OLD-Blog

Late Fall Musings

Agave seed stalk

The day before Thanksgiving in the Reshetik-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.

Pop-Up Markets for Your Bulbs and Gifts!

And now for the surprise! Just when you thought the gardening season was over, and that Harlequin’s Gardens has gone into winter hibernation until March 2024, we have a surprise for you! We will be open for 2 Saturday Pop-Up Markets, on November 11^th and 18^thfrom 10am to 4 pm!

Our earlier fall weather was so mild and beautiful that many of you weren’t ready to think about planting bulbs for spring flowers, let alone holiday gift giving. So these pop-ups will include lots of bulbs on sale (see below), and some of the CURATED ARTISANAL GIFTS we offered at our Holiday Gift Market, now 25% to 50% off.

Bulbs for every Front Range Garden!

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.

You Never Know, with Nature!

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]

Protecting your Plants, Pampering Yourself!

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]

Our 12th Annual Holiday Market is Open!

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.

2024 Bulbs Are In!

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!

Saving Tomato Seeds

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.)

Choose the best, fully ripe tomato(es) from the most vigorous, disease-free, productive plants. Just to be on the safe side, choose fruits from the center of the plant where they are farthest away from other varieties. Do not save seeds from tomatoes you think might be disease-infected.
Label a clear glass with a piece of tape with the variety name and the date.
Cut a tomato horizontally across the middle. This exposes the seed cavities.
Gently squeeze out the jelly-like substance that contains the seeds into the glass.
Add an inch or two of non-chlorinated water and stir.
Optional: Cover loosely with plastic wrap or waxed paper if you wish (if you are sensitive to mold spores, you may wish to include this step).
Place on a warm (60–75 degrees F) shelf or counter where you won’t forget about it.
Optional: stir once a day.
Check after 3 or 4 days. A thin layer of whitish film (fungus) will have formed on the surface. It eats through the gelatinous coat surrounding each seed that inhibits germination. The fungus also produces antibodies that help control seed-borne diseases like bacterial spot and canker.
Add warm water to the glass. Let the contents settle and begin carefully pouring off water along with pieces of pulp and any floating seeds (any seeds that float are immature and will not germinate). Repeat until the water being poured out is almost clear, with clean seeds resting at the bottom of the glass.
Pour the seeds and water into a small, fine strainer (the spaces in the mesh must be smaller than your seeds).
Tap the strainer to eliminate excess water, and invert the seeds onto a piece of folded paper towel. Try to spread the seeds into a single layer, but don’t fuss over it.
Immediately label the paper towel with the name of the tomato variety.
Allow the seeds to dry thoroughly- usually a day, sometimes more or less. Break up any clumps of seeds stuck to one another.
Label a paper envelope with the variety name and the year, seal and store in a cool, dark, dry location. Some seed-savers like to keep seed envelopes in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
Tomato seeds should remain viable for at least 3 or 4 years when properly stored. Dryness is the most important factor.

Winter Watering Alert!

Winter Watering Alert!

The weather’s wonderful, but a bit DRY! All this sun and wind, and little rain or 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.

Leave those Leaves Alone!

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.

Fall Cold Weather Care and Protection

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]

Mosquitos

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!

Season Extending Products

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.

20% Off Trees!

For our Fall Sale

Harlequin’s is offering an exceptional variety of trees, mostly in easy-to-plant 5-gallon sizes and some larger in 10 or 15 gallon pots. Our container-grown trees have complete root systems, unlike most big trees sold that have most of their roots left in the field when they are dug. Our trees start growing right away and they don’t need staking or excessive watering. Some of our hard-to-find varieties are in short supply, with only 1 or 2 specimens available.

Patio Trees

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.

Special Products you May Have Missed

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.

Help Fall Plantings Beat the Heat

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.

Some Good News on the Climate

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.

A Hint of Fall Specials

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.

Versatile Vines for Colorado Gardens

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.

More About Vines

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.

Fruit Trees for Your Yard

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW.” While this ancient Chinese proverb still rings true, fruit trees can begin to bear at a pretty young age, bringing satisfaction much sooner than a tree planted for shade or major presence in the landscape. We carry a wide selection of fruit trees proven to thrive and produce here in Colorado and taste great, and the apples, pears, cherries and plums on the list in the link below are in stock right now so that you can plant your own for years of enjoyment. (We don’t have peaches out at the moment – ask when you come in).

Summer Garden Beet Salad Recipe

from Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness

I love beets and beet greens for how grounding and nutritious they are – providing folate, dietary fiber, manganese, potassium, iron, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and more! This wonderful garden beet salad is a perfect way to utilize all parts of the beet plus it’s versatile and so incredibly satisfying.

Ready Now

Geranium x cantabrigiense

Remember Spring of 2023? Cool, rainy and cloudy? We had many thousands of plants coming along from seed, cuttings and plugs. And under these challenging conditions, some of them took a very long time to reach the point when they became ready for sale. But they’re ready now! And some of our best groundcover plants for dry shade or part sun, Plumbago and hardy Geraniums (Cranesbills) are among them!

Here’s a list of some of the great plants, including many native plants (noted with an asterisk), we now have in stock.

Organic Weed Management: Now

Non-toxic weed management, please!

by Mikl Brawner

The most effective time to remove weeds organically is NOW, when it’s HOT.

Harlequin’s Gardens is carrying two non-toxic* herbicides that WORK. There are non-toxic herbicides on the market that are a waste of money; we’ve tested them. The two we know that work are 20% Vinegar and Avenger Weed Killer.

It’s Garlic Season!

GARLIC HARVESTING, CURING & STORAGE

Now is the time to check your garlic plants to see if they are ready to dig up. The ‘rule of thumb’ is to harvest when the lower one third or half of the leaves on the plant have turned yellow. So, if your plant has 8 leaves, harvest when the 3 or 4 lowest leaves have turned brown but there are still mostly green leaves higher on the plant.

Japanese Beetles are Back

Japanese Beetle is one of the most damaging insect pests in the Eastern and Midwestern US, but
until fairly recently, Coloradans were spared that challenge. It entered the US in 1916, but took until 2003 before a population was established in Colorado.

Time to Sow for Fall Harvests

The next few weeks are the perfect time to sow arugula, beets, small carrots, lettuce, kale, radish, and more!

You’re looking to sow veggies that will be harvestable before our first big frosts – often in early October.

We’re proud to bring you seeds from Botanical Interests. They say, “Nurturing seeds in the garden slows us down to reconnect to nature and earth, develops bonds in a community, and creates family traditions and memories. We’re so happy to be a part of that!” And we are, too!

A Bit about Cucurbits

What’s a cucurbit? It’s any plant that’s in the Cucurbitaceae plant family. You eat them frequently and very likely grow them. This is the plant family that includes zucchini, summer and winter squash, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe and other sweet melons, and gourd.

Mixed Herb Chimichurri Recipe

My favorite way to use fresh, home-grown Cilantro and my favorite way to get a concentrated hit of nutrition-packed greens is to make my own version of Chimichurri.

The Event of the Century is Here!

Well, it’s almost here …… we couldn’t wait any longer to tell you about it! Some of you may have guessed that we’re talking about the blooming of Eve and Mikl’s Agave parryi, aka Century Plant, which was planted 27 years ago. Last summer, Eve started whispering to it, suggesting that it might be time to think about blooming.

Ollin Farms Springtime Orzo Salad

Late spring, with the blessing of all the rain we’ve had, offers some of the first harvests of the season. Asparagus, radish, and crisp, mild Hakurei turnips are showing up in CSA shares and at our farmers’ markets. Why not try this springtime salad recipe – the recipe and the vegetables are local, and delicious!

Dead or Alive?

Lace Bark Pine

by Mikl Brawner

As we enter June, most of our trees and shrubs have leafed out, but not all. Some have leaves only three quarters of the way up, and many broad-leafed evergreens are mostly brown. Should we cut them back or replace them? Let’s not, just yet.

Wildflower Ramble

Castilleja integra

Yesterday’s Wildflower Ramble

Monday was a perfect day (except for the smoke) for us to take a wildflower ramble in our favorite foothills open space. I had one particular goal: to find Fringed Puccoon (Lithospermum incisum) in bloom. This is a very small plant with foliage and stature that are anything but charismatic, so searching for it when out of bloom is a lost cause. Even when blooming, the light lemon-yellow flowers are only a half inch across. It’s been many years since I have found any Fringed Puccoon in these meadows, and I was hoping that the generous rains we’ve had this month might have coaxed them out of hiding.[Read More]

Another Spring Wildflower Ramble

Mertensia lanceolata

In spite of cloudy skies and not-so-distant rumblings of thunder, Mikl and I had another opportunity to ramble among the wildflowers last week. This time, we chose the easy Lichen Loop trail at Heil Ranch, just off Lefhand Canyon Road. It’s amazing how long we can take to walk a mere 1.3 miles! Our excuse was the amazingly rich floristic display brought on by the combination of copious rain and wood ash from the Calwood Fire.
[Read More]

Lovely Lilacs: A Few Recipes

Lilac time is a very special and very short sweet time for us here in Colorado. Here are a few ways to use these flowers for health and well-being, from Mitten Lowe at Journey to Wellness.

We recommend harvesting lilac flowers while they are in full bloom, and making delicious medicine to enjoy through the rest of the year.
[Read More]

Special Woody Plants

Jamesia americana – Waxflower

Mikl has assembled a collection of some of our most interesting, unusual and hard-to-find woody plants, many of which are just ready for sale now. These include some excellent native trees, shrubs and ground-covers, as well as particularly interesting and worthy non-natives that thrive in Colorado conditions. We’d like to share some descriptive profiles with you here.

Trees for a Changing Climate and a Resilient Urban Forest

Serviceberry

by Mikl Brawner

If you look at old photos of Colorado Front Range cities, you won’t see many trees. And if you look up native trees of Colorado, you will find a lot of mountain-growing conifers and just a few deciduous trees that grow natively along streams. And yet the quality of life for us humans depends on trees.

Beautiful, Bountiful Biennials

Digitalis purpurea – photo courtesy First Nature

Does everyone know what a biennial plant is? It’s a plant that spends its first year of life building a substantial root system and a basal rosette of foliage. In its second year, it will have the resources to support a season of massive blooming and seeding. After having done its job, it dies away, leaving the future of its kind to the new generation of seedlings it has created.[Read More]

Plant Select Turns 26

By Mikl Brawner

Not Just Another Pretty Face

We gardeners see a lot of branded plants in branded pots pushed with a lot of money to make a lot of money. That’s not the story with Colorado’s Plant Select program. Plant Select began as, and continues to be a plant promotion program genuinely aimed at the success of Rocky Mt. gardeners. It’s goals include saving water, supporting pollinators and encouraging a western garden aesthetic.

Legislature Forces HOA’s to Save Water on Landscaping

Around 60% of Coloradans live under a homeowner association. If you’re one of them, you know how difficult it is to get HOA approval for water-saving landscaping choices. Senate Bill 178 would allow homeowners to remove grass lawns, forcing HOAs to accept the alternative landscaping.

Seed Summer Fruits and Veggies Now!

Today (May 9) is the average last frost date in our area, and Mother’s Day is the traditional Colorado date considered ‘safe’ for planting.

Of course, we have lived through enough late-May freezes and snowstorms to be a bit cautious! We offer vital supplies to have on hand to protect your frost-sensitive plants. Ask about our row-cover fabrics when you come to the nursery.[Read More]

May Day and Mother’s Day

With a clear signal from Mother Nature in the form of a lovely spring day, Harlequin’s gardeners came out to play and shop last weekend, taking in the delightful spring ritual dancing of our friends, the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers, and taking advantage of our May Day sales. We hope you’ll come out this weekend too, to enjoy our wonderful live music!

Our plant sales continue through Sunday May 7th, with a Deep Discount section still brimming with excellent perennials and various other plants, as well as 25% off our beautiful Cool-Season Vegetable starts. (Mountain gardeners – this is your moment!) And for Members, our offer of $5 off a full-price plant purchase of $50 or more still applies through Sunday. HERE are the sale and event details.[Read More]

New this Week!

A Wide selection of Roses, Peppers, Tomatoes, Pots and Planters!

This week, we have a great selection of Colorado-adapted, healthy, plants.
Choose from pepper and tomato plants, herbs, flowering annuals, native and non-native perennials, shrubs, trees, fruiting bushes and fruit trees. Plus the pots and planters you’ll need this season.[Read More]

Benefits of the Beautiful Dandelion

Thinking this cheery yellow-flowered plant is a weed? Think again.

First of all, dandelions provide much needed early-season nutrition for the bees. If that wasn’t enough of a reason to let them into your garden, every part of this plant is good for you. Since ancient times dandelion has been used as a spring tonic. (That’s right, we’re suggesting eating the weeds!).

Blooming Without a Care

Argemone polyanthemos

by Mikl Brawner

DitchWeeds, Wildflowers, Native Forbs

Call them what you will: when Nature chooses, She knows what She’s doing. And She doesn’t need a human audience. Nature is happy playing to the bees, wasps, butterflies, moths and beetles. We humans can learn a thing or two just by noticing and appreciating Nature’s perfect performance. And that’s just what we gardeners do.
[Read More]

Own-Root Roses

Did your roses take a hit from the unusually cold winter we just experienced? Perhaps they look as though they didn’t make it, showing brown, shriveled canes and no new growth above the ground. Or maybe there are no signs of life on the canes, but there is new growth just coming up from the ground. Either way, if your roses are growing on their own roots, you’re in luck. If they were grafted onto a rootstock, the prospects are not so good.[Read More]

April 29 – May 7: May Day Celebration and Sales!

There is something special and exciting about the arrival of May. In May, Spring weather may still be variable, but there’s nothing tentative about the progress of growth and flowering. They are unstoppable, full speed ahead!

At Harlequin’s Gardens, we love to celebrate May Day. This ancient festival from the British Isles welcomes Spring and celebrates the beauty, fertility, and abundance of the Earth. For 30 years, Harlequin’s Gardens has maintained a tradition of starting off our May Day festivities with hosting the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers, performing their lively traditional dances with bells, music, knocking sticks and waving scarves to bring forth the Earth’s fertility. The magic seems to work!

Earth Week!

It may sound trite or boastful, but truly – every day is Earth Day for us.

We are not just here to sell plants. We have a deep love and respect for plants and their roles in everything from making life on Earth possible for us humans and so many other life-forms, down to the minute details of their wondrous adaptations, behaviors and forms. We want to share all this with you,

A Pair of Products

A Pair of Products for your Spring Lawn and Rose Care

Corn Gluten and Rose Food are two helpful products you should consider at this time of year.

Corn Gluten Meal
We normally recommend that applying corn gluten for weed control a bit earlier in the year, like February and March, but this year spring is a bit behind schedule, and NOW is a still an effective time to apply it on lawns and other spaces. Here are the details.[Read More]