Turf is so last century

Native plants are showcased at the Laramie County Library Pollinator Habitat. Photo by Jeff Geyer.

Published April 21, 2023, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Turf is so last century, especially if there is no water for it

By Barb Gorges

            Walking the puppy every day gives me time to contemplate my neighborhood’s lawns as they recover from winter. And the puppy introduces me to neighbors who sometimes tell me their lawn woes.

            Of the 200 homes in our subdivision, it seems like most have dead spots in their bluegrass lawns (only a few are not bluegrass). One neighbor, let’s call her Debbie, said she did everything as usual last year, fertilizing according to instructions in May and September, watering three times a week for 20 minutes per zone, mowing every six or seven days. And still, dead areas adjacent to the sidewalk increased in size.

            Last year was dry. People who did not water killed their grass, leaving behind gritty dirt soon infested with drought-resistant weeds. The rest of us, without rainfall to make up for dry spots in our irrigation patterns or hotter spots next to the sidewalk, started to see problems like Debbie’s.

            I sent a photo of Debbie’s bare area to Catherine Wissner, Laramie County Extension horticulturist, asking for advice.

            “For starters, they are mowing their lawn way too short,” Catherine responded.

Grass needs to shade itself. If it isn’t a putting green, set your mower blade as high as it goes.

            Next, Catherine recommended reseeding. But first, do some core aeration and treat the area with Revive. This product improves the soil’s ability to take in water and nutrients. She said to look at our local nursery, Riverbend, or JAX, a chain headquartered on the Front Range, for high quality grass seed meant for our area.

            Don’t throw on any fertilizer until the grass starts growing. And because it will need extra water to get started, get the Cheyenne Board of Public Utility’s “New Lawn Permit” at www.cheyennebopu.org. It’s free.

But what about going native instead?

            If your bluegrass lawn has died, now is your chance to replace it with native grass and or other native plants. I spent many hours digging up part of my healthy front lawn last fall to expand my native plant garden.

            Native plants are the hot topic in every garden publication these days. Native plants support native animals, including insects, that are beneficial to us directly and indirectly. They are also adapted to the climate they are native to, so in our area, that means they need less water. Bluegrass is not native to our high and dry prairies.

Water shortages may be coming

            Growing a bluegrass lawn these days in our location is an outdated concept. Here in Cheyenne, we have even more reason to establish less water-thirsty landscapes: the Colorado River problem. Through a series of tunnels and agreements, 70 percent of our city water comes from that river, and it is suffering due to drought. We have junior water rights compared to other states, so it is quite possible we could lose that water.

            BOPU estimates that 30% of Cheyenne’s water is used to water our landscapes. So if we retrofit our yards now, maybe we won’t have an entirely dead moonscape when we are cut off from Colorado River water.

Retrofitting our yards

            We need only look at the High Plains Arboretum on the west edge of Cheyenne to see that there are trees and shrubs that survived 50 years with rainfall and snowmelt alone.

            There are people growing buffalo grass instead of bluegrass and saving money and time (see https://cheyennegardengossip.wordpress.com/).

            There are several demonstration gardens in town full of waterwise perennials. The Cheyenne Botanic Gardens features the crevice garden, Habitat Hero garden and the new Plant Select gravel garden beds out front and more in back. The Pollinator Habitat in the corner of the Laramie County Library parking lot is all local native plants.

            For information about growing a native plant garden in the Cheyenne area, see https://cheyenneaudubon.org/habitat-hero-resources/.

To find native plants for sale, check the Laramie County Master Gardeners plant sale May 6 out at the Archer Complex. See the High Plains Environmental Center’s nursery offerings online at https://suburbitat.org/, order, then pick up your plants in Loveland, Colorado, only 50 miles away. Order or collect seeds next fall. Once you become familiar with the easiest-to-grow natives, you might recognize a few of them at the big box stores. 

            Yes, there is a little work to native plants. You still need to match the right plant with the right place and water it the first year. In late April or early May, you’ll want to cut back the dead stems of last year’s growth. It sure beats the costs of lawn maintenance in time and money. And you get flowers. And bees and birds and butterflies and maybe even bats.

Habitat Hero workshop about prairie restoration, water

Habitat Hero workshop considers prairie restoration as a means for saving water

Published February 17, 2023 in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

By Barb Gorges

            Earlier this month, the ninth annual Cheyenne Habitat Hero workshop was held at Laramie County Community College. It attracted about 100 in-person registrants and 400 online. The topic was how to garden in a future with less water available.

            Keynote speaker Jim Tolstrup, director of the High Plains Environmental Center in Loveland, Colorado, gave us the background on how the high plains plant and animal communities have fared, first under the indigenous people, then trappers, settlers, ranchers, farmers and suburbanites.

            Ninety-seven percent of American grasslands are degraded. It means that what we need today is not conservation – there is barely anything left to conserve – but restoration.

            Restoration with native prairie plants is obvious for acreage owners. Prairie flowers replacing our urban lawns benefit pollinator species, if not antelope – unless you live near the base.

Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan). Photo by Barb Gorges.

            One attribute of prairie plants is that once established, they don’t need irrigation.

            The voices of experience included Jim’s, with his slide of lush vegetation that is no longer irrigated. Rex Lockman from the Laramie County Conservation District discussed the Native Prairie Island Project that started a seeding program for old and new septic leach fields last year. Nancy Loomis explained how to harvest free water.

            Instead of driving over the snow in your driveway, shovel or blow it onto the lawn on either side. Nancy has put in a garden next to her driveway and the water from the snow she places on it means she doesn’t have to water it in the summer. She planted traditional groundcovers like creeping phlox, partridge feather and candytuft. Her future garden expansion will favor the natives she encourages at the garden next to Laramie County Library’s parking lot.

            In Nancy’s and my 1950s-1960s neighborhoods, the sidewalk is adjacent to the curb – no green strip in between. It makes total sense to throw the shoveled snow on your lawn or garden instead of in the street – which makes it difficult for people to park in front of your house when they visit anyway.

            A fair amount of your harvested snow from your hardscape, walks, decks, driveways, will evaporate on windy days. Plus, it isn’t going to sink much into the frozen ground. Obviously, more of the water from spring snowstorms will sink in.

            But extra snow cover provides longer protection from our drying winds for your lawn and garden.

            There is another way for you to harvest snow away from your hardscape areas. Let last year’s garden growth act as snow fence that collects blowing snow in drifts.

            However, I recommend removing vegetable garden vegetation because those plants are prone to diseases. Consider replacing them in winter with other obstacles for collecting snow.

            The most thought-provoking presentation was by Cheryl Miller, from the U.S. Geological Survey. She has a groundwater demonstration setup that reminded me of an ant farm. Sand and dirt were pressed between two clear vertical panels. Tubes inserted vertically represented wells. Food coloring representing pollution in one well could be seen to migrate into a neighboring well that was being pumped.

            The representation of a stream was kept flowing by snowmelt and stormwater runoff as well as groundwater. Pumping nearby wells caused it to dry up.

            Cheryl showed why septic systems need to be monitored so that they don’t adversely affect wells for drinking water. The same can be said for nitrates from over-fertilization.

            I think the take-home for rural as well as urban residents and gardeners is that groundwater is precious and maybe shouldn’t be wasted on landscaping, especially when there are low water alternatives for lawns and flower gardens.

            Zach Hutchinson from Audubon Rockies gave us an update on the development of a pollinator survey we can use in our home gardens.

Zach Hutchinson (center, green shirt) demonstrates how to do a pollinator survey one morning in July 2022 at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens’ Habitat Hero demonstration garden. Photo by Barb Gorges.

            Michelle Bohanan gave us a pep talk on winter sowing, and provided the jugs, soil and native seed to try it at home.

            We are already talking about a theme for next year’s workshop: getting back to basics. How do you restore, or install, a piece of prairie on your property?

            Meanwhile, check the Habitat Hero information available at Audubon Rockies and Cheyenne Audubon websites.

            This spring, look for native prairie plants for sale, but not the fancy varieties at the big box stores. Try shopping online at the High Plains Environmental Center’s plant sale featuring 150 straight native species. It starts March 31 and continues into September.

            Place your order and then drive down to Loveland in the next day or two to pick it up. Be sure to allow time for a walk around the demonstration gardens there. It’s hard to believe only the new transplants are irrigated.

Jim Tolstrup discusses prairie plant propagation at the High Plains Environmental Center June 2022. Photo by Barb Gorges.

Garden Godzilla runs amuck

Bailey, 11 weeks old in this photo, loves the garden and backyard – and loves to eat anything in them. Photo by Barb Gorges.

What’s running wild through the backyard? It’s the Garden Godzilla

Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Oct. 21, 2022

By Barb Gorges

            It has been a tough growing season.

By the end of August, Cheyenne was behind in precipitation by 5 inches – of an average 10-15 inches per year. The upside was we got very little hail.

            The downside is that without rain to even out our irrigation attempts, a lot of plants are suffering – most noticeably trees. Young trees turned their fall colors early or died. Top branches of old trees died. Please water your trees on warm days in fall and winter too.

            People in my neighborhood who don’t water their lawns because their landlord doesn’t offer an incentive or they are unable to, grew fine crops of thistle and other invasive plants. I look at the thistle as a portent of things to come if we don’t get enough snow in the mountains and water rationing becomes severe.

            But right now, Godzilla is trashing my yard.

It isn’t the drought. Its real name is Bailey and she is a Golden Retriever puppy Mark and I brought home at 8 weeks old at the beginning of September.

            Our Midcentury Modern house came with a backyard enclosed by a 4- to 5-foot-high wall of pink concrete blocks so we don’t have trouble with rabbits. But two dogs ago, we fenced off the shrubs with 3-foot-high wire fencing and the flower and herb beds with fencing that is 2 feet tall. As our last dog became elderly and less interested in rampaging, and finally died this spring at 16, we took down the flower and herb bed fencing.

September 2 or 3, the 2-foot fencing went back up around the herb bed and the flower bed. We’d planted more shrubs with no fencing several years ago, but by September 10, Mark had 3-foot fencing up to keep Bailey from gnawing branches.

Bailey loves the echinacea on the front edge of the flower bed. By throwing herself on the fencing, at first held up between the steel corner posts only by a few green plastic-coated sticks of rebar, she could get the leaves to pop through the mesh of the fence and eat them. Echinacea has medicinal uses – is it the leaves? And then, on September 24, she started climbing over the fence. Mark bought and installed a roll of 3-foot-high fencing.

Good fences make good neighbors and better puppies. But the garden and shrubs aren’t the only parts of the backyard getting trashed. Bailey is eating holes in the lawn. I think she might be a truffle hunter.

Our previous Golden, Sally, nibbled little white mushrooms in our lawn without ill effect though we removed any we found first. There is this swathe of dark green that seems to harbor mushroom-growing abilities the rest of the yard doesn’t have. Bailey is smelling something and rooting out grass clumps. She’s also rooting out the new grass that Mark painstakingly grew this season wherever Sally burned holes.

Puppies chew in the house too. We pulled out our 30-year-old tube of Grannick’s Bitter Apple paste and applied it to various edges of lower kitchen cabinets, and I started looking for more. Petco couldn’t find theirs and Walmart only had 35-ounce spray bottles of bitter cherry, no apple. But our vet tech said cherry worked very well for her dog.

I thought maybe I could spray those holes in the grass that Bailey is intent on enlarging. But before I could try that, I sprayed my toes to protect them while I washed dishes. It kind of worked. Bailey stopped nipping and started licking my toes instead. Guess I’ll try ordering Grannick’s bitter apple.

Mary Sharp gave me a tour of her flower beds recently, and like other country gardens, most are enclosed with deer fencing. Some areas, like the vegetable garden that needs frequent attention, have a gate. Along the new berm, and a few other beds, there’s no fencing because the plants don’t appeal to Bambi and his herd. So far, there is no plant that doesn’t appeal to Bailey.

The good news is that puppyhood doesn’t last forever. But until Bailey grows an eight-hour bladder, I am the one getting up with her between 2 and 4 a.m. I gather the sleepy puppy in my arms and take her out to the backyard, stepping onto the cool grass barefoot. I set her down and she becomes a pale shape in the not-very-dark night. Through the leaves of the green ash tree, I can see the brightest constellations. On the warmest nights I hear the crickets [late September]. If I don’t get too lost in reverie, Bailey doesn’t wake up enough to get into mayhem. She comes when I call and we tiptoe back into the sleeping household.