Western Columbine

Columbines (Aguilegia spp) are a great plant to grow for their intricately shaped flowers, good color ranges, frilly fern like leaves, and some have a long bloom period.  They are perennial and will reseed easily.  Columbines rely on hummingbirds to pollinate them so there is a good symbiotic relationship.

The nectar is secreted in the long tube of the flower and collects in a bulge at the base, making it the ideal source for humming birds.  Plant them en masse for extra effect along walk ways and patios.

You can find them in seed catalogs and as plants at high quality nurseries in the early spring.  I like to get starts and seeds from friends.

There are seed catalogs that focus on native plants which contribute to their hardiness and accessibility by hummers.   Four to experiment with are:

1. Aquilegia Canadensis, Canada or wild red columbine.  Native from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to Ontario and
   

   Canada Columbine

   Quebec south through much of the eastern United States.  The flowers are red and lemon yellow in midspring to midsummer.  Plants grow two feet tall and one foot wide.  Wild red columbine is also a larval food plant for the columbine dusky wing butterfly.

2. 

   Rocky Mtn Cloumbine

   Aquilegia carulea, Rocky Mountain columbine. Erect blooms are bicolor in lovely shades of blue and white.  Plants grow 1 to 2 feet tall and bloom from June to August.  This is the state flower for Colorado and includes the mountains of southwestern Montana and central Idaho to northern New Mexico and Arizona.

3. Aguilegia chrysantha or golden or yellow columbine. The horizontal-facing canary
   

   Yellow Columbine

   yellow flowers look like little rockets.   They have a long bloom from April to September making them especially appealing.  Plants grow 2 to 3 feet tall with a nearly equal spread.  They grow in mountain canyon seeps in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan desert regions, and are found from west Texas, southern New Mexico, southern Utah, and Arizona and Mexico.

4. 

   Western Columbine

   4. Aquilegia Formosa, western columbine.  Formosa means beautiful.  It reaches 1 ½ feet tall and bears dangling yellow and red blooms in late spring through early summer.  The spurs are only about ½ to ¾ inch long and point upright, making them ideal for hungry hummers.  They are found in meadows and damp areas of western mountains, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska.

5. Aquilegia longissima, Long Spur Columbine, relies on the sphinx moths with their
   

   Long Spur Columbine

   extra long proboscises to effect pollination; hummer tongues are too short for them to successfully feed on this plant.  This species has particularly large flowers with spurs that are 4 to 6 inches long which makes them inaccessible to hummers.   They are native from west Texas to southern Arizona and northeastern Mexico.

Linda tells about how she over came the winter cold in her greenhouse to keep her plants safe and growing.

Linda from Garden Accent Heaven shows you some of the plants that she grew over the winter inside of her greenhouse.

Balancing Pond

Reduce, reuse, recycle, composting – if you think that these are the only ways to have an eco-friendly garden, think again. Today’s modern homeowner wants aesthetic quality and sustainability

Sure, you want to have lush flowering shrubs or a beautiful and utilitarian herbal garden – and it pays to help the environment while you’re at it.

What are the elements to incorporate in the design to have an eco-friendly garden? Read on to find out.

Eco-Friendly Garden Designs

Basically, your goal when mapping out a plan for your garden is to make sure that it is sustainable, beautiful, useful and eco-friendly.  Here are some important elements that you can Incorporate in your garden’s design to assure that it will not cause harm to the environment:

Eco-friendly Plants

Do your best to have all plant species be eco-friendly. Plants should attract wildlife and create biodiversity in your garden. Eco-friendly plants should increase the population of butterflies, bees and birds.  These plants can be beautiful to look at as well.

Sustainable Materials

From the flower pots to the garden furniture you use to design your garden, all items should be made from sustainable materials. Do these items require less energy to be manufactured, shipped, and installed?   Consider, are these items less harmful to your garden and the environment?
Rainwater Harvesting

It is reasonably easy and not too expensive to incorporate diverters, down sprouts and rain barrels to collect rainwater.  Your plants prefer rainwater over tape water.  Rainwater harvesting is an ideal way to irrigate small gardens.

Balancing Ponds

The main purpose of balancing ponds is to hold and store flood water in case there is excessive rainfall. The installation of balancing ponds on larger acreage will retain a certain volume of water and enhance the performance of the garden by retaining nutrients, organic matter and collected sediment.

By incorporating just these four elements into your garden design, you can easily have an eco-friendly garden that is a beautiful outdoor retreat. You can do your share in helping save the environment.

About the Author – Emma Spivey writes for http://www.solarwaterfountains.org her personal hobby blog focused on tips to design an eco-friendly garden using solar power.

Linda from GardenAccentHeaven.com tells about the problems she had with her gardening plants getting too cold the first year she had her greenhouse and how she solved the problem with a simple and inexpensive fix.