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 favorite plants dry up and freeze in the fall, cold weather is an […]
Read More
It looks like winter is settling in as the forecast seems to be turning colder in the coming days. It is a perfect time to reflect on the past year in the garden. It has been a tough year to grow just about everything, due to the monsoon rains in spring followed by the desert […]
Read More
This past summer I had the opportunity to spend several weeks visiting friends and familiar places in Germany. Having lived there for three years in my twenties, this visit provided a much-needed cure for my Wanderlust. Turns out that when you wait so long to return to a favorite place, you see it with fresh […]
Read More
I am grateful for the beauty of nature which reminds me to slow down and take a deep breath. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch. I […]
Read More
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 together, working in sync to create vegetation and break it down in an efficient cycle. But most Americans don’t realize this, […]
Read More
Earlier this year, I created a native plant design for the Valley Center Public Library. After a group of volunteers helped get it planted, they have diligently weeded and watered it through the summer. Thankfully, they have an automatic sprinkler system. But they established the plants by hand watering, which was no small task. Focal […]
Read More
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 May in front of my house are still alive, but it took daily watering through the summer to keep […]
Read More
Volunteers are truly the heart and soul of Dyck Arboretum. Without them, we just wouldn’t be able to do what we do! That fact was never more apparent than on our prairie pond clean up day October 19, when seven intrepid volunteers fired up their chainsaws to help staff tame the mass of trees that […]
Read More
At FloraKansas it’s always a pleasure to hear from members who are renovating an entire landscape innative and adaptable plants all at once. Dramatic transformations have a wow factor about them, with the instant gratification of an “extreme makeover”. However, so many Dyck Arboretum members have been tending and transforming their gardens over several years […]
Read More
We have all seen wonderful pictures of lush plants and fertile prairies in magazines, on television, on social media or other websites. These plants seem to be growing effortlessly. They have beautiful blooms with scarcely a leaf out of place. That is not the reality we are living in Kansas right now. Honestly, our gardens look a little tattered […]
Read More
