Everything in this slideshow
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Alpine Oasis
On a clear morning, you can see forever from Kristen-lee Baillie’s truly breathtaking garden, nestled at 8,360 feet elevation in Colorado’s Roosevelt National Forest.
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Peek Inside the Garden
Kristen-lee’s knuckle-busting determination pays off, especially in her fenced vegetable garden, where she harvests nutritious greens in a short season.
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Healthy Harvest
Kristen-lee shops for plants on sale in Boulder since everything is marked down by the time she is able to plant. A family favorite is Tuscan kale.
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Natural Nectars
Hummingbirds are best fed with natural nectars — here one takes a sip from the blossom of catmint (Nepeta). To put up a hummingbird feeder in this neck of the woods is akin to ringing a dinner bell for the bears.
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Bee Balm
Fragrant ‘Violet Queen’ bee balm is as beautiful as it is important to bees and butterflies.
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Boulder-by-Boulder
Undaunted by outcroppings of boulders, Kristen-lee simply incorporated them into the landscape.
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Serene Scene
Kristen-lee employs a mix of compost and garden soil for planting in the narrow rock crevices. Orange helenium, or sneezeweed, blooms all summer long. Here it is combined with other jewel-tone perennials, including bee balm, salvia, and catmint.
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No Deer or Elk Allowed
Kristen-lee’s deer and elk fencing is constructed of found branches and slender tree trunks with a distinctive red gate for a splash of color.
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