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An Ode to Violets
Sweet violets Sweeter than the roses Covered all over from head to toe Covered all over in sweet violets –written and composed by J. K. Emmet, 1882 It’s spring, and spring brings violets, the bane of the well-tended lawn. Even some die-hard native plant enthusiasts despise them–call them weed and curse at the sight of…
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Leave the Leaves
Don’t blow it — Leave the Leaves — How Skipping One Step of Your Spring Lawn Care Ritual Can Have a Big Payoff for Nature
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Nine Essential Spring Flowers for Your Midwestern Pollinator Garden
There are few sights more welcome after a Midwestern winter than the first flowers of spring. The lovelies on this list bloom as early as March, and will continue blooming as late as July. Native to the Midwest, they support a variety of wildlife. Read on to find the right match for your spring garden.…
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Where to Find Native Plants for Your Garden (and where not to)
It’s February. It’s too early to start your garden. However it’s never too early to start planning it. Perhaps you’re feeling inspired. Maybe you just read Doug Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope—or perhaps you’re inspired by that loopy friend—the one who dug up her lawn and put in all those wildflowers. (It wasn’t much to look…
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Reading Season – Great Reads on Gardening, Environment, and Conservation
And a peek at my winter reading list. By now, your garden has gone to sleep for the season. The stands of last season’s wildflowers are crowned with a rime of frost, and the woolly bears and luna caterpillars are tucked beneath a blanket of fallen leaves. The big jobs are done. There will be…
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The Best Time to Begin is Right Now
Of all the mistakes I’ve made in my journey into urban native yardscaping, probably the biggest is inadequate preparation. Good preparation is the most important…
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Let Us Become Stewards
We replaced this delicate and diverse ecosystem, tens of thousands of years in the making, with our RoundUp-Ready crops, our European lawns, our progress. We ‘developed’ it, we like to say.
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Making a Difference
In just a little more than a year, by planting native plants, I managed to alter the path of monarch migration in my city. I’ve hosted endangered bees on this tiny fragment of land I call my front yard. I’ve watched goldfinches breakfast on coneflower seeds. I’m sequestering two times the carbon than a traditional lawn.…
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The Oak
There was a tree across the street from me. A bur oak, with a mighty trunk wider than a steamer, and curving branches that stretched all the way across the street to shade my yard. In its crown lived a mischievous family of squirrels, and a cast of birds of every size and color. One…
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Diary of a Mad Gardener
Anyone who’s seen me toil in the garden might get the idea that establishing a native plant garden is hard. It’s not. More on that subject later, but suffice it to say that with prudent preparation, judicious selection, and patience, an urban native plant community can be established with minimal work. And, after the first…
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Iowa Native Gardener 