By Deb Lebow Aal Are there things you can be doing in your landscape that make a difference – a significant difference – to climate change? Well, yes. I first want to state that I am no scientist. I am just a layperson who wanted to know the answer to this question, and to the next […] Continue reading "Climate Change and Your Colorado Yard"
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"
By Deb Lebow Aal There are a myriad of reasons to get rid of turf grass such as the ubiquitous Kentucky Blue Grass lawn on the Front Range, not the least of which is the amount of water it takes to keep it looking green. Why we have as much turf grass (I’ll use the term turf grass or […] Continue reading "Using Native Grasses for a Lawn"
By Jan Midgley Also known as Prairie Sagebrush or Fringed Sage, the soft mounding mat of silvery gray green foliage typical of Artemisia frigida is an excellent matrix for a garden bed of native grasses and forbs. This is a sensory plant: soft to the touch, sweet smelling, edible and visually soft and soothing. It is an excellent […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Focus: Artemisia frigida"
by Deborah Lebow Aal You are right. There aren’t many native trees on the Front Range. I wrote an article on Native Trees for the Colorado Front Range a few years ago, but since we have so many new members, and since it is perhaps the most common question I get (What trees do you recommend?), we will […] Continue reading "Gamble on a Gambel Oak and Some Other Colorado Native Trees for the Front Range"
By Jan Midgely In nature, seeds from Colorado plants undergo large daily temperature swings over winter. Seeds of some species require a cold moist treatment (stratification) to germinate. Others do not, but will tolerate the cold. Temperature swings outdoors are quite different from a cold moist treatment in a refrigerator at a constant 38-40 ̊ […] Continue reading "Outdoor Colorado Native Seed Stratification"
by Deb Lebow Aal January 2020, a year ago, which, yes, seems like ten years ago, the feature article for the Wild Ones Front Range Chapter newsletter was “A Call to Action,” asking what we have done, or will do, to inspire and empower people to garden in an environmentally-sound way. This is a check-in, […] Continue reading "A More Sustainable Gardening Ethic"
by Ann Winslow Inspired by Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home (subject of the Wild Ones Book Club in January), this spring I decided to create a native plant pollinator garden in my 1960s suburban Denver yard. It was my first adventure in using all native plants. Most yards in my neighborhood are primarily turf and evergreens […] Continue reading "My Journey to a Pollinator-Friendly Native Plant Garden"
by Cynthia Reiners Phenology: the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. — from Oxford Languages “In 1492 Columbus did not so much discover The New World as begin to make A New World” [italics added] — Charles Mann, 1493 “Knitting together the seams of Pangea” — Alfred Crosby, The […] Continue reading "Extending the Season of Bloom to Support the Local Web of Life"
Jan Midgley, a board member of Wild Ones Front Range Chapter, is developing a series of plant profiles for common perennials of the Colorado Front Range. Below is just an excerpt from the first in this series. For a more in-depth dive, head to our website. By Jan Midgley In Colorado, Liatris punctata (Dotted blazing star) is […] Continue reading "Plant Profile: Liatris Punctata"