A Banner Year

While in most parts of the country, we are a mere two weeks from the beginning of summer, it feels like springtime has only just arrived here in the high country of Colorado.  As I drove home tonight, the green and lushness of the grasses, hillsides, flower, and most of all the aspen trees awed me with its brilliance.  This is what spring feels like!  I was also struck by the abundance of one of our early wildlflowers in the mountains, Golden Banner.  You can usually tell something about what kind of wildflower season it will be, by how the Golden Banner does early in the season.  And judging from the amount of yellow I am seeing in the meadows and hillsides, it’s going to be a great year.

Because we are on a septic and well system at our home in Nederland, we are not allowed to use any of our water for outside purposes (you can collect rainwater that falls off your roof in a cistern, but we haven’t gotten that organized as of yet).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy I don’t have to worry about a “lawn” and dragging out the old lawnmower every weekend, but this also means we really can’t plant anything that can’t make it on its own with what nature provides.  The one thing I enjoyed from our home back east was planting container gardens and perennials and annuals in our flower beds.  However, we discovered one unexpected benefit from our leach field where our septic holding tanks are — wildflowers!!!  Because it has abundant moisture, and sits on a north-facing slope,  wildflowers seem to grow there — in past years, we have had fireweed, daisies, and even columbine.  So the last two years, I have purchased wildflower seed from our local hardware store, and I just throw it out on the septic field each spring around the last frost.  Last year, I was surprised how many  new flowers seemed to pop up and how pretty it looked mid-July.  We have found a little level spot near my “flower garden” in between some rocks that is the perfect size for a picnic table, so will have a lovely place to eat dinner and enjoy my “garden.”