Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
Benjamin Vogt has a 2,000 foot garden on a 10,000 foot lot in Nebraska (zone 5). Roughly 80% of his plants are native to either the Midwest or Great Plains. He is the author of Sleep, Creep, Leap: The First Three Years of a Nebraska Garden (essays), Monarch Butterflies: The Last Migration, and a new poetry collection, AFTERIMAGE (SFA Press, 2012). Benjamin’s poetry, essays, and photographs have appeared in several publications, including Crab Orchard Review, ISLE, Orion, Prairie Fire, Sou’wester, The Sun, and Verse Daily. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and an M.F.A. from The Ohio State University. Benjamin is on the board of Wachiska Audubon, a regional prairie conservation group, and is a Great Plains Native Plant garden consultant at Monarch Gardens. He blogs / rants about writing and gardening at The Deep Middle. You can also find him on Facebook, and if you insist, Twitter.
Eastern Nebraska’s drought has broken this spring. Last week we had 5” of rain, several times the amount we saw in almost three months last summer. The garden is thick and lush. The lawn is growing far too fast for my taste. In the side garden (an 8’ by 30’ space) we have nesting cardinals, [...]
It is a gorgeous late evening as my wife and I return home from a dinner celebrating 10 years since our first date; I’d venture to say it is the first perfect evening all spring. The low sun casts that warm summer glow reminiscent of firesides in winter, the air is clear and soothing, trees [...]
I’ll just come out and say something to alienate lots of folks: I believe our landscapes should be planted with mostly native trees, shrubs, flowers, sedges, and grasses. And by mostly I mean 80%, 90%, 100%. I know, I know. But I’m the kind of guy who sees a cause and knows that to even [...]
Nature can be mapped with a mathematical formula called a fractal. If you wore paisley shirts in the 80s and 90s you know what a fractal is. A fractal is simply repeating a pattern over and over for infinity, like a snowflake’s edges repeat smaller and smaller, crystallizing out forever – we see a circle [...]
It’s a rare, though becoming less rare, warm winter day. Early February and the sun is higher. Standing on a low deck overlooking the garden, my legs are caressed by the low light yet my head is shielded by the eave—I find this dichotomy of temperature soothing. This is the best time of year, watching [...]
I’m already exhausted by winter. Not because it’s cold (it’s supposed to be) or that we have snow (we better, this drought is awful) or because the sun sets so early (it’s already noticeably later than two weeks ago). No, I’m exhausted by the gardeners complaining about it. Nature needs winter. I need winter. You [...]
I remember last March quite well–normally, we don’t see temperatures in the 90s in Nebraska. This was my first year trying a modest vegetable bed and everything fried. I could’ve planted seeds and lettuce in March and tossed some sheets over everything a few times. Like last year, summer was early. I also remember July [...]
Out here in the Plains prairie resotoration is a sort of buzz phrase for people like me. Suddenly, visions of a horizon to horizon ocean of grass and wildflowers, dotted by herds of bison, rush like irish coffee to the brain. I swoon with warmth and alcohol. Oh, prairie. Marry me. Yet prairie restoration in [...]
I was working on a handout for a presentation, and as I went along I realized just how much I’ve learned in the five years that I’ve had a garden–and not all of those was I aware that I was gardening for wildlife, and what I could yet do. So I want to share the [...]
I’ve had all kinds of thoughts running through my head lately as I witness Nebraska’s extreme drought influencing insect populations and other wildlife. Just last night I had nine birds at once on a small birdbath, and several more at the fountain. I usually raise 150-200 monarch butterflies but this year it will be around [...]
