This year I’ve been trying to diversify my garden according to one crucial principle: the season when plants flower. Ensuring that there are blooms all months of the growing season is an important practice for multiple reasons. From an aesthetic standpoint, having blooms at all times gives your garden more color and visual interest throughout […]
Gardening Theory
Does My Garden Need to Be All Native? (to Help Wildlife and the Planet)
In order to help pollinators, birds, and other elements of your local ecosystem, native plants are vitally important. So should your own yard be made up entirely of natives? We’re major advocates for native plants, so naturally our answer is …. no! Wait, what? A little explanation is in order here. Don’t get us wrong, […]
Do Native Shade Gardens Still Help Bees?
Most native plant gardeners do what they do, at least in part, to help pollinators. With important bee populations in steep decline as a result of disappearing food sources, this is often an area of emphasis for our own gardens. But for some the dominant image of bees is still the imported honeybee pollinating crops […]
Why Are Native Plants Important, Anyway? A Look at Their Benefits
We plant gardens for many reasons, from simply enjoying their beautiful blooms to helping increase our property values. When we plant native, however, we get to enjoy a myriad of additional benefits that can have a major impact on our local ecosystems. So first of all, what exactly makes a plant native? Simply put, it’s […]