Cord & Penn Parmenter

Upcoming Events: May 18 @ Denver Botanic Gardens

Cord and Penn Parmenter have been gardening and growing food in the Wet Mountains north of Westcliffe, Colorado, since 1992. Their three abundant gardens sit on a mountain at 8,120 ft. and feature numerous high altitude growing methods. The deer fenced gardens consist of 14,000 sq. ft of a variety of raised beds and containers. The water-storage solar greenhouse grows food year round with no supplemental heating and was built from 90% recycled materials.
Cord Parmenter is a Master Blacksmith and owns and operates The IronMan, his blacksmithing business at home on the property. Cord designs and creates custom iron – forging everything from entryways to chandeliers. His 25-year body of work is well known regionally and across the country and can be seen on the web.
Penn Parmenter has a B.A. in Theatre, focusing on acting and directing, she grew up in her family’s clay studio and makes and sells red clay garden masks and wildflower tiles as well as self-educating in horticulture for the last 17 years. Penn grows many medicinal herbs and loves to build native rock beds for her perennials.
Both Penn and Cord have practical experience in growing food. Cord loves to grow corn and pumpkins and Penn loves to grow greens and tomatoes. They live as close to a sustainable life as they can and teach and hold workshops on organic, high altitude gardening methods for their community. They also have three wonderful sons, Maximilian, Beauregard and Wulfgar, who help in the garden and in the blacksmith shop.