Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
Mesquite is marvelous in myriad ways. Mesquites grow into large and lush shade trees. Mesquite wood adds special flavoring to foods over a barbecue, plus it is a dense wood, ideal for hot, slow burning fires. Native peoples long ago discovered that mesquite trees provide wonderful wood for building homes and shady arbors. The early [...]
Last week I shared the Holiday Shopping List which included 53 books written by our team members. We really appreciate the support you’ve shown by adding some of those books to your holiday gift giving. This week I’ve got a new list to aid your Holiday Shopping: our team members have each recommended their #1 [...]
The Holiday Season is upon us, and you can support our team members by giving your friends and family copies of the amazing books our team has produced. These books will help your friends learn to make healthier choices in their gardens, attract lots of wildlife, and become more aware of the natural world around [...]
Any discussion of native plants, whether for your garden, a restoration project, or simple curiosity about the flora on your back forty, has to eventually arrive at the question, “is this plant native or introduced?” You’d think it would be an easy question but it turns out to be more complex than you might imagine. [...]
Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest It seems that any time I talk with somebody about landscaping for wildlife or make a book recommendation, this is the first one I mention. There is simply no better book for this region, and in fact this book contains information useful for nearly every region when it [...]
As a landscaper, my focus hasn’t always been on designing with natives. In fact, until a year or two ago, I only used a few sturdy natives in my designs. But once I realized that native plants play a role in sustaining local wildlife that no other types of plant can fill – well, I [...]
Recently, fellow Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens team member, Risa Edelstein wrote a fantastic post about the Top 10 Must-Have Books for Ecological Minds. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you check out the comments for names of additional books readers have found useful. After reading Risa’s post, not only did I have [...]
[Guest post by Risa Edelstein] I love to read and I love to read books about all things related to ecological landscape design. Surprise. So it’s no wonder that I have a good size library that includes books about gardening, native plants, horticulture, edibles, design and anything else that tickles my fancy during a month. [...]
In most parts of the country, I’d wager, a gardener intent on using native plants will have hundreds of species readily available to them. For one thing, many very common ornamental and landscape plants are North American natives: even the most bland of big-box garden centers here in the Mid-Atlantic will often carry plants like [...]
Have you ever wondered whether a particular plant really is indigenous in your region? Would you like to know just how many native species grow in your county or state, and which of those are rare? Are you the sort of gardener or designer who gets a kick out of understanding native ranges, patterns of [...]
