By Benjamin Vogt Book review by Deborah Lebow Aal A New Garden Ethic, by Benjamin Vogt, is a call to action to completely shift our ideas of how to garden, and what a garden should be. Vogt is calling for a time of “defiant compassion.” He wants us to stop thinking of gardens for human […] Continue reading "Book Review: A New Garden Ethic"
By Deborah Lebow Aal I hate to be negative, but I see these garden blunders over and over and over again. I want to shout when I see landscapers working, knowing that the homeowner will eventually suffer the consequences of what they are doing. Here is a list of things that you should consider if […] Continue reading "Tips on What NOT to Do with Your Native Plant Garden"
By Lani Rush In author Kate Bradbury’s own words, she specializes in practical wildlife gardening and her latest book One Garden Against the World is a memoir told over the course of a year in her ‘modest’ and ‘relatable’ garden in the United Kingdom. In it, she focuses on the power of small fixes like […] Continue reading "Book Review: One Garden Against the World"
by Karen Vanderwall People living along the Front Range are becoming more aware that conserving water and establishing native habitats is vital to managing our regional drought and supporting local pollinators. The City of Fort Collins is innovating and leading, locally and nationally, by weaving together the built environment and natural ecosystems. Driven by community funding […] Continue reading "The Nature of Fort Collins"
By Deborah Lebow Aal* I bet you’ve made some design mistakes with your native plants. I certainly have. I’ve put a red flower next to another clashing red flower, a tall flower in front of a short, and much worse. So silly. So, I asked a few very active Wild Ones Front Range Chapter folks […] Continue reading "Favorite Native Plant Combinations"
The absolute key to getting the public (including our spouses, municipalities, and skeptical neighbors) to accept and appreciate ecological landscaping by Kenton Seth Colleagues and mentors have all made passing comments—usually in the parking lot after a breakfast meetup, or later at night after a few glasses of wine—that there is a trick to making landscape designs […] Continue reading "Cues To Care"
By Deborah Lebow Aal Wild Ones isn’t only about native plants. Yes, plant choice is critical, but your overall gardening techniques and what you do before, during and after the planting of these native plants can have an equally large impact on your home ecosystem. So, here are our top ten tips for caring for […] Continue reading "Ecological Gardening Best Principles"
By Kristine Johnson with assistance and photos from Theodore Johnson Mencimer Why Install a Rain Garden Last year, I wrote about the “why” of rainwater harvesting, and Pam Sherman reviewed Brad Lancaster’s well-known books on rainwater harvesting. Brad is very much the “how.” I also mentioned rain gardening in my article on multi-stem trees–which should […] Continue reading "Rain Gardening: Thinking About Next Steps"
One Colorado Newbie’s Experience Article and Photos by Karen Vanderwall This is the first in a series of articles focusing on the experiences of members creating a native garden from the beginning. When we first moved to Fort Collins three years ago, we came with the knowledge that water was a precious resource here. We […] Continue reading "Starting a Native Garden from Scratch"
By Jonathan Sciarcon* A fellow Wild Ones Front Range Board member asked me to write an article for this month’s newsletter on “damn yellow composites” with the request that I make it funny. While I appreciate her belief that I can write comedically, the truth is that I was not even aware of the term […] Continue reading "Learn to Love Yellow Composites"