Yesterday we toured the xeric gardens at Denver Water, where xeriscape was apparently invented 25 years ago. Their gardens are quite lovely with perfectly undulating berms and graceful well-tended plants. We went quite mad for a butterfly bush and fell for some blue fescues. (Don’t you love that word, fescue?) We learned that we haven’t been “clustering” enough, that is creating enormous swaths of color instead of just sticking the odd plant in higgledy-piggledy as has been our way. We will cluster more in the future, we promise.

Phase I is now complete except for planting and maybe the addition of an undulating berm or two. Here is a before and after of Mitch’s summer on the hill.