BALES CUSTOM GARDENING · DENVER, CO
That is how I have always seen it. Since 2004, my crew and I have tended perennial and shrub beds across the Denver metro — and we treat every yard like it is our own. I am Amy Bales, a Certified Colorado Gardener through CSU's Master Gardener Program, and this page is a mosaic of what we do, when we do it, and what it costs.
SINCE
Twenty-two seasons of Denver gardens. My husband Clint joined the crew in 2006; today we are a team of garden professionals who share our love of plants and the Colorado outdoors.
CREDENTIAL
Via Colorado State University's Master Gardener Program, with deep working knowledge of Zone 5 perennial and shrub material.
PHILOSOPHY
Compost, mulch, and hand work before chemicals. Healthy soil does most of the pest control for you — and every lush bed starts underground.
WORD OF MOUTH
No print ads, no gimmicks. A typical client relationship lasts about seven years — and most of our original 2004 clients are still with us.
01
Our core discipline: routine bed maintenance March through November — deadheading, dividing overgrown clumps, hand weeding, edging, and keeping every planting reading clean and intentional. We learn each bed's personality and adjust the care to the plants, not the calendar.
02
New perennial and shrub installations chosen for Colorado's real conditions: freeze-thaw springs, intense sun, clay soils, the occasional June hailstorm. Designed in layered color so the bed carries interest from the first crocus to the last aster.
03
Garden plans, installs, and organic food-crop management. Raised beds, in-ground rows, succession planting timed to Denver's short season — soil prep, planting calendar, and weekly tending handled. You handle the harvest basket.
04
The bookends of the season. Spring: cut back winter damage, wake the beds, refresh edges. Fall: leaf removal, perennial cutbacks, compost top-dressing, beds put properly to rest. The visits that make the whole year easier.
05
Mulching and composting to feed the soil biology that feeds your plants. Plus seasonal container designs for porches and patios — the same color-layering eye, in miniature. Our containers took first place in Zone 4 Magazine's annual contest.
NOT SURE WHERE TO START?
Every project begins with a walk-through: we look at every bed together and talk about what you want. Then a written scope in plain language — what, when, and what it costs.
CALL (555) 010-2030THE WORKING YEAR
March–May · Spring awakening. Cut back winter growth, divide crowded perennials, re-cut edges, first mulch pass. Veggie plans drawn, raised beds built, soil amended. Denver springs give us three or four good workdays a week if we are lucky — we schedule honestly around the sky.
June–August · High summer stewardship. Deadheading to stretch bloom, hand weeding before seed sets, shrub shaping, irrigation watch. Food crops get weekly management: trellising, succession sowing, organic pest scouting. The garden looks effortless; the effort is ours.
September–November · The cutback. Leaf cleanups, perennial cutbacks, compost top-dressing, winter protection for tender plants. A garden that sleeps clean wakes strong. We finish when the snow tells us to.
SAMPLE PRICING
GOOD QUESTIONS
The Denver metro area. We have scaled our service area as the metro grew — ask about yours and we will give a straight answer.
Both — bed care is our core, and we design and install Zone 5 plantings, veggie gardens, and containers.
Roughly March through November, weather permitting.
Food crops are managed organically; everywhere else we favor compost, mulch, and hand work.
CONTACT
Call, write, or text — in person, phone, email, whatever you are most comfortable with.
WRITE TO USTHE OWNER, BRIEFLY
Moved to Denver from Kansas in 2000, started this company in 2004 from a third-floor condo with a car full of tools. Business degree, poet, band member — and a gardener who still believes the best advertising is showing up when you say you will.