2014 Xeriscape Tours OF PUEBLO & PUEBLO WEST. Take a FREE self-guided tour of neighborhood Xeric gardens. Our Generous Co-Sponsors:

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1 2014 Xeriscape Tours Take a FREE self-guided tour of neighborhood Xeric gardens. Pueblo Locations - Saturday, June 7, 2014 only 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Pueblo West Locations - Sunday, June 8, 2014 only 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. All tours rain or shine! You are free to visit any and all of the gardens at your leisure and in any order you wish on the date for that community. Our Generous Co-Sponsors: OF PUEBLO & PUEBLO WEST

2 Please support this year s partners: sunscapes@comcast.net Phone/Fax (719) Peppers Plus FARMER FIXINS 1087 E. Holiday Dr. Pueblo West, CO seuferbrosnurerycc@juno.com palacenursery@aol.com 2115 Santa Fe Drive; Pueblo CO (719) Fax; (719) Bringing Color to Life Since 1956 South Claremont Ave North N. Elizabeth South/West Hwy 78 W FOX S Lawn and Garden Supplies 59 S. Masters Drive Pueblo West, CO South 9th St. Canon City, CO S. Santa Fe Pueblo, CO If you need any special accommodation(s) to participate in this event, please contact Colorado State University Extension at Your request must be submitted at least five (5) business days in advance of the event. Colorado State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Pueblo County cooperating. Extension programs are available to all without discrimination.

3 Xeriscape Garden Tours Thank you for joining us! You are free to visit any of the gardens at your leisure, and in any order you wish on the appointed day for that community. Please respect the privacy of each tour home. Visit only on the appointed day within the designated time period. Colorado Master Gardeners and/or homeowners will be onsite at each garden to answer questions. A Xeriscape resource handout and biographies about each garden will be available. Note that many plants are labeled. Street parking is available at each location. Please do not block driveways and remember to be respectful of neighboring properties as well. The tour homes are not open to the public, only the gardens. Please be sure to plan your restroom breaks accordingly. Enjoy the tour! Pueblo Tour Location Saturday, June 7, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Sangre de Cristo Arts Center, 210 N. Santa Fe Ave, Pueblo, CO Driving directions: From I-25, take exit 98B toward 1st Street. Turn left onto E. 1st St. Turn right on Santa Fe Ave. The garden will be on the right. Bill and Karen Adams (Sunscapes Rare Plant Nursery) designed this welcoming multi-leveled garden in There is a large rock garden on the lower level facing the street that contains many native and water wise adapted plants. The center of the garden encompasses a water fall and pool surrounded by lush plantings, and the highest level has a rugged little rock garden protruding from a concrete retaining wall. You are welcome to refreshments and restroom facilities at this tour location. Fact sheets and brochures about water wise gardening techniques are available here.

4 Pueblo Tour Locations Saturday, June 7, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 610 W. Grant Ave., Pueblo, CO, Driving directions: From Abriendo, head southwest on Lincoln St. Turn left onto W. Grand Ave. From Thatcher, continue northeast onto Lincoln St. Turn right onto W. Grand Ave. The garden will be on the right. This delightful cottage garden replaced a steep lawn that was both hard to mow and keep well watered. The terraces are brimful of colorful perennials that generate a riot of color. The garden is easy to maintain and watered by a hose rather than a built in irrigation system. It is much more rewarding and welcoming now than when it was a monochromatic hard to maintain lawn. The garden was installed in 2002 and planted with sale plants from a local nursery. It is lovingly tended and enjoyed by the owners and the birds and butterflies. 715 W. Grant Ave., Pueblo, CO Driving directions: From Abriendo, head southwest on Lincoln St. Turn right onto W. Grand Ave. From Thatcher, continue northeast onto Lincoln St. Turn left onto W. Grand Ave. The garden will be on the right. This is a sweet little urban garden that demonstrates how far a garden can go in less than a year. The owners who took possession only last August 2013 wanted to be back in town and simplify their life style. The front yard was a weedy rectangle lawn that has been ripped out and replaced with a dry creek bed, sweeping lines and decorative mulch creating a lovely bone structure for the garden. Now, the house and garden work well together, forming a cheerful curbside welcome. The back garden is also newly redone to produce a shady oasis for the homeowners with grape vines, flower and vegetable beds.

5 Pueblo Tour Locations Saturday, June 7, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 528 W. Orman Ave., Pueblo, CO Driving directions: From Abriendo, head southwest on Lincoln St. Turn left onto W. Orman Ave. From Thatcher, continue northeast onto Lincoln St. Turn right onto W. Orman Ave. The garden will be on the right. The owners are busy people who needed a low maintenance landscape. During a drought they removed the Kentucky blue grass lawn and started planting flowers, grasses and shrubs that they liked. They amend the soil as needed with their homemade worm compost. Garden care is easy, they simply cut it down once in the early spring before the new growth appears. Plants that perform well are encouraged and new plants are experimented with as they catch the owner s imagination. The garden encloses a John Wilbar sculpture titled Mary s Garden. 429 Brentwood, Pueblo, CO Driving directions: From Abriendo, head southwest on Lincoln St. Continue on to Thatcher Ave. Turn right on S. Pueblo Blvd. take the second left onto Goodnight Ave. Take the second left onto Brentwood Dr. (street sign on right side only.) The garden will be on the right. A former employee of the Denver Botanical Garden originally designed and installed this one acre garden. The current owner strives to maintain the original intent of garden but has also stamped it with some personal touches. He enjoys bee keeping and has bee beach, a sandy rim around the pond that encourages the bees to stop and rest a bit. The garden includes a potager style herb garden, fruit trees under planted with hundreds of spring bulbs and rock gardens brilliant with flowering natives and cactus.

6 Pueblo West Tour Locations Sunday, June 8, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Demonstration Garden at Cattail Crossing At US Hwy 50 and McCulloch Blvd., turn south onto McCulloch Blvd. and go 0.8 mile to Joe Martinez Blvd. Turn right and continue to the Desert Hawk Golf Course parking lot. Cattail Crossing and the garden are on the right. The Xeriscape Demonstration Garden at Cattail Crossings was installed and is maintained by the Pueblo West Community Xeriscape Gardeners. They meet to work in the garden each Friday morning, weather permitting, so this is a good time to come and ask questions about the plantings or to help them. The garden has several hydrozones ranging from moderate to very low. Joe Martinez Blvd S. McCulloch Blvd US Hwy 50 Stop by the Xeriscape Demonstration Garden to enjoy a refreshment, wander through the garden and pick up valuable information about Xeriscape gardening techniques.

7 Pueblo West Tour Locations Sunday, June 8, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. 283 West Baldwyn Dr., Pueblo West, CO Driving directions: At US Hwy 50 and S McCulloch Blvd (traffic light), turn south onto McCulloch. Proceed 1.6 miles to West Baldwyn Drive. Turn right and proceed 0.1 mile. Residence will be on your right. The homeowner has completely transformed the landscape since moving into this home in The original bluegrass lawns were removed and replaced by berms, raised beds and walkways. Unhealthy/unsuitable trees were replaced by suitable species, for a total of 14 trees. Un-amended topsoil was used for raised beds and tree/shrub planting holes, with compost and sphagnum peat moss as needed. The entire landscape is irrigated with in-ground systems controlled by a clock timer. The homeowner modifies the system when necessary to meet growing plants changing needs. Pea gravel mulch retains moisture and stays put even in the strong winds of Pueblo West. Visitors will appreciate the variety of mature perennials, shrubs and trees found in this beautiful landscape. 970 South Avenida Del Oro West, Pueblo West CO Driving directions: At US Hwy 50 and S McCulloch Blvd (traffic light), turn south onto McCulloch. Proceed 6.0 miles to South Avenida Del Oro West (do NOT turn at South Avenida Del Oro East keep going). Pueblo Shrine Club will be on your right. Turn left and proceed 0.7 mi. Residence will be on your left. S. Ave. Del Oro West The homeowners used decorative rock to cover disturbed, weed-infested earth after their new home was built in They have created oases of pinon pines, mancana ash trees, lo-grow sumac, Manhattan euonymus, crabapples, cherry and apples trees, Cheyenne Privet, New Mexico Privet, honeysuckle, yarrow, Maximilian s sunflowers, butterfly bushes, Russian sage, trumpet vine, ornamental grasses, and several perennial beds featuring irises, daylilies, gallardia, lavender, blue mist spirea, Jupiter s Beard, salvia, prince s plume, liriope, and more. The homeowners have benefited from the generosity of fellow gardeners to fill in the blanks. Nothing exotic here, just things that work. The goal for the future is to create privacy, maximize habitat for pollinators and minimize water usage.

8 Pueblo West Tour Locations Sunday, June 8, :00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m West Camino Pablo Avenue Pueblo West, CO Driving directions: At US Hwy 50 and S McCulloch Blvd (traffic light), turn south onto McCulloch. Proceed 6.0 miles to South Avenida Del Oro West (do NOT turn at South Avenida Del Oro East keep going). Pueblo Shrine Club will be on your right. Turn left and proceed 1 mile. Turn right onto West Camino Pablo Avenue. Proceed 0.3 mile. Residence will be on your left. W. Camino Pablo Ave. The homeowners echo the sentiments of most Pueblo West residents: Who would ve thought that drooling over piles of black dirt would be on our bucket list? They moved from Woodland Park, Colorado in Because no natural vegetation was left after construction, they had to start anew, first by planting small areas of grass near doorways to keep dirt down. Then they added pines, cottonless cottonwoods, aspens, fruit trees (apple, plum and cherry) and other deciduous trees. They also encouraged native plants such as rabbit brush, cacti, and grasses. The drought has challenged some of their choices, but they ve even managed to have a successful vegetable garden. This must-see natural landscape perfectly complements a stunning southwest style home North Nugget Lane Pueblo West, CO Laramie Ave Driving directions: At intersection of US Highway 50 and Purcell Blvd. (traffic light), turn north onto Purcell. Proceed 4.6 miles. Turn left onto Platteville Blvd. (one street past Gunpowder). Proceed 1.5 miles. Turn right onto E. Laramie Avenue. Proceed 0.7 mile. Turn right onto Nugget Lane. Residence will be on your left. The homeowners moved into the residence almost 4 years ago and started with a nearly blank canvas. Although one of the homeowners is an experienced gardener, she found the north Pueblo West environment challenging. She characterizes her landscape as young, but she has put considerable time, work and resources into establishing a mature landscape as quickly as possible. After touring 2013 Pueblo Xeriscape Tour homes, she felt that her landscape might qualify for the 2014 tour. She was right; every aspect of the property offers something interesting. The property features raised vegetable beds in a courtyard, gravel paths, a sweeping sidewalk, a young orchard, many xeric perennials, and a few of the gardener s favorites that aren t ideal for the environment but thrive with extra attention. Platteville Blvd