Boulder County

Pumpkins at the mouth of the St. Vrain canyons

Lyons gets more wind, earlier freezes and more bear traffic than anywhere in the metro, so we plan the display around all three. The fruit turns up whole and uncarved, and the display is built on site.

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A Colorado porch pumpkin display running the length of a front walk near Lyons.

The wind that comes out of the canyon

Lyons sits where two canyons open onto the plains, and the air that comes down them in autumn is the single biggest factor in how we build here. Downslope wind off the St. Vrain drainages can go from still to violent within an hour, and it does not behave like metro wind. It arrives from one direction, hard, and it keeps at it. So a Lyons display is built low, weighted and staked from the start. Nothing tall stands unless it is anchored into ground rather than propped against the house, mum pots go in the lee of a wall or a hay bale, and we avoid arrangements that present a flat face to the west. Even then, a big blow will move things. Wind damage brings us back out to re-stake, and in Lyons we expect it to.

Sandstone porches and flagstone walks

Lyons is a sandstone town and it shows on the ground. Flagstone walks, stone steps, low stone walls and porches with a stone face are all over the older part of town. Stone is a good surface for us. It is flat, it drains, and a pumpkin sitting on dry stone lasts far longer than one on wet grass. It is also cold. Once the nights drop below freezing here, and they do that earlier than in Denver, stone holds that cold all morning and the underside of the fruit takes it. On stone entries we raise the larger pumpkins onto a bale or onto wood, and we keep the group off the coldest north facing stone where we can. Uneven flagstone also means we bed each piece so it seats flat rather than rocking.

Bears, and where the display goes

Black bears are genuinely active around Lyons through our whole season, and they are working hard on food in September and October. Pumpkins are food. A group of them on an open porch beside a door is an invitation, and a bear that finds it will come back. So placement matters more here than it does on the plains. Often the answer is to move the display away from the door, off a deck and onto a walk or a drive, where a visit means picking things up rather than repairing a rail. Sometimes it is a smaller group in a more open spot. Tell us about your frontage in the notes box when you book and we will build it that way. We would rather say this honestly up front than put something where it gets pulled apart in the first week.

A season that ends earlier up here

Our season is mid August to 31 October everywhere, but Lyons uses less of it than the metro does. The first hard freeze arrives earlier here than it does in Denver, and a frozen pumpkin does not recover. It softens, then it collapses. That is worth planning for. If you want the display looking its best at the end of October, a later delivery is usually the better choice in Lyons, and it is worth picking your week with that in mind. Early snow is the other thing. It reaches the canyon mouth before it reaches the plains, and it flattens an arrangement. Message us and we will come out and re-stage it. The display is yours from the moment it is built.

Questions from Lyons

Will a bear get into the pumpkins?

It is possible and we will not pretend otherwise. Bears are active around Lyons right through our season and pumpkins read as food to them. We place it to reduce the risk, usually away from doors and off decks, but nobody can guarantee a display will be left alone.

Do I pay extra for delivery in Lyons?

No. Lyons is Boulder County, so delivery is included in the package price, the same as Boulder or Louisville. What does vary here is the site itself: access, wind exposure and bear risk change hugely from one Lyons address to the next, and a plan that works on one street is wrong two streets away. Tell us about your frontage in the notes box when you book and we will build to it.

When should I have it delivered in Lyons?

Later than you would in Denver, if you want it looking good on 31 October. Hard freezes arrive earlier at the canyon mouth, and once fruit has frozen through it goes soft rather than bouncing back. Many Lyons customers pick late September or early October instead of August.