We live down in the Denver metro area. We've only been here for 7 months, so this is my first gardening attempt in the region.

I have to say that these crazy storms are my biggest issue so far. The strong winds and the HAIL, oh my god, the HAIL -- every time I hear the thunder approaching, my heart drops. I'm grateful that my poor little garden hasn't gotten swept away by a tornado, but I'm unconvinced that it won't happen, since they're forecasting more storms for weeks and weeks. Argh! :(

When I lived up in the foothills, my heart definitely skipped a beat when I got up one morning and found a mountain lion paw print in the garden bed next to my front door.

I don't live in Colorado and garden at only just above 2,000 feet along the Idaho/Washington border but I've been doing this long enough to have had a few frustrations. I'll outline one specific instance and a more general difficulty.

For 6 years, I had a garden with a nearby population of marmots. Their residence was, for the most part, within a park boundary. It was illegal to even "harass" them inside the park.

These big ground squirrels will eat just about anything but seem kind of slow to try something new. But after 6 years, I had them well trained. They would eat every garden vegetable almost without exception. I could build fencing that would keep them out of the garden but after several months, they would always find a way in. Even just one 20 pound squirrel can do a lot of damage in a few days. Usually, they would make a family picnic out of it.

My garden was about 35' by 70' with good soil and ample water - all free for me to use. But, after 6 years, I decided that the marmots had beaten me and gave the ground back to the property owner.

Nearly everywhere I've garden over the last 40 years - I've been on glacial till. Gravel, rocks, sand, and more rocks . . .

The aquifer is wonderful but the porous nature of the soil means that water quickly drops below the reach of the garden plants. I have calculated that I put 1.5 inches of water on the gardens every week, .75 inch at a time. Really, the plants would do much better if I could water 3 times each week. With large gardens and no automation, that isn't possible. I don't have the time.

There have been plenty of summers with only about 1 inch of rainfall through the entire 3 months. So, there's little help there . . . Water is the most significant limiting factor for my gardens.

Steve

Mountain gardening is pretty tough on heirloom tomato whackos. The climate just does not have three-four months of 70º nights, 85º hot days, where all the varieties can develop all the spectacular flavors. I get, every year, a dozen fruit that really stand out, but by and large, it's more a question of being lucky to get a month worth of harvest during late Aug - Sept before it freezes.

Okra. Forget it. Shallots - too far south.

This is my first season in western Aurora (I moved from the east coast last summer), but I'm going to second amandablam about the hail and the crazy hard rain that comes with it. I'm wondering if these daily storms are normal for early summer here. The first big rainstorm tore 90% of the leaves off my pepper seedlings and beat my little basils purple. Boy was I mad! Occasionally I run out and put buckets over the plants when it starts to thunder but mostly I've learned just to love my garden plants a little bit less than my moveable container plants. I may try a bit of mesh over tomato cages for the hail while my tomatoes still small.
The soil also seems rather dense and the temperature differences between night and day are much greater than what I'm used to. There is also a mystery animal that enjoys beheading my plants (but not eating them) at night. Nothing is quite as wrath inducing though as a hail shredded seedling!

Limitations on what I can grow bothers me the most. It used to be not knowing that bothered me, but I'm getting pretty good at handling it up here. Now, I'm just ticked that I can't have camelias or rhododendrons or a giant dogwood...Nandina domestica...Figs! Ohh, an orange! I miss having oranges, lemons, grapefruits straight from the trees in the yard. But, I DO like what I CAN grow and I do like the idea of a challenge.

And, it IS a challenge.

I'm from SE Michigan also, and in my second year of Colorado gardening. We're up at 7200 feet, and my longterm project is restoring the wildflower prairie that was sacrificed to our house construction. In Michigan, I did just the bare minimum to be respectable; I had no time, energy, or desire to immerse myself in suburban gardening perfectionism. Here I love working with Nature, not against it, and honestly enjoy learning about the challenges of this very different gardening environment. The deer are my biggest frustration, but I'm slowly learning how to deal with them. As someone who has visited Colorado dozens of times over the years in all seasons, let me assure you that this spring's weather is NOT typical. Colorado certainly has more than it's share of high winds, but seven consecutive days of rain, hail, and tornadoes is virtually unheard of. We'll all be missing this rain when the usual low-to-moderate drought conditions return.

I'm in the foothills @ 6800'. It's always a critter! Voles, mice, deer, pocket gophers, chipmunks and burrowing squirrels. Then the june grass invades everything, even punctures the iris rhyzomes. I may have success for 4 years straight with a few perenniels, then the next year they don't come back.....? I'm starting to like single petalled roses, which I USED to hate....lol I'm starting to garden in clay pots more often than not, since it's a more controlled environment.....lol I'm starting to enjoy planting annual flower seeds since they bloom well into October when everything else with any sense has gone dormant....lol