The photos below are views of Long's Gardens not necessarily associated with iris. We hope it gives you a flavor of what we are all about. New photos are added on an irregular time table as time permits and photos happen. Please check back for new additions, usually at the bottom of this page. The latest update was made on June 3, 2008.

Our new solar panels on our office building installed by Namaste Solar Electric here in Boulder.

What is it? It's not a spaceship but an official National Weather Service precipitation gauge. Catherine changes its tape once a month to send in to the NWS for the official record. It is officially known as Boulder #2 and has been on our property for over 20 years.

Long's Gardens as seen from Mt. Sanitas to the west of our place. Long's Gardens is the large open space in the center of the photo. By the way, it's pronounced San'-ah-tas, as in Sanitarium. The mountain got its name from the former Boulder Sanitarium at its base. Say it right, sound like a native!

Our faithful workhorse - 1946 International Harvester Model H tractor.

Workhorse is appropriate, Everett Long purchased this tractor to replace the garden horse.

Carrie, our Prairie Home Companion greeting customers in the office. Carrie came to us by way of an auction to benefit our local independent radio station, KGNU.

Watering the newly planted iris. We use moveable overhead sprinkler pipe for all our watering. The water comes from the Silver Lake Ditch, which runs along the mountainside to the west of Long's Gardens.

We're all one big happy family here. These are some of our resident deer herd, young and old. These are wild deer, not tame, not our pets. They can get spooked easily and will defend their young, so don't try and pet them.

The much photographed, painted and popular people pleasing poppies. They continually try to out shine the iris.

Fox gloves at Long's. All of these were collected by our resident foxes, mainly for entertainment of the young foxes. They also collect shoes, nerf toys and baseball gloves. We kept finding these gloves in the field and decided they needed to dress up a section of snowfence.

The iris in the digging field are planted and growing to put on a good show next spring. The bright green is annual rye and vetch for cover crop, giving the ground a rest from iris (the foreground and background have yet to sprout in this photo).

Frosty fall

What?! Snow in November?

Snow is still here in February, how unusual. Makes it hard to attack those weeds - oh, shucks!

For several weeks this winter our back drive was not too usable due to our latest project. We've just had a new geothermal heating system installed in the office. These are the lines from three 250' deep holes joined together for the line to the inside ground source heat pump. What it means is that we no longer use any natural gas for heating the office. As a bonus, we get cooling in the summer. On sunny days, our solar panels provide the electricity we need for heating and cooling. The trench is now buried, and road base is in place so vehicles no longer disappear into the clay. We are very happy with the work done by Blue Valley Energy Solutions.

The snow storm on April 10 nicely flocked the yucca. The yucca and the iris are enjoying this latest waterful gift.

Crabapple blooms and apple blossoms in May

The first of the lilacs in bloom

Garden guardian

The peonies are putting on a pretty performance.

Traffic control at Long's