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.
Sorry to state the painful truth, but hope doesn’t cut it anymore. What we all need is vision and courage. Vision is our natural intelligence to see the right thing to do, and what and who needs help; and courage cuts through depression to do the right thing. “Courage” comes from the word for “heart.” Intellect is very useful, but we need heart to stand up to fear. How can we get up in the morning and go out to garden when there is so much pain in our world and so many huge problems? And the answer is: Corazon-Heart-Courage. In spite of the appearance of a hopeless future, human beings have a Resilience of Spirit that helps us rise above fear and depression.
Curiously, we know from experience that resilience can come from the human quality of nurturing, especially raising our children and caring for plants and working with the earth. Our health and happiness are connected with caring for others. Science has confirmed this and it seems connected to our instinct to survive. It is no wonder that in painful times, we find solace in our families, our gardens, in helping our neighbors and in sharing food and planting trees. It appears that this instinct to survive is on the rise, and because we are all so interconnected, in order to survive we have to bring the planet, the plants and our neighbors along with us.
At Harlequin’s Gardens, our job is to help your gardens survive and thrive, and we have spent 32 years learning the plants, soils, and methods that can help you. Reports of your gardening successes confirm that we are on the right track.
Even after all these years, the survival of Harlequin’s Gardens is not guaranteed. Our sales go up every year, but lately our expenses are going up faster. Living expenses for our staff keep going up and up and they need a living wage. Please tell your friends about us. Serving more customers is our best chance for survival. Does anybody have any ideas of grants or other financial support that could help us continue into the future? Another idea: if you love Harlequin’s, please send us a testimonial that could inspire other gardeners to visit us: staff@HarlequinsGardens.com
Subscribing to our newsletter online saves us printing and postage costs, and then you will get our weekly educational and inspirational e-newsletters.
Speaking of the Elephant in the room: Harlequin’s Gardens has just invested in a new heat pump system from Elephant Energy. We’re betting on our survival and the survival of the planet.
The strategy is survival and cooperation, not competition and conquest. It’s time to love your Mother deeply. Winona La Duke
As always we will have a great selection of organic veggie starts. We spend hours and days, reading dozens of seed catalogs, searching for new and special varieties that resist disease and pests, are very productive, taste fabulous, and that we think or know will be successful and rewarding here on the high plains and in the mountains. We think you’ll find the very best choices at Harlequin’s Gardens. Please give us your feedback on what you grow from us; use our suggestion box at our store, and send us pictures from your garden! We want to know what works and what doesn’t. Go to HarlequinsGardens.com/Plants for complete listings and descriptions.
This Year’s Offerings
Carbon Tomato, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds
A FEW NEW AND “NEW AGAIN” TOMATOES – Offering 60 varieties!
CARBON – New Again! 76 days, Indeterminate. OP
This taste-test winning, hard-to-find heirloom is one of the darkest ‘black’ tomatoes, with delicious, rich, smoky-sweet, complex flavor; pretty 8-14oz. purple-brown fruits are resistant to radial cracking. Big, 5-7’ productive, regular-leaf plants are healthy and tolerate heat and dry conditions.
Read more tomato selections ….
Bastan Pepper, courtesy Johnny’s Seeds
A FEW NEW AND “NEW AGAIN” PEPPERS – Offering 48 Varieties!
BASTAN F-1 ANCHO/POBLANO – New!
65 days green, 85 days ripe, F-1 hybrid
Early and adaptable poblano pepper, high-yielding and robust, big, thick-walled, 4-6” long, easy to peel. Excellent fried, roasted, stuffed, in chile rellenos or green chile sauces. When dried ripe, called Ancho.
Read more pepper selections ….
EGGPLANTS FOR 2024
PURPLE COMET – New!
70 days from transplant, hybrid, Asian-type
Big yields of long-fruited Asian type eggplant; fruits can reach 10” long and 1.5 to 2” diameter. The firm white flesh is bitter-free, seed development is slow, and the rich violet skin is thin and tender. Plants are robust, with extra-large, tropical-looking foliage and showy purple flowers, and beautiful purple fruits
Read more eggplant selections ….
POTATO, ONION and ASPARAGUS
about our Potato, Onion, and Asparagus selections.
GARDEN VEGGIES & HERBS
We’ll be bringing you a Fantastic Selection this year!
ARTICHOKE: Imperial Star
ARUGULA: Wild, Astro (spring), Ice Bred (fall)
ASIAN GREENS: Tatsoi, Pak Choi, Mustards, Joi Choi, Shiso……. and more!
SPECIAL EVENTS & SALES
Morris Dancers
Community is Welcome at May Day Events, and Members Fall Plant Sales
CLASSES
We’re excited to share our diverse and cutting-edge series of gardening classes this season! Our experienced instructors are Front Range experts in their fields, offering empowering, practical and up-to-date guidance and information. Classes and their descriptions are on our website, and you can register here: http://harlequinsgardens.com/what-we-offer/classes/ Classes are priced at $23 unless otherwise stated.
If you are a member and you want to take one class for 50% off, you will have to come into the nursery to register or register by email (staff @HarlequinsGardens.com) and pay before the class begins at Harlequin’s.
Most of our classes run from one and a half to two hours in length, and sometimes longer for hands-on classes or if there are a large number of questions.
Read about our class offerings and register ….
MEMBERSHIP & WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS
about the value of our e-newsletters and Harlequin’s Gardens memberships.
OUR STAFF
We are very proud of our staff, To help you to get to know us and our specialties, you can follow the link to our complete staff list and bios.
Jillian Gourley has a degree in horticulture, arboriculture, and natural areas management. She is excited to help people navigate the plants of Harlequins and find what will best suit their and the plant’s needs. Jillian is fascinated with the native plants of the Rockies and particularly has interests in medicinals, edibles, and wild mushrooms. Jill is our perennials lead in 2024, co-grows many of our vegetable starts, and teaches horticulture at Front Range College.
Read more about our team members ….
VERY SPECIAL PRODUCTS TO BENEFIT YOUR SOIL LIFE AND YOUR PLANT LIFE
SOIL BIOLOGY
Big Foot Mycorrhizae – combines 4 species of mycorrhizae with biochar, worm castings, seaweed, and rock minerals to provide a strong population of plant allies to bring water and nutrients. New again!
Endo Mycorrhizae – water soluble symbiotic fungus, inoculate roots to bring water and nutrients. Easy to use and very effective. Good for shrubs and trees, veggies too; dissolve in water, wet roots.
Myke Vegetable and Herb–enhances growth, development & production; wet roots and dust on the powder or sprinkle in seed row to improve germination.
Read more …. about our Soil Products, Composts, Fertilizers, Mulch, and Potting Soils.
1000 Farms Initiative: the most ambitious agroecology research ever conducted. In 2023 their scientists visited 423 farms, measuring biodiversity, soil carbon, food nutrient content, economic and sociological effects of various styles of land management. The goal: to see how we can grow food in a way that restores our hurting world to health.
The Ecdysis Annual Report
HARDY CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS
Harlequin’s Gardens has many winter-hardy cacti: Chollas, Ball Cacti and Prickly Pears. Succulents: hardy Agave, Yucca, Hesperaloe, Hardy Iceplant, Sedum and more!
HOME GROWN FRUIT
One of our specialties is fruiting plants that are adapted to Colorado conditions. All the apples we carry are resistant to fireblight, good tasting and will ripen in our short season. The cherries we sell are all proven successful in Colorado. Our grapes are the most cold-hardy of any you will find, delicious fresh, in juice and a few are good for wine. We have a large assortment of productive & tasty currants, gooseberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries.
Read descriptions of our fruiting plant selections ….
ROSES
We are known far and wide for our selection of sustainable roses and for our expertise in helping people choose the best varieties for their gardens and landscapes. We sell roses on their own roots not grafted, which makes them more cold hardy, longer lived, with more flowers.
Human beings are getting smarter. Why is that obvious? Because we are realizing how intelligent non-humans are. This is leading to resourceful relationships that are not based on extraction or dominance, but cooperative symbiosis. Of course we have a ways to go.
Mikl Brawner
SHRUBS & VINES
Serviceberry
We have a large selection of drought-tolerant shrubs and vines. These will need no water after the first year (except in drought).
PERENNIALS
Harlequin’s offers a huge selection of pollinator-supporting Native Perennials, including:
Eriogonum umbellatum, “Kannah Creek” Buckwheat – yellow blooms cover xeric native mat, feeds butterflies, bees. Mahogany winter color.
Eriogonum allennii – 3′ wide, very xeric, yellow flowers, a winner.
Russian Hawthorn
TREES
The TREES we sell are smaller than ball & burlap trees that are dug in the field, leaving at least 75% of their roots in the ground. Ours are grown in a container so they have a complete root system and begin growing immediately and are not stressed. Here is a sample of some of ours.
Russian Hawthorn
Very tough and xeric, grows 15’ high and wide, white flowers and red berries, loves Colorado.
SEEDS
New this year – We’ve created our own custom Meadow Grass Mixes: a Very Xeric Grass mix, a Foothills Native Mix, and a Mountain Native Mix! We continue to offer a wonderful selection of seeds from our local Botanical Interests for tried-and-true vegetables, herbs, flowers, and sprouts; local Beauty Beyond Belief flower seeds and pollinator and habitat mixes. Also, Seed Savers Exchange preserving heirloom varieties & sharing them.
The EPA and the Department of Energy pledged $1 billion for reducing methane gas emissions. Methane is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Various sources
Thank you, local gardeners, for helping to cultivate a healthy 21st Century World!
Sincerely,
Mikl Brawner & Eve Reshetnik Brawner
And the Great Staff at Harlequin’s Gardens!