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Fall Checklist for a Wildlife Beneficial Landscape
Each fall there are a lot of articles and checklists outlining what you need to do to make a healthy garden – a whole stack of chores that take so much time and effort. Who are you tidying for? Is all...
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Calling it Cuts: Tree Care
If you have been walking at the Arboretum lately you may have noticed some bare spots. Some big bare spots. We have been cutting down dead trees and clearing brush. It can be sad to say goodbye to...
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Dividing Perennials
A perennial border is evolution on fast-forward, a watercolor in the rain, changing weekly as various species segue in and out of bloom – and yearly as its constituents dominate or yield, flourish or...
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Watering Winter Landscapes
One key to successfully establishing plants in the fall is to periodically check them through the winter months. It has been an extremely dry fall and early winter in our area and for much of Kansas....
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Beyond Milkweed: More Plants for Monarchs
I recently read an interesting article about monarch butterflies and their migration needs. The foundation of any successful monarch migration rests on a sufficient supply of native milkweeds, as...
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Defining Common Horticultural Terms
There are many horticultural terms that get tossed around in casual conversation. We hear these words or phrases in presentations, and read them in books and seed catalogs. Presenters often assume...
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Pine Diseases Changing Landscapes Forever
The Arboretum continues to change. If you visited the Arboretum in the early years, you would have seen many different types of pine trees and other evergreens planted in groves. These pine trees...
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The first year: Getting native plants established
Originally published on May 27, 2020 The prairie communities we see are diverse and complex. Plants, intricately woven together, crowd out weeds and harmoniously coexist. When you look at a prairie,...
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Saturated Soils and Wilting Plants
This year we have been facing many environmental challenges from wind, drought, torrential rain for a lucky few, and now soaring temperatures. Nobody said gardening in Kansas would be easy. One of the...
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Fall Planting of Native Grasses
One of the questions we get at every fall plant sale is “can we plant these grasses now?” The answer is “yes, we encourage fall planting of native grasses”, but with some caveats. Here are a few...
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Final update: Buffalograss Experiment
As the growing season comes to a close, I like to take account of the garden before it goes completely dormant. Certainly, this has been a challenging year in the garden. The plants I installed last...
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Leave The Leaves
Leaves are everywhere this time of year, and for good reason! Leaves have an important role in the ecosystem. Trees and the organisms living in and below them have evolved for millions of years...
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Songs of the Solstice
When the weather is cold and the days are short, I just want to curl up on the couch and rest. And according to prairie plants, that’s exactly what I should be doing! As much as it pains us to see our...
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Native Grasses FAQ
After my Native Plant School class last week, there were several good questions about native grasses that are worth addressing again. Question 1: How do you clean up native grasses in the late winter...
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March Gardening Checklist
While March can still be cold in Kansas and we can get some significant snow and ice, there are still opportunities to spend time in your garden. Here is a March gardening checklist that will prepare...
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Keystone Natives for the Food Web
I have been reminded over the past few weeks about about the importance of keystone natives. There is a growing body of research that touts the benefits of keystone species of trees, shrubs,...
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Preparing to Establish a Landscape with Native Plants
It’s obvious to me that interest in landscaping with native plants continues to expand. More and more people are reconnecting with the natural world through their native landscapes. Besides creating...
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All About Bindweed
It’s a plant all gardeners know well: the infamous bindweed. Thought to have been accidentally introduced from Europe by crop seed contamination in the 1700s, it has established itself all over the...
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Do You Have Nutsedge?
This time of year, yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus) and purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) become problematic in the landscape. These problem weeds have triangular grass-like leaves and form...
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Summer Garden Checklist
Kansas summers can discourage even the hardiest gardeners. However, taking time to manage your garden now will help your garden later. Here’s my Summer Garden Checklist for the Kansas gardener....
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