Feature Garden: Making Magic in a Mountain Garden
09 Apr 2017
Sowing a sea of color at 8,360 feet was quite a feat, given Nederland’s short growing season
By Carol Brock The fact that her home sat at 8,360 feet never daunted Kristen-lee Baillie. That just added to the challenge: Coaxing a stupendous garden from the rocky earth surrounding her home near Nederland. After all, she figured, it wasn’t much different than what she does for a living—splashing canvases with vibrant colors of different mediums and textures. As a former ceramic artist whose work appeared in galleries in her native Australia, and now a mixed-media artist in Colorado, Baillie approached her mountaintop garden in much the same way. “My idea was to create a sea of color,” she says.![](/wp-content/boulderhg/2017/04/Baillie-garden-62-200x300.jpg)
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Garden + Work = Life Lessons
Waves of catmint, monarda, sedums, dahlias, coreopsis, lilies, daisies and more weave their way across the 40-acre property, strewn with boulders and trees, and graced with ample views and open skies. “I was surprised by her ability to grow things experts said couldn’t grow successfully in our zone,” Kaminsky says. The mountainous beds overflow with zone 3 perennials and annuals, and peak bloom is in early August, with most flowers vanishing by September. “It often felt to me as if it was Kristen’s full-time job,” Kaminsky says, “though I realized she got tremendous satisfaction from it even when she was worn out at the end of the day or week or month.” The enormous workload taught Baillie some “tough life lessons,” she says.![](/wp-content/boulderhg/2017/04/Baillie-garden-51_sat-200x300.jpg)
More photos of a Nederland-area garden
Three edible gardens
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Pollinator-friendly
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All-season blooms
![](/wp-content/boulderhg/2017/04/Baillie-garden-ext-300x200.jpg)
A sea of color
![](/wp-content/boulderhg/2017/04/Baillie-garden-83-300x200.jpg)
Stupendous views
![](/wp-content/boulderhg/2017/04/Baillie-garden-21-300x206.jpg)
Creating beds
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Serenity
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Making plans
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