“Late summer in the garden: rogue sunflowers and pumpkins take over,” was published Sept. 11, 2021, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
By Barb Gorges
A Cinderella pumpkin (French heirloom “Rouge Vif D’Etampes”) was discovered growing perched on a hail guard propped against the back wall of the Gorges yard. It will turn red-orange when fully ripe. Sept. 14 photo by Barb Gorges.
This summer, I’ve discovered that gardens need editing. The authors, Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, of the garden book I’m rereading, “Planting in a Post-Wild World,” talk about editing to improve how a garden “reads.”
It means that if the Maximilian sunflower (a perennial) gets comfortable and starts spreading, out-competing its neighbors, do I want one whole garden bed to be full of 6 to 10-foot tall stalks only embellished in September with yellow flowers along their length? No, I don’t. I would like to still be able to “read” or see a few other kinds of plants in that garden bed. So, I started pulling the stalks. They grow off an underground rhizome and they are easy to yank out.
Maximilian seeds from different sources planted in different places in our yard have different spreading habits and bloom times. The hot, dry, side garden produced a few flowers by early August, in time for the fair. Another clump blooms in September but hasn’t spread at all. Perhaps it has tougher neighboring perennial competitors.
Speaking of the fair, my list of potential floriculture entries was edited by half by leaf cutter bees. The scalloped edges of leaves they leave behind won’t win any ribbons or premiums. On the other hand, it shows my planting for pollinators is successful.
The feathery blue flowers of perennial bachelor buttons looked spectacular in June. Over the last 30 years they have become a thick drift, suffocating perennials I’ve put in to provide color the rest of the summer. By August, they look exhausted, so I cut them back—they don’t stand up well as “winter interest.” Time to dig some out and give more space to the fall-blooming asters and a variety of black-eyed Susans that bloom much later than the showy ones that got a blue ribbon.
Every year, gardening in Cheyenne is different. I think due to the 30 inches of snow in March, plants that need winter moisture did well. That maybe explains the peony that finally bloomed years after being planted and the grape vines finally growing more than two feet. But it doesn’t explain why only one of 25 irises bloomed. Charlette at C & T Iris Patch said to give them another year’s chance.
Our red twig (red osier) dogwood grew more than usual. Many of the stems are green now so I pruned the oldest at ground level to encourage new red stems. And then I put the thinnest twigs in a bucket of water to see if they will sprout roots.
But one of the euonymus bushes lining the front walk seems to be dying. The six-shrub hedge was probably planted when the house was built in 1962. Catherine Wissner, Laramie County Extension horticulturist, thinks it’s verticillium wilt, a soil-borne fungal disease, and I should dig up the infected shrub and soil. However, the shrub next to it looks great—I’m sure its roots mingle with the sick shrub. Chokecherry sprouts are wasting no time in moving in. Perhaps we can keep them pruned to blend in.
It’s a very good year for chokecherries. The shrubs the birds planted in the alley are full of fruit—too much for the robins to keep up with so Mark is getting to harvest some.
This is about the sixth year Mark has grown Anna Maria’s Heart heirloom tomatoes and they are bigger and meatier than ever. Part of it might be this warmer summer. Part of it may be backyard genetics because every year Mark saves the seeds from the best tomatoes.
On a lark, Mark planted a couple Cinderella pumpkin seeds I saved a few years ago. He started them inside and then transplanted them to what used to hold garbage cans and is now essentially a 3 x 4-foot, 3.5-foot-deep brick compost bin.
The pumpkins have grown 15-inch diameter leaves on yards of vines climbing right over the spruce trees in one direction and escaping into the alley in the other. At the end of July, we found a softball-sized flattish pumpkin (Cinderella’s carriage was a flattish pumpkin) that quickly grew over the next month. It will eventually turn red—if we have a long, warm fall (but with rain, please) so it can fully ripen.
I hope all of you have had a successful growing season, at least in some aspect. Make notes to help you remember what to try next year.
The Cinderella pumpkin, Aug. 17. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Flowering crabapples all over Cheyenne were spectacular this spring.Photo by Barb Gorges.
Published June 12, 2021, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, “Crabapples offered spectacular show this spring in Cheyenne”
By Barb Gorges
It was an exceptional spring for flowering crabapple trees all over town. Our wet weather provided moisture and no late frost killed the buds or flowers. The older trees are probably Dolgo (white) and Hopa (pink) varieties.
If you are inspired to plant a crab, look for the newer varieties that are more disease-resistant and cold hardy to Zone 4. Some are purely ornamental and some produce fruit worth preserving as jam and jelly.
Flowering shrubs have done well this spring, even lilacs, which are not reliable bloomers here.
The first shrubs to bloom in our yard, very end of April, were the Nanking cherries. Honeybees were soon buzzing round them. They flower before they leaf out. Some years they lose their flowers in a poorly-timed snowstorm. This year it was the house finches pinching off flowers. They could be looking for nectar. They left enough blossoms that they’ll be assured of fruit by late summer.
Nanking cherry shrubs attracted honey bees in early May. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Our American plum bloomed white next. A bird sitting in the tree overhead planted it years ago. Since there are few plants that thrive on the north side of a house, I left it to grow, even though I didn’t know what it was until it finally fruited about three or four years ago. The clusters of five-petalled flowers showed it was in the rose family, same as apples and cherries.
Golden currant blooms for a longer time than other blooming shrubs. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Golden currants began to bloom as early as the Nanking cherries and continued much longer. They have tiny, bright yellow flowers. The birds planted one against the trunk of one of our old ash trees. You can’t get a shovel in the ground there. The other is a nursery variety, the name I didn’t record. It seems to flower more prolifically, but it also gets more sun and has less competition. Currants are edible, but we leave them for the birds. I noticed the birds have planted several more among the Nanking cherry hedge.
Viburnum lantana is another shrub the birds have planted. There’s an extensive planting of it up on the corner. It gets thick white bunches of flowers and then red fruit that ripens into deep blue. Beloved by the birds, they plant more as they go. Just dug a two-year-old sprout out of the daisies for a friend with a bare backyard.
Viburnum lantana flowers eventually become dark blue berries. Photo by Barb Gorges.
The last shrub to bloom in our yard is the chokecherry. Just the opposite of the Nanking cherry, it leafs out before it produces its long racemes of tiny white flowers, precursors to an abundance of fruit.
Mark likes to make jelly and syrup with it, with plenty of sugar. Because it flowers later, it’s less likely to be affected by late snows. If you, like me, want it to spread and fill in an area for more privacy, be sure to avoid some of the new hybrids like ‘Sucker Punch’ that are meant to be trees.
To keep a more primitive variety of chokecherry suckering as a thick hedge and to keep berries within reach, periodically remove the stems that want to become trees.
Chokecherry is one of Cheyenne’s hardiest shrubs/trees. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Sally, our 15 ½-year-old Golden Retriever, and I have been walking around the neighborhood so slowly that there’s plenty of time to contemplate everyone’s front yard. I love the ones filled with flowers and thoughtful landscaping.
But it seems that each year more of the homes, built mostly in the 50s and 60s, are becoming rentals. I know for some of the houses it’s a case of the kids not ready to give up the family home after the parents are gone. But the problem is, most landlords, especially rental property businesses, and probably tenants as well, want low maintenance yards. They think those have to be turf only and are unlikely to plant more trees and shrubs. That could mean fewer crabapples blooming in 50 to 60 years.
Melting turf
I was on a yard call mid-May with Laramie County Extension horticulturist Catherine Wissner and Master Gardener interns to look at several issues. One was big dead areas all over the lawn despite the homeowner’s persistent watering last summer. As Catherine put it, the turf “melted” and left gray residue.
It’s a fungal infection. The best option if you want to keep growing turf in such an area is to consult your local garden center for the best anti-fungal product to treat it. However, this homeowner was planning to replace much of her turf with a mountain meadow-style landscape.
I love late spring/early summer. So green with possibilities.
Flowering crabapple detail: having 5-petal flowers is a characteristic of plants in the rose family. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Chokecherry is a native shrub in Wyoming. It usually blooms late enough to avoid the last frost and provides for pollinators. Later it provides fruit for birds–and sometimes for people. It can become a small tree or pruned so as to remain a shrub.
Here is a general guide to growing fruit trees and shrubs in Cheyenne
Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle June 12, 2020.
By Barb Gorges
Commercial fruit growing is not viable in the Cheyenne area, primarily because of the limited water supply and the vagaries of our weather, but in the home garden, especially if your other plants have low water needs, a few fruit trees and shrubs could be justified.
Water
I spoke recently with Catherine Wissner, the University of Wyoming Extension horticulturist for Laramie County and she said watering fruit trees and shrubs is crucial to a successful harvest—not enough water and you won’t even get flowering, much less fruit.
She said the rule of thumb is 10 gallons per 1-inch diameter of the trunk every 7 to 10 days during the growing season, adjusting for hot, dry and windy weather. Fruiting trees and shrubs need more water than the lawn they may be planted in the middle of. Drip irrigation is the most efficient way to water.
Fruiting shrubs like chokecherry, a local native, can be very bountiful. Cheyennites also grow serviceberry, elderberry, gooseberry, raspberry and currant.
The other crucial factor is selecting the right variety. It helps if a variety of tree or shrub flowers late enough not to be caught by a May frost or snow–yet has fruit ready to harvest before frost. Catherine is currently researching the best varieties for Laramie County. One apple that stands out, Yellow Transparent, matures by late August. For a state-wide look, see “Wyoming Fruit Variety Survey Data ‐ Recommended Varieties” at http://www.uwyo.edu/barnbackyard/, under “New for the Season.”
Find out if the variety needs cross pollination with a second tree. This could be a second tree you plant or another close by in the neighborhood.
Planting
Once you find the right species, the tree or shrub can be planted anytime the ground isn’t frozen but it must be planted right (see https://cheyennegardengossip.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/how-to-plant-a-tree-in-cheyenne-wyoming/). The two biggest tips are to gently spread the roots and make sure the soil level is right at the transition between roots and trunk and below the graft if it is a grafted tree. For shrubs, soil level should be between stem and root, right where the soil line was in the pot.
Fertilizing
Catherine said fruit trees and shrubs need fertilizer annually, preferably before June 1. The fertilizer should have numbers like 5-10-5 or 5-20-5, nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium, also abbreviated NPK. Remember, most of the roots are in the top 12 inches of soil and will spread farther than the tree’s canopy.
Pruning and mulching
Pruning is essential for fruit trees. Homeowners tend to “limb up” their trees so they can more easily mow the lawn underneath, creating a shade tree with fruit benefits. Protect all kinds of tree trunks by mulching a circle one to two feet wide around the trunk—yet keep the mulch from touching the trunk.
For shrubs, a circle of mulch is also good and can keep competing weeds and grass away from them.
Instead of limbing up, you can do what Catherine said commercial orchardists do, prune from the top down to keep the tree small and easier to pick fruit from. The top of my experimental apple tree grown from seed died back this winter, so I guess it will be a “prune down” experiment now.
Fruiting shrubs, like the chokecherry hedge in our backyard, need pruning regularly. Over the last 30 years we have removed a few stems each year that are more than 3 or 4 inches in diameter. They can get too tall and become trees. We’d rather they stay brushy. It’s easier to pick the fruit and it provides a better bird habitat and privacy screen. Because chokecherries regularly sucker, there is always a new generation coming up.
Pests and diseases
Adequate watering helps keep fruit trees and shrubs stress-free and healthy. Remove the occasional diseased branches 6 to 12 inches below the infection using tool blades sterilized between cuts with 10 percent bleach solution—but do not put any “wound dressing” on any cuts—that goes for all kinds of trees.
Your best bet for identifying and determining treatment of pests and diseases is to photograph the damage and email it to Catherine at cwissner@uwyo.edu. She does yard calls if necessary.
I asked Catherine how she protects fruit from predators, like birds and other animals. She isn’t a fan of netting, unless the mesh openings are less than 1.5 inches. Otherwise, the birds get tangled and often die.
She said to keep an eye on the ripening progress each day and pick the fruit before the birds or racoons do. But sometimes it seems the birds prefer their fruit less ripe than we do.
Picking
How do you decide when fruit is ripe? Taste test. Fruit gets sweeter the riper it is, although chokecherries never get sweet. And if apples fall off the tree, pick them up and make applesauce!
A honeybee is enjoying the blossoms of an American plum planted by birds.
What we learned at the 6th Annual Cheyenne Habitat Hero Workshop
Published April 12, 2020, in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle
By Barb Gorges
What we learned at the recent Cheyenne Habitat Hero workshop is there are three alternatives to standard landscaping (turf and foundation junipers).
Water-wise plantings
Western cities like Cheyenne and Ft. Collins are encouraging businesses and homeowners to install landscaping that takes less water than bluegrass lawns so that there will be enough water for their growing populations.
Many Wyoming native grasses, shrubs, trees and flowers fit this definition, as well as many plants from desert lands in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Plant Select features these kinds of plants for xeric gardens. The plants can be found at independent Colorado nurseries and by mail order from High Country Gardens, https://www.highcountrygardens.com/.
Pollinator-friendly/wildlife-friendly gardens
The drastic decline in native bees and butterflies has been in the news for years now. Choosing to grow flowering plants is a happy way to do something for the environment.
Native plants
However, not all flowering plants appeal to our native bees and butterflies. Douglas Tallamy, http://www.bringingnaturehome.net/, points out that native bees and butterflies are adapted to the plants native to their own area. Native insects need native plants so that they can become food for native birds.
There are different levels of native. If you are raising honeybees (natives of Europe), anything producing pollen will do, if it hasn’t been improved by horticulturists too much–double and triple-petal cultivars are often sterile–no pollen.
Plants native to distant parts of North America will not do much for most Wyoming native bees and butterflies and may require too much water for water-wise gardens.
Plants native to the western Great Plains–if they haven’t been domesticated too much, will provide what our native critters crave. Skip the ones that naturally grow in wet areas unless you have a natural wet area.
Finding the right species—see plant list—is still difficult. Ft. Collins Nursery (offering online ordering and curbside pickup this spring), https://fortcollinsnursery.com/, has the closest, large selection.
Maintaining native prairie
If you’ve got it, flaunt it. Laramie County Master Gardener Wanda Manley wants you to appreciate our native prairie—and treat it right if you are lucky enough to own a piece of it.
Don’t treat the prairie like a lawn. Frequent mowing creates more of a fire danger. Mowing March – July kills ground-nesting birds.
Keep an eye out for invasive plants and consider renovating your prairie. Consult with the Laramie County Conservation District, https://www.lccdnet.org/.
Don’t graze when the grass is actively growing. It’s cheaper to feed hay than to repair the damage.
Locate and design your native garden
Laramie County Extension horticulturist Catherine Wissner can give you a three-hour lecture on how to select a site for a new garden. If you are proposing a new vegetable or ornamental flower garden, you look at sun, slope, wind, soil, proximity to water source and kitchen.
However, if you are replacing water-hogging turf with natives, you have more options. There are native plants that like sun (like vegetables), others that prefer part sun and a few that need shade. There are some that like sandy soil and others that are fine with clay. Some like rocky soil.
And for pollinators, you want to strive to have something in bloom from late March to early October.
Figuring out which plants go where takes a little research. By next year the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities hopes to have a plant finder database to help you match plants with your conditions.
Irrigation
You must water new plants the first year—even xeric species—to get them established. It’s possible to pick plants that need very little supplemental water after that—and maybe none at all.
But any irrigation that uses 50 percent less than what bluegrass turf requires is applauded by BOPU.
You might still have one bed of traditional flowers requiring frequent watering and other areas that are more xeric. If you don’t want to drag hoses around all summer, you can set up sprinkler systems and/or drip irrigation for differentiated zones.
At this point in the season, your best option for removing turf is with a shovel as soon as the most recent snow melts and the soil dries out a bit.
If you have really nice turf, you might be able to get someone to use a machine to strip it off and use it to repair damaged turf elsewhere—what we did for the BOPU Habitat Hero demonstration garden.
Rototilling is not an option—it leaves a lot of grass that will re-sprout. But a shovelful of turf can be broken up, the roots shaken out and composted elsewhere and the soil replaced.
If you have time, you can suffocate turf with 12 layers of newspaper or some cardboard over a few months (usually winter), explained Laramie County Master Gardener Maggie McKenzie. Herbicides are a terrible last resort.
If you are building a vegetable garden, you’ll want to amend the soil with lots of composted organic material but that isn’t necessary for native plants if you match them to your soil type.
It’s too late now for that technique this year, but you can try direct sowing. Some catalogs specialize in prairie flowers, like https://www.prairiemoon.com/.
Picking and planting
Nurseries are not open for strolling this spring so Kathy Shreve’s advice on finding healthy plants changes to only accepting plants curbside fulfilling your order that are healthy and not rootbound or misshapen—especially trees and shrubs.
Kathy reminded us that all plants, no matter how well-adapted, need to be watered for months when first planted. Not so much that they drown and don’t let them wilt.
Enjoy your garden often–it’s also an easy way to see if problems are developing.
Become a Habitat Hero
The goal is to be recognized as a Habitat Hero. Take pictures of your yard transformation during the growing season. See https://rockies.audubon.org/habitat-hero for information on applying as well as more on water-wise planting for birds and other wildlife.
Popular Southeast Wyoming Native Plants
It is nearly impossible to find “straight species” at nurseries—you’ll find horticulturally improved varieties instead. If the petals haven’t been doubled or the leaf color changed from solid green, they will probably work.
Cheyenne Garden Gossip 