Real Gardens Grow Natives
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With an ecological perspective and an unwavering tenacity, REAL GARDENS GROW NATIVES: DESIGN, PLANT, AND ENJOY A HEALTHY NORTHWEST GARDEN informs, captivates, and compels us to turn our conventional yards into beautiful, functional, and humane landscapes that give back to the diverse community of life that thrived there not long ago.
Real Gardens Grow Natives
3M ago
They’re being called a “modern day DDT”. Like DDT (outlawed in 1972), anticoagulant rodenticides are weapons of destruction. They kill brutally, slowly and indiscriminately, accumulate in fatty tissue, and persist a long time in the environment. Used by homeowners, farmers and exterminators, they are a serious threat to any living being that accidentally ingests them—wildlife ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
7M ago
Oregon’s Governor Tina Kotek’s Housing Production Advisory Council (HPAC) is teeming with developers who recommend that she ditch environmental protections on urban landscapes, including the removal of protections for trees, isolated wetlands, and environmental zones. Using the housing crisis as a ploy, their latest draft proposal would allow developers to ignore city tree codes for ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
8M ago
The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) recently released an updated, piercing report that confirms the continual decline of wild birds — as well as beneficial insects and many other animals — due to the uncontrolled use of highly toxic neonicotinoid pesticides. It’s a lengthy read, so I thought I’d offer a fairly brief synopsis to those ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
1y ago
Graceful, open, and vibrantly green, red huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) is a quintessential Pacific Northwest native shrub. It’s not often used in garden situations, but it ought to be, considering its beauty and wildlife appeal. And unlike other native huckleberries that ripen in late summer or fall, red huckleberry typically offers dazzlingly red (and tasty) fruit ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
1y ago
By now you’ve likely heard that identification of the dreaded emerald ash borer (EAB) has been confirmed in Washington County, Oregon. The Oregon Department of Agriculture believes that the infestation has been in that county for at least three to five years. The outlook is grim. Of northeastern Asian origin, the EAB is a small ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
1y ago
As sad and full of dread as I am about the impending loss of a giant 90-year-old American elm street tree next door, the life that the dying tree supports makes its demise seem much less calamitous. In early March we noticed the familiar tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker on a nearly vertical limb about 40 ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
2y ago
It’s a drizzly Sunday in June, one that requires a couple of sweaters to keep me warm. But I can’t complain when I see so many native plants thriving, obviously in their element during this cool, damp spring—ferns, wild ginger, fairy bells, goat’s beard, vanilla leaf, and many others. Western maidenhair fern (Adiantum aleuticum), in ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
2y ago
Well over one hundred species of pine help support our planet, which makes the genus Pinus the largest within the conifer phylum known as Pinophyta, the woody cone-bearing plants. Found across the Northern Hemisphere, Pinus is of ancient origin, having appeared around 180 million years ago. In addition to the rich wildlife habitat, beauty, shade ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
2y ago
If you watch carefully, you may notice lovely little hairstreak butterflies in your summer garden. A member of Lycaenidae, the second largest family of butterflies with over 6,000 species worldwide, the gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus) can be found from southern Canada to northern South America. Although they’re considered common, they are rarely seen in large ..read more
Real Gardens Grow Natives
2y ago
Every 30 seconds in the United States, a football field-sized chunk of natural area disappears due to development, according to research from the Center for American Progress. Most of the natural areas lost in the past two decades were on privately-owned land, which accounts for about 60% of all land in the country. Clearly ..read more