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Blog
Welcome to the Blue Stem Natives blog, where we share what we’re learning in the nursery, in the landscape, and out in the field. From plant profiles to project updates, our goal is to give you useful, down-to-earth information to support your native-plant journey.
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Winter Birds are cool (...get it?)
When I was little I would watch my Scandinavian grandmother carefully wrapping each of the perches on her finch feeders with yarn before filling the feeder up for the winter. Around and around to "keep their little feet warm when they stop to eat". Do you need to wrap bird feeder perches in cozy yarn? Um, no. Even better would be to make plant choices that care for the birds. Although there are things that we can do to support our feathered friends year round (namely...plant
Dec 19, 20258 min read
Blue Stem Goes Mobile!
Follow along to see our newest project! We'll post updates here weekly. Blue Stem buys a horse trailer! We're currently restoring a used horse trailer we found on Facebook Marketplace—with plans to transform it into a mobile pop up plant shop . Follow along below for updates as the project comes to life. Interested in bringing our trailer to your area for a pop-up sale? We’re aiming to hit the road starting around August 1st. Whether it’s a garden club, library, school, or ot
Jul 1, 20252 min read
The Bunny Buffet: How to Garden Without Losing Your Mind
Let’s face it: rabbits are adorable. Those twitchy noses, the cotton ball tails, the ears that say “I’m listening, but I’m still going to eat your echinacea.” If you’ve ever tiptoed outside in spring to admire your perennial garden only to find it neatly trimmed by a mystery landscaper with fur—congrats! You’re gardening with rabbits. Instead of plotting bunny revenge or surrounding your beds with barbed wire, what if we reframed the whole situation? What if your yard could b
Jun 5, 20253 min read
Designing Your Native Plant Landscape 2
A Multi-Part Series for the Home Gardener Step 2- Fix the problems and dream big! Did everyone do their SITE SURVEY last month? I spent hours tracing and making adjustments. My printer conked out so I had to make copies by hand! Ah, well, nothing a glass or two of wine and a good movie in the background can’t help! I want to stress the need to have multiple, nay, multitudes of copies! The idea is to be able to come up with different ways to fix existing problems as well as e
Apr 29, 20253 min read
Nature’s Party Crashers: Identifying & Removing Invasive Species
There is something magical about the Spring, when we have had months of cold, snowy weather, and the predominant color is brown. I love me a good brown, but when those first few peeps of green start pushing up through the leaves that you left (right? we’ve been through this already.) it brings with it that feeling that warmer days are ahead, and the Winter won’t actually last forever. There is one teeny-tiny problem though, and I hate to bring it up. There are a whole bunch o
Apr 2, 20253 min read
Designing Your Native Plant Landscape
A Multi-Part Series for the Home Gardener Step 1- What are you working with? The wintertime is an odd one for garden aficionados. We desperately miss having our hands in the dirt, the fresh smell of plants and manure (ok that may be a stretch), and all of the color that is sorely lacking during the cold months. Once the garden is cleaned up and the temperature drives us inside, we often find ourselves with little else to do besides thumbing through the multitudes of seed cata
Apr 2, 20253 min read
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