A Texas girl dishes on life in the Rockies - High Altitude Gardening by Karilyn Bentley

What I want my garden to look like

You know those perfect gardens and manicured lawns you see around big cities? They're pretty, aren't they? Unfortunately, those aren't available where I live. I guess if you wanted to hire a bunch of people to dig up rocks and plant flowers you might be able to make a go of a garden. Until the next herd of deer or elk come walking through it the next day, eating everything you planted.

When we first moved here, I wanted to continue having a garden like the one I had in Texas. Nothing much, just some veggies and a few flowering plants. I love growing my own vegetables, although the insects would always manage to eat them, sometimes before The Hubster and I could. I was super-excited to try out  my hand at gardening in the mountains where there aren't the same doggone leaf eating insects. So we went to the local gardening store and bought a flowering plant claiming to be able to live to -20 degrees Fahrenheit and a plant of chrysanthemums. I was determined to have them live and bloom. My front flowerbeds were going to look awesome! Then a lady walked up, chuckling, asked if we were new to town. When I said we were, she responded with a thought so, those plants should be advertised as deer food, only the new arrivals try to plant plants. I laughed, but was determined to get them to grow, to spread, to smell and look pretty. To prove that lady wrong.

What's growing in Karilyn's #garden? by Karilyn Bentley

As those of you who follow my Facebook or Twitter feeds know, I love to tinker in my garden. Not that I'm any kind of gardening expert, my philosophy on plants is I'll give them water and dirt. If they need more than that they should go live at someone else's home. <g> But I do love to watch them grow.

With that said, here are some pictures of various plants I'm trying to grow this year. One of the newest additions to the garden this year is corn. No clue on how to get it to produce, but several stalks are popping up.

corn stalks