Here's the view from our front yard. It never ceases to amaze me! The pine tree is a Colorado blue spruce that we bought in a pot one year as a Christmas tree and re-planted. It seems that things here either don't grow at all or they grow very fast. Both of the trees in the front yard grew fast. I planted the globe willow on the right literally from a stick, which is why the trunk shape is so weird (see below).
Notice there's a tree stump in front of the existing tree? Our landlords had it cut down before we bought the house. Globe willows are gorgeous round-topped trees that grow like weeds here. This one got so big that the branches threatened the roof. When they cut it down, the wood was stacked for firewood, and as we got to the bottom of the pile, I found that some of the branches were sprouting, even though they'd been under the wood pile for many months. I brought one stick out to the location of the old tree, and planted it, like the phoenix rising. Lo and behold . . . it grew! So the trunk started as multi-directional springs from a branch.
I built this house for the chickens. Actually, it's right next to the spot where I found the sprouting willow branch. By the time I took this photo, the chickens were gone, but the house was still there. It was funny at the time, because we paid a couple of dollars for the chickens, but we bought new plywood of the right size for this house I designed with fancy folding doors to keep out the cold, so the chickens basically lived in a palace. It cost us a lot more than the dollar value of the chickens. Of course, we didn't measure the chickens' value in dollars. We got a couple of hens, and they were an endless source of entertainment for us and for the dogs. We had eggs, too, but for various reasons we didn't eat them very often.
Trying to grow plants in Palisade was a challenge for us. I'd been a lifelong Californian, and Marco's experience was from the Philippines and California. It took us awhile to figure out what plants would live, how they worked in the Colorado climate, etc. We had pretty good luck with snapdragons, and they were gorgeous in spring and summer. Here they are in January, still a little green. As you can see, we didn't get snow all winter or anything like that. If we got several inches at time, it was an event, and it didn't last long. Our biggest snows were usually in April.
Here's some more vegetation in January. It was always interesting to see what survived the winter.
Here's the view from our front yard. It never ceases to amaze me! The pine tree is a Colorado blue spruce that we bought in a pot one year as a Christmas tree and re-planted. It seems that things here either don't grow at all or they grow very fast. Both of the trees in the front yard grew fast. I planted the globe willow on the right literally from a stick, which is why the trunk shape is so weird (see below).
Notice there's a tree stump in front of the existing tree? Our landlords had it cut down before we bought the house. Globe willows are gorgeous round-topped trees that grow like weeds here. This one got so big that the branches threatened the roof. When they cut it down, the wood was stacked for firewood, and as we got to the bottom of the pile, I found that some of the branches were sprouting, even though they'd been under the wood pile for many months. I brought one stick out to the location of the old tree, and planted it, like the phoenix rising. Lo and behold . . . it grew! So the trunk started as multi-directional springs from a branch.
I built this house for the chickens. Actually, it's right next to the spot where I found the sprouting willow branch. By the time I took this photo, the chickens were gone, but the house was still there. It was funny at the time, because we paid a couple of dollars for the chickens, but we bought new plywood of the right size for this house I designed with fancy folding doors to keep out the cold, so the chickens basically lived in a palace. It cost us a lot more than the dollar value of the chickens. Of course, we didn't measure the chickens' value in dollars. We got a couple of hens, and they were an endless source of entertainment for us and for the dogs. We had eggs, too, but for various reasons we didn't eat them very often.
Trying to grow plants in Palisade was a challenge for us. I'd been a lifelong Californian, and Marco's experience was from the Philippines and California. It took us awhile to figure out what plants would live, how they worked in the Colorado climate, etc. We had pretty good luck with snapdragons, and they were gorgeous in spring and summer. Here they are in January, still a little green. As you can see, we didn't get snow all winter or anything like that. If we got several inches at time, it was an event, and it didn't last long. Our biggest snows were usually in April.
Here's some more vegetation in January. It was always interesting to see what survived the winter.
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