My Path to the River

Michael Farrell is co-founder of The Platte Basin Timelapse project. Farrell is a 47-year veteran of public media. For the last 45 years, he has produced documentaries about the culture, history, and environment of Nebraska and the Great Plains.

Farrell teamed up with nature photographer Michael Forseberg to bring his award winning The Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild to an international television audience.

During their time working together, Farrell and Forseberg (who presented to GCD last year) generated the idea behind the Platte Basin Timelapse Project. Using timelapse technology applied through an entire watershed to document water use, this pair mounted cameras in Colorado’s high country, near dams and reservoirs of Wyoming, and throughout Nebraska's prairies to answer the question, “where does our water come from?”

Farrell is an accomplished fine art and wildlife photographer and his work has been featured in many exhibitions as well as publications.

The Membership Committee encourages you to invite prospective GCD members to our January 12th Zoom meeting featuring conservationist and photographer, Michael Farrell. If you would like to invite a prospective member, or have any questions about membership, please contact Margaret Garbe or Jane Davis. Applications are due by March 1^st. 

Stepp Garden Inspiration by Suellen White

While our November GCD General Meeting was held via Zoom from our respective homes, attending members were still able to connect in a personal way. After an informative presentation by The Park People and Denver Forestry, members enjoyed something new: BYO Lunch and breakout sessions with a random group of our fellow members.

While group leaders were armed with talking points, our members had no shortage of topics to discuss. From the recent fires in the Grand Lake community, to my positive experience with the Community Forester Program, we all agreed the small groups were a great opportunity to connect with individual members. Kudos to Meg and Cindy for breaking down new barriers for the club!!

The GCA’s FOCUS magazine published on November 20. It included the voting for America the Beautiful contest. Please vote! Voting will conclude on December 15, and the winners will be announced in the January 12 issue.

Several GCD members entered photos. At least two members have photos in the final contest.

You can vote by clicking here.

Suellen White and Mary Fowler hard at work documenting Bea's garden. Photo by Holley Sanford

Our committee was approved by the GCA earlier this fall to formally start the process of documenting Bea Taplin’s beautiful garden for submission to the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens. At the beginning of October, on a picture-perfect fall day, Bea graciously allowed Suellen White, Mary Fowler and I free reign of her garden to take some photographs and begin the documentation. The garden looked magical and her dahlias were in spectacular form. A few weeks later Lise, Suellen and I went back and chatted with Bea about the history of the property, the garden and her inspirations. The documentation process should take about a year to complete as we will be taking photographs throughout four seasons. We feel privileged to have this opportunity and are thrilled it will eventually become part of this historical archive.

Beginning in April 2021, The Garden Club of America will mark Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.’s 200th birthday with a new initiative called “Parks: Where Nature Meets Community." Among other events all GCA clubs will have the opportunity to tie the current needs of their communities to Olmsted’s revolutionary work in parks and public landscapes with a club project. There is a wealth of information about this upcoming event on the Garden History and Design page on the GCA website and it is well worth a look. This will be a wonderful opportunity to visit some of the Olmsted-designed parks in the Denver area. So look forward to some GH&D field trips next year!

Although travel is limited, it is still fun to take a virtual trip through some garden Instagram accounts. A few I enjoy are: The Denver Botanic Gardens, Smithsonian Gardens, Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer Gardens, Huntington Library, New York Botanical Garden, The Butchart Gardens, Kew Gardens and The Garden Conservancy. I welcome recommendations for more.

Join us for our first Program Perk this December 15 at 5:30!

GCA has provided a wonderful on-demand video on Revolutionary Gardeners featuring Dean Norton, Director of Horticulture at Mount Vernon, and Peter Hatch, Director Emeritus of Gardens and Grounds at Monticello. The video is 41 minutes long and divided into 10 chapters.

Watch the video at your leisure and then join us on Zoom on December 15 at 5:30 p.m. for a brief discussion and drinks! Members are encouraged to get in the revolutionary spirit by enjoying a beverage popular during Colonial times. Be it George Washington’s favorite dark porter laced with molasses or a lovely French wine as preferred by Thomas Jefferson (the more expensive the better for T.J.) or a nice hot cider - join us on Zoom for a virtual cocktail hour and discussion of this fabulous GCA exclusive video.

You'll find the video link on the GCA website under the link for “Read, Watch, Shop” or by clicking here. Look for a reminder email and Zoom link in early December.

Start with an empty pot. Form a ball of chicken wire to insert in your container or fill with dirt. (Do not water before arranging as the dirt may freeze.) There are some advantages to utilizing dirt as the greenery will draw on the soil's moisture and arrangements will stay fresher longer.

Gather your greens and other elements you would like to use, for example: Red Dogwood Branches, Evergreens (Pine boughs, cedar, fir, juniper & boxwood), Holly Branches and berries, Magnolia leaves, Birch sticks, Pinecones, Curly Maple, Seeded Eucalyptus, or Dried Hydrangea. Go out into your yard and start clipping, or visit your nearest nursery for supplies.

Start in the center with some of your taller greens and branches to establish your framework. Or, if it is being viewed from only three sides, start in the back with your taller pieces.

Create the "skirt." Add those hanging and "spilling" pieces to cover the edge of your container.

Once you're satisfied with your skirt add some of the other evergreens: use whatever you have on hand. You are looking to fill the space between your skirt and the taller center (or back) elements.

Embellish with your other ingredients: dried hydrangea, pinecones, holly, berries, etc.

These outdoor planters are easy to make and add a gorgeous statement to your winter outdoor décor.

Amy Mower, Janet Manning and Lise Woodard mask up for TrashBlitz Denver 2020.

OK, I must admit I’m a self-confessed trash nerd. I even went on a VIP tour of Denver trash facilities a few years ago. Trash is a huge problem, one that doesn’t go away easily or without consequences and it’s plastic trash that, to me, it the most troublesome. GCA even has a position paper on Waste Management.

Amy Mower, Lise Woodard and I participated in TrashBlitz last month to help with this community-based project that used volunteers to measure trash, especially plastic, in many metropolitan areas throughout the country. Armed with our face masks, gloves, data card and clipboard, a large bucket, and kitchen tongs to use in picking up the trash, we met at one of the randomly generated, predetermined locations to pick up and document all the trash we found in that area in the course of an hour or so. Our starting point was 17 Random Road in Cherry Hills Village, a suburban area of large homes on very large lots. At first glance, it didn’t seem like we’d collect that much trash; but, over the course of an hour, we had collected a large bucket full. (I also did a week-long collection of all the plastic trash I accumulated in my home during that whole week. I had an even larger bucket full!) The data that we collected is being tabulated and we’ll get a detailed report by the end of the year.

We didn’t pick up all this trash just because it was a beautiful day to be outside. The goal of the project is to document the types of trash, especially plastic, that are found in areas all over the country. The data collected will inform efforts to reduce plastic production at its source.

Some types of plastic are particularly difficult to recycle and some are especially toxic (specifically numbers 3 and 6). Plastic pollution is found from the mountain tops of Colorado to the bottom of the deepest oceans to the human gut. When the results of this study are made available, I’ll let you know what we might be able to do as individuals to advocate for policy changes. And in the meantime, I’m always trying to reduce my own use of plastic, not always an easy thing to do!