
Mountain classic
It’s hard to improve on a heavenly setting like Beaver Creek, in Colorado’s Vail Valley. Yet here in the high country ― at an elevation of 7,800 feet ― gardening is a daunting challenge: Snow may fall as late as June and as early as August, summer temperatures swing from 40° to 90° in a single day, the slopes are steep, and hungry deer and elk graze on plants. For almost 25 years, landscape designer Glen Ellison has been taming the wilds of Vail Valley to create gardens inspired by nature.
Kaye and Cheri Pearson’s backyard, for instance, rises steeply up-slope. Ellison altered the grade by cutting and filling in places to create horizontal terraces and extend gardening space. Elsewhere, he designed a watercourse that rivals an alpine stream. “People who have to work with flatter sites have a difficult time making a water feature seem to occur naturally,” says Ellison. Beginning about 16 feet above the sight line, the recirculating water feature includes cascades and pools that add sound and motion as well as a tranquil mood.
The garden’s northeastern exposure provides enough sunlight to support vibrant flowering perennials. A stacked-stone stairway leads to a patch of grass just big enough for two people to enjoy the vista.