Wildflower beds over the Blue River along Blue River Parkway

 Several of our citizens have expressed interest in the wildflower beds located along the highway near 7-11.  I wanted to provide you with additional information about what we have in place there.  Jessamy Roberts, our Master Gardner in Public Works, is responsible for this amazing show of color.  In these beds, which take a serious beating with snow and ice in the winter, we have planted a special wildflower mix called “Annuals in the Sun” which we purchased from Applewood Seed in Denver.  These beds were seeded in early June after we cleaned up these beds and replaced all of the planter mix in them.  The beds have a special soaker hose irrigation system which irrigates several times a day to keep them moist.  In addition once the plants began to grow we did additional hand water once or twice a week to give moisture to the tops of the plants.  We also do weeding as needed.  While this amazing show took a while to come up, the results are worth the wait.  For next year, weather permitting, we plan to do the seeding earlier than this year.  We also expect some return plants from this year, as some reseeding will occur.  We plan to cover these beds this winter in hopes we will not have to replace the soil again for a few years.  We will be using the same seed mix again, and we hope to see the same results, but a bit earlier.  Several photos below.

 Cudos to Jess and the rest of the parks staff for these great beds and all of our other flower beds and green areas! I can email a copy of the seed mix for anyone interested.

 

Bill Linfield, Public Works Director, August 27, 2008

 

wlinfield@silverthorne.org