By Vicki Saragoussi Phillips So, you’ve planted your native plant starts and sowed your native plant seeds, what’s next? Remember the five senses? Don’t forget to take some time to immerse yourself and celebrate your contribution to caring for the planet by creating a sustainable biodiverse habitat in your own landscape. As your garden is […] Continue reading "Remember the Five Senses in Your Native Plant Garden"
QUESTION: Do I need to keep dead perennial stemsfor three years in order for them to be of benefit topollinators?ANSWER: While it seems like “new” information, the three-year timeline for perennialstems is derived from the life cycle of stem-nesting pollinators. Your first reaction might be,“Three years!,” but it isn’t as dramatic as it would seem—you […] Continue reading "Ask CSU Extension Anything: Keeping Dead Perennial Plant Stems for Insect Nesting"
By Kate Hogan* I started my home garden native plant conversion back in 2015 – I foolishly decided to attempt to replant my entire front and back garden beds to exclusively Colorado and New Mexico native plants while on maternity leave with my second child, which happened to be September of that year. We had […] Continue reading "Native Plants for Hummingbirds"
On June 22, 2024 the Fourth Annual Denver Pollinator/Native Plant Swap & Giveaway Event was held between 10am – 1pm with sunny skies and warm temps reaching 90°F. We appreciate the estimated 700 participants, including volunteers and families, who attended despite construction hassles, lines and heat. 2024 Denver Pollinator/Native Plant Swap & Giveaway at 11:30am […] Continue reading "2024 Denver Pollinator/Native Plant Swap & Giveaway — It’s a Very Successful Wrap!"
Photo credits (left to right): W.D. and Dolphia Bransford, Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller, and Thomas Muller, all courtesy of Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center One of the showiest native shrubs on Colorado’s front range is Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa). It has a wild look about it, and can get rather rangy if untended, but that, we […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Apache Plume"
Baby blue rabbitbrush across the seasons. Photos courtesy of Plant Select. Rabbitbrush doesn’t get its full due. It is gorgeous when most of your garden has finished inspiring, and it’s bustling with insects looking for late season nectar at this time of year. Some people don’t like how rangy large rabbitbrush can get (see our […] Continue reading "Plant Spotlight: Baby Blue Rabbitbrush"
by Danna Liebert As advocates for Colorado native landscaping, you may have claimed (as we have) that you can create any traditional landscape style with natives; the whole story, as many of us know, is complicated: not all CO native plants are low-water; some need space to roam (spreading by rhizomes or reseeding); some don’t […] Continue reading "Native Plant Garden Pairings"
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"
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 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"