Winter Storm

Longmont had a winter storm running Sunday evening through Tuesday. It looks like an official 10.8" of snow. Just what we need to convince us to move here! I suppose the good news is that in the past 25 years in Longmont there have only been 15 total snows of 10+", and it will be sunny and in the 40s in a couple of days. Sharon and I shoveled yesterday and today, only a couple of inches yesterday but at least 8" today! We are happy it is light weight snow. One issue here with a big snow is that residential streets do not get plowed. The main arterials are plowed and what they determine to be residential feeder streets but not the rest. I believe I can get around in the Volvo but if I were driving the Miata in this I wouldn't get anywhere - snow tires or no. I would simply plow snow in front of me until I stopped.

I've been using the down time the past two days to research landscape companies in Longmont. We will need to hire someone to take care of our back yard. My requirements as I have been sending to landscape companies:

We are buying a new home at 1527 Otis Dr. in Longmont. It is in Shadow Grass Park and sits on a small lot backing to a greenway. We are looking for a low/no maintenance landscaping plan. We know that we want to extend the patio area with flagstones or somethingsimilar.

We want low height evergreens at the back of the yard - mugo pine or similar. We would like medium height evergreens on the south side of the house to provide a visual break between our dining room and patio and the house to the south. And, perhaps a medium evergreen on the north west corner of the lot. We are thinking pines rather than deciduous trees for maintenance reasons but would be open to medium height trees at the back and north if they will stay below the second floor views. 

We envision lots of stone, perhaps with walkways on the sides of the house. There will be no grass on the rear and sides – we don’t want to deal with grass. There is sod in the front and partially down the sides and this is maintained by the HOA.

We do want some small raised planters on the rear for small garden. Perhaps a total of 8 to 12 feet in total length. Drip irrigation is required for all plantings and in the raised beds.

We are coming from the Chicago area and do not know what does well here. But I would want any plantings to require minimal water and care. Xeriscape with natives. We call our desires Zeroscaping. We want to enjoy our patio and back yard but not have to be concerned with routine maintenance.

I just had a new experience. I said goodbye to Sharon, put on my coat, hat, and gloves and got in the Volvo to drive to the store. I backed out of the driveway and into the portion of the street where we shoveled, put the car in Winter mode and started out only to soon bog down. I tried several times and couldn't make it more than twenty feet or so, The snow was too deep for the Volvo and so soft I couldn't get on top of it. I pulled back into the garage and took a look at where I attempted to drive. There was a flat area in the snow where I had flattened the snow with the bottom of the car. We are stuck here until enough vehicles drive over the snow to pack it down.