A book review by Rick Phillips Being a Wild Ones member, the book Lawns into Meadows, by Owen Wormser, caught my eye immediately. And with an author named Wormser, you would think this guy must really know soil and plants! Wormser is a landscape architect and horticulturalist who grew up off the grid in Maine and […] Continue reading "Lawn Into Meadows"
By Deb Lebow Aal Would you give up your thirsty Kentucky Blue grass for money? House Bill HB22-1151 was introduced with bi-partisan sponsorship in the Colorado House on February 4, 2022, and has a good chance of going the distance. Last week the Committee of Agriculture, Livestock, and Water voted 11-0 to move the bill […] Continue reading "Colorado’s Turf Replacement Bill"
by Deb Lebow Aal In addition to Alex’s plastic-free seed-starting method, I wanted to write about how we can garden with less waste in general. Since Wild Ones’ goal is not just encouraging native plant gardening, but also sustainable gardening, it only seems right. First, a word about why we should be reducing our plastics […] Continue reading "Towards a Zero Waste Gardening Goal"
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, 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 Tom Swihart The picture above was taken on the first day of Spring in Denver. Springtime in the Rockies. Buckle up! The forecast is for even more extreme weather shifts. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Summary for Colorado, we are already experiencing above average annual temperatures, above average numbers of very hot […] Continue reading "Climate Change and Landscape Change "
by Deb Lebow Aal What have you done, or will you do, this month, or this year, to inspire and empower people to plant native plants? Wild Ones was established to… “promote environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration, and establishment of native plant communities.” That is our mission statement. The more […] Continue reading "A Call To Action"
By Deborah Lebow Aal Climate change is having an affect on the plants that thrive in Colorado. And everywhere. This is disconcerting, to say the least, as we have been concentrating on incorporating native plants into Colorado’s Front Range landscapes. What do we know about what the effects will be? We do know that urban […] Continue reading "Climate Change and Native Plants"