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 "Book Review: The Crevice Garden"
By Virginia Phillips [Note: Virginia was a speaker for one of our webinars this past fall on this project.] A year or so ago, it struck me that I lived in one of the best places in the world, but my yard was full of plant species not from this place. Was I really saying […] Continue reading "My Coloradoscape DIY Project"
By Deb Lebow Aal In these semi-arid parts, at least half the year your garden will not be green. It will be brown, and red, and maybe yellow, and it can be gorgeous. The beauty of a winter garden can be in its structure, but also in its color. You just have to pay a […] Continue reading "Give Your Colorado Native Plant Garden Winter Interest"
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: In a drought with significant wind erosion, are there any strategies […] Continue reading "What Drought Tolerant Plant Species Can Help Prevent Wind Erosion and Rebuild the Soil?"