These 4 Planting Strategies Can Save You Money (4 photos)
First we explored how preparation and planning are important when making long-term landscape decisions that are friendly to the pocketbook and environment. Now that you’re ready to get…
Articles by Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens
Save Your Budget With These 4 Landscape Design Strategies (4 photos)
The creativity and experience you invest in when hiring a landscape designer can pay big dividends. Sometimes, however, you may want to take a more hands-on approach, whether it’s for monetary reasons or because you enjoy getting in the dirt. Paying for a design consultation is helpful, but there are…
3 Ways to Revel in Summer Garden Sweetness (3 photos)
It’s finally here. Every morning, before sunrise, the tree canopy ripples in birdcalls. Dew speckles grasses and flowers, each plant cascading in sparkles as the sun crests the fence. A red admiral butterfly dances in seemingly erratic patterns as it follows the spindly trail of a flower’s scent all…
How to Bring Native Plants Into an Established Garden (4 photos)
If you are itching to add native plants to your garden, don’t feel as though you have to start over. Don’t worry that native plants won’t look right with your established and thriving ornamental plants. When I started gardening, I was mixing plants from all over the world, including plants from my prairie…
Why Your Garden Might Be Full of Weeds (6 photos)
Our gardens will always have unwanted plants that alter the aesthetic as single specimens or that choke out desired plants. A weed could be an annual that won’t spread far or it could be an aggressive colonizer, which is why it’s important to identify weeds quickly. Here are six reasons why you might…
How to Design an HOA-Approved Pollinator Garden (7 photos)
If you live in a neighborhood with a strict homeowners association, you know how difficult it can be to make landscape changes. While HOAs can foster home values and community spirit, they can also lead to some pretty stifling rules and oversight. If you’re worried about how an HOA will respond to a…
Native Plants 101 (7 photos)
You’ve probably heard about native plants, but what are they? Where do they grow? What’s the hoopla about supporting wildlife like bees and butterflies, and following a low-maintenance schedule? Trust me, I know that the issues surrounding native plants can be complicated, but we’re going to break down…
4 Tips for Designing a Wildlife-Friendly Small Garden (5 photos)
A small garden can be as attractive, low maintenance and supportive of nature as a large garden. When well designed, a small garden can be home to many species of wildlife. And when it’s in a neighborhood of small gardens, it becomes part of a larger habitat or corridor in which wildlife can live and…
The Case for Losing the Traditional Lawn (6 photos)
I’m already nostalgic for this past summer. Warm days spent frolicking outside, picnics, ice cream, birds chirping and the nonstop sound of lawnmowers as the smell of freshly cut grass wafts over the garden. But that sweet grass smell is a chemical re…