July 19, 2026

Hitting Restart on my Indoor Gardening

This summer Colorado is under drought restriction, and we’re working with an arborist and landscaper doing our best to keep our 50+ year old trees alive and our Xeriscaped garden alive.

Our high desert garden
Damage from a late spring snow
Our garden gnomes

For Californians reading this, we live in the heart of the city of Denver and are responsible for these huge trees that are part of a shared park providing homes for animals and shade for everyone. Unlike in San Francisco, the city doesn’t plant or maintain the trees on public right-of-ways (between the sidewalk and the road) here.

I’ve had a great experience with living here overall except when they threatened to put a lien on my property for not planting a tree fast enough (Sir it was mid-winter!) and as I wander my neighborhood or sip a glass of wine from the rooftop of a nearby hotel I am so appreciative that everyone in our neighborhood does there part to make it such a lovely park.

Rethinking Water Usage

Unlike previous years, this spring I didn’t fill my planter beds with seedlings and I didn’t start seeds in February. Instead I grabbed a few decorative mixed flower pots for the pollinators, and stuck herbs and marigolds into the portable pots under my Tennessee Redbud tree and said a prayer.

Right now I’m planning to keep all my other edible gardening indoors with a reset of hydroponics. We use a mix of purchased seedlings and seed trays to keep production of micro greens, salad and herbs humming, and I find giving them a daily spritz and seeing them in my basement prep kitchen very gratifying.

I’m also getting more into herbalism and making mocktails with unique tinctures and infusions, so this is a fun way to grow edible flowers and other ingredients.

Kitchen Garden Inspiration

This morning I climbed down the 800 steps of the Il San Pietro kitchen gardens (and back up again like a good Coloradoan!) and it was so inspiring.

I’m writing this so I hold myself accountable, and Claude has great plan across my garden and cooking repos to help me make progress in just an hour of effort each day.