Why we built the Front Range Plant Finder
Last updated 2026-06-11
We're a couple of homeowners in Denver, and the honest answer is we built this for ourselves. We were trying to plant the right trees and shrubs in our own yard and kept hitting the same wall: the advice we could find was either generic national stuff that ignores our alkaline soil, hail, wind, and late freezes, or it was locked in a PDF we couldn't search. We're still figuring our own yard out, and we still use this tool to do it.
It started with the CSU tree list
The single most useful thing we found was the CSU Front Range Tree Recommendation List, but it lived in a PDF you couldn't filter or search. So Nick built a small searchable version of it, just enough to answer our own questions, and shared it with the r/DenverGardener community in case it helped anyone else. It struck a nerve: thousands of Front Range gardeners read it, and dozens wrote in with the same problem.
So we kept going
That response is what turned a weekend project into this. We added photos, ratings, and the site factors worth weighing before you plant, then expanded well beyond trees into shrubs, groundcover, and perennials, all cross-referenced against Colorado green-industry and extension sources instead of generic plant databases. We added a 'help me pick' wizard so you can describe your yard and get matches, the way we wished we could when we started. How the data is sourced →
The next wall: finding a good landscaper
Once we knew what to plant, we hit a second wall: actually getting it done. We gathered bids for roughly the same project, and they came back anywhere from about $15,000 on the low end to over $80,000 on the high end. A little of that was materials, but not much. Mostly it came down to certain crews charging far more for approximately the same work, and from the outside it was nearly impossible to tell which was which.
We eventually picked one, and we're in the middle of the project right now. We'll share how it goes, honestly. That spread is the gap we're working on next: vetting Front Range landscapers and connecting homeowners with the ones who do solid work at a fair price. We've started with a handful, and we're adding more.
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Where this is headed
We're going to keep improving our own place, and keep helping other people improve theirs. That's how this started, and it's what we want to keep doing.
Looking for something specific? Find plants for your Front Range city, or open the full finder.