Gardening

Natives are buffalo and bunch grasses, lupins, columbine, pines and cottonwoods. We back up on a wetlands, so we've got a bit more water than most, but this area is all microclimates. High alpine, thin soil, lots of calcium and clay. Lilacs do well, if watered well during establishment, and of course roses.

The other factor is that this house has not been lived in for most of its 20 years. The first owners were only here a year or so (they bought it as a summer place) before their health interfered. Their child inherited and visited for a few weeks a year (he's a priest, I think, per his junk mail), but it was mostly caretakers, so very little has been done to the soil except natural composting, which is slow due to dry climate.