The City of Boulder’s major reconstruction of Broadway, the street that fronts our property, from Pine Street north to Iris Avenue was completed in 2010. It was an “interesting” two years for us, but we are very happy with the results. Our sidewalk along Broadway was moved back from the street, making it much more enjoyable for walking and, for us, safer for things like shoveling snow. We are very excited about the improvements. We have posted pictures below of the progress to give a feel of what went on.
The stone wall was rebuilt, just set back to the east. The stonemason rebuilt it to look just like the original. A new iron fence has been installed on top of the fence and we now have sandstone signs on the fence. The new, wider sidewalk, set back from the street, complete with a new bus stop with a bench and bike rack is paved with porous pavers. The planting strip has drought tolerant plants, native grasses and some new trees. We love our new frontage. The result of two years of work is a very much improved Broadway and sidewalk for everyone. The City Transportation Department and all the contractors were outstanding. They all were attentive to details, to our concerns and needs. They kept us informed at all times as to what was happening and were happy to answer any questions we had. They were attentive to all the details, like carefully removing and saving a selection of the shrubs in front of the house. Please give everyone a big thank you for all the improvements.
Our Broadway frontage before reconstruction, with the sidewalk next to the street.
The landscape architects’ drawing of the finished sidewalk. This will be a much more welcoming and pleasant experience. We are looking forward to the finished product. (Image courtesy of Shapins Belt Collins, Landscape Architects)
New sidewalk, bus stop, fencing, and landscaping along Broadway. It was definitely worth the wait.
Initial work on installing the new water main in Broadway on June 29, 2009
Getting serious about that new water main
Visions of an all-nighter
Installing the barrier fence in preparation for starting work on the new sidewalk. The utilities in this section were installed under the new sidewalk.
All of the construction along our Broadway frontage looked worse than it was. The fencing was set back farther from Broadway in order to be able to stockpile the topsoil for reuse and to provide maneuvering room for the equipment. The end result of all of this resulted in a much better sidewalk and frontage for all. The contractor was really good and saved some of the shrubs which we have replanted. These photos were taken looking north from our driveway. This is the area where the new sidewalk is located. The trench is for several utility lines that buried.
Part of the new sidewalk setback was to move and then rebuild the wall. The pillars on either side of the drive were moved back as well. The final result is a new, rebuilt wall that looks exactly like the original one, just moved east about 10 feet. It is actually better, because the existing damage from an automobile will be repaired. John Merims, of Aspen Grove Stone Masonry did the work. This photo is of the start of the deconstruction of the north wing of the driveway wall. He has marked each stone for replacement in rebuilding.
North wall before
North wall almost done, just needs the concrete cap
Detail of the new stone work, before the cap.
Detail of the new stone wall after concrete cap, before new iron fence.
A new iron fence has been installed on the wall by Eric St. Germain of Loop fence, now English Garden Fence (handcrafted in Boulder). It mirrors the loop design of the historic wire fence (also newly replaced) along the rest of our frontage. This new iron fence is untreated so it will rust naturally and will require no treatment, making it very sustainable. The sandstone sign was made by Tribble Stone Company, and like the rest of the wall and fence, is a work of art.
Digging for installation of new storm sewer along Broadway, across from Long’s Gardens.
In November 2019, City of Boulder voters approved an Open Space sales tax. The first year’s revenue went to purchase a conservation easement on our farm. The conservation easement closed on March 31, 2021. This ensures that our land will never be subdivided or developed and will remain in agriculture.
We are grateful to the many people who have worked hard to help us achieve this important protection for our land. In particular our thanks go to the Conservation Fund, Growing Gardens and Mountain Flower Goat Dairy (our wonderful non-profit tenants), and our amazing friends and neighbors.
The conservation easement will allow our family farm to continue to provide an agricultural oasis in the middle of the city.
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.
Cheetah, our new office cat, hard at work
An 8 hour old fawn
Red Tailed Hawk guarding one of our buildings
The ever popular Trout working hard at her job.
Hot times near Boulder, 2012. Two different fires within a week. Luckily they were put out quickly.
Early fall colors
Early fall colors
Deer picnic at Long’s
Lesser Goldfinch harvesting sunflower seeds
The landscape architect’s vision of the renovated frontage
Our frontage before the Broadway Reconstruction project
The actual completed new frontage as it now appears
The new historical information sign in front of our place.
Elizabeth Black (one of our Silver Lake Ditch users) was the driving force in an exhibit of the history, art, photographs and educational material of the irrigation ditches in Boulder County. While the exhibit has closed, you can still see an abundance of information on this wonderful exhibit check out the website at www.DitchProject.org.
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 movable 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 former resident foxes, mainly for entertainment of the young foxes. They also collected shoes, nerf toys and baseball gloves. We kept finding these gloves in the field and decided they needed to dress up a section of snow-fence.
The iris in the digging field are planted and growing to put on a good show in the 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 in the winter of 2008, our back drive was not too usable due to our latest project, the installation of a new geothermal heating system 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.
A snow storm one April nicely flocked the yucca. The yucca and the iris enjoy a waterful gift like this.
Crabapple blooms and apple blossoms in May
The peonies are putting on a pretty performance.
Garden guardian
The first of the lilacs in bloom
Traffic control at Long’s
A field of buckwheat cover crop in bloom. It provides green manure for our fields and food for the bees.
The bees are enjoy the buckwheat and their new solar powered bear fence.
One of the foxes’ toys. We played a game where we set Teddy in a nice spot, the foxes come and, after a night of revelry, left him in the field, we find a nice spot, the foxes play and so forth. It was entertainment for all concerned.
Iris danfordiae
Iris danfordiae
Iris reticulata
Iris reticulata
Our first irises to bloom are these gems, Iris danfordiae and Iris reticulata , both small bulbous irises planted in the fall. While we do not sell these irises, they are easily found in garden centers or by mail order in the fall. They want to grow and supply a nice bit of color in late winter to early spring. These bloomed in our yard the beginning of March. They top out at 4 inches in height.
One of our former resident foxes enjoying some Colorado sun on the chicken house roof . Sorry Foxy, you’re about 50 years too late for the chickens. A few years ago, the foxes in this part of town contracted mange and are no longer with us. We have seen foxes in other parts of town, so they may be back here with us in the future.
Car wash at Long’s Gardens
Recently we had to remove about 30 mature Black Walnuts that had been killed by the Thousand Cankers disease. We had one of those trees cut off high with a three fork trunk preserved. As a memorial to these trees, planted by Catherine’s grandparents, we had this tree carved as an Great Horned Owl in the attack position. Local artist, Lueb Popoff, (www.hollowlogonline.com) did an outstanding job. We have named the owl, Juglans, since he was carved from a Black Walnut, Juglans nigra. Be sure an look for him next time you’re here – he will be looking at you!
This is our newly rebuilt wall with new iron fence and sandstone sign. The original wall, built some 90+ years ago, was in need of repair. As part of the Broadway Reconstruction project and our new sidewalk, the wall was rebuilt to its former glory by John Merims and crew of Aspen Grove Stone Masonry. The new iron fence, by Eric St. Germain of Loop Fence (now English Garden Fence) is untreated so will require little or no maintenance, making it very sustainable as well as beautiful. It mirrors the design of the historic loop wire fence along the rest of our frontage. The sandstone sign was made by Tribble Stone Company and provides the finishing touch to the wall. We are very excited and pleased with this work of art and will probably talk your ear off if given a chance. Check out the Broadway Reconstruction page for photos of this project.
