Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
Keeping your wildlife garden blooming through the summer can be a challenge especially during periods of drought and high temperatures. The colors of the spring garden rapidly fade but there are ways to keep plants attractive and blooming all season long. First, your garden should include a variety of plant species that bloom in different […]
We are remaking the world in our own image. From carbon emissions to water use, to shifting climate zones and exotic plant choices, to habitat loss and oil extraction, not one square inch of this world is unaltered. It’s far easier psychologically to reframe this sad reality with hope – hope that things will get […]
Stop with the honey bee talk. Every day I come across a half dozen new articles on the plight of the European honey bee — it’s become sheer agony for me. Frankly, even though neonics and glyphosate and modern farming techniques play a key role in honey bee loss (among many other life forms), I […]
It’s flyover country out here in Nebraska. Each spring millions of waterfowl come through on their way to breeding grounds in the Dakotas (some 90% of North American ducks breed there), Canada, and the arctic circle. 90 minutes west of here is a pretty famous migration that brings in big tourist bucks — some 500,000 […]
I remember the day distinctly. July 15 of this year — also my birthday, also my parent’s wedding anniversary. One of my dozen or so Liatris ligulistylis had opened its first bloom and I thought nothing of it. Summer was progressing at warp speed, more warpier with each passing year. In 2013 I raised 5 […]
I am so excited to be bringing vertical green to a new coffee shop on the main street of Downtown Disney. The project’s primary designer has been so exciting to work with on this project. Interestingly, and a challenge to my native plant approach was a sign hanging prominently near the entrance of Disney’s Main […]
I have been reevaluating my landscape for the last few years to determine where I could include more forage plants for pollinators. I have a very treed yard with one open, sunny area on a gravel slope. After hearing two more climate change presentations this winter at various conferences, I decided I would need to make some drastic changes in […]
This is a call for a full press effort to encourage and teach the importance of sustainable lifestyles throughout our communities. It is now crucial for us to conserve water, build green and create eco-friendly living, working and playing areas or, in the alternative, ‘robo-native-plants’ may be lurking right around the corner. Designing green roofs […]
Pseudotsuga menziesii seedlings in the CSR greenhouse Every year I look forward to the ground opening up and for the plants to start growing. This year, in the west, spring is coming early. In fact, for the last decade, it would appear that the weather warms up sooner than I remember as a child. Recently, […]
One effect of pine beetles: Massive forest fires, like the one we experienced the summer of 2012. That isn’t a cloud behind the trees—it’s smoke. Just after I snapped this picture, we evacuated for weeks while the fire raged. The death toll starts to become visible in late winter, up here in the Rockies. No, […]
