryllis bulbs for forcing indoors, and Paperwhite ‘Ziva’ too! These beauties will brighten your holiday decor and make for a lovely hostess gift.
Our amazingly gifted friend Kathleen Lanzoni is an acclaimed watercolor painter and an award-winning signature member of the Colorado Watercolor Society, the Western Colorado Watercolor Society, the Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Society and the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. She grew up in Montreal and California and has lived in Colorado for over 28 years. Residing in Boulder, Kathleen divides her time painting between the studio, Plein Air (outdoors on location) and on-site murals.
The list of her well-deserved awards is a mile long. We are featuring prints and notecards of her luminous paintings.
Kaley Alie is a Colorado acrylic artist creating cheerfully bright art with intentional imperfections. She is a believer in art that will make you smile. Unexpected colors, bold brushstrokes, animal personalities, and the whimsy of nature make her happy and inspire her to paint. She has prints, cards and calendars for us.
