Author: Linda Hellow

Colorado Native Plant Demonstration Gardens

You may know that Wild Ones Front Range Chapter has three demonstration projects, and one more we are “adopting.” We have also partnered with Denver Parks and Recreation on another project. They are all different, but worthy of some attention. So, we will be highlighting two of them here this month, and the other three […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Demonstration Gardens"

Colorado Native Oaks, Again!

By Deb Lebow Aal I have written an article on Gambel Oaks, and another article on why all native plants are not equal. This article combines the two, and coins the term super native plants! Oak trees are super native plants, as anyone who listened to Doug Tallamy’s talk on oaks last month knows. Doug’s […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Oaks, Again!"

Colorado Native Plant Gardening Myths

By Deb Lebow Aal I love being asked to look at people’s yards. I am not a professional landscaper, but I read gardening books like they’re novels, and from many years of gardening I know enough to give some advice. I frequently hear garden myths that I am reluctant to rebut on the spot, but […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Gardening Myths"

Colorado Native Plants in the Shade

By Deb Lebow Aal I think most people believe that shade gardening with native plants requires quite a bit of creativity, especially on the Front Range of Colorado. We do not have many native trees, so there is not much shade. It’s a given that most plants require light and water to do their thing, […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plants in the Shade"

Tricks and Tips for Your Xeriscape Garden

This article is reprinted, with permission, from Harlequin’s Gardens’ June 15, 2021 newsletter. Harlequin’s Gardens is a family nursery and garden center dedicated to natural and sustainable gardening for our region. We at Wild Ones Front Range Chapter thought the article worthy of wider circulation as we face drought and higher temperatures across the Western United […] Continue reading "Tricks and Tips for Your Xeriscape Garden"

More Native Bees Equals More Local Food

By Jody Gardiner, Wild Ones Front Range chapter member Join us in saving our bees and the world’s food supply, ONE YARD AT A TIME! Not all bees are alike. Most of us are familiar with honey bees. Less familiar to most of us are the cross-pollinating solitary (hive-less) native bees, like mason and leaf cutter bees, […] Continue reading "More Native Bees Equals More Local Food"

Colorado Native Plants in Pocket Prairies

By Deb Lebow Aal Pocket Prairie is not a new term, but if you follow many sustainable gardening websites and blogs, like I do, it is suddenly everywhere. What is the buzz about? Well, as you know, the Front Range, and much of the Midwest was prairie – short and long grass prairie. If we […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plants in Pocket Prairies"

More Thoughts on the Assisted Migration of Native Plants

By Deb Lebow Aal, inspired by a Front Range Wild Ones newsletter reader’s thoughtful response to Deb’s last article Our April 2021 edition of the Wild Ones, Front Range Chapter newsletter contained an article on Climate Change and your yard. Within that article, we discussed assisted migration of plants, given our warming climate. We gave the Chilopsis […] Continue reading "More Thoughts on the Assisted Migration of Native Plants"

Book Review: “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future” by Elizabeth Kolbert

Review by Tom Swihart If you liked Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Field Notes from a Catastrophe” or “The Sixth Extinction,” you may like her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.” Kolbert provides a number of extraordinary stories about projects to “save” nature, by intensive human efforts, from the problems created by other […] Continue reading "Book Review: “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future” by Elizabeth Kolbert"