Montana: Home to the World’s Prettiest Ditches
Reason #87 that everyone and their dog is moving to Montana - it's not just the mountains and rivers that are stunningly pretty.
The simple truth is that Montana is chock full of simple, incredibly natural photo ops. (Hence the "Natural Beauty" thing.) The everyday and the mundane can be absolutely stunning. These few paragraphs are dedicated to a DITCH on the outskirts of Bozeman, Montana.
Come on...a ditch on the side of a road is this pretty? You can find scenes like this all over the state. Some are created entirely by Mother Nature and leaving the space alone, while others may have had s few perennial seeds tossed in them over the years.
(BTW - if you like random, pretty pictures from all over Montana, you might enjoy the Facebook group called MONTANA-tude!) There are also several good gardening FB groups that are dedicated solely to gardening in various forms. You certainly don't have to grow a "traditional" garden to appreciate the photos that are posted by group members. Sometimes, the less traditional and more natural, the better.
Poppies, Balsamroot, and Bitterroot can thrive in a drainage ditch setting so if you have one on your road or driveway, consider spreading some seeds in the Fall. You'll notice around Montana towns that poppies especially thrive in locations that get little to no attention.
Another good Facebook group is the aptly titled Montana Wildflowers.
There's an excellent Montana wildflower guide you can download from the USFS. It discusses native wildflower options and bees that support our ecosystems. This particular guide focuses on Western Montana but there are other guides to download for other Montana locations.