Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
A type of wildlife friendly landscape that is attracting a lot of attention these days is the meadow garden. Even though this style of garden is considered one of the most beneficial and informal there are key points one should take into account before jumping in with both feet. One of the main considerations [...]
“The path follows an old path which a hundred years ago was used for sleds to bring cordwood down the hill. I found that along both sides of it small hemlocks were predominant. Twenty-five years ago I started cutting out almost all of the deciduous trees edging the path…. It has gradually developed into a [...]
It could be said that the most important component of what we as native plant gardeners/designers do is educate people. We feel an inherent value, Joy, and necessity to set an example for others; to provide for wildlife in our suburban landscapes. Historically some claim the idea of the native plant wildlife garden began in [...]
I wrote about this on my blog, but it begs a wider audience, especially since so little of our prairie country is left. This week the Nebraska state senate is, most likely, passing a bill–LB473–that will allow the government to go on to private land and poison prairie dogs, which are being classified as noxious [...]
When my late husband and his family moved to our small town in the Southern Rockies from Arkansas in the early 1950s, my sister-in-law remembers their father paying the kids something like a nickel a day to clear their new front yard of “cactus and weeds” to make way for a lawn. Forty-some years later, [...]
When designing a native garden, plant selection is probably the one aspect people find most exciting–and daunting! At this juncture it’s good to pause and consider questions such as “What plant community do I live in?” and “How do I go about identifying this community?” This step requires one to look at the design process [...]
Not only are there plants that are protected from herbivory by ants , there are plants with a mutualistic relationship to ants for their seed dispersal. Readers who live in the eastern deciduous forest may know some of the plants: Erythronium americanum, Sanguinaria canadensis, Asarum canadense, Dicentra canadensis, Viola species, and Claytonia virginica. Many of [...]
This time of year, when straw-colored bunches of fine-textured native grass wave over a thin layer of snow in my yard, along with silver-gray and chocolate brown seed heads of last year’s wildflowers, people often ask me how I maintain my eye-catching “unlawn.” “It’s easy,” I say cheerfully, “I pronghorn it.” And then I grin [...]
I’ve been outside today, working in the yard and soaking up sunshine–both very welcome after some incredibly difficult months. I spent October and November caring for my sculptor husband, Richard until his death at home from brain cancer, and then plunged into end-of-the-year, after-death paperwork and organizing the celebration of his life. All of that was important [...]
This time of year always brings fond memories for me. As a child, upon arrival at my grandparents’ house on Christmas day I would see a large wreath hung on the front door. The wreath was aromatic and made up of cedar, small pine cones and, of course, English holly. Or was it? As [...]
