Gardens of Beauty
by Sage & Snow Garden Club
August 20, 2024
Garden Of Beauty – Mariffe Cagay and Troy Herd
August 19, 2024
Mariffe Cagey Herd is a very adventurous gardener. Her beautiful gardens on Black Hawk Trail in Barger are huge and filled with tried and true zone 3 plants, but are mixed in with many other plants that are not often grown in our climate zone. She picked up some hydrangeas this spring, and they are flourishing. Three different varieties of apple trees made it through the winter and look very healthy. Her elderberry bush has survived three winters and is growing well. This spring, she picked up sunflower seeds intended for bird food and sprinkled them throughout her gardens, and they are full of big yellow blossoms. Three blueberry bushes have survived our alkaline soil after two years. In her native country, the Phillippines, moringa is a common medicinal plant, and her little moringa plant is surviving in the greenhouse. Compfrey, piones, phlox, iris, native sunflowers, yarrow, campanula, coneflowers, flax, goldenrod, columbine, lacy phacelia, poppies and lupine are perennial plants sprinkled throughout her yard. Besides annual sunflowers, Mariffe and her daughter Chloe planted zinnias, cosmos, snapdragon, petunias, and sweet potato vine in pots and a stock tank for continuous color this summer. Bok choi, arugula, lettuce, orach, spinach, beans, cilantro, cabbage, onion, and chives grow among the beautiful sunflowers and other flowers. Her daughter is waiting for the raspberries to ripen. There are gooseberry and currant bushes and rhubarb plants tucked in nooks and crannies. Besides huge outdoor gardens, Nariffe has a small greenhouse for growing tomatoes, peppers and squash. Mariffe hand waters much of her large gardens, usually in late evening. She says it is a way to shrug off the burdens and worries of the day and fills her heart with peace and gratitude. Her husband confirmed that gardening is good therapy, as it is for many gardeners.
Garden Of Beauty – Lainey Wright
August 12, 2024
As you enter Lainey and Craig Wright’s long driveway near Pinedale one has no idea of the beautiful paradise that lies ahead. Delphiniums, penstemon, yarrow, peonies, salvia, Russian sage, campanula, bee balm, geum, wallflower, painted daisy, lupine, gaillardia, coneflower, and Oriental poppies frame the pond and house. The deck is lined with containers of annual flowers: zinnias, spikes, dahlias, lobelia, snapdragons, impatiens, begonias, geraniums, nasturtiums, and pinks. Lainey and Craig are diverse gardeners. They have a fenced garden bed filled with cabbage, carrots, beets, bush beans and potatoes. An old greenhouse frame makes the perfect onion bed. Rhubarb grows in a couple of places. Thriving plants fill a sturdy greenhouse: strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, kale, cucumber, peas, Brussels sprouts, rosemary, oregano, parsley, nasturtiums, thyme, and mint. Their son, Brian, started many of the plants indoors in winter for transplanting to the greenhouse in spring. Gary found an old military camouflage net that serves as a perfect shade cloth for the greenhouse, and he installed an automated drip irrigation system in it. On cool nights in spring, two overhead heaters keep plants cozy. We asked Lainey what her best secret to success was, and she shared that she fertilizes all the plants, both vegetables and flowers, with a very potent fish emulsion every two weeks. Throughout our travels searching for special gardens we find that gardeners have diverse reasons for gardening. For Lainey, it has to be the pure joy of nurturing and watching plants as they grow and flourish.
Garden Of Beauty - Megan Woodward & Family
August 5, 2024
Megan Woodward is a gardener that dabbles in all types of gardening and is very successful at it. Megan and Aaron and their three young kids, Cedar, Beckler, and Kendall, live in the Green River Ranches subdivision with big beautiful vistas. Their enclosed greenhouse is brimming with tomatoes, beans, beets, peppers, carrots, kale, squash, peas, orach, and cilantro. The large hoop house with in-ground beds is filled with squash, beans, peppers, herbs, beets, and many different types of green leafy vegetables. Much like many other local gardeners this summer, these beds have been visited by the ground squirrels, but many plants are still thriving. Megan is a very prolific and knowledgeable flower gardener with large beds of beautifully-tended perennial flowers—columbine, bee balm, bleeding heart, coneflower, dianthus, ajuga, sedums, scabiosa, geum, peonies, iris, hollyhocks, veronica, geraniums, lamium, hostas, delpiniums, poppies, cerastium (snow in summer), salvia, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, brunera, primrose, bishop’s weed (snow in winter), phlox, yarrow, bachelor buttons, creeping thyme, hens and chicks, clematis, lilacs, roses, all tended to perfection and flowering in their full glory. She also has beds of asparagus, potatoes, garlic, strawberries, raspberries, chives, rhubarb, and horseradish. It is rare to find such a wide variety of perennial plants (those that come back every year) in Sublette County, and Megan knows how to keep them in check while they flourish.
Garden Of Beauty - Mark and Marianne Mrak
July 29, 2024
The Sage and Snow Garden Club discovered an amazing garden of vegetables and flowers at 144 W. Buffalo Street in Pinedale and gave it a coveted Garden of Beauty Award. When you first enter Mark and Marianne Mrak’s back yard, you see an oasis of colorful flowers—sweet peas, nasturtiums, zinnias, marigolds, petunias, pansies, calendula, lobelia, cosmos, and bachelor buttons—all beautifully displayed in large pots. Then, when you round the corner, you gasp at the amazing crop of tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos growing in lean-to open hot houses which they close at night and open during the day. Beyond the hot houses you see a large open bed of mature carrots. Next are beds filled with beans, peas, beets, rutabagas, onions, and herbs. To fill the empty spaces, they added lick tubs of potatoes, summer squash, and cabbage. New this spring are narrow beds and planters along the fence filled with flowers and raspberries. Mark starts his seeds indoors in the spring for transplanting outside in early summer. The corrugated metal beds are from Savannah Gardens and Vigo Garden Beds. All the garden beds and planters are on an automated drip irrigation system designed by Mark. Marianne said, "He makes it work or modifies it until it works." Around another corner is a very successful composting system for making compost to enrich the vegetable and flower beds. The Mrak garden will be one of the featured gardens on the annual Sage and Snow Garden Club Tour on Saturday, August 10. Look for details on the tour in this week’s Pinedale Roundup, Pinedale Online, or on the Sage and Snow website (www.sageandsnowgardenclub.org/).
Garden Of Beauty - Sara Ross
July 22, 2024
Sara and Mike Ross have earned the Sage and Snow Garden of
Beauty Award. Their huge outdoor gardens produce a variety of vegetables, including asparagus, strawberries, garlic, carrots, cucumbers, squash, peas, bush beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, leeks, horseradish, turnips, dill, and basil. The Ross’s gardens are beds of innovation and experimentation, as well. This year, they have a large crop of barley that is headed out, as well as a patch of beans for drying. They are also experimenting with apple, peach, and maple trees. In their small "starter" greenhouse, they grow peppers and eggplant after their seed-starting business ends for the season. The most notable innovation is the Ross wallopini. The wallopini is an underground greenhouse with a polycarbonate roof, complete with a wood stove for early and late season production. In their wallopini, they grow blackberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, and many varieties of herbs. Sara and Mike have been very generous with sharing their gardening knowledge with others, inspiring many new and experienced gardeners to experiment with some new techniques and strategies to broaden their gardening base in our challenging growing environment.
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