How To Make A Mudhead For The Garden

Asked February 03, 2019, 5:53 PM EST

I'm obsessed with the idea of doing a tasteful, smaller, mudhead in my back lawn - it would get full sun however and be poorly irrigated. Can you suggest colorado-based grasses and succulents that would work on a thing like that? Are there any in the Denver area already going strong from which I could draw inspiration? (I'm considering using a freecycle Dog-igloo as a base, to give you an idea of size._

Jefferson County Colorado

Expert Response

Hello!
What a fun idea, but new to me. Let me do some research and get back to you. Besides full sun, what can you tell me about the site?

Elevation
Surrounding landscaping and irrigation

Best regards,

HI! I'm glad you like the idea!
The spot I'm considering would be FULL, RELENTLESS sun. :) Our home is near Kipling and Bowles and our altitude is roughly 5,700+/-
Irrigation would be mostly rainfall, as I'm not sure we can train our in-lawn sprinklers that high. HOWEVER we are considering a drip-system for some raised beds later on (not built yet either) so perhaps we could invent some kind of solution that way too.
Ideally we'd have lots of native plants, rugged and "thrive on neglect" sorts of things. shorter grasses will be sought for his "hair" but for his face I'm open to suggestion as I know moss not an option. Thinking of making the face "beardy" too, so succulents or cactuses that have a tangled and full look, OR thymes that grow tight to the soil, are all considerations.
Looking forward to your direction and expertise! Hoping to record the building of this guy carefully, so as to share with you our progress and final product!

Hello,

My research hasn't turned up any research-based descriptions of the construction process for mud-heads, or any examples in the Denver area, unfortunately. Lots on Pinterest, for sure. Here are my thoughts:

I suggest using a mound of well-draining soil, rather than the Dog-Igloo for the base. Although the igloo would have a good shape and create instant support, here are some negatives that I can think of:

The hard plastic Igloo would form what we call a 'soil texture interface', where any water applied to the soil overlaying it would soon reach the hard surface of the igloo and then run off of it (like water runoff from a roof) and soak the ground around the base. Plants in the soil covering the igloo would have only short access to water.
Depending on how long you want the mudhead to last, the igloo could be a point of failure due to deterioration from heat/cold fluctuations.

Use well-draining soil (not sand) that has about 5% organic matter. There is a CSU Soil Testing service that you can use ($35) to check the characteristics of the soil. http://www.soiltestinglab.colostate.edu/ Collecting jars/instructions are available (free) at the Jeffco Extension Office.

Your choice to focus on xeric plants is a good one, using native plants & adapted plants (e.g., Plant Select). In addition to sedums, consider ice plants, Greek yarrow, pineleaf penstemons, Draba, veronicas, eriogonums, and evergreens like Candytuft. Here are good plant list resources from CSU.

Xeriscaping: Ground Cover Plants - https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07230.pdf
Rock Garden Plants: https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07401.pdf
Native Herbaceous Perennials: https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07242.pdf
Native Grasses: http://cmg.colostate.edu/Gardennotes/581.pdf

See especially Buffalo grass and Blue Grama grass
Use the Plant Finder tool at www.plantselect.org and look through the Plant Select Petites http://www.plantselectpetites.org/

Consider building a crevice garden on a small scale in the shape of the mud-head. Denver Botanic Gardens has examples of this on a large scale in the 'Steppes" exhibit. The crevice gardens are built by placing slabs of rock vertically in sequence, then filling with a well-drained soil, and planting between the slabs. Little/no supplemental water needed after establishment.

Blog article on Crevice Garden: http://kentonjseth.blogspot.com/2013/07/crevice-garden-crazy.html
Designing a Rock Garden: http://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/design/1115-designing-rock-garden/
Mike Kintgen (DBG) article for design inspiration, not the plants listed (need shade) https://www.botanicgardens.org/blog/april-walking-tour-rock-alpine-garden

Mike has constructed many crevice gardens and will be presenting at the conference below.

Landscaping with Native Plants Conference THIS WEEKEND 2/16: https://landscapingwithcoloradonativeplants.wordpress.com/registation/

Lots of information! Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with followup questions. Best regards,

You've answered my dreams! Thank you so much!