I have always loved the word "Collaborate". Per Merriam-Webster Online, collaborate means to work jointly with others or together. I love the word "Imagination" also. Per Merriam-Webster Online, imagination means the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.

I am a gardener who can imagine what 10 years growth on my plants might look like. And I, like all gardeners, collaborate at least in little ways (like buying that packet of seeds from the store). I, like other gardeners, am also drawn to go see, the larger garden collaborations around me (I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to go see the Denver Botanic Gardens). Research for this site has exposed me to some the wide and varied ways, garden collaborations are carried out, and I've been amazed. I hope you are too.

I put off my passion to garden until I retired. Immediately my new home needed a vegetation screen for the busy country roads corner I lived on. I did envision the planting 10 years later, and I did get to see that my vision was not far off (before I had to sell the house and move).

In 2001, I was accepted to train as a "Master Gardener" (in Grand Junction, Colorado - training is somewhat skewed to local conditions). I took the courses, and put in my volunteer hours. I particularly liked the part of the courses on how to prune fruit trees and vines, as I had a fledgling orchard an vineyard that needed my attention. Much to my surprise, I also really enjoyed the volunteer office hours, answering questions from folks over the phone. Soil with high salinity levels is a problem in Grand Junction, Colorado, so one of the things we ("Master Gardeners") would do for walk in clients, is run a salinity test on their soil samples. I liked the scientific method of using the specialized equipment, to determine salt levels. In fact, the salt levels were so high at the Grand Junction Cooperative Extension, that for their demonstration garden, they had to lay down a non permeable barrier, and build raised beds above that.

I kept up with my hours to maintain my "Master Gardener" status, till my health failed, and I was no longer reliable to sign up for, and actually meet my commitments.

Over the next several years I was involved as the Landscape Designer, in homeowners jobs, my husbands Home and Garden Services company, had picked up. Thus I was paid for Landscape Design. Thus that qualifies me as a professional Landscape Designer.

John Doe was a older fellow who couldn't get around very well. He liked sitting on his front porch, looking out on his garden. He wanted color, lots of color, all season long - color. I curved the edges of his lawn to make mowing easier, and I encircled his two Aspen trees, provided a center island for flowers. For shrubs I added red Barberry, Austrian Copper Rose, a Firethorn Pyracantha, and a Smoke Tree as a center piece, hiding the Stop Sign outside his home. I then planted just enough Iris for their early blooming, and then flooded his borders with my 4 favorite perennials; Black Eyed Susan, Purple Cone Flower, Blanket Flower (reseeds itself), and Shasta Daisy. These were my favorites, because they did well in Grand Junction, Colorado, and had a long bloom period. For his borders up close to his front porch chair I added Lavender, and creeping Thyme surrounding some stepping stones, where he could step out into his garden.

Mrs Smith was a proper sort of school teacher lady. She was in need of a western screen, to cut down on the summers heat, penetrating into her home. Because it was a very narrow side yard, I used Skyrocket Juniper (very formal looking screen) as the basis of the screen. I staggered both Butterfly Bush and Common Lilac to soften the stiff row of junipers. This western screen needed to blend in at both ends, so I used the stately Linden tree, peppered by little red Barberry bushes in the border. This western border was finished off by concrete edging, befitting our proper school teacher, and making mowing easier.

The third Landscaping job I had was much more difficult in many ways. It was a one acre Bed and Breakfast. It had existing landscaping that was haphazard at best. It had a rather large area under wood chips with a Gazebo and a duck pond with a curved bridge. It had several tree stumps 3 to 5 feet in diameter of various heights. One had been transformed into a waterfall. The one thing I can say that I did positive for the place, was I planted in my 4 favorite perennials, a 2 foot bed, at the top of a rock wall on the south and north. This did accomplish what I was hoping this planting would accomplish, in that the guests would come out the front door and via the flowers, be led around that south and west wall.

You would think that the Gazebo / duck pond / curved bridge would be a Landscape designers delight, but it was not. The owner already had significant plantings, and did not desire to have those plantings disturbed. And what was missing was the pathway that drew a casual stroller along from one feature to another. In many ways, what was planted needed to be scraped, the enticing pathway put in, and then the plants put in to compliment the pathway. This didn't happen. The owner was on a shoestring budget.

While in Grand Junction, Colorado, I lived on a place with 2.5 acres. I had many, and varied projects going on. I over seeded the back alfalfa field with dryland pasture grass and planted the hedge rows for wild life. I had a little orchard. I had some raised beds I grew vegetables for the food bank in. I attempt to plant all my fence rows, but had difficulty in getting water to these plantings (everything is irrigated in Grand Junction, Colorado). I had a bed I called my Bulb nursery, where I found out which bulbs thrived, and which bulbs had a short life span. Our last project was in planting Trumpet vine to eventually cover the arbor (which took the place of some 100 year old trees that had to come out).

For medical reasons, I have just moved to the western foothills of Denver.

I'm am living at 7400 feet on what tested out to be a sandy loam soil, on a rocky sub soil. The soil is over all alkaline, as most soils west of the Mississippi are. Ponderosa Pine is everywhere, even little baby pines. Not much grows under a Ponderosa Pine tree. Local mythology is that the dropped Pine needles cause the soil to be too acidic. I highly doubt this, as it is near on difficult to change a soils PH. I think the reason nothing much grows under the Ponderosa Pine trees, is the Pine tree itself, shelters the ground below, from getting any moisture. A casual chat with another gardener, down at the community Hot Tub, confirmed my suspicions. She had had her soil tesed from below a Pine tree, and sure enough that soil was still alkaline.

The tree guy who came to trim our trees pointed out to me, where I have two rather healthy vigorous stands of noxious weeds (in this case diffuse knapweed). It appears that digging them out will be a better solution then herbicide. And the tree man made me ultra aware of planting for Fire Defensible Zones. I understand the fire danger, and will be planting to the guidelines.

While I bought the place in July, we didn't move in until Thanksgiving, leaving me but a very short window to find out what little water we have. Water Rights in Colorado is a subject all unto it's own, but where in Grand Junction, Colorado, our land came with the equivalent of 48 inches of water over the whole acreage - here, all I get is from my well. Even the rain water off my roof is not mine, but belongs to a farmer downstream from us. In a way, that's okay. I've had my fill of the hassles of pumping water out of a cistern. So what did I find out about my water well? It refills at a rate of half a gallon a minute. If I run an ordinary oscillating sprinkler, it runs my well dry in less then 10 minutes. No kidding. I have very little water.

What I've figured I'm going to have to do is construct little collars for new plants, and the water hose will reach them. (The collar will prevent the water from running off down hill).

Once I have the noxious weeds dug up, I've planted grass as defense, for any possible seed bed, the noxious weed might take hold in. For germinating the grass, I have bet on the rains of late May in Colorado. So far, my bet has played out favorable for the Sheep Fescue, and it is coming up. And the jury is still out on the bigger seed of Wheat Grass, Side Oats Gamma, and Little Blue Stem.

New News: We had our well pump fixed, and now instead of only being able to water (with the oscilating sprinkler) for 10 minutes each hour, I can water for 20 minutes, each hour. This expanded the newly sprouted (this season) grass areas I was able to water (up until frost, had me shut off my hoses). In particular, I was able to water the grass area that has the worst noxious weed problem --- the theory being, that grass growing will prevent noxious weed from sprouting.

I hope this web site will be a collaboration point, for me, for you, for whoever shows up.

Linda