Spring weather draws us into our landscapes and inspires new design ideas. While it’s not quite outdoor lounging season, there’s a lot you can do now to keep your gardens looking their best and improve plant health. Use this eco-friendly list to prepare native gardens for the warmer months ahead.

For any native garden installation, the first step is to create planting beds. This often means clearing the area of whatever sod, brush, or weeds are growing. For those who aren’t in a rush to plant, sheet mulching and solarization are two excellent options. These methods also help promote overall soil health. This post defines solarization and sheet mulching, detailing the benefits of each turf destruction method and highlighting some things to consider.

A well-designed yard is a portal to a better life: a life filled with deep connections to nature, meaningful moments shared between loved ones, fresh air, and pleasurable time spent in sanctuary spaces that allow you to relax and recharge. When you create enjoyable places in your yard, you invite yourself, your family, and your friends into this way of living.  Here are a few examples to inspire your quest for an enjoyable yard. 

Want to help combat climate change? Look no further than your nearest woodland. If your yard backs up to a forest or there’s a stretch of woods near your workplace or in your community, you have a role to play in supporting forest restoration. Here’s why that matters—and what to do about it. 

Winter landscapes don’t have to be drab. You just have to know what to plant. This post highlights 9+ Kentucky and Ohio native plants that offer interesting textures, colors, and contrast in a native winter landscape. They also offer ecological value all year round, supporting pollinators, wildlife, and local ecosystems.

Our yards are a huge part of our lives. They’re private spaces to connect with nature, sites of lasting memories, high-impact spots where we can choose to contribute to our ecosystems, and so much more. When a landscape is beautifully designed and thoughtfully tailored to its inhabitants, it becomes a place of refuge and a source of pride. This post takes a look at a landscape transformation that highlights the power of ecological landscaping.

Winter isn’t only a harsh season for people and wildlife. It also asks a lot of our plants. Luckily, native plants have spent thousands of years learning how to survive Ohio and Kentucky winters. Above the surface, it might not look like they’re doing much. But there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. This blog post offers an overview of how our region’s native plants have adapted to wintry conditions.

When the weather outside is frightful, most of us retreat indoors for a few months. But withdrawing from our landscapes can leave them looking a bit neglected, and then we find ourselves playing catch-up come spring.  Spruce up your gardens and improve plant health—and get a jump start on turning your outdoor space into a warm-weather oasis—with the following strategies for enhancing your winter landscape.