On the third day of the Denver Garden Bloggers Fling we visited the home garden of Rob Proctor and David Macke. Rob Proctor used to be the director of horticulture at the Denver Botanic Gardens, so I was looking forward to this visit with keen anticipation.
The front garden suggests a garden designed with Denver’s dry climate very much in mind.
I loved the parkway plantings, so colorful with purple Salvias, pink hardy Geraniums, and yellow Achilleas.
To get to the back garden, we had to make our way through the house.
Emerging outdoors again, we came into a garden with a very different feel.
For one thing, there are some 600 containers filled with succulents and flowering annuals.
How on earth do they water them all?
Looking from the patio at by the house, you can see a sort of double-decker gazebo towards the back of the garden.
An herb garden carpeted with Thyme.
There are long borders that suggest Victorian lushness with abundant roses and flowering trees. Still, the garden is designed with the limited rainfall in mind. For example, beds are sunk below grade level so that they can collect water.
Overall the garden is just a third of an acre and yet it seems much larger. There is always another border, another planting, another seating area to discover.
A really sumptuous mix of flower and foliage colors.
Someone told me the name of this plant, but now I forget. It’s boldly handsome, yet somehow ominous. It seems to be whispering, “feed me!”
Hardly an opportunity missed anywhere to place another flowering container.
Ah, to sit beneath the flowering boughs.
There were some truly massive Weigelas just bursting with bloom.
Update: I meant to include this picture of the house from the far end of the borders.
Another seating area, this one beneath a flotilla of hanging baskets.
And here are Rob Proctor and David Macke, who generously shared their home and garden with roughly 100 garden fanatics from across the country. In addition to his career at the Denver Botanic Garden, Rob Proctor has written nearly 20 gardening books and makes frequent television appearances.
On a third of an acre they have created a world apart, a world that seems to be a hybrid of the Front Range and an English garden from a bygone day.
gardeninacity 
Wow! That is a lovely garden!
Isn’t it?
I adored this garden, it was like stepping into another world hidden behind the house. It was impossibly over the top magnificent. And obviously a labor of love. Not sure my photos fully do it justice; multiply everything Jason has posted here by five.
That must have taken a lot of work to create, and to maintain, but what an interesting garden.
Yes, a staggering amount of work, it would seem.
What a great experience! Beautiful garden.
Certainly is.
Mind-boggling, both in its gorgeousness and in its demands! I do love that thyme carpet.
I liked it, too, but I think it needs a lean and dryish soil to grow really well.
Amazing gardens but 600 containers would be a little too much for me to handle. 🙂 I really like the seating area with the shutters. Was the ‘roof’ solid or like a pergola?
I don’t think I could handle that many containers, either.
Quite extraordinary. Do they do all the work themselves?
I have half an acre and have lived in the same house for forty years. When I think back to my younger self and the amount of work I put into garden beds and how overwhelmed I am with it all at this stage of my life, I cannot conceive how two people could keep that up! Most impressive.
You know, I’m not sure. They are both retired and I imagine they devote a LOT of time to the garden, but they may have some hired help as well.
I love the idea of sinking those beds to collect more rainwater- I confess its an idea that never even crossed my mind but is really brilliant in its simplicity! Thanks for sharing this garden!
Well, I don’t imagine there is a shortage of moisture where you are, unless your soil is really sandy.
Indeed it is really sandy, but we’ve got enough loan to made do!
This is the first garden you’ve shared that didn’t appeal to me at all. There’s just too much — at least, for my taste. The parkway border is nice, and I do like the grassy walkways between the beds. Dropping some of the beds below grade to collect extra water is an excellent idea, too. But, honestly? If this were a manuscript, I’d say it needs a good editor. Of course, I’m no gardener, so there’s that!
I hear what you’re saying. Even so, I felt compelled to admire even the too-muchness of this garden.
I like this garden. It may be a bit crowded, but I don’t mind that.
The more, the merrier!
It really is lovely, but all those pots! Yes, I also thought of the watering! The idea of sinking the beds for catching rainwater is interesting. I wonder if it helps….
I enjoyed this garden and there is much here for Aussies to admire, as we have to consider rainfall ( lack there of) all the time. However I was surprised at how many pots they have as ( in my experience) plants in pots dry out faster. Lovely garden and thanks for the tour.
That is an astounding amount of plants and they all look so beautiful and well cared for!
It’s a beautiful place. My kind of garden.
Wow, what a garden!!! I just loved this, imagine watering 600 containers though!!!xxx
I’d rather not!
Glad to see I am not the only one who took photos of the Blue Onion dishware (porcelain?). I kept thinking about the creeping thyme while looking around my garden. I liked that as a ground cover. Like a few of the other folks commenting, I found 600 containers overwhelming, but loved the cobalt blue!
I liked the blue containers also. One of my favorite colors.
Ooh, what a gorgeous garden!
The photos are wonderful, even when taken in the harsh midday sun. It’s lovely to imagine how the garden looks early in the morning or in the sunset.
This post gives so much inspiration. About plants, of course, but about other things too: for example the blue pots and cushions fit so well to this garden.
Thank you for sharing!
The sun did make the photography more challenging for Judy. The blue pots were cool.
That’s an amazing garden and it looks so much bigger than 0.3 acres. I love a garden that’s packed full (and beyond). The borders are full and lush despite the lower rainfall. It looks like you caught it on a hot day too. I’ve no idea how they keep all the pots watered either, if most of them are succulents then that does bring the workload down.
I don’t think most were succulents, but some were. I also like a garden that’s crammed full of plants. Overflowing is even better.
Very smart to sink those beds to maximize rainfall. I love that rose bower. I could sit under that all day.
I love the photos; especially, the idea of the planters going up the stairs. Do you mind if I steal the idea for my future brother-in-law?
Not at all! (Though it’s not my garden, but I’m sure the owners wouldn’t mind either).