Green thumbs share tips on making do with limited space, tough climate (2024)

Durango area has six different plant hardiness zones; which one are you working within?

Gardening and plant cultivation is a common therapeutic pastime. But not everyone has a living arrangement conducive to the hobby.

Limited space and inadequate sunlight can destroy aspiring horticulturists’ ability to flex their green thumbs.

But that doesn’t have to be the case.

In the lead up to the summer solstice last week, area greenhouses and nurseries have been bursting with vibrant flowers, tasty vegetables and all things green.

The Durango Botanic Gardens just held its annual Gardens on Tour on Saturday to encourage people to dig into the soil and try their hands at gardening.

And Durango residents, business owners and professional greenskeepers shared their experiences on gardening indoors and outdoors, and how people with the will can satisfy their desires to grow – despite obstacles.

Striking a balance with nature and matching plants to personalities

Janine Collins, owner of Botanical Concepts at 251 East Animas Road (County Road 250) in Durango, said the whole point of gardening is that it’s supposed to be good for the mind. But Durango is a hard place to feel confident in one’s growing ability.

Barbara Johnson, Durango Botanical Gardens marketing director, said there are six different hardiness zones within the Durango area.

“Even within a two- to three-block area in town, you can have different ecosystems, if you will, because of our landscape and our geographical (layout),” she said.

She said she lives in a “bowl” that experiences very cold winters because cold air flows down off the mountains and collects around her home.

“It’s very difficult to grow particular things,” she said.

She said the botanic gardens’ Great Garden Series, which holds bimonthly classes beginning in May and spanning through September, is a convenient way for people to learn about Durango’s different ecosystems and what grows best where.

Another opportunity for aspiring gardeners or experienced growers adapting to Durango’s hodgepodge of zones is the botanic gardens’ annual Gardens on Tour, which was held last weekend.

Collins said if the area soil (which has a reputation for being difficult to grow in), pests and weather extremes aren’t daunting enough, making proper room to grow in one’s home, apartment or mobile home can further complicate things.

She added that nevertheless, indoor growing surged in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To one extent or another, gardening is a mixed bag (of seeds or mulch) because of different environmental conditions. Regardless, persistence is key and growers shouldn’t be afraid to make mistakes or lose plants, she said.

Occasionally, Abert’s squirrel will eat fruit or freshly planted seeds. Deer will pick at leaves. Sap-sucking aphids will assault plants.

She said enough permaculture plants, which are used to simulate natural ecosystems, can be used in one’s outdoor garden design to mitigate the threats posed by pests.

Aphids, for example, serve a natural purpose: They are food for bugs beneficial to the garden.

“If you don’t have any aphids, you don’t have any good bugs. You gotta be OK with that,” she said. “And you’ll lose little things here and there (to aphids), but it’s a balance.”

Striking the right balance is the challenge, she said.

That’s where professional florists and gardeners can lend a helping hand, or at least some solid advice.

“Every time somebody comes in and says, ‘I have a black thumb,’ I’m like, ‘You just haven’t killed enough things.’ You will get there,” she said. “I do weird stuff with plants because I want to see what happens and I don’t care if it dies.”

She said she often helps customers by finding a plant or plants that meet their personalities.

“A person that continually tells you that they kill things, you know, we have these great cacti that you don’t ever have to touch,” she said. “It can just be a personality thing and you could be getting the wrong plants your whole life.”

She said she once had a customer who was struggling to keep a Clafia – “the hardest house plant to grow” – alive for 10 years as a memorial to his girlfriend who died when he was 18 years old.

“I’m like, ‘You need a ficus,’” she said.

She’ll often ask customers what level of commitment they want to make when deciding what plants fit them. A cactus will still provide fresh oxygen to the home despite not needing much care.

From tiny apartment space to an outdoor garden

Kristin Hoff, a longtime Durango resident and customer of Collins, said she’s always wanted a vegetable garden but has never had the room for it. She bought a home in December 2021, which has allowed her to finally foster her love for gardening.

“The first thing I did when I moved into my new house was I bought a bunch of houseplants. And now, just to give you an idea, it takes me an hour to water my houseplants,” she said.

She’s looking forward to starting an outdoor garden. She wants to grow onions, potatoes, squash, herbs and perhaps a couple different kinds of lettuces, carrots and garlic in the fall.

But Hoff is still mulling over how to approach garden beds. She said she’s not getting any younger and she doesn’t want to have to bend over to pick vegetables. Garden beds raised as high as she’d like are a little challenging to construct and she can’t get the design quite right.

She’d like to hire someone to build her garden beds to her specifications, but she needs someone who’s knowledgeable about the right materials to use with dirt, water and roots of plants.

“My backyard is on the second level because my home is built into the side of the mountain,” she said. “So the other problem I’m facing is, does somebody build it on the street level and then have to figure out how to carry it up or are the materials brought up and built in the back?”

She said she’s being “particular and picky” about her raised garden beds and she might have to make do with what she can afford. But her situation is more ideal for her gardening ambitions than it was before she moved.

Hoff used to live in a 1,400-square-foot townhouse with her three daughters in Hermosa where she had a tiny perennial bed in the front of her home and a large potted pampas plant on her front porch, which is all she had space for.

“I nurtured and loved that thing to pieces, but that’s really the only plant I could have in there,” she said.

Lighting was ideal for many different species of houseplant, but she just didn’t have room for it.

Making do with what’s available

Not everyone has the means to garden outdoors. Darrin Parmenter, CSU Extension western region director, suggests working with one’s circ*mstances – not against them.

“We can’t always alter our environment that much to suit it for certain vegetables to be able to grow,” he said.

The position and timing of sunlight hitting one’s porch, for example, might not be conducive to growing vegetables. He said his rule of thumb is vegetables need six to eight hours of sunlight per day. In a perfect world, he’d have morning sun followed by afternoon sun, and by 3 p.m. the sun would be blocked by the mountains, trees or other structures.

In essence, he’s going to raise crops suitable to the climate, because he can’t change the climate to fit his gardening needs.

Community gardens

“If you are really into gardening or if you want to learn how to garden and you don’t have the space, then also look at community gardens,” Parmenter said.

Options include the SOIL Outdoor Learning Lab in Durango and the Common Ground Cortez Community Gardens in Cortez. There are also neighbors and residents who might have extra space available, he said.

The benefits of community gardening are twofold, he said. No. 1, a community garden offers at least the potential for growing one’s own food. No. 2, community gardens build community relationships around growing food.

“That’s sharing of stories, learning new garden techniques or new varieties or whatever it is you want to try,” he said. “That’s that piece of a community garden you can’t always get in your own backyard or front patio.”

He added especially in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world, and in a divisive world, rebuilding relationships is important and community gardens are a great place to do just that.

If it comes down to it, indoor growing is another option. Parmenter said one won’t have a full-on garden in their basem*nt, but it is possible to grow smaller crops such as lettuce, greens, peppers or tomatoes.

A sunny windowsill or artificial light, though often expensive in the latter case, are enough to grow vegetables in 12-inch square spaces and produce nutrient-dense food, he said.

cburney@durangoherald.com