Why xeriscaping doesn't have to mean "zeroscaping"

If you hear the word "xeriscaping" without seeing it written, chances are good that you mishear the word "zeroscaping", which isn't really a word at all. It's not a difficult mistake to make, since "zero" is a pretty common word in english, while "xeric" is a term that's very rarely used outside of ecology, like its sister words "mesic" and "hydric". The three words describe three different habitat types: dry, medium, and wet, respectively. Therefore, the word "xeriscaping" doesn't mean "nothingscaping"; it just means "dryscaping". FYI, if you feel like writing a flatulent poem about xeriscaping, it rhymes with "air escaping".

The Ecology of Garden Slugs

Slugs are, perhaps not surprisingly, very easy to kill. Like frogs or toads, they need to keep their skin moist at all times in order to breathe properly, and that makes them very susceptible to physical or chemical damage. They're also not very smart.

Plant Spotlight - Tree of Heaven

Scientific Name: Ailanthus altissima

Common Name: Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus, Chinese Sumac, Stink Tree, Tree from Hell, Ghetto Palm

Plant Family: Simaroubaceae, the Tree of Heaven family

Plant Research - Ground Cover

The Question: How do different ground cover types affect the properties of the soils beneath them?

The Methods: Researchers started with old, grassy fields in Pennsylvania and then created four treatments. The four treatments were "mowed lawn", "bark mulch", "gravel mulch", and "unmowed old field". Reserchers set up the plots one year, and monitored the plots the two following years for a variety of soil characteristics.

Plant News - Japanese Beetles

Parkians beware! The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) has recently been spotted in Denver. The beetle was first introduced to the United States via a nursery in New Jersey in 1916. Since then, it has spread across most of the eastern US. The beetle has yet to really become established west of the Mississippi, but only time will tell if it's here to stay this time.

Plant Spotlight - Redroot Amaranth

Scientific Name: Amaranthus retroflexus

Common Name: redroot amaranth, redroot pigweed

Plant Family: Amaranthaceae, the amaranth family

Harvey Park, pre-settlers

As you can see from archival photos, Harvey Park of the 50s looked very different than the Harvey Park of today. The biggest difference, to my eyes, is that there were no trees.  Before that though, there were no houses, and Harvey Park was a ranch, roamed by herds of cattle. Before even that, Harvey Park was home to the native Colorado shortgrass prairie.

Though there are many plant species that make up the shortgrass prairie, the landscape would have been largely dominated by just these two warm-season, C4 grasses:
Blue gramma - Bouteloua gracilis

and
Buffalo grass - Bouteloua dactyloides

Colorado Noxious Weeds

The Colorado Department of Agriculture publishes a list of the "worst" noxious weeds in the state. It separates them into List A, List B, List C, and Watch List, from "most noxious" to "least noxious" respectively. You can see the full list here, but I've compiled a short(er) list of plants that you might expect to see in Harvey Park, or Denver in general. I'd hope that if you think you have some of them growing in your yard (accidentally or deliberately), you'll consider removing them as quickly and aggressively as possible. While some of these plants have more benign lookalikes, quite a few of them have lookalikes that are also nasty weeds. Please google these plants or search for them on the Colorado DoA website for more information about how to identify them, why they're a problem, and how to best get rid of them.

List A
Myrtle spurge - Euphorbia myrsinites

Purple Loostrife - Lythrum salicaria