June 23, 2026
The final garden from the Pueblo Open Days Tour two weeks ago was the Midway Xeric Garden. As soon as I drove into “The Blocks” neighborhood in historic Pueblo, I knew this would be my favorite kind of garden — an artist’s garden.
One of the old brick houses on the street was colorfully mural painted, and there were recycled-art sculptures in a little neighborhood park. Lots of creativity and unconventional design on display!
In the street garden, an agave was flowering, its Dr. Seussian bloom spike imprinted on the sidewalk in the noonday light.
Agave flower opening
Another agave had already completed its bloom cycle and died, as they do. It was left standing as natural sculpture.
Colorful horned poppy was flowering in a rocky crevice, oblivious to the midday heat.
A potted golden barrel cactus was soaking up the sun too.
The owner is clearly a cactus lover.
Who else was soaking up the sun? This stripey lizard, which my daughter got to pose for a photo. We saw many lizards in this rocky garden.
Sorry for the harsh light; a noontime garden visit under the Colorado sun is a challenge for photography. But I hope you’ll be able to see the fun eclecticism of this garden, which sits atop a rocky bluff. Distant views are framed by a swing arbor and concrete portal. If you peek over the cliff edge, you see treetops and a commercial strip below.
The portal caught my eye first. Concrete pillars uphold a row of colorfully tiled numbers: 4.66920160910. I asked the owner, Bobby, its significance. “Google it,” he said with a smile. A quick Google search brought up math-y jibberish about Feigenbaum constants. Uh oh, was this a pop quiz I hadn’t studied for?
Bobby, who’d studied physics, explained it has to do with chaos theory, which has always appealed to him. If I remember right, the number is a universal mathematical constant that measures the rate at which a system transitions from order to chaos.
Gus taking it all in
All right — it makes sense to recognize chaos and call it out. After all, gardeners experience chaos on a daily basis, don’t we? We’re always trying to create a sense of order while nature keeps working to turn it all wild again.
With visions of Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park in my head, I explored on, enjoying pots balanced on pillars (one moment of chaos away from destruction)…
…plants popping up along stratified concrete walls…
…this gorgeous agave and its shadow…
…and potted cacti everywhere.
Bobby makes his own hardscaping, including concrete walls, a shed, the portal, and tinted patio pavers in his garden. In fact, there was a concrete mixer at the ready. But this blue patio with painted numbers is upcycled concrete from a swimming pool, he told me. How fun is that?
A sky-blue pot with a cactus perches on a delicate pillar at one end.
Flowering cactus
A melty totem pole cactus
Then I spotted Bobby’s greenhouse — wow! Prickly pears the size of baby giraffes were pushing against the windows as if searching for an escape hatch.
Inside, a rubbly wall of broken concrete hosts crevice-loving plants like agave, cactus, and other succulents. Triangular metal roofing provides shade. Bobby says he can completely winterize the structure to keep tender plants happy during the cold months.
Plants basking along the window like cats
Grapes dangle at the the doorway.
Outside, another agave was coming into flower.
Along one side of the garden, stairs lead down to the street below. Bobby constructed walls and terracing of tinted concrete and gabion to support the garden’s edge and extend it down into the cliffside.
A dizzying view of a tinted-concrete path down the hillside garden.
Pueblo brick
Bobby upcycled broken concrete slabs into a “stone” wall studded with succulents — an Anthropocene hanging garden. Artistic gardeners excel at turning found objects, like waste concrete, into something new and interesting. They just see things differently.
Touring such gardens gives all of us permission to recycle and repurpose too. And to let plants find their own way, even if it’s a little bit chaotic.
This ends my coverage of the Pueblo Open Days Tour. For a look back at the pollinator-friendly Sage Queen Garden, click here.
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