The sweepstakes entry period for this year’s HGTV® Dream Home 2019 in Whitefish, Montana is well underway, and I’m sure you’ve all had a chance by now to daydream and drool over the photos and videos of this modern mountain retreat. In my last post, I admired the seamless indoors to outdoors ambience of this three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath retreat and the benefits it had to offer from a gardening perspective.
If you’re an HGTV® Dream Home 2019 winner wannabe, then I’m sure you’ve thought about how setting up shop in Montana may cramp your gardening style, especially if you’re moving from more seasonably warmer digs. Whitefish Montana, to give you a frame of reference, is in hardiness zones 4a, 4b and 5a. Before you start matching plants to those hardiness zones, however, you should know that Montana is unpredictable. High altitude, Rocky Mountain gardening can mean a shorter growing season, July hail storms and August frosts. And while you may already be accustomed to deer invading your gardening space, well now you can welcome big hungry elk. These may present new challenges to you but by selecting hardy and resourceful plants that can withstand Mother Nature’s curveballs, you can continue to have a fulfilling gardening experience in Northwest Montana.
The HGTV® Dream Home 2019 in Whitefish Montana has plenty of open spaces in the front and back yard for you to express yourself as a gardener. So, what can be grown in this home situated on the edge of Glacier National Park, you ask? Seasoned Montana gardeners will tell you that the most productive vegetable crops you can grow in a cold weather climate include cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, carrots, beets, potatoes, bush green beans, sweet peas (sugar snaps), broccoli, and radishes.
Recommended groundcover options include creeping thyme, sedum, and creeping phlox. And, what about flowers? Montana State University Extension has an extensive chart of almost 50 perennial and biennial flowers that grow well including lilacs, poppies, lilies, irises, columbine, daffodils, peonies, and tulips amongst others. If you have dreamt of having an orchard, Montana won’t dash your dreams there either. There are specific cultivars of apples, pears, and plums, according to the Montana State University Extension, that will grow. As you can see, gardening in Montana should not feel limiting in the least provided you pick plants and trees that love Montana, of which there are so many. And, don’t forget, if there are plants that don’t fare well in the great outdoors of Montana, you can always consider a container planting. There are many bright spaces with natural light inside the dream home to situate plants.
And even if Montana did present you with some gardening challenges, any frustrations you may experience would quickly melt away as fast as the chocolate S’mores you would be making in the Belgard fireplace in the outdoor patio. So instead of worrying about what you’re going to plant, you should be worrying more about how you’re going to pack and transport your million and one gardening books, gadgets and tools to Montana. But, first things first, go over and submit another entry at HGTV for your chance to win the HGTV Dream Home 2019 in Whitefish. You got to be in it for your chance win it!
No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the U.S., age 21 or older. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes ends at 5 p.m. ET on 2/18/19. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. For full official rules, prize disclosures, and to enter, visit www.HGTV.com. Main Sponsor: Scripps Networks, LLC d/b/a Home & Garden Television 9721 Sherrill Boulevard, Knoxville, Tennessee 37932. HGTV, HGTV Dream Home, HGTV Dream Home Giveaway and their associated logos are trademarks of Scripps Networks, LLC. Used with permission; all rights reserved.
