Successful Xeric perennials in a Colorado rock garden

[@panayotikelaidis1]

Enjoyed the tour: your "pasqueflower" is actually a Sugarbowl Clematis: a very choice native plant--you have a superb specimen. It is distantly related to pasqueflowers, but much tougher. Your mystery Aster is cutleaf fleabane (Erigeron compositus). The mystery red flower is Penstemon pinifolius (pineleaf Penstemon). the mystery white spreader is a mouse-ear (Cerastium tomentosum): it does have a native cousin, but this is actually Eurasian. A nice medley of plants that are obviously happy! Hope you will be on a garden tour soon so we can visit!

[@MorganBrown]

Well, it is excellent to hear from you and I appreciate your plant identification. I cut and pasted your words in the description for posterity. It is a "Pyrrhic victory" of sorts to read your kind words. I'd be hugely honored to give a garden tour, but we sold this house in December and moved to a townhouse-type arrangement in Greenwood Village. I suppose the only silver lining is that the new owner seems keen to keep the rock garden intact. (They will be in for a surprise once my nascent "grass-to-meadow" project sprouts in the front yard! hahaha). I'll leave the address in a comment on one of your other videos. If people are seriously interested in a tour, I could contact the new owner.

[@JohnBarousse]

Thanks so much for making this video. It’s a huge help to us Coloradans hoping to rid ourselves of a lawn.

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks John! We just sold a townhouse and moved back into a single family home with a nice yard. I can't wait to dig up some grass. We have big plans for the sloping backyard!

[@troyperry1231]

Beautiful work. We are loving the native plants and really jumping into no lawn and water wise landscape here in Pueblo west with lots of prairie plants. Thanks for sharing with a video.

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks for the kind words! In this same house, I tried to let half the front yard "go wild" by deadheading aggressive perennials for several years, then scattering the seeds into the "grass" with a mower. kzbin.info/www/bejne/naOTn2Z4oJeJi9E We moved away before this vision could come to fruition, but I think it is possible. Our current house has an HOA, so you have to be very careful. Friend of mine in a nearby neighborhood has a neighbor who is doing a "lawn to meadow" conversion and even got HOA approval!

[@user-yw3om8hl8c]

I’m loving that natural landscape nice job

[@jessehays3689]

Love this. Might move to Colorado soon and wanted native plant yard ideas.

[@MorganBrown]

Glad you enjoyed it. I don't live there anymore, so I would invite you to look at it on Google earth, but the garden didn't show up well.

[@brushbros]

Your voice and eve delivery makes you a natural for radio! Very impressive. I took notes.

[@schnder1]

Stunning. What a beautiful garden you have.

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks a lot! Unfortunately we don't live in this house anymore, but we are putting in the hard work of transforming our current house's yard. Lots of grass removal and re-grading. Hopefully some planting in the late summer.

[@bellarosa009]

Thank you for the tour. Beautiful garden.

[@MrEdhr]

Thanks for the video I found it quite enjoyable.

[@MorganBrown]

You are welcome! We just sold this house, so sadly, I will have to find some new garden adventures...

[@tjcihlar1]

Fun to see how ideas had morphed and changed over time. You moving away from the little alpine gardening plants makes me think about how I have moved away from "microgardening" with the small plants. I find it easier to manage taller plants, the can fight/shade off the grass/weeds and are easier to throw mulch around them.

[@MorganBrown]

To be honest my tall plants basically out-competed the little ones for the most part! It was absolutely a Darwinian struggle! When I had that garden I was in my early 40s with kids at home. We are in a new house, and now the kids are away to school. I actually have a great space for gardening. Who knows, maybe I'll try another alpine garden!

[@soggendazs]

Can you provide a list of the plants you mentioned? Especially the ones you couldn’t quite remember the name of. beautiful garden! Very inspiring

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks for the nice words. I decided to make some short videos on each plant. First video is on the Liatris: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoOTmXadp5qobsU . I'll try to do a new one every day for a while

[@MorganBrown]

Check the description. Panayoti Kelaidis (the Colorado rock garden guru!) posted a note where he added the names of the ones that I couldn't identify

[@soggendazs]

@@MorganBrown Thanks so much!

[@innershifttv]

Lovely garden. Artemesia, I pronounce (art-teh-me-sia). I loved your pronunciation... 🥔 - Potato. Love your plant selections.

[@MorganBrown]

I'm sure your pronunciation is correct! Thanks for the nice comment! I'll make some more of these rock garden videos soon.

[@Brajesvari_108]

Love to see your wild flower garden, I watched your video on your lawn as well, great reference, as I'd also like to do a wild flower meadow without the work of taking out the lawn!

[@MorganBrown]

Thank you very much! Best of luck with your "de-lawning" process. ;-)

[@cathiotirobaf1680]

Were all these rocks in your yard already? I want to do something like this, but probably on a smaller scale only because I would have to do it all by hand. Your garden is just what I am looking for. but I don't have rocks like that. Your garden is so beautiful. I love the way it is growing and looks. Thank you for sharing....

[@MorganBrown]

Cathi, thank you very much! The rocks were not in place when I moved in. I purchased probably 6 pallets of "moss rock" from High Plains Stone in Denver. All-in, I probably paid $1500-2000 for the stone. That fee could have been reduced, had I purchased all the stone at the same time, but I purchased the stone in 3 batches. The work isn't really that terrible, since each individual rock isn't that large. The hardest part is suppression of grass. I have another video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqrbnn6Vd7F6pLc) that discusses my philosophy on grass removal. I dig up the grass, dig out the soil under the grass, bring it to the surface, and bury the grass as deeply as possible. I would also throw a layer of cardboard on top of the buried grass to be safe. After 6 years with the rock garden, I have very little problems with unwanted grasses.

[@cathiotirobaf1680]

@@MorganBrown did you lay the lowest rocks first and fill in behind them as you stacked, or did you start at the top and stack your way down? Did you build this into a slight hill? Does this have all day sun? Sorry for all the questions but I really would love to build this and I don't want to start the hard way. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I love all the pockets you have in this. I have alot of these plants in my garden planted on a mound around a tree but I really wanted something more with the hardscape of rocks.

[@MorganBrown]

@@cathiotirobaf1680 I'm glad you're interested. Maybe I should do a video. To answer your questions: 1) you definitely start stacking at the bottom and build your way up. 2) I did build this into a slight hill, but I did add soil from other parts of my garden to form a berm. 3) This is a very sunny spot, with direct sun from 10 am to 7 pm in the summer. For the first several years, I had drip irrigation, but I pulled it out this year and I think the plants are fine, though some of the less hardy plants might not return next season.

[@cathiotirobaf1680]

@@MorganBrown Thank you for the information, it is of great help. Yes, yes, yes a video would be awesome. Thanks again @Morgan Brown for all the information you have provided to me thus far. I really appreciated your help. I live in Missouri, I have a lot of (small hills) mounds in my yard but also alot of trees. So I will have to figure out just where I can put it, I know where I want it .....

[@theebalz]

Enjoyed your videos and especially your cooling tubes video. I'd like the chance to discuss those with you in depth. I'm in Denver (Littleton) and was wondering if you're still in the area. Hope to hear back from you with a way to reach you.

[@carrasco2011sc]

I am in Colorado Springs and the only thing I have managed to grow and come back every year is my cosmos flowers.

[@MorganBrown]

No kidding. What is your elevation? This garden was at 5400 feet. My parents live in Montrose (6000 feet) and it's rather surprising how different the growing conditions are. They lose about 3 weeks on either end of the growing season. Many of the things that grew like weeds in Denver did not perform the same in Montrose. Of course, they had free irrigation water, so their soil was always wet, whereas I didn't put any water at all on my xeric garden (after established). I gave a list of some stuff that worked for me. Did any of these same plants fail for you?

[@geoengr3]

Wow. What a wonderful garden. I'm curious to know how much water that saves compared to the standard grass lawn.

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks Ken. Over the course of 8 years, I converted many grass patches, probably 1500 sqft, to xeric (essntially no supplemental water). So I essentially turned off maybe 3 zones out of 12. You could make the case that I was saving 25%. Now had I been able to realize the "lawn to xeric meadow" conversion, the savings would have been much more!

[@kmsch986]

Where do you buy your Colorado natives from? I’m local to you and have a hard time finding some of these . I use High Country online a lot for some but local would be great. Another quick question- any suggestions for plants that can overwinter and shallow root? I bought a “builder home” that is surrounded with hundreds of feet of rock mulch that would cost a fortune to remove so Im planting anchor plants buy digging holes through it but also thought of dumping soil on top to make berms and plant shallow rooters in other areas. Thanks , love your garden .

[@MorganBrown]

My favorite nursery is Harlequin's Gardens in Boulder. Their plants are hardy and they have a great selection. I've bought stuff from the Denver Botanic Gardens plant sale but hardiness was an issue.

[@maxmoran6302]

This is excellent! I really want to replicate something like this in Lakewood. Do you have any recommendations on where to purchase plants?

[@MorganBrown]

Max, thank you very much. I buy all my natives from Harlequin's Garden in Boulder. I find their plants are quite hardy. I have bought from the Denver Botanic Gardens as well, but didn't have good luck with hardiness. Could have just been bad luck, to be honest.

[@patkennedy8124]

Scarlet Gilia is the trumpet shaped one.

[@mcmatt9332]

Love the video. Curious how much sun that area receives? I hope to include some of these in out front.

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks very much! This is a full sun area, from 10 am to sunset in the summer months. I have a maple tree that casts partial shade on some of the garden, but what you see in this video is full sun

[@jocelynmarivicesparterohow9149]

Do you get deers at your area? Are all of you plants truly deer resistant?

[@MorganBrown]

No deer at this location. We have rabbits, but they do not eat these plants.

[@francescashiekh1399]

Lovely garden. Thank you for the suggestions. I like survivors and spreaders in my garden. What Zone are you in?

[@MorganBrown]

Thanks and thanks. I'm in zone 5b (Denver, Colorado). I am slowly doing a series of short videos (rock stars) for each of my favorite plants. I've done 3 so far, if you check the main channel page.

[@JonPerson]

Thanks for the tour, Morgan! This is great. Did you do anything special to get the seeds established years ago? These are the exact native species I'd like to grow as well. Thanks again :)

[@MorganBrown]

All the things I planted were originally from pots, but the volunteers were mostly unintentional. I started deadheading the flowers into the grass. My lawn slowly turned into a meadow, but the transformation was incomplete when I sold the house

[@MorganBrown]

The most prolific volunteers were Gallardia, liatris, blue flax, and one of the wild grasses. Columbine and penstemon volunteer readily in more of a shady, piney garden

[@bobmariano3731]

Have you had issues with deer 🦌, rabbits etc ? ? Eating your plants / flowers. ??

[@MorganBrown]

No deer, as the garden is in the middle of the city. Rabbits could care less about any of these plants, luckily 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@bmarie8965]

Very nice. Yu might be in P-dub like me. It's always a battle getting the right stuff

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

In preparation for a rock garden, what is your recommended method? We’re in Colorado Springs.

[@MorganBrown]

First step is grass removal. I like to dig it out and bury the grass. Sod cutters do not cut deep enough and the grass rhizomes will sprout in your rock garden kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqrbnn6Vd7F6pLc

[@MorganBrown]

Then you will add the hardscape. I like to do it myself. Many options here. I like to make it look like real geology kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4iVk6VmnKh4asU

[@thatsssick]

Omg this is exactly what I was looking for!!!

[@MorganBrown]

excellent. I have a "rock stars" series of videos that goes over individual plants. You might be interested. Let me know if you have any questions

[@thatsssick]

@@MorganBrown I will look at that! Thanks :) :) my garden is so new so I love the ones you pointed out that have volunteers lol

[@MorganBrown]

@@thatsssick haha, yeah, being a cheapskate myself, I do enjoy plants that volunteer. You'll be happy to know that I did ZERO supplemental watering of this garden for the last 2 years. Forget xeric, this was ZEROic! Sadly, we sold this house in December. The new owners will probably pull the entire garden out and replace it with grass...

[@deadinternet66]

When you setup your landscaping, did you use a weed barrier at all? Also are you just using the soil as is or did you amend it?

[@MorganBrown]

Craig, good questions. Never have used any weed barrier cloth. That said, when I am converting grass to xeric garden, I do dig up and bury the grass (kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqrbnn6Vd7F6pLc). I sometimes have put cardboard on top of the grass layer. Regarding amendment, in the rock garden shown in this video, I made no soil amendments and have never fertilized! In other rock gardens, I have amended with my own compost, just to keep the clayey soil from turning to concrete.

[@kristenkief2306]

What altitude are you at?

[@MorganBrown]

About 5400 feet

[@theurbanthirdhomestead]

#gardengoals

[@Coolranchpepe]

let me make a video where i don't know half of the plants names real helpfull

[@MorganBrown]

Let me leave a snarky comment under complete anonymity. Real brave 😂