When I visited Danielle to photograph her lovely organic kitchen garden in Barnum West, I was instantly charmed. No neat lines and strict compartments separated her plants. Instead, her garden is a riot of colors and textures, full of abundance and stunning variety. Chinese Cabbage lay hidden under Egyptian Walking Onions, exotic-sounding varieties of radishes and salad greens crowd around lush walls of raspberries. Danielle's young son happily ate peas right off the vine, his brightly colored toys scattered about, forgotten in favor of fresh
vegetables. Her family's backyard garden felt like a home.
Her ambitious side garden that lines the street is still in it's infancy, but already shows careful consideration for sustainability. Danielle has laboriously reshaped her slope into swales and
hugelkultur berms that will conserve Denver's meager rainwater. Young jujube trees, cardoons, yarrow, squashes, and service berries line the swales, ready to turn a sun-beaten hill into an urban oasis. Looking at her new project, I couldn't help but think her garden will someday grace the cover of Mother Earth News.
Our Names: Danielle and David
Garden Style: Permaculture
How Long We've Been Gardening Here: 3 years
What's New In The Garden This Year: We have added
perennial greens like sorrel, Italian dandelion and lovage, as well as
medicinal perennial herbs like motherwort, skullcap and astragalus to
our cooler weather polyculture garden. But the biggest change is turning
our hot and sunny side yard into a permaculture garden where we aim to
create a more complete ecosystem with perennial crops that play diverse
roles like nitrogen fixing, attracting pollinators, drawing up minerals
from deep in the earth, providing beneficial insect and animal habitat,
confusing pests, creating more soil fertility, and suppressing weeds.
We've added jujube trees and serviceberry bushes for fruit, surrounded
by a number of supporting perennials, with our hot-crop annuals mixed
in. We also did a lot of earth-moving, creating sunken beds that are
more water efficient than raised beds.
What We Love To Grow: We have lots of great early spring
crops like arugula, lettuce, orach (similar to spinach but a lot more
productive), and snap peas. Later in the season we make a lot of salsa
with our chiles, tomatoes and tomatillos. Cucumbers (pickles!),
raspberries and winter squash (especially delicata) are also big
favorites.
What We Cannot Grow: We have struggled to get New
Zealand spinach to germinate. It's supposed to be a great hot-weather
green but we've only been able to get one little plant to grow.
Generally each year will be good for some crops and not others. Last
year our tomato crop was limited but we were swimming in cucumbers. The
year before it was the opposite.
Biggest Battle: Slowly building up our soil. We've sheet-mulched
with compost and manure but it'll take time for the earthworms and other
helpers to break up the hard clay underneath.
Our Advice
To
New Gardeners In The 'Hood: Carefully consider the water needs of the
plants you want to grow. "Full sun" plants may thrive with more shade
than you think. Building up the organic matter in your soil will
dramatically increase the amount of water it can retain, and be sure to
mulch deeply. Consider sunken beds instead of raised beds. Finally,
don't bite off more than you can chew at first--we speak from
experience!
Favorite Nursery/Supply Shop: Timberline, though in Arvada it's not the closest.
Thank you very much to Danielle and David for their hospitality and for sharing their garden with
Welcome To Barnum!
Be sure to leave a comment for the gardeners below!
If you live in Barnum/Barnum West and would like to submit your own garden for a garden tour, please email a couple of photos to welcometobarnum (at) gmail.com. Selected gardens will be featured throughout the summer.
And, as always, if you are a Barnum or Barnum West resident who would like to contribute content to the Welcome To Barnum blog, please email us!
What We Cannot Grow: I'm originally
from the East Coast, so when I first started planting six years ago, I
learned the hard way that in Denver, rhododendrons and azaleas need more
attention than I'm willing to give them in the winter. We also have one of those little hills in the front yard that I tried to keep grass on for four years. Last year I finally gave up, dug it all out, and covered the hill with mulch. I planted some cotoneasters that I'm hoping will grow up to take over the whole thing. 
I just stumbled across this notice that there will be an Open House with Denver Public Works tonight at the Barnum Recreation Center! They'll be discussing making improvements to South West Denver's bicycling infrastructure. Here's a link to the pdf notice.
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