This toolkit is designed to empower people to garden with native plants and promote native and sustainable landscapes. We hope to have the answers to your questions on how to be a successful native plant gardener on the Front Range. If you are beginning your journey to a more sustainable landscape, don’t be alarmed at […] Continue reading "How to use this Toolkit"
Primary Author: Deb Lebow Aal One of the biggest challenges we face as native plant gardeners is how to design a garden with native plants. After all, we are challenging the norm. We are not planting the default landscape of an expanse of turf with a few bushes around the foundation of the house, and […] Continue reading "How to Approach Designing Your Colorado Native Plant Landscape"
We had a great group come out to tour the Greenverein Garden, which was started in 2019 as a collaboration between Denver Turnverein, Uptown on the Hill, and Front Range Wild Ones on a former Denver hell strip located on Clarkson Street! The garden is 100′ long and 11′ wide and uses berms, swales, check […] Continue reading "Colorado Native Plant Demonstration Garden | Tour of Denver’s Greenverein “Hell Strip” @ Turnverein"
The Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference planning committee is now accepting proposals for next year’s in-person conference on February 24, 2024. The conference’s theme is “Making our Landscapes Count.” If you have expertise with designing, growing or maintaining native landscapes and would like to be considered as a Conference speaker, submit your proposal by […] Continue reading "Landscaping with Colorado Native Plants Conference | Call for 2024 Presenters"
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 Wild Ones Front Range Chapter Board Members This month we thought we’d go “trick or treating” for (i.e. do a deep dive into) nuggets of wisdom our Chapter Board Members (and prospective Board Members) have to hand out from their own experience planting natives in their landscapes – tips, tricks, and info that will […] Continue reading "Tips, Tricks, and Info for Planting Native Plants on the Front Range"
By Deb Lebow Aal. Updated October 2023. This is a topic every Colorado homeowner should pay attention to. As you all know, our fire season in the West is getting longer and hotter. And, while it’s of much greater concern if you live close to the rural/forest intersection, it is now relevant even for urban […] Continue reading "Fire Resistant Landscaping and Colorado Native Plants"
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 Deborah Lebow Aal The ‘Gardening Myths’ article I wrote last year was our most popular article ever. It has been reprinted in several other newsletters, including Denver Audubon (linked here), and we received many comments. Following up with ‘Gardening Myths #2’ was inevitable. In most cases, there is no right or wrong ‘answer’ to […] Continue reading "Garden Myths #2"
