By Eve Reshetnik Brawner
Yikes! The ground at Harlequin’s and at home has, so far, remained frost-free through fall and winter. With the exception of one brief dip into single-digit temperatures, our winter weather has been abnormally warm and dry. We are hoping that an El Nino scenario will replace this pattern soon, but it doesn’t look very likely. If it continues, the current pattern will have implications for many aspects of our lives. Municipalities are considering imposing restrictions on landscape watering. Farmers are worried that water supplies will dry up early in summer. Smaller harvests can create food scarcity and force prices to soar. Wildfires will be a constant threat. Plants that are adapted to dependable moisture will suffer. We can help you garden successfully in these conditions, even with watering restrictions!
Harlequin’s Gardens has been under self-imposed watering restrictions since our inception 34 years ago. Our well is unproductive and we have had to install cisterns and bring in expensive city water by truck (it’s the delivery that costs so much!), so we’ve got decades of experience growing, introducing, evaluating, propagating, and promoting plants that are adapted to drought and extreme weather. We offer well over a thousand kinds of fantastic ‘Colorado-adapted’ plants, including local and regional native plants, and water-wise and xeric (dryland) plants from places around the world with conditions very similar to ours. We’re the best source in Colorado for native plants – perennials, annuals, shrubs, trees, vines, and grasses. And our seeds are carefully curated for success in Colorado conditions. Our classes, website, newsletters and customer service are sources of empowering information.
Vegetable and fruit gardeners, too, can benefit from our experience, advice, safe and effective plant-protection products, and bio-regionally-adapted vegetable, flower, and herb starts. We offer fruit trees and berry bushes that will produce in the hot, dry weather of this short season. We carry the best soil mixes and amendments, most of them sourced locally.
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