FRIENDS SITES >>>
Alfresco
art is the city's grace Enjoy art outside, from Dale Chihuly's glorious and sometimes
gloppy glass at New York Botanical Garden to an eccentric 'Corner Plot' near Central
Park
Bar
is denied license for a beer garden
Busch
Gardens to detail new attraction on Wed
Citizens sue over approval of 606 homes in Garden Valley Group says Boise County
Commission called a private session on Southfork Landing without following law
Commissioner's
idea makes Lake Tobesofkee home to butterfly garden
Enjoy
rhythm and blues at Botanical Garden
Garden
oasis opens at Arlington Memorial
Garden
of youth Middle schoolers' summer project is a part of a national trend that lets
students learn how to grow, distribute and enjoy organic food
GARDEN
STEPPINGSTONES
Hillside
garden a labor of love
On
the grounds New gardens, old buildings will greet 2006 Fair visitors
Plant
a rain garden
Retail
'village' rises in Winter Garden
Time
to give your garden a late-summer pick-me-up
Water,
water everywhere Going away Planning will keep your garden green
On
the grounds New gardens, old buildings will greet 2006 Fair visitors
Some of what's new on the grounds of the Colorado State Fair is nearly
a century old.
There are new demonstration garden beds behind the Gallery
of Fine Arts, which Fairgoers can see on visits to this year's Fair, Aug. 25-Sept.
4. The beds are near the Arroyo Avenue gate.
There's a plan to plant new
trees, some of which will replace ones inadvertently killed during storm- and
sanitary-sewer renovation at the Fair.
And there's the move to get the Fairgrounds listed on the state
register of historic places and have a large portion of it declared a historic
district.
Preliminary work on the historic designation already has been
done, and Joe Dean, facilities services director for the Fair, hopes the designation
will come in early 2007 n in time to apply for grants made by the Colorado Historical
Society's State Historical Fund in April. A historic register listing is necessary
in order for a project to receive "brick and mortar" dollars, and Dean
said, "There's quite a bit of work to be done out here."
Many
of the Fairgrounds' flower gardens are contracted out to a local firm, Sunshine
Plantscaping, and have been for years, but the large planters behind the Gallery
of Fine Arts have been planted in perennials and annuals in a joint project between
the Fair and Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.
Colorado Master
Gardeners and 4-H members have filled the demonstration garden beds with columbines,
echinacea, cotoneaster, salvia, grasses, cinquefoil, yarrow, lavender and other
plants. The beds were constructed last year under supervision of the Fair's maintenance
staff, which also helped excavate and amend the soil, brought water to the site
and installed irrigation hoses.
All of the plants in the beds thrive in
full sun, have low water needs once established, and tolerate the intense heat
in that area of the Fairgrounds, according to Linda McMulkin, local horticulture
agent for CSU Extension. Many are recommended by Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy
District.
Master gardeners have acted as gardening mentors to the 4-H youths,
and the 4-H Horticulture Club was formed in January. Youths and adults have studied
botany, soils, irrigation, plant characteristics and landscape design in the club
and put their knowledge to work at the Fairgrounds.
CSU Extension received
a grant from the Colorado Home and Garden Show to help fund the installation.
Many
of the old trees at the Fairgrounds have been trimmed during the past few years
by Fair maintenance staff, and Dean said he hopes to start putting in new trees
this fall to replace ones lost to the drought and accidental root damage from
the sewer project.
"Big trees take a long time to grow," he said.
"In some areas, I'd like to put full-size trees in. When it's blazing hot,
our trees are a very valuable resource."
He estimates that some of
the trees are 70 years old or older, and some might even approach the century
mark.
Dean shows a photo taken early in the 20th century at the Fairgrounds,
outside a shelter he thinks was converted into the Cultural Heritage Building.
In it, American Indians are showing their rugs, and trees are growing in roughly
the same places as today.
That building is the oldest on the grounds, possibly
dating to 1915.
In 2005, the Fair received a $54,000 grant from the State
Historical Fund n matched by money from the city of Pueblo n to develop a preservation
master plan; part of the plan's scope is the preparation of a nomination for state
register status as a historic district.
In November, the national and state
historic register review board will come to Pueblo and tour the Fairgrounds.
Not
just the age of the buildings but the regional significance and use of the buildings
is considered when naming a property to the historic register, Dean said.
The
Fairgrounds contains 54 buildings. Nine were constructed during the 1920s, nine
more buildings and a long section of the exterior wall were built in the 1930s
as WPA projects, and eight are from the 1940s. Others are more modern. Most of
the New Deal-funded buildings were constructed of locally quarried limestone,
by unskilled workers instructed by a stone mason, which allowed the men to learn
on the job. While the buildings don't show fine craftsmanship, they are representative
of federal government work programs of that era and are significant for that reason,
according to a draft of the historical summary that will be submitted to the State
Historical Fund.
The Colorado State Fair was established in 1872 and has
been at its present location since 1901.
