Read more in this issue of Colorado Green Now:

Express Mulching & Soil supplies and installs local mulch 

 Early in 2022, at the start of the Water ’22 campaign spearheaded by Water Education Colorado, all of us were challenged to “take the pledge” to find ways to:

• Conserve at least 22 gallons of water use per day.
• Learn more about where Colorado’s water comes from and ways to protect it.
• Find ways to live with less.

Similarly, Colorado WaterWise’s statewide, public education campaign on water conservation, Live Like You Love It^SM asks Coloradans to commit to learning more about water issues and to being an active voice for good stewardship of this precious resource.

This year is also important for the Colorado Water Plan. Originally released in 2015, it is under development and the revised Water Plan will be released early in 2023. The development process for the 2023 Water Plan included a robust stakeholder engagement process to consider feedback and concerns with the original 2015 Plan, followed by an initial drafting phase. The draft version is currently available for public review during a 90-day public comment period from June 30 – September 30, 2022. Public comments can be submitted through engagecwcb.org. For those who want to review or comment, now it the time.

FREEDA^® caterpillar grass (Harpochloa falx 'Compact Black’ FREEDA^® Caterpillar Grass) is as wonderful as the name sounds. Imagine dozens of 2” long caterpillars, yellow anthers for legs, gallivanting through the air above clumps of green grass in June, and you will understand why “caterpillar grass” is the perfect name for this grass. It is a fun plant for all ages. In mid-May, narrow light green grass blades radiate out to form a soft texture in the garden. In late June, the excitement begins with dark green arching flower buds suspended sideways above the blades of grass. One end of each flower is connected to a stem with only one flower per stem. The flowers elongate into wavy cylindrical seed heads in the summer and the “caterpillars” look to be in motion even when standing still. Backlighting from the sun at dawn and dusk shows of this plant off best. Through the fall, the seed heads become fuzzier until they shatter and mostly disappear in November. The compact clump of grass becomes a light tan and as temperatures continue to drop, the lower foliage experiences a metamorphosis, becoming chocolate brown in color until February. This is the wonderful life cycle of FREEDA^® caterpillar grass.

Mengmeng Gu, Ph.D., joined the department of horticulture and landscape architecture (HLA) at Colorado State University (CSU) July 1, 2022, after a decade at Texas A&M. Gu assumed the role as department head.

Her attraction to, and interest in plants began as a child and her passion for ornamental plants remains strong. As a CSU professor and extension specialist, Gu’s goal is to actively find the research needs for Colorado. In her new leadership role, she will be broadening her service by reaching out to the community and the industry to involve more stakeholders to help identify needs. “I look forward to identifying needs from multiple stakeholders and finding viable research topics,” Gu said.

Gu is joined in Fort Collins by her husband and four children.

Known as Dr. Klett to most, Jim Klett, Ph.D., has been a faculty member in the CSU landscape and horticulture department since 1980, more than 40 years. He has been an invaluable asset to ALCC and the green industry in his tenure. CSU and the industry recognized his long career and commitment to Colorado horticulture with a celebration August 9 at the new Nutrien ag sciences building. Attendees included former students, CSU colleagues, green association members and people from industry companies.

This was the fourteenth year Colorado State University has conducted Cool Season Trials at the Annual Flower Trial Garden. The overall goal of this project is to determine which varieties of cool season plants are best suited for marketing and growing in the Rocky Mountain Region. For the plants tested in the 2021-2022 trial, initial data was recorded in October 2021 and taken monthly, unless under heavy snow cover, until end of April 2022. Irrigation was monitored throughout the trial period and additional water was added when temperatures were above 40°F. Snow cover and rain amounts were recorded throughout this period.

The winter and early spring 2022 had some different weather periods. There were lengthy periods of snow cover in January and February 2022. April was extremely dry, having with very little or almost no rain, with extremely high winds. Also, on the evening of April 12, the low temperature dropped to 16°F after several very warm days in early April reaching 80°F.

Representatives from the CSU Annual Trial Committee met on April 27, 2022 to evaluate 57 different varieties of Cool Season plants. Unlike last year, there were no geese problems because almost all of the kale and cabbage varieties did not survive the cold temperatures encountered.

ALCC’s 2022 golf tournament is in the books and what a great day it was! The tournament, held at Arrowhead Golf Course, Littleton was sold out.

Thank you to all who supported and participated in the tournament. Without sponsors, golfers and contributions, this event would not have been a success.

Congratulations to our first-place team from Ground Solutions – Mike Uittenbogaard, Mike Neal, Ryan Clifford and Raul Martinez.

“I really didn’t want to do this project,” admits Geister, branch manager and business development at Environmental Designs, Inc. (EDI). “This project involved planting and maintaining annuals in planters outside two Centerra industrial buildings—16 at each.” The planters weren’t working as planned and McWhinney, the Centerra development management and investment company, knew.

Drains in the planters were not functioning and in 2019, the year before EDI took on this challenge, runoff from the planters was so high that standing water with algae could be found several feet away from the planters, plants were in poor health and the “rotting stinking mess” resulted in tenant complaints.

Also, the way the buildings are situated can create heat and a wind tunnel effect, which have an effect on water needs of the plants in the planters.

For the EDI team’s effort, they received ALCC’s Gold ELITE Award for Sustainability.

Rising to the challenge

“We have a good team,” Geister asserts. “It has rock stars. We agreed that ‘we can do this.’” To start, they removed all the soil to see how the planters drained. Then they removed existing components, installed new lines and added 360-degree adjustable drip bubblers to each planter. They refilled with aggregate and soil.

Using Rain Bird Xeri-Bubblers, Geister and senior Irrigation tech, Alejandro Arenas, improvised, installing the bubblers instead of using more traditional micro-sprays. “They are super simple to regulate above the soil line. It takes just a twist to adjust water.”

Based on his learning from this project, Geister would say this to colleagues, “There is amazing technology out there. Think out-of-the-box. Be innovative when using these products.” Before testing the new components, the team also cleaned the drains as best as possible.

“I love bringing the feeling of nature into the spaces people live in,” reveals Johnny Moore, designer at Tree of Life Landscapes, Mead. The beauty and joy of nature that speaks to Moore, is something he wants to capture when he designs.

“When we first talked with this Boulder- based client about her yard, she didn’t have a detailed vision for her landscape renovation,” says Moore. “What she did know is she wanted to remove most of the sod and create perennial gardens more suitable to the Colorado climate. My work as a designer is often to help clients realize a vision they can’t articulate.”

Four seasons of immersion and mystery

The perennial garden Moore designed in 2017 included removal of all sod on one side of the driveway and a portion on the other side. “Our vision was to create four seasons of interest. Color in the spring, summer and fall and in the winter a lot of texture and different hues of brown. There is a lot of richness and depth to the winter textures that can’t be seen in other seasons. Leaving the seed heads allows the birds some winter food. We are creating more than a garden. It’s an environment for not only us but the other inhabitants.” To Moore’s point, this property has earned National Wildlife Federation habitat certification.

The design includes a walking area throughout. The walking area serves three functions: it ties the areas in the design together, it provides immersion from within the garden among the plants to enjoy them up close, and thirdly and importantly, it provides ease of maintenance.