Green quarter acre is the place to be...

Hakonechloa macra  'Aureola'

Now don't start humming the "Green Acres" tune! An ear worm if there ever was one! Green is what gardeners in dry climates yearn to have more of. And my dear friend Ray Radebaugh (whose garden I have featured before*) delivers with a vengeance! A world class Physicist with real world talents, Ray has installed mist systems that increase humidity and allow him extraordinary effects with surprisingly little water use! His garden out-greens many a garden in humid climates as a consequence. Of course, it helps that he has strategically placed trees that provide dappled shade and coolth...(Spell check recognizes "warmth", why not "coolth?"...silly spellcheck!)

*My first blog was photgraphed in November, this one in mid July...imagine what the garden must be like in high spring! It's a year around garden for sure!

Mist nozzle in foreground supplements regular water system in mid view

In addition to masses of choice plants (the Adiantum venustum in this picture forms wide masses here there are many hefty clumps of ladyslippers. But look, for a moment, and see the artful way Ray groups plants: he may be a scientist at work but at home it's pure art!

Love them rocks!

The graceful dark fern makes such a perfect foil for the grass, don't you think?

One of the many ladyslippers (not blooming)--just to prove I washing joshin' ya!

And here's a daphne that ate Louisville (the town he lives in)...

Polystichum setiferum

Where this finely divided form of this Eurasian form got the common name "Alaska Fern" beats me: BONAP shows it as occuring wild only in Arkansas in the USA and I have me doots that it's native there...This form has had many fancy names...a lovely thing whatever we call it!

Duchesnea indica

I was horrified to see this: I find it a persistent, nasty little plant that pops up all sorts of places it shouldn't...but I'm not going to pretend to advise Ray. Besides which, this is the only clump I noticed--and it is lovely! I first saw this in the parking lot of Denver Botanic Gardens several incarnations ago where it was planted by Andy Knauer...we're talking ancient history here!

What a wonderful fern salad!

You know, my commentary is hardly necessary...I think this garden speaks for itself...I'll stick to captions henceforward!

Platycodon grandiflorus (dwf cultivars)

Acorus gramineus ('Minimus aureus?")

Campanula garganica 'Dickson's Gold' echoing a golden Hosta (cv. unknown)

 Corydalis lutea

Nice combos dontcha think?

Sempervivum cv. and lichened stone...aaaaah!

Dianthus erinaceus?

Mukdenia rossii (rarely seen in local gardens)

Chamaecyparis obtusa cv. (?) Also rarely seen looking good in Colorado

I think this is Silene acaulis...

An enormous Daphne x hendersonii cv.

Many dwarf conifers...

Dryopteris sporeling planting itself in a crevice!

Muhlenbeckia axillaris 'Nana'

This wonderful groundcover from New Zealand has been one of the toughest and best woodland groundcovers I've grown for decades...strangely absent from gardens hereabouts--except Ray's (and mine!)

Cyclamen purpurascens seeding into crevices everywhere too!

Spruce seeding into crevices--I wonder if Ray will bonsai these?

Cyclamen purpurascens

Half these ferns are self sown!

A self-sown Asplenium trichomanes...that I should have this problem?

More Cyclamen purpurascens seedlings!

Asplenium trichoma                                                                                                                    nes (below) Adiantum pedatum var. japonicum (above)

MORE Cyclamen purpurascens seedlings!

An Asarum sp. Ray brought back from Japan ages ago!

And even MORE cyclamen and maidenhair spleenwort, both probably self sown...

What a contrast this dwarf Picea pungens cv. makes!

In a sunny spot he has a thrifty Rabiea albipuncta thriving! Quite a change of pace!

And Limonium minutum (Kenten Seth's fave)

One of the most remarkable plants in the garden: what used to be called Notholaena sinuata--from hundreds of miles south of Colorado appeared spontaneously on the rock...Ray doesn't have a clue how.... a garden full of mysteries and marvels!

Is this combo with Astilbe chinensis 'Pumila' cool or what?

A holey rock to die for...

Stomatium agninum, another South African in a sunny crevice

And there's even a cactus (I think it's Opuntia polyacantha) in one of the few hot dry spots!

And a Rhododendron of great charm blooming late July! (R. nakaharai perhaps?)

Ray invited myself, Lefteri Dariotis and Bob Beer to a wonderful Chinese pot luck! Felt good to eat Chinese food again! Ray's wife, Xixi, is from China--and a wonderful hostess! Great plants, great garden, great food, great friends: this is the life!

View of the main rock feature from terrace above..

Ajd I end with a vigneettw with two rare Colorado ferns: Asplenium platyneuron (far left and far right: this is common east of the Mississippi but found rarely in Colorado) and Cheilanthes fendleri...the latter is common in a few foothill locales, but rare in gardens. A good place to end this visit! Thank you Ray!