Benjamin Vogt's Blog, page 18

Agreeing & Disagreeing with Emma Marris (Again)

It's hard to save nature when we're eradicating it. Every article I read, now a year after reading her book, sends me into tirades of frustration and commiseration / understanding with Marris. I wish for once, though, she'd delve deeper in to the issue and stop pounding the table (as I suppose I do) with the native / non native and conserve / accept it debate; this is the tip of the ice berg, and boy we all have a hard time getting past it. You can read her piece at National Geographic, and t...

A Mid Summer Meditation After 100 Degrees

In the cool heat of late evening the soil is breaking open, but the bumblebees are still working, the butterflies diving, the hummingbird moths pulsing. Near the dripping garden hose a baby mourning dove holds so still that for ten minutes I think it's mulch. I place milkweed leaves inside a rearing tank as the caterpillars quickly crowd over. A cicada scratches its call into the air while haze mutes the sunset. The wind is so still I can feel everything waking again in the brief moment befor...

Images from Pioneers Park Prairie

Last week I picked a cloudy, breezy day to visit the prairie near my home. I'm embarking on a project to record and highlight local, designed native plant communities that we can get garden inspiration from -- and below is a snippet of my look at Pioneers Park. July is a good time to get out and about for the flowers, and then September will be next, followed by late October for the foliage.


Above is a shot on the east side of the nature center. In the foreground is a pollinator garden, with...

Is There Any Difference Between a Land Ethic and a Garden Ethic?

Here's Aldo Leopold on the land ethic; think about how it relates to gardening, in both public and private landscapes.

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.... That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.... A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a convict...

An Ode to Prairie Clover

Ranchers refer to this protein-rich perennial as a candy plant because cattle love to eat it, so much so that in an overgrazed field you won't see any Dalea purpurea. And yet in a sandy or well drained loam it will spread vigorously, with roots reaching seven feet down. It thrives on disturbance. It's a survivor on the prairie. 


Blooming from top to bottom, each spike won't last but a few days in high summer. Bees will come in droves of varying sizes and colors, some so small you can onl...

State of the Garden -- July 2014

I'm feeling quite angst-riddled with these images. Maybe I'm feeling penned in by 1,500' of garden. I know I've not exhausted what I can learn, but in order to learn I feel like there are areas I'd like to start from scratch in (or maybe I just need an acreage). I've already done that by removing butterfly bushes and sowing wildflower and grass seed in their place. Still.


Above is the shot up from the deck. I try to take photos from the same place whenever I go outside as a way to gauge evolu...

A Sign of the Times Around Here

The Rudbeckia hirta looks splendid around my public image enhancer (or detractor -- I do live in a militant suburb). Behind it leading to the garden gate is a meandering bed of red Coreopsis tinctoria, Rudbeckia amplexicaulis, and Ratibidia columnifera -- with a few shortgrasses trying to get going.

The Deeper "Politics" of Native Plant Gardens

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Monthly Newsletter

Even I have a hard time keeping straight my Houzz articles, NPWG posts, social media accounts (6 of my own, another one I manage for a nonprofit), memoir and essay writing, and garden pics into one cohesive je ne sais quoi.

So I'm starting a monthly newsletter that will highlight selections from all of the above areas under my business name. I'm hoping you'll sign up. There will be some musing and ranting, native plant profiles, environmental links, news of my speaking and writing engagements,...

A Summer Meditation

Because I am unsure of myself I sow milkweed seeds. Because I am lost in a chorus of worry and hope and faith and loss I dig bare-knuckled in the soil. Because the world will not stand up and scream loud enough as the landscapes we grew up with vanish, I do the only things I know to bridge the gap -- the garden, these words, the patient late evening watching of a few last fireflies lighting the coming darkness.