By Dr. James R. Feucht, Extension Professor, Horticulture, Colorado State University
Less is more -- and better -- when water is involved. Cost increases, as well as shortages thanks to a low snow-pack, make water conservation a priority in 2002. With a few tricks, you can cut water consumption and still maintain a beautiful yard.
Check your sprinkler system. After danger of frost is past, turn it on, and observe where the water goes. Adjust sprinkler heads to point water where it is needed. In some cases, a different type of head may be in order. Most sprinkler systems are designed to water a lawn, but often they overlap and irrigate shrubs, trees and flower gardens that need less frequent watering. You may need to change entire portions of your sprinkler system to gain control over location and frequency of watering.
North exposure lawns do not need as much water as south or west exposures. Change your sprinkler system to occasionally skip waterings on north exposures, and to provide more water to sunny areas.
Most systems sprinkle in a circle or semi-circle pattern. Change your lawn to fit the sprinklers. Do away with corners that often are skipped. In place of lawn, consider ground covers that, once established, require little or no water. Creeping junipers, sedums and the old-fashioned hen-n-chicks do the job well.
Avoid large areas of gravel and plastic. While this method decreases lawn, it does not necessarily reduce water consumption. Light-colored gravel reflects a lot of heat and can create a microclimate resulting in greater water loss from the surrounding lawn. Black plastic over shrubs and trees creates oxygen starvation, causing these plants to develop shallow roots just beneath the plastic. After a few years, even drought-enduring trees such as Russian-olive develop shallow roots and lose their drought-tolerance. Plastic and gravel, therefore, are self-defeating. The new "breathable" fabrics are a better choice.
Wood chips or bark chunks, used without plastic or fabric, make a good mulch. These decorative materials allow air and water penetration, yet keep the soil cool. Heavier bark chunks are best in strong wind areas. Light weight wood chips will blow. Apply these mulches at least four inches deep to conserve water, as well as to discourage moisture loss and weeds. Over a period of time, materials closest to the soil will begin to break down to improve the soil. Add new chips after a few years.
Use drought-tolerant plants to reduce water consumption. Keep them separate from lawn and other plants that require more water. Design a succulent garden. Desert plants and nearly all succulents must have sandy, well-drained soils, of which there are few in Colorado.
With some effort you can convert your soil. Put three inches of coarse sand on top and incorporate it with a rototiller. Repeat using one inch of organic material such as aged barnyard manure or peat moss. This provides a well-drained top soil six to nine inches deep. Along with cacti and other succulents, consider gazania for a splash of color. This low-growing, drought-tolerant plant grows readily from seed and produces large showy flowers. Another choice is Cape Marigold, often called African daisy. This almost forgotten annual comes in a variety of colors including yellow, apricot and white. A variety of sedums or stonecrops also will produce interesting foliage, texture and color changes. Dragon's blood is one of the most popular. It produces a rose-red flower during the summer months.
Before you water, dig down and find out if the soil is dry. Don't gauge water needs on soil surface appearance. In this semi-arid climate, the surface dries quickly, but evaporation slows beneath. This is because dry soils tend to insulate, acting much as mulch. This insulation reduces heat conduction deep into the soil.
Black organic soil also is desirable, but it builds up heat and can be a water waster. Dark soils absorb heat and can need water as frequently as light-colored soils. The type of organic material makes a difference. Many mountain peats create a water problem. When they're dry, they are difficult to wet and they repel water. When they are wet, they are difficult to dry. The best organics to improve water-holding capacity are coarse materials such as compost and barnyard manures.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument
A dedicated group of community volunteers, supported by the Highlands Ranch Park & Recreation Foundation, the Metro District of Highlands Ranch and the Highlands Ranch Library, is conducting a fundraising campaign for the Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument, to be built and located between Civic Green Park and the Highlands Ranch Library. The Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument will be a solemn place to pay tribute to veterans who have served and to whose who have given their lives for our nation. On Tuesday, August 8, 2005, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Falkel, a 2001 ThunderRidge High School graduate who served as a Green Beret, was killed in Afghanistan. Falkel was the first Highlands Ranch resident to be killed in action.
Please click here for information about the Corporate Giving Program.Many thanks to members of the Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument Committee:Jeff Alvis; Chairman, Terry Nolan; Vice Chairman, Marsha Sliter; Secretary, Deb Gudzune; Grant Chairman, Marje Marvez, Sherry Eppers, Jenn Garber, Bob Steinle, Brian Muller, Lisa Casper, Steve Wyatt, Michelle Colaizzi, Diane DiRito, Tom DiRito and Dorothy Hargrove.The committee members would like to thank the Douglas County Library Board of Trustees and the Highlands Ranch Library staff for their partnership on this project.
Please click here for information about the Corporate Giving Program.Many thanks to members of the Highlands Ranch Veterans Monument Committee:Jeff Alvis; Chairman, Terry Nolan; Vice Chairman, Marsha Sliter; Secretary, Deb Gudzune; Grant Chairman, Marje Marvez, Sherry Eppers, Jenn Garber, Bob Steinle, Brian Muller, Lisa Casper, Steve Wyatt, Michelle Colaizzi, Diane DiRito, Tom DiRito and Dorothy Hargrove.The committee members would like to thank the Douglas County Library Board of Trustees and the Highlands Ranch Library staff for their partnership on this project.
Cherokee Ranch History
History of Cherokee Ranch & Castle
The Flower Homestead – Late 1800sFrederick Gerald Flower filed for his homestead on August 6, 1894. He had renounced his English citizenship two years prior and planned to make a life here. He constructed his stone house and moved in with his wife, Amy, and his sister, Beatrice, on January 18, 1895.
The Flower Family home was perched on the edge of a high plateau with stunning views of the Front Range. The long trail to his house begins at the old territorial road, now named Daniels Park Road. Back then, there were very few inhabitants nearby due to the land’s rugged terrain.
On his homestead claim form, Flowers wrote that he had plowed twelve acres and strung a half-mile of barbed wire to contain his livestock. Local lore says that he actually used these twelve acres to raise potatoes.
Frederick Flower prospered and added land to his holdings. At the time of the sale of his ranch to Charles Johnson in 1924, the property measured 2,380 acres.
The Blunt Homestead – Late 1800sJohn Blunt brought his family west in 1868 following his service in the Civil War and homesteaded land on East Plum Creek near the town of Sedalia. Their first home site was abandoned, allegedly because the site was too cold. They built a new house in 1873 and named their homestead Sunflower Ranch.
At Sunflower Ranch, the Blunt family raised cattle and planted wheat and sorghum on the creek terraces. Three generations of their family ran the cattle and farming operations at Sunflower Ranch for over 81 years. They gradually purchased adjacent homesteads and gained 1,550 total acres. Their land included the mountain on what is now Cherokee Ranch.
In its place and time, their 1,370 square foot house was proudly elegant, a most unusual house in the rural landscape. The house seems to have no stylistic precedent in pattern books of the mid and late nineteenth century, and the design is attributed to the inventive common sense of John Blunt.The 1873 Blunt house still stands today at the center of the outbuildings at Cherokee Ranch headquarters. An apple tree, brought from Kansas by John Blunt in 1868, stands east of the house. It is believed that branches trimmed from this apple tree were used as the porch columns for Flower Homestead on the ranch. The Blunt house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and is recognized as one of the finest and best-preserved ranches in Douglas County. Tweet Kimball purchased the Blunt holdings from Ray Blunt in 1954.
Johnson Family – Early 1900sCharles Alfred Johnson (Carl) was originally from Boston but discovered Denver during a trip with his cousin. He fell in love with the west and moved to Denver in 1891. He began a real estate business and ultimately became a wealthy real estate tycoon, specifically for the development of Denver's historic Park Hill neighborhood.
After the passing of his first two wives, Carl and his third wife, Alice Gifford Phillips, settled south of Denver. Carl purchased the Flower Homestead property for $5 an acre in 1924. Soon after the purchase, Carl hired architect Burnham Hoyt to begin construction of his residence that turned from a summer home to his year-round residence. Charlford Castle, built from 1924-1926, was named after Alice's son Gifford and Alice and Carl's son Charlie. Hoyt designed the residence with architectural details from English and Scottish castles and other county homes west of the Flower Homestead.
When Carl's health began to fail in 1949, he and Alice temporarily moved to California. After Alice's death in 1950, Carl returned to Denver each summer and stayed at the Brown Palace Hotel. His visits were always front-page news. Carl died in 1954 a very wealthy man. After growing up at Charlford, Carl's son, Charles Johnson, Jr. (Charlie), lived there with his wife Katherine Sweet Johnson, and their two children Shelly Elizabeth and Charles Alfred III. Before selling the property to Tweet Kimball in 1954, the family traveled back and forth between Charlford and California because of Charlie's health problems. Shelly Johnson Carter now lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Charles Alfred III lives in Denver.
Tweet Kimball – Mid 1900sMildred Montigue Genevieve Kimball, also know as 'Tweet' Kimball, lived at Cherokee Ranch from 1954-1999. An avid equestrian, she purchased two parcels of land, the Castle and Castle property (formerly known as the Flower Homestead) from Charles Johnson, Jr., and the adjacent Blunt Ranch (formerly known as the Blunt Homestead) from Ray Blunt in 1954. She renamed both pieces of land Cherokee Ranch and their combined totaled acreage remains over 3,100 acres. Tweet Kimball made her mark by renaming the building groupings on land. The Flower Homestead became Chickamauga, Charlford Castle became Cherokee Castle, the Johnson Farm become Wauhatchie and the Blunt Homestead became Amnicola.
When she purchased the Blunt Property in 1954, she wanted to use buildings as the hub of her cattle breeding operations. Tweet brought Santa Gertrudis cattle from Texas to Colorado. This breed was developed to thrive on the native grasses of the South Texas brush country. Tweet wanted to breed them in the colder climate of Colorado but her critics thought it couldn't be done. Mrs. Kimball proved them wrong – Santa Gertrudis are now bred all over the world and the Cherokee Ranch is recognized within cattle breeding circles for this legacy.
In 1996, Tweet Kimball sold Cherokee Ranch in a conservation easement to Douglas County. The Foundation holds the deed to the land. The land is now protected as a wildlife sanctuary but Santa Gertrudis cattle are still bred on the land.
The Flower Homestead – Late 1800sFrederick Gerald Flower filed for his homestead on August 6, 1894. He had renounced his English citizenship two years prior and planned to make a life here. He constructed his stone house and moved in with his wife, Amy, and his sister, Beatrice, on January 18, 1895.
The Flower Family home was perched on the edge of a high plateau with stunning views of the Front Range. The long trail to his house begins at the old territorial road, now named Daniels Park Road. Back then, there were very few inhabitants nearby due to the land’s rugged terrain.
On his homestead claim form, Flowers wrote that he had plowed twelve acres and strung a half-mile of barbed wire to contain his livestock. Local lore says that he actually used these twelve acres to raise potatoes.
Frederick Flower prospered and added land to his holdings. At the time of the sale of his ranch to Charles Johnson in 1924, the property measured 2,380 acres.
The Blunt Homestead – Late 1800sJohn Blunt brought his family west in 1868 following his service in the Civil War and homesteaded land on East Plum Creek near the town of Sedalia. Their first home site was abandoned, allegedly because the site was too cold. They built a new house in 1873 and named their homestead Sunflower Ranch.
At Sunflower Ranch, the Blunt family raised cattle and planted wheat and sorghum on the creek terraces. Three generations of their family ran the cattle and farming operations at Sunflower Ranch for over 81 years. They gradually purchased adjacent homesteads and gained 1,550 total acres. Their land included the mountain on what is now Cherokee Ranch.
In its place and time, their 1,370 square foot house was proudly elegant, a most unusual house in the rural landscape. The house seems to have no stylistic precedent in pattern books of the mid and late nineteenth century, and the design is attributed to the inventive common sense of John Blunt.The 1873 Blunt house still stands today at the center of the outbuildings at Cherokee Ranch headquarters. An apple tree, brought from Kansas by John Blunt in 1868, stands east of the house. It is believed that branches trimmed from this apple tree were used as the porch columns for Flower Homestead on the ranch. The Blunt house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and is recognized as one of the finest and best-preserved ranches in Douglas County. Tweet Kimball purchased the Blunt holdings from Ray Blunt in 1954.
Johnson Family – Early 1900sCharles Alfred Johnson (Carl) was originally from Boston but discovered Denver during a trip with his cousin. He fell in love with the west and moved to Denver in 1891. He began a real estate business and ultimately became a wealthy real estate tycoon, specifically for the development of Denver's historic Park Hill neighborhood.
After the passing of his first two wives, Carl and his third wife, Alice Gifford Phillips, settled south of Denver. Carl purchased the Flower Homestead property for $5 an acre in 1924. Soon after the purchase, Carl hired architect Burnham Hoyt to begin construction of his residence that turned from a summer home to his year-round residence. Charlford Castle, built from 1924-1926, was named after Alice's son Gifford and Alice and Carl's son Charlie. Hoyt designed the residence with architectural details from English and Scottish castles and other county homes west of the Flower Homestead.
When Carl's health began to fail in 1949, he and Alice temporarily moved to California. After Alice's death in 1950, Carl returned to Denver each summer and stayed at the Brown Palace Hotel. His visits were always front-page news. Carl died in 1954 a very wealthy man. After growing up at Charlford, Carl's son, Charles Johnson, Jr. (Charlie), lived there with his wife Katherine Sweet Johnson, and their two children Shelly Elizabeth and Charles Alfred III. Before selling the property to Tweet Kimball in 1954, the family traveled back and forth between Charlford and California because of Charlie's health problems. Shelly Johnson Carter now lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, and Charles Alfred III lives in Denver.
Tweet Kimball – Mid 1900sMildred Montigue Genevieve Kimball, also know as 'Tweet' Kimball, lived at Cherokee Ranch from 1954-1999. An avid equestrian, she purchased two parcels of land, the Castle and Castle property (formerly known as the Flower Homestead) from Charles Johnson, Jr., and the adjacent Blunt Ranch (formerly known as the Blunt Homestead) from Ray Blunt in 1954. She renamed both pieces of land Cherokee Ranch and their combined totaled acreage remains over 3,100 acres. Tweet Kimball made her mark by renaming the building groupings on land. The Flower Homestead became Chickamauga, Charlford Castle became Cherokee Castle, the Johnson Farm become Wauhatchie and the Blunt Homestead became Amnicola.
When she purchased the Blunt Property in 1954, she wanted to use buildings as the hub of her cattle breeding operations. Tweet brought Santa Gertrudis cattle from Texas to Colorado. This breed was developed to thrive on the native grasses of the South Texas brush country. Tweet wanted to breed them in the colder climate of Colorado but her critics thought it couldn't be done. Mrs. Kimball proved them wrong – Santa Gertrudis are now bred all over the world and the Cherokee Ranch is recognized within cattle breeding circles for this legacy.
In 1996, Tweet Kimball sold Cherokee Ranch in a conservation easement to Douglas County. The Foundation holds the deed to the land. The land is now protected as a wildlife sanctuary but Santa Gertrudis cattle are still bred on the land.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Highlands Ranch Chamber Golf Tournament
2008 GOLF TOURNAMENT
The 2008 Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch Golf Tournament is being held on Monday, August 18, 2008, shotgun start 1:30 PM at the Highlands Ranch Golf Club. Check in time is 12:15 to 1:15pm. You are invited to participate as a sponsor or player.
Several sponsorship opportunities are available to promote your business before and during this event.
Please see the attached form for specific investment benefits related to each sponsorship level.
Yes! I want to participate in this year’s Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch Golf Tournament:
Business Name________________________________________________________
Contact Name_________________________________________________________
Telephone____________________________________________________________
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Sponsorships Deadline to notify the Chamber is July 18, 2008
□ Platinum/Title Sponsor ($5,000) -1 available
□ Gold Sponsor ($2,500)-4 available
□ Silver Sponsor ($800)-9 available
□ Driving Range Sponsor ($500)-1 available
□ Putting Green Sponsor ($500)-1 available
□ Long Drive Contest Sponsor ($150 or $100 + $75 Gift Item)-4 available
□ Gift Bag Sponsor ($50)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Players □ Foursome ($450)-Number of foursomes______
□ Individual ($125)-Number of individuals_____
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Player Names 1._______________________________ 3.______________________________________
2._______________________________ 4.______________________________________
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Payment □ Check (Please make check payable to The Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch)
□ Mastercard □ Visa □ American Express □ Discover
Credit Card No._______________________________________________________ Exp. Date________________
Signature_____________________________________________________________Billing Zip Code__________________
Amount to be billed to credit card $______________________________
All sponsorship and players will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis after payment has been received.
Please submit a copy of this form, along with your payment to:
Steve Dyer, President
Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch
300 Plaza Drive, Suite 225
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 303-791-3522 fax
Questions? Please contact the Chamber office at 303-791-2500 and we will be happy to assist you.
The 2008 Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch Golf Tournament is being held on Monday, August 18, 2008, shotgun start 1:30 PM at the Highlands Ranch Golf Club. Check in time is 12:15 to 1:15pm. You are invited to participate as a sponsor or player.
Several sponsorship opportunities are available to promote your business before and during this event.
Please see the attached form for specific investment benefits related to each sponsorship level.
Yes! I want to participate in this year’s Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch Golf Tournament:
Business Name________________________________________________________
Contact Name_________________________________________________________
Telephone____________________________________________________________
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Sponsorships Deadline to notify the Chamber is July 18, 2008
□ Platinum/Title Sponsor ($5,000) -1 available
□ Gold Sponsor ($2,500)-4 available
□ Silver Sponsor ($800)-9 available
□ Driving Range Sponsor ($500)-1 available
□ Putting Green Sponsor ($500)-1 available
□ Long Drive Contest Sponsor ($150 or $100 + $75 Gift Item)-4 available
□ Gift Bag Sponsor ($50)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Players □ Foursome ($450)-Number of foursomes______
□ Individual ($125)-Number of individuals_____
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Player Names 1._______________________________ 3.______________________________________
2._______________________________ 4.______________________________________
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Payment □ Check (Please make check payable to The Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch)
□ Mastercard □ Visa □ American Express □ Discover
Credit Card No._______________________________________________________ Exp. Date________________
Signature_____________________________________________________________Billing Zip Code__________________
Amount to be billed to credit card $______________________________
All sponsorship and players will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis after payment has been received.
Please submit a copy of this form, along with your payment to:
Steve Dyer, President
Chamber of Commerce of Highlands Ranch
300 Plaza Drive, Suite 225
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129 303-791-3522 fax
Questions? Please contact the Chamber office at 303-791-2500 and we will be happy to assist you.
Highlands Ranch Kiwanis Club
A new Kiwanis Club is forming in Highlands Ranch. The first organizational meeting will be held on July 14 at 1930 at Office Evolution in Lone Tree. The meeting should last about an hour. There is no committment expected if you attend this meeting. Please email me if you would like more information.
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