A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 The colorful reds and blues of election year yard signs are now the predominant feature of the Wyobraska landscape, their quiet presentation of the candidate’s name a civilized alternative to the mudslinging rhetoric of TV and radio commercials. But this artificial every-other-year fall color... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 It is probably not too surprising that Wyobraska homeowners tend to be concerned about how their landscape plants will fare through the winter season. After all, for us humans, the cold and snow of winter make it the most uncomfortable, and probably also the most life-threatening season. But... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 When fall comes to the garden its cold temperatures and brisk winds litter fastidiously manicured lawns and neatly mulched beds with its untidy debris of leaves. In a society obsessed with imposing its illusion of order on nature’s boisterous and often messy exuberance, cleaning up the recurring... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 I always enjoy the opportunity to drive a new road—often to the extent of finding myself temporarily lost on a “short cut”. This past week I had the opportunity to drive a road I had not driven before—Wyoming highway 220 which runs from Rawlins north northeast to Casper. Rawlins Wyoming... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 I have spent many years observing the above ground portion of trees and other plants in an effort to better understand how and why they grow (or not grow, as the case may be) in the widely variable locations that we humans and also Mother Nature plant them. So it has been an unusual treat for... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 What had appeared to be a possible end to the region’s prolonged drought may turn out to have been little more than a mirage. Higher than average snowpacks in the Wyoming mountains late last winter did not produce the expected levels of irrigation water into the reservoirs which store water... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 The word hedge evokes images of a row of dense, tall, neatly trimmed shrubs dividing one neighbor’s yard from another. Hedges are very common in the eastern U.S. landscapes. they are somewhat less common in western landscapes even though the need for hedge-like plantings is fairly universal... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 It could be an Agatha Christie mystery. A wealthy heiress invites all of her friends to her lavish and beautiful gardens for a party. The guests arrive to find a sumptuous buffet of hor’douerves, so delectable that the guests are unable to resist. Of course, the hostess has poisoned the food... 

A Prairie Garden Journal 2006 This year’s Walk was an opportunity to revisit a landscape that I hadn’t visited since it was planted almost 10 years ago—the entry planting at the Northfield Park Arboretum in Gering. It was planted back in the late1990’s as a xeriscape demonstration planting. It is a lush, colorful...