By Deborah Lebow Aal Wild Ones isn’t only about native plants. Yes, plant choice is critical, but your overall gardening techniques and what you do before, during and after the planting of these native plants can have an equally large impact on your home ecosystem. So, here are our top ten tips for caring for […] Continue reading "Ecological Gardening Best Principles"
Review by Karen Vanderwall Written by Doug Tallamy in 2001, The Nature of Oaks–his homage to oaks (genus Quercus)–is a pleasure to read from cover to cover. Although I had known of the book, I assumed the book would not be very relevant to me as I now live and garden in an area where […] Continue reading "Book Review: The Nature of Oaks"
By Kristine Johnson with assistance and photos from Theodore Johnson Mencimer Why Install a Rain Garden Last year, I wrote about the “why” of rainwater harvesting, and Pam Sherman reviewed Brad Lancaster’s well-known books on rainwater harvesting. Brad is very much the “how.” I also mentioned rain gardening in my article on multi-stem trees–which should […] Continue reading "Rain Gardening: Thinking About Next Steps"
One Colorado Newbie’s Experience Article and Photos by Karen Vanderwall This is the first in a series of articles focusing on the experiences of members creating a native garden from the beginning. When we first moved to Fort Collins three years ago, we came with the knowledge that water was a precious resource here. We […] Continue reading "Starting a Native Garden from Scratch"
Question: Is there a list of Colorado keystone species? And, what do you think of the concept of Keystone species? Many organizations have developed lists of keystone species for Colorado and the wider region. Perhaps one of the most thorough (and most flexible, because it is focused on the genus level) is from the National Wildlife […] Continue reading "Ask CSU Extension Anything: Colorado Keystone Species"
By Jonathan Sciarcon* A fellow Wild Ones Front Range Board member asked me to write an article for this month’s newsletter on “damn yellow composites” with the request that I make it funny. While I appreciate her belief that I can write comedically, the truth is that I was not even aware of the term […] Continue reading "Learn to Love Yellow Composites"
By Jan Midgley In dry lands with few woody plants, grasses are the foundation of the landscape both functionally and aesthetically. But why should we include them in public and private designed landscapes? The small, wind-pollinated flowers are not as showy as the flowers of forbs (flowering herbaceous plants that are not a graminoid – […] Continue reading "Grasses are the Foundation"
Asclepias tuberosa By Karen Vanderwall Most gardeners and many lovers of the outdoors are familiar with milkweeds. Showy milkweed, our most common native here in Colorado, is tall with clusters of pink flowers. Or perhaps you’ve noticed the orange flowers of the less common more compact milkweed, the native butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa. Most milkweeds […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Butterfly Weed"
Compiled by Deb Lebow Aal Recently, I asked a few of our more active members what they wish they had done differently when starting out with their Colorado native plant gardens. And, I got an earful! Here’s hoping that this will help you out along your journey to Coloradoscaping your yard. Mary said what I […] Continue reading "Things I Wish I Hadn’t Done When Planting My Native Plant Garden"
By Karen Vanderwall Popping into a local nursery one day a few years ago, a very interesting tall ornamental grass caught my eye. With closer inspection I noticed that the seed heads resembled blond eyelashes – it was spectacular! The grass was ‘Blond Ambition’, a specific cultivar of blue grama grass*. Upon further reading I […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Blue Grama Grass"