By Deb Lebow Aal Okay, it’s not the most exciting gardening article, but no doubt you have heard that mulch is important for a healthy garden. Is that true? And, mostly what we see on the Front Range is wood chip mulch. Is that the right mulch for your native plant garden? Well, it depends. […] Continue reading "Mulch for Your Colorado Native Plant Garden (Post)"
Are you delighted when you see a red, round, polka-dotted beetle crawling the stems and leaves of your garden? Not only are they darn cute but they are typically seen as beneficial insects in our native Colorado landscapes. We typically want lots of ladybugs or lady beetles (correctly, ladybird beetles) in our native plant gardens, […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Gardening: Should We Buy Ladybugs?"
Pam has recently stepped down from her role as Chair of the Propagation Committeefor other pursuits including travel to exotic places and we thought it a perfect time togive her a shout out of appreciation. For many years we received member comments and survey responses requesting morepropagation training. In 2021, Pam answered the call to […] Continue reading "Volunteer Spotlight – Pam Schulz"
By Pam Sherman Why bother with beavers? If you are living in a dry, hot climate like the Front Range plains, you may wish for any way to increase the water available to your gardening and landscaping efforts. Supporting the beavers living in your area is one important way to do this. Beavers lived here […] Continue reading "The Beaver, Masterful Water Harvester"
Wild Ones Front Range (WOFR) would not be the same without Rick Phillips’ mostlybehind the scenes help. A list of what he does is quite inadequate, as he is an “allaround handyman kind of guy.” He is the web chair, or web master for the WOFRwebsite; he is the zoom host, along with his wife, […] Continue reading "Volunteer Spotlight: Rick Phillips"
Review by Pam Sherman Brad Lancaster lives in a city which gets 11 inches of rain a year. Tucson AZ is one water-stressed city in the desert, getting its city water from the Colorado River 300 miles away. He writes: “we’d typically have more free local water than we need if we’d consciously harvest it, […] Continue reading "Book Review: Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster"
This question and answer are part of our Ask CSU Extension Anything (About Native Plants) series. We appreciate CSU Extension for answering these questions to expand our community’s knowledge of native plant landscaping. Send us your questions to the Ask CSU email account. FULL QUESTION: Can you give us a “water report?” What can we […] Continue reading "Can you give us a “water report?” What can we expect in terms of drought for front range planting, gardening and landscaping?"
By Richard Phillips In the dry steppe environment of eastern Colorado, for years we have been directed to reduce the water consumption of our landscaping by using the Xeriscaping guidelines developed and promoted by Denver Water, since the 1980s. These concepts have been so ingrained in our gardening ethic, that I see them referenced in […] Continue reading "Time for Coloradoscaping to Replace Xeriscaping"
By Jonathan Sciarcon Sedges are “grass-like plants” in that they have skinny green stems, but they are not grasses. Sedges, unlike grasses, are in the Cyperus (Cyperaceae) family, have solid, triangular stems (occasionally round). They are not jointed or hollow like grasses. When looking at the stem, you can see the leaves are in three […] Continue reading "Consider Native Sedges in Your Landscape"
The Crevice Garden:How to make the perfect home for plants from rocky placesBy Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs This gardening book is a great fit for Wild Ones Front Range Chapter–as well asgardeners elsewhere in the state and even the world. The authors hail from Fruita,Colorado and British Columbia; they have studied crevice gardening with […] Continue reading "Gardening with Native Plants Toolkit – Book Reviews"