The Yareta Plant: The Remarkable Green Jewel of the desert
Deep within the high-altitude regions of Bolivia and parts of northern Chile, thrives a strange botanical specimen known as the yareta (Azorella compacta). This extraordinary plant is sometimes called “moss lettuce” or “stone lettuce,” and even called a living boulder or green slime by…
Redosier Dogwood
Bottom Line Up Front: This is one of those native shrubs that I have actually been able to find in the normal plant retailers alongside the normal brought-here-from-another-continent plants. It is commonly purchased for its winter interest, but it also can feed up to…
American Elderberry/Black Elderberry
Bottom Line Up Front Elderberry is a species that you have most commonly encountered in the medicine aisle in the form of a flu remedy. That is because this plant contains a potent medicine in its berries that can help with influenza! Not only…
Sandcherry
Bottom Line Up Front: Sandcherry is a wide ranging and tough shrub that can withstand drought, heat, and ranging soil conditions (like sand). Its blooms are fragrant, feeding tons of insects, and its fruit is delicious and numerous. Because it is in the Prunus…
Making your own “animal Log”
What is made out of wood and helps animals? No, this is not a tree log, but you can definitely use old logs as habitat by simply leaving snags and old stumps. What I am talking about though is an animal log-book. Now before…
American Black Currant
Bottom Line Up Front: American Black Currant is a wonderful and thornless shrub for your North American landscaping. It produces small fruit, and if you dont eat them, other animals will enjoy them. Though they were persecuted for harboring a white pine blight, many…
How to plant wildflowers
A bloom buffet right at your fingertips Everybody loves flowers, from the most cold-hearted to the most cheery of us. Nothing brings brightness to your day like the pop of color experienced in gardens, along highways, and in planters along sidewalks. So why are…
how to cure plant blindness
What if I told you that you were blind? That what you are seeing is actually not there? You would probably deny it, after all, you are reading this right now. Well, most people are blind: Plant Blind to be specific. This of course…
How to be an oak tree
Intro/Background Oaks are a genus of tree that has been associated with strength and longevity. It has multiple ties to cultures across the world, and has 90 species ranging from little nubby shrub-like oaks to the mighty giants you are used to seeing at…