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Saturday Morning Garden Blog Vol. 19.37- A Visit to Rob Proctor's Garden [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-16
Rob Proctor is the plant expert guy on Denver's NBC affiliate 9News and has a segment every Saturday, along with specials about Colorado gardening. He has lived in a marvelous, antique-stuffed Denver foursquare for 26 years, planting and tending his huge garden with his partner David Macke. My mom adored him. Once a year he opens his house and gardens to the public and we get to see all his beautiful grounds. This year it was the same weekend as a planned visit with my sisters so of course we went to see the gardens.
The back porch
The Sunday visit was a cloudy and cool day, light jacket weather at best. A little bit of rain splashed on us on our way back to the car but otherwise it was a very lovely day.
We started in the stately front enclosed porch by giving the nice lady a $10 donation to the Dumb Friends League which is, you guessed it, our Denver animal shelter network. We adopted our first two silly dogs from the Dumb Friends, many years ago. I missed taking pictures in the house for the most part, we were heading out to the garden. I was able to come to my senses as we were leaving and snapped a few photos of the living areas and the back enclosed porch. I'll get to those, GUG, promise! I mostly took photos of the garden, of course!
A birdbath, not sure what was in it but maybe barley for mosquitos?
Birdbath arrangement.
The back outside porch had lots of annuals in pots.
Caladiums. What a pop of color!
A lot of the plants were in pots and obviously not suited to our climate, such as the many succulents, dracaenas and cactus. Rob and David spend each fall and spring hauling a lot of the pots up and down the stairs into the basement to winter over, but it’s well worth it.
A lovely jumble on the back porch.
They also have a small greenhouse.
Most of the gardens are built as formal spaces with seating areas and little paths of grass to lead you to the next little sub-garden.
One of the many seating areas
The back of the house was the vegetable garden and compost pile. The path led through an arbor with big vines and a grassy area with a wheelbarrow re-purposed as a planter. Many objects were used that way. If only Mr. Light would allow me the freedom to let it go like this! He would still have some lawn to mow…
Wheelbarrow being useful
A feature of the back yard area was the carriage house and spiral staircase up to the roof. It was obvious that the structure would not carry a person’s weight any more. No matter, it was pretty.
Carriage house
I loved the plant ladder
Lots of pots here
We noticed the Hugelkulture on our way in the door but I didn’t get a photo. Another friend of mine is creating many hugelkultures at her property near my home. We had just toured her property and admired the many piles of brush turning into gardens so I recognized it right away. The back of the property had the compost mounds and vegetable gardens.
Compost behind the datura
Vegetables in there. Really!
More back garden
A secret garden on the side of the house led to the sunken garden, which was the original outdoor kitchen for the house as noted in my top photo.
The sunken garden
Sunken garden detail
House photos…
Books and antiques
Fireplace in the front parlor
Front parlor
Staircase
What a treat! We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and went to lunch afterwards. For more photos of the garden in 2020, here's a link to a very nice blog about it. The Paintbox Garden
An announcement... I am now a small businesswoman! I left my nursery job, too hard on the old body. I got great feedback on my tie dye so I set up a business and will sell tie dye and bead zipper pulls via Instagram, a local shop and various craft fairs and farmers markets. More details to come!
A few canvas bags.
I can't forget Charlie! He stayed home and kept Mr. Light company but later last week he helped pick out moss rocks for the garden.
This one is nice.
I saw the lizard! He's big.
Growing back his tail, he's a survivor!
What's going on in your gardens?
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