Calling all Colorado gardeners! (Nucla, Westcliffe: house, buying, organic)

[Colorado Rambler]

Has anyone tried using some of our native sage for xeriscaping? I'm considering digging up a small sage brush growing "in the wild" and planting it in my yard. Is it possible to do this? Does anyone know?

Thanks!

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

Has anyone tried using some of our native sage for xeriscaping? I'm considering digging up a small sage brush growing "in the wild" and planting it in my yard. Is it possible to do this? Does anyone know?

Thanks!

I have an Artemisia tridenta (big western sagebrush) growing in my front yard. It does well - not as vigorous as some of my other xeric shrubs but stays healthy as long as I trim the neighboring shrubs to prevent them from encroaching too much. And the evergreen growth habit, and aromatic silver foliage of this "western classic" make it an excellent component of a Colorado xeriscape (I should be writing for a nursery catalog - LOL). That said, I doubt you'll have much luck transplanting a wild plant. Sagebrush has a deep root system and thus you wouldn't be able to dig up much of a root ball. Rather, I'd recommend buying one at a nursery.

[Colorado Rambler]

Thanks for the info xeric! After I posted my question, I ran into an acquaintance who told me that she has sagebrush growing in her yard as a part of her xeriscaping efforts. She said that she dug up 4 very small ones herself and transplanted them to her yard. The three that lived are now doing just fine. So, I just might give it a try. I love A. tridentatum. They definately are the smell of the West - accept no substitute!

[lurtsman]

Where would you find wild ones that you could harvest? That actually sounds like a pretty great weekend to me

[Westcliffe]

I had some areas where pinyons were opened up fr a sewer line. We wanted a native thing there and up around a kids play area/sandbox. I did some transplanted ones during a wet May a few years ago. They look great and are a nice mix surrounded by Pentsemon, Blue Flax, Prickly Pear, and a bunch of other goodies that came in a pinon juniper and sagebrush country mixes.
They look really neat if you trim them before winter. They are kind of scattered along the edges of some rock stairs we made out of sandstone. In the open area I scattered some seeds collected in fall from the tuffs you see on sage in October. Threw them out to get snowed on......

Have done the same with Rubber Rabbitbrush. Easier to do seed for these guys than try to transplant as the tap root is huge! Our guests love the yellow flowers in Fall. We keep it away from the house though. Same with the sagebrush. If any of it gets out of control you can just top it a bit with a high powered weed whip which we seem to do now with all of the native plants to knock the dead out before winter. It all fills out nicely.

I need some advice guys: should I freak out about some dandelions running their course in my natives? Or, should I chalk that up to bees, organic material, etc as long as they do not harm anything?

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

Thanks for the info xeric! After I posted my question, I ran into an acquaintance who told me that she has sagebrush growing in her yard as a part of her xeriscaping efforts. She said that she dug up 4 very small ones herself and transplanted them to her yard. The three that lived are now doing just fine. So, I just might give it a try. I love A. tridentatum. They definately are the smell of the West - accept no substitute!

Let me know if it works. One time somebody dug up some native shrubs and gave them to me for my yard but there was no root ball at all and they quickly died. But it sounds like you could have some success with a smaller plant.

At my other house I experimented with creating a "hedge row" of big western sagebrush along a fence. I don't think it would have worked because plant needs some space, but in any case, we sold the house the next year and the new owners removed all of the xeriscape.

[StealthRabbit]

Smaller the better, or if a big one / prune 60%or more - OFF

dig a BIG hole, amend the soil with bone, and cottonseed, and blood meal (and peat moss),
Do it Early in the yr as soon as soil is dig-able (march) keep it mulched and watered the first summer.

Plants transplanted late in the evening or before 10AM (or earlier / BEFORE the heat of the day) have much higher success.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Westcliffe

I had some areas where pinyons were opened up fr a sewer line. We wanted a native thing there and up around a kids play area/sandbox. I did some transplanted ones during a wet May a few years ago. They look great and are a nice mix surrounded by Pentsemon, Blue Flax, Prickly Pear, and a bunch of other goodies that came in a pinon juniper and sagebrush country mixes.
They look really neat if you trim them before winter. They are kind of scattered along the edges of some rock stairs we made out of sandstone. In the open area I scattered some seeds collected in fall from the tuffs you see on sage in October. Threw them out to get snowed on......

Have done the same with Rubber Rabbitbrush. Easier to do seed for these guys than try to transplant as the tap root is huge! Our guests love the yellow flowers in Fall. We keep it away from the house though. Same with the sagebrush. If any of it gets out of control you can just top it a bit with a high powered weed whip which we seem to do now with all of the native plants to knock the dead out before winter. It all fills out nicely.

I need some advice guys: should I freak out about some dandelions running their course in my natives? Or, should I chalk that up to bees, organic material, etc as long as they do not harm anything?

I wouldn't freak out, but I remove dandelions (manual weeding with a cape cod weeder or something similar). They aren't bad when they are small, but the big ones can really crowd out other perennials at the ground level.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by lurtsman

Where would you find wild ones that you could harvest? That actually sounds like a pretty great weekend to me

The BLM is your best bet. When it comes to most of their lands, they don't have 80 million rules the way the National Parks and the Forest Service do. Heck, the BLM removes pinon trees using a technique called chaining (opens up land to stock grazing) and lets every energy exploration outfit and their brother traipse around searching for natural gas, to name a few. They aren't going to have hysterical fits if you pull up a few sage brushes. Don't know your location, but if you're anywhere near the Unconphaghre River check along its banks. I've never seen so much sage in my life - grows very tall and very aromatic.

Originally Posted by Westcliffe

I had some areas where pinyons were opened up fr a sewer line. We wanted a native thing there and up around a kids play area/sandbox. I did some transplanted ones during a wet May a few years ago. They look great and are a nice mix surrounded by Pentsemon, Blue Flax, Prickly Pear, and a bunch of other goodies that came in a pinon juniper and sagebrush country mixes.

Sweet!

They look really neat if you trim them before winter. They are kind of scattered along the edges of some rock stairs we made out of sandstone. In the open area I scattered some seeds collected in fall from the tuffs you see on sage in October. Threw them out to get snowed on......

Have done the same with Rubber Rabbitbrush. Easier to do seed for these guys than try to transplant as the tap root is huge! Our guests love the yellow flowers in Fall. We keep it away from the house though. Same with the sagebrush. If any of it gets out of control you can just top it a bit with a high powered weed whip which we seem to do now with all of the native plants to knock the dead out before winter. It all fills out nicely.

I need some advice guys: should I freak out about some dandelions running their course in my natives? Or, should I chalk that up to bees, organic material, etc as long as they do not harm anything?

How long does it take your Rabbitbrush to grow from seed?

As for dandelions... Sounds like you have become the latest victim of the Great Dandelion Plague of '13. An especially virulent strain of Taraxacum sp (dandelion) escaped from a secret agricultural research lab located somewhere near Nucla and is quickly spreading all over the Western Slope. I’d suggest trying a flame thrower. If that doesn’t work, you’ll probably have to pack up your family and flee. Good luck!

[Westcliffe]

sprouts the very first spring with some pretty good shoots

a little more the next year though I am keeping them down to around a foot b/c my wife doesn't prefer the tall wild plants with crazy fluff in the fall

i love rabbit brush and the best part is rates well on the flammable plant scale for fir protection which is more than can be said for Sage - guess that stuff goes up in a fury if a fire comes onto your property