3 Easy Ways You Can Garden for Nature

No matter your aesthetic preference — from formal to informal, straight lines to wavy borders — you can garden in a way that honors and supports wildlife and the land that intersects with your landscape. From at

Backyard Birds: Those Nutty Nuthatches

Flittering among the winter-weathered tree trunks and branches, with no interest in which way is up, this small black-capped bird can sometimes be confused with other boisterous winter residents. With its simila

Hummingbird or Moth? See Why You Want Clearwings Around

This colorful day-flying moth is one of the most delightful flower visitors to watch moving through a flower patch in the garden. Hummingbird-like in behavior, these moths hover in front of their favorite flower

4 Tips for Designing a Wildlife-Friendly Small Garden

A small garden can be as attractive, low maintenance and supportive of nature as a large garden. When well designed, a small garden can be home to many species of wildlife. And when it’s in a neighborhood of sma

Great Design Plant: Dasylirion Quadrangulatum

Mexican grass tree (Dasylirion quadrangulatum), like most accent plants, provides striking interest in the garden. Its long, narrow leaves fan out in a spherical shape, adding welcome texture to the drought-tole

Great Design Plant: Picea Glauca

Evergreens lend a characteristic mountain-forest look to gardens and landscapes in the Rocky Mountain region and beyond. White spruce (Picea glauca), native to northern forests throughout North America, has the

4 Reasons to Celebrate Your Garden in Winter

For many, winter is a period to slog through and a necessary evil — snow interferes with our travel plans, while windy days send chills deep into our bones. And yet, winter is a miracle. Without it, a lot of our

Native Plant Alternatives to Invasive Common Buckthorn

Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) is one of the most damaging plants to woodlands in the upper Midwest, northern Great Lakes region and New England states. It thrives in the shade of deciduous tree canopies,

10 Ideas for Creating an Inviting Courtyard

Courtyard gardens — defined as those enclosed on at least three sides by walls – are often the most difficult spaces to get right. They can be dark and damp, tiny and uninviting. But it doesn’t have to be that w

Great Design Plant: Echinacea Pallida

Pale purple coneflower is an elegant, tall coneflower of Central Plains prairies. A very adaptable native perennial, it thrives in medium to dry soils and full sun. The large flowers draw in bees and butterflies

Great Design Plant: Asclepias Viridis

There are around 100 milkweed species native to North America. While you might be familiar with the somewhat aggressive common and showy milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca and A. speciosa), as well as the popular butt

Herb Garden Essentials: How to Grow Chives

This cool-season perennial herb is easy to grow and surprisingly long-lasting. It’s also very versatile, at home both in the garden and in a container and, provided it gets enough sun and regular water, happy ei

Great Design Plant: Yucca Glauca

Beloved for its spiky, punk-rocker silhouette and dramatic flower stalks, soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca) is a long-lived shrub from the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain foothills that tolerates cold and drought. I

The Art of Green Mulch

Drive around any city, and the landscapes you see may be as much filled with mulch as with plants. Plants aren’t allowed to touch, which leads to the ground being open to sunlight and weed seeds. Besides being s

Great Design Plant: Dalea Greggii

The attractive lacy foliage of trailing indigo bush (Dalea greggii) may appear rather delicate, but this drought-tolerant ground cover thrives in hot, reflected heat. The gray-green leaves and low mounding growt

10 Late-Winter and Early-Spring Bloomers for the West

How about saying goodbye to winter early this year by breaking out the shovel and adding flowering plants that start blooming before spring starts? The following plants are drought-tolerant, easy to grow and we

Great Design Plant: Sassafras Albidum

In Colonial times, sassafras (Sassafras albidum) was a significant export crop from North America. It was valued for the medicinal and culinary properties of its leaves, bark and roots, and for its strong, ligh

Great Design Plant: Phlox Divaricata

The showy flower clusters of wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) are a welcome sign of spring. Use this adaptable native perennial in partial shade or shade, including under trees, combined with other spring-flow

Spring Gardens Are Waking — Here’s What to Do in March

Clean your pruners and get out your gardening gloves. Spring is here, bringing longer days, fresh blooms and annual garden chores. In the Pacific Northwest and Southwest, it’s time to prune trees. Early bulbs an

Summer Crops: How to Grow Strawberries

Ripe and juicy strawberries are one of nature’s sweetest treats. They’re also one of the easiest and most versatile additions to a garden, providing flowers in spring, fruit in spring and summer, and ornamental