August 10, 2026
Horticulturist Mike Kintgen‘s home garden was on the Open Days Tour back in June. I’d had the pleasure of seeing Mike’s garden a couple years ago, and it was great to visit again. He’s added a ribbon-like crevice garden in his front lawn — a crevice design unlike any I’ve seen.
Look at it snaking its way through buffalograss turf, studded with little bouquets of flowers.
Mike’s foundation bed is atypical of most suburban homes. Bermed up, it’s packed with strappy yucca spheres, grassy texture, tall salvias (S. ringens?) that harmonize with the house color, and mats of low creepers.
A closer look
Those yuccas! I love them mingling with small conifers. (Taking notes for my future garden…)
Salvia and yucca
One more
Sulphur buckwheat showing off sunset hues
Doll house yuccas and euphorbia on the left
Around the corner, a sinewy old juniper adds a sense of age to the garden.
Jerusalem sage glows against a dark green conifer.
Here’s the wider view.
Flowering broom is a green mound frosted with golden yellow.
There’s Mike in his trademark cowboy hat in the background.
Yarrow and yucca
A massive I’ll-poke-yer-eyes-out yucca (not the official name) guards the gate into the back garden.
On the back patio, Mike arranges pots of tender agaves and other succulents for a spiky summer display. He hauls them all into his basement for the winter, which must be quite a job.
Larkspur adds seasonal color — still going in June here in Colorado.
Mike keeps a small lawn in back, generously bordered by a screening mix of trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Hypertufa pots of alpine plants add accents along the shady path.
Back here, a drooping conifer makes a green arch…
…and a silvery pine shines in the dappled light.
The tree-lined path may be my favorite part of Mike’s garden. It’s like a secret garden…
…with treasures to discover along the way.
Plus the shade is nice on a hot summer day.
Caper spurge
Rose campion and yucca, another inspiring combo
Up next: The garden of Denver’s most well-known plant explorer, Panayoti Kelaidis. For a look back at Steve Aegerter’s flowering dry garden, click here.
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