By Deb Lebow Aal I love being asked to look at people’s yards. I am not a professional landscaper, but I read gardening books like they’re novels, and from many years of gardening I know enough to give some advice. I frequently hear garden myths that I am reluctant to rebut on the spot, but […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Gardening Myths"
By Deb Lebow Aal I think most people believe that shade gardening with native plants requires quite a bit of creativity, especially on the Front Range of Colorado. We do not have many native trees, so there is not much shade. It’s a given that most plants require light and water to do their thing, […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plants in the Shade"
This article is reprinted, with permission, from Harlequin’s Gardens’ June 15, 2021 newsletter. Harlequin’s Gardens is a family nursery and garden center dedicated to natural and sustainable gardening for our region. We at Wild Ones Front Range Chapter thought the article worthy of wider circulation as we face drought and higher temperatures across the Western United […] Continue reading "Tricks and Tips for Your Xeriscape Garden"
By Deb Lebow Aal Pocket Prairie is not a new term, but if you follow many sustainable gardening websites and blogs, like I do, it is suddenly everywhere. What is the buzz about? Well, as you know, the Front Range, and much of the Midwest was prairie – short and long grass prairie. If we […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plants in Pocket Prairies"
By Deb Lebow Aal, inspired by a Front Range Wild Ones newsletter reader’s thoughtful response to Deb’s last article Our April 2021 edition of the Wild Ones, Front Range Chapter newsletter contained an article on Climate Change and your yard. Within that article, we discussed assisted migration of plants, given our warming climate. We gave the Chilopsis […] Continue reading "More Thoughts on the Assisted Migration of Native Plants"
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"