WINTER / SPRING 2025
Montage by Amanda Jeter
WELCOME NOTE | 3.25
This issue, Principal Amanda Jeter is taking over the newsletter with content on winter / spring seed starting, wild seed collection, a history of how agricultural design shapes our home gardens today, and a personal narrative on her family’s 1.25 acre homestead and potager garden.
You will also find congratulations to the incredible client team at Two Capes Lookout on the recent opening of their glamping resort on the Oregon Coast and an invitation to an opening reception to our upcoming show at the Colorado Convention Center on South African flora. Thanks for the read!
Cali
CATALOG CULTURE | 1.25
Winter Seeds
Amanda Jeter
Between winter solstice and spring equinox, it's time to start dreaming of lush gardens and bountiful harvests. The arrival of seed and bare root plant catalogs from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Jung Seed Company, Select Seeds, Prairie Moon Nursery, Nourse Farms, and Territorial Seed Company brings endless possibilities for the upcoming growing season. I nostalgically collect the paper catalogues brimming with colorful close-up photos or drawings of flowers, fruits and vegetables to peruse on cold winter nights. Online sources such as Floret Flower Farm and Wild Mountain Seeds offer additional insight and sources of flower and vegetable seeds.
Time and variety are important factors when deciding whether to assemble a seed starting set-up. Starting from seeds offers access to a wide range of fruits and vegetables beyond what is typically available at grocery stores, often at a lower cost. In agriculture, a variety refers to a group of plants within a species that possess specific distinguishing characteristics, which are preserved during reproduction. Wild Mountain Seeds, for example, aims to preserve food-plant diversity and tests seed varieties for success in the cold climates of Carbondale, Colorado.
Another advantage of starting seeds indoors is the time factor. In cold climates, gardeners can gain an early start by initiating seed growth inside. Seed starting setups can include trays and light systems or the repurposing of common items, such as yogurt cups, newspaper, toilet paper rolls, and egg cartons. In Colorado and other cold climates, crops—including tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers—benefit from indoor seed starting around March. Should you miss this window, home improvement stores and nurseries offer starter plants later in the spring that facilitate an early start.
Whether you're a seasoned gardener or a novice, the excitement of selecting new plant varieties and anticipating their harvest is universal. Happy planning and happy planting!
OCEAN WAVES | 2.25
Two Capes Lookout Opens on the
Oregon Coast
A big congratulations to our clients and friends at Two Capes Lookouton their opening day! Phase 1 includes 15 geodesic domes, 4 mirror cabins, fire pits areas, and check in dome situated at the base of a natural waterfall. We are thankful to the collaborators and hardworking crews that made this project a reality, including the architects at OfficeUntitled, interior designers at Max Humphrey, and civil engineers at KPFF, the branding mavens at Cognoscenti Creative and the hospitality team at Q Hospitality Management, and the talented contractors at I&E Construction and SNO Landscape. Photos by the talented Karolina Pora. More photos on our website.
PERSONAL HISTORY | 1.25
Cultivate Our Garden
Amanda Jeter
In the early 1900s, a gardener planted apple trees on a 1.25-acre lot in Colorado Springs just outside the eastern mouth of Cheyenne Canyon and adjacent to Cheyenne Creek. Historically, this area near the Broadmoor Hotel welcomed summer vacationers, convalescing tuberculosis patients and scenic carriage riders.
My husband and I purchased the long narrow lot that abuts Cheyenne Creek and includes a pair of hundred-year-old apple trees in 2013. Since that time, our family has toiled and enlarged the existing vegetable garden to roughly 4,600 square feet. This Colorado potager uses well water for irrigation and sits in a south-facing low area close to the creek. Protected by a handmade six-foot deer fence, crops of the garden include onions, garlic, leeks, herbs, broccoli, chard, kale, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, rhubarb, asparagus, peas, beets, pumpkins, squash, strawberries, grapes, and carrots. I give credit to my husband’s green thumb and perseverance for this abundance. This 6,000-foot-high patch of land has presented both challenges and successes in gardening. The garden has produced abundant yields at times, while disappointing years of hailstorms have caused significant damage to the annual harvest.
Just beyond the garden entry, those old apple trees predict the whims of the growing season through their bloom’s success. An early bloom, tragically frozen by a late frost, signals a challenging growing spell. A poor crop of emerging apples indicates a dry season. During a bumper year, memories of eating fresh spinach from my father’s vegetable patch merge with those of my children climbing hundred-year-old tree limbs to find just the right apple bite. Over the years, we have explored different cultivation practices from no-till planting to raised beds. My husband has built and rebuilt two large hoop houses that have been damaged by hail, snow, and windstorms. The soil is fertile but rife with a weed seed load likely an inheritance of an old horse barn. Racoons and bears occasionally break in but we have benefited more than lost from wildlife, mostly due to the insect kingdom. The introduction of cut flower gardens and the installation of two beehives have significantly boosted fruit and vegetable production through pollinators.
Our family has tried a range of methods for preserving the bounty through drying, canning, freezing, or gifting. Like most busy folks, the simplest measures have become the most successful. Originally storing the harvest in the basement where they became out of site and out of mind, we have learned to live with baskets of onions, shelfs of squash, and strings of dried goods in the family room and kitchen. Inspired by those apple trees, we have planted scrawny young peach, plum, and apple trees within the garden fence line. Perhaps a hundred years from now, a new family will cultivate this land and enjoy fruits of our efforts.
PARADISE FOUND | 12.24
Agricultural Design History
Amanda Jeter
This article offers a summary of various growing traditions that shape the gardens and landscapes envisioned by our clients today.
Ancient Farming
Agriculture emerged in at least seven regions globally about 10,000 years ago during the Neolithic period. Farming then included livestock, such as goats, cows, and pigs, and crops, such as wheat, hazelnut, and crab apple. Scholars believe American Indians began farming around 7,000 years ago, growing squash, sunflowers, goosefoot, corn, and beans.
Medieval Farming
During the Middle Ages, barley and wheat were staple crops, and many people farmed to meet their own needs. Other crops and livestock included oats, rye, vegetables, fruit, sheep, and pigs. As part of the feudal system, lords of the manors, supported by a local church and priest, were leaders among groups of peasant farmers.
In the home, medieval women wrote herbal recipes and managed stillrooms or distilleries to make cordials and perfumes. In Flower Chronicles: The Legend and Lore of Fifteen Garden Favorites, author E. Beckner Hollingsworth notes that the herbals and stillroom books “bear eloquent testimony to the weight of the medical responsibility that women used to carry” as gardeners and processors of plants for their family’s health and sustenance.
Colonial Gardens
The first Spanish settlers of St. Augustine, Florida (1565) introduced various plants from Europe to the Americas. Early American colonists depended on home gardening for sustenance, with gardens typically located near the "dooryard." Kitchen gardens or potagers provided households with a diverse diet of vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Additionally, during the colonial period, African American slaves significantly contributed to food production on plantations, introducing crops such as yams, okra, and black-eyed peas from their African homelands to the Americas.
Gilded Age Gardens
In the late 1800s, ornamental gardens gained popularity, leading to a shift of home gardens from the front to backyards, while green lawns began to dominate front yards. During this period, the Burpee Seed Company was founded in Philadelphia. The industrial boom of the early 1900s resulted in increased urbanization and a reduction in available space for gardening.
War Farming
During World Wars I and II, there was a notable resurgence in vegetable gardening through Victory Gardens. Smithsonian Gardens states that labor for Victory Gardens included individuals from Japanese internment camps. Additionally, during World War II, thousands of women, known as farmerettes, contributed to growing and harvesting food as part of the Women’s Land Army (WLA).
Industrial Agriculture
The post-war years witnessed significant growth in large-scale farming operations and the emergence of the industrial agriculture complex. During the 1950s to 1970s, advancements in pesticide technology contributed to increased agricultural productivity. However, the launch of Earth Day and the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" in the 1970s sparked a renewed interest in creating edible landscapes that also supported environmental health.
TV Lifestyle Gardens
The Victory Garden show, which aired on PBS in 1975, transformed garden television. In the 1980s and 90s, popular shows like P. Allen Smith and Martha Stewart showcased a lifestyle of beautiful homes and lush, productive gardens.
Regenerative Agriculture
In the 1980s, the Rodale Institute defined regenerative agriculture as a holistic farming method promoting ongoing environmental, social, and economic improvements. A key practice is maintaining soil health through techniques like no-till farming, which involves direct drilling seeds to preserve soil structure.
Pandemic Gardens
According to the National Gardening Association, one in three American households currently grow their own food, a trend that has continued to rise post-pandemic. The hashtag #GrowYourFood has accumulated over 400,000 posts on Instagram. During the pandemic, there were seed shortages, and entrepreneurs such as Denver-based DJ CAVEM initiated start-up seed growing businesses.
WILD HARVEST | 03.25
Native Seed Collection
Amanda Jeter
This year for the garden, I’ve collected Rocky Mountain cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata var. ampla) seeds from a pioneer patch at the shady riparian edge of the property. A native of the Rocky Mountain region, the cheery yellow blossoms with large, deeply lobed leaves support many larval and adult pollinators. In sourcing wild seeds, it is imperative to only collect seed with permission on private land and never on public land. Lands slated for redevelopment can be good sites for seed collection. General rules of thumb are to collect seeds that are locally abundant and species that are not endangered, to collect from healthy populations, and to collect no more than 10% of the seed from a population to allow it to repopulate.
To start the coneflower seeds, I use Prairie Moon Nursery's resources, which include a guide to germination codes and seed-starting basics for native plants. Rudbeckia laciniatarequires 30 days of cold, moist stratification. The guide also provides advice on stratification methods based on whether seedlings are for rows or containers. My goal is to grow established container plants and add them to an existing garden bed. Using native plants suited to my garden's habitat and soil type will help the garden conserve water and support local wildlife.
For more information on collecting, saving and sowing native seeds, visit your state’s native plant society website. Find the Colorado Native Plant Society at this link.
The Summer Issue will delve into the history of indoor plants, South African fynbos flora, our indoor planting exhibit at the Colorado Convention Center (opening reception is May 9th, 7pm at Understudy gallery), and some exciting recent press. Thanks for the read! If you prefer to opt out, please click the link below.
THE END