By Kristine Johnson Imagine a native plant garden. What do you see? Most of us picture colorful and attractive flowers, mostly of a certain shape and a certain height, but growing native plants is so much more than that. This article will encourage you to think a little outside the box to consider different types […] Continue reading "Overlooked Native Plants"
Review by Karen Vanderwall Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake Fungi are their own kingdom, the highest category in the classification system for all living things on Earth. There are only 6 kingdoms: animals, plants, fungi, and three that are mostly single-celled organisms. Taking […] Continue reading "Book Review: Entangled Life"
by Karen Vanderwall People living along the Front Range are becoming more aware that conserving water and establishing native habitats is vital to managing our regional drought and supporting local pollinators. The City of Fort Collins is innovating and leading, locally and nationally, by weaving together the built environment and natural ecosystems. Driven by community funding […] Continue reading "The Nature of Fort Collins"
By Deborah Lebow Aal* I bet you’ve made some design mistakes with your native plants. I certainly have. I’ve put a red flower next to another clashing red flower, a tall flower in front of a short, and much worse. So silly. So, I asked a few very active Wild Ones Front Range Chapter folks […] Continue reading "Favorite Native Plant Combinations"
Linum lewisii By Karen Vanderwall With their many electric periwinkle blue flowers, blooming prolifically from late spring through summer, blue flax (Linum lewisii) is a native garden must have. Blue flexor Lewis flax can be described as dainty or airy or even delicate; its stems coming together into a vase shape with spaced small narrow […] Continue reading "Plant Stories: Blue Flax"
The absolute key to getting the public (including our spouses, municipalities, and skeptical neighbors) to accept and appreciate ecological landscaping by Kenton Seth Colleagues and mentors have all made passing comments—usually in the parking lot after a breakfast meetup, or later at night after a few glasses of wine—that there is a trick to making landscape designs […] Continue reading "Cues To Care"
By Kristine Johnson Much as we experience the seasonal rhythms of weather during the calendar year, there are similar patterns in our propagation activity within Wild Ones Front Range. We track day length, temperature, precipitation and plant life-cycle timing. It can be helpful to explicitly name and describe the activities in our propagation season to […] Continue reading "The Propagation Season"
By Deborah Lebow Aal Yes, I am going to write about the pounds you put on this winter (wait, did we have winter?). No, I am not. Winterfat, Ceratoides lanata or Krascheninnikovia lanata, also known as white sage, lamb’s tail, and sweet or winter sage, is an underused native plant in Colorado gardens. I recently […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Winterfat"
Review by Lani Rush How many stars can you see in your garden? Have you ever sat outside at dusk to watch night blooming flowers? These are just some of the questions on my mind for our members after finishing Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark by Leigh […] Continue reading "Book Review: Night Magic"
By Kristine Johnson I’ve written a series of articles for Wild Ones Front Range on precipitation harvesting, and I’ve recently interviewed Brad Lancaster, Jace Lankow and Luis Salgado–all water harvesting practitioners in Tucson, Arizona–for insights into the connections between native plant gardening and rain gardening. Look for that article in the national Wild Ones Journal […] Continue reading "Connecting Native Plant Gardening and Rain Gardening"