Moonlight Garden Creation
Humans have a long relationship with the heavens above us. In the evening an through the night, the moon and the stars shine over us like watchful beacons. Many gardeners are obsessed with using them as the light in the garden, thus the creation of moon or moonlight gardens. Experience teaches us that the moon […]
Big Perennials for Sun
Sometimes, you need something big in the garden. Usually, gardeners fill large spaces with trees or shrubs. But sometimes that does not work. Say you have a large island bed in the middle of a big open space, and you want color most of the season, but you want it to have the potential to […]
Best Annuals for Pollinators
When we think about pollinators, most gardeners see swaths of perennial flowers in bloom, covered in bees and butterflies. But what are the best annuals for pollinators? Here in the Central Great Plains, I continue to expand my list of best annuals for pollinators. As each season progresses, I track insects coming into my garden, […]
Bee-Mimic Insects
The insect world is a fascinating place. Within it, there are are many which mimic other insects, for a variety of reasons. The Viceroy butterfly for instance, mimics the Monarch in order to trick birds into not eating it. While the Monarch actually tastes bad to birds because of the chemicals its caterpillars ingest from […]
Biodiversity for Birds, Butterflies, and Bees (And More)
Adding biodiversity to your yard and garden means an increase in all types of life. But what do I mean by “adding biodiversity”?. And what is biodiversity? Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life in a habitat or ecosystem. And you add to it by adding what you life you can. For gardeners this […]
Native Gardening – A Shift In Styles
As we continue into the future, native gardening has become more and more popular. I saw this trend coming years ago, when I was doing my internship in Minnesota. But I could not expect the delay it has taken to get here. Even when I was a kid growing up in the Smoky Hills of […]
Hazelnut – March Plant of the Month
Hazelnut is our 2025 Plant of the Month for March. This native shrub is commonly found in wooded areas on on woodland edges, from the Great Plains eastward. It can be a large shrub, growing 4 to 15 feet tall and can be thicket forming. It is one of our earliest blooming shrubs, starting its […]
Keystone Plants for the Central Great Plains
Just what are keystone plants? Well, keystone plants are plants which a habitat or ecosystem is mostly dependent on to thrive. By removing these species, you may collapse an ecosystem or limit its ability to keep biodiversity in place. If add keystone plants back into the landscape, you can increase biodiversity within region. We gardeners […]
My Meadow Garden – 3 Years Later
3 years ago I started my Meadow Garden, planting around an existing bed of native plants. I started this bed in order to create a “naturalized” space within my landscape where the only regular maintenance needed is yearly burning and occasional woody plant removal. What has changed in 3 years? How is it going? Is […]
