Betty Cahill

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region. Visit her site at for even more gardening tips.

Independent garden centers and most stores will gladly wrap temperature-sensitive bouquets and plants using cellophane and paper (ask them to kindly double the paper). (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Tips on preserving your poinsettias, Christmas cacti and other holiday greenery

December 6, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

When entering a garden center or grocery store this time of year, there's more green, white and red staring you in the face than at an Italian flag factory.

Cranberries grow in a healthy section of a cranberry bog at Spring Rain Farm in Taunton, Mass., on Sept. 11, 2022. Cranberry farmers are on the front lines of climate change. Their crop, the cranberries, fruits which are part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, require just the right amounts of heat and cold to prosper. (Joseph Prezioso. AFP/Getty Images)

Here’s why cranberries are more than just a Thanksgiving side dish

November 14, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

Today, five states grow the most cranberries: Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington.

Collect all the milky-looking fallen leaves with powdery mildew so spores don鈥檛 hang around over the winter. Toss them in the trash. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Here’s how to put your Colorado garden to bed for the winter

November 6, 2023 at 6:53 a.m.

Mid to late fall is a great time to directly seed outdoors native wildflowers, ornamental grasses and certain perennials that require outdoor cold temperatures and moisture.

Yellow, gold and orange leaves are fairly consistent from year to year due to other pigments (specifically carotenoid) that hang around in leaves despite the weather. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Fall colors: Here’s the science behind the reds, golds and oranges

September 1, 2026 at 8:53 p.m.

Reach back and recall your grade-school days and the simple science behind deciduous tree leaves changing color every fall.

Use the removed soil and cover the bulbs with a light layer. Then place wire or plastic mesh fencing over the soil so squirrels can't get to the bulbs. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Here’s how to plant a tulip garden 鈥� and keep the squirrels away

October 10, 2023 at 12:07 p.m.

My new tested "out squirrel them" system of planting a spring tulip-cutting garden has worked out well over recent seasons.

Planning a well-stocked freezer and pantry of home-grown fruits and vegetables means some work now, but oh how happy you鈥檒l be enjoying home-preserved peaches, herbs or tomatoes later when a foot of snow arrives and you don鈥檛 have to drive to the store. (Getty Images)

Gardening: How to preserve your late-summer harvest in Colorado

September 12, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

Even though summer heat is slowly fading, we won鈥檛 easily forget this past spring and summer, which brought abundant moisture along with hail, tornadoes and plant havoc. The good news...

Remove the old blooms of spring and early summer perennials allowing for another flush of blooms in a few weeks, like on this salvia. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Prepare for fall in Colorado with your August garden to-do list

August 8, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

The long month of August is the perfect time to focus on keeping the garden in tip-top shape heading into fall, one of the best seasons of the year in...

Biocontrol Winsome Fly lays eggs on adult Japanese beetles and uses the beetle to develop which kills the pest beetle. Provided by Whitney Cranshaw

There is hope in the battle against Japanese beetles in Colorado

August 2, 2023 at 9:44 a.m.

Anyone who has battled Japanese beetles to prevent plant carnage knows the amount of work and dollars it takes to manage them every summer.

Cut off the garlic scapes on hardneck garlic cultivars a couple of weeks before harvest to promote larger bulb growth. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

How to grow your own garlic — and why it matters

July 14, 2023 at 6:22 a.m.

The word is out about homegrown garlic. And the word is flavor.

Denver Gold columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha) is native to Colorado and other nearby states. It grows in many sun conditions, and is very hardy up to 9,000 feet. (Provided by Plant Select)

To conserve gardening resources, utilize Colorado native plants at home

June 20, 2023 at 6:17 a.m.

Can we ever truly go back to the original Colorado landscape before settlers arrived and built thriving cities of green spaces filled with water-thirsty grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers that...

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