Colorado Native Plants
Lakewood, Colorado 80232 awrightsagebrush@gmail.com 303-489-6290
Native Plant Landscaping & Seeding
To create a landscape using native plants simply contact me by phone or email. I can help you select the proper plants for your location and create customized landscapes that will remain beautiful for years and require very little maintenance. Once established the native plants selected for your location will require no additional water. There is no need for irrigation and all of the headaches associated with having a system. You will definitely save money by having plants that require less water. I can also help you select a grouping of native plants that will provide you with year round interest.
In late May 2014 I created this plant bed in Morrison, Colorado using live plants. The pics on the left were taken just after I planted the plants. The pics in the middle are of the native plant bed as it grew during the late summer of 2014. The pics on the right are of the same area in summer of 2015.
Another project I worked on was to aid in the rescue of a Soapweed Yucca that was being smothered by invasives in Morrison, CO. The area was cleared and native plants were installed around the perimeter of the yucca. After that I applied a layer of mulch, which is mostly gone by 2015 but it's not really necessary now that there are plenty of well rooted natives growing there. The first three pics were taken during the summer of 2014, and the last pic at the bottom right was taken in mid July of 2015. I think that yucca is doing quite a bit better.
I can help you create a native plant landscape of any size. I have live plants available to use for landscaping, and I can also clear, prepare, and seed areas large or small as well. Scroll down to see information about native plant garden beds and seeding, or click on the links below to learn more about my other native plant landscaping services and to see examples of projects.
Native Plant Garden Beds& Seeding
I can also help you create a garden bed of any size or shape using native plants. I can clear an area for you, bag up/haul away invasive plants (and their roots), and plant live plants to create a diverse native planting. I can create beds with or without mulch. The best times to plant are spring and fall, but natives can be planted any time during the growing season. Below are some examples of my projects in 2014-2017. To see pics of my other projects as well as additional pics of the projects listed below visit my COLORADONATIVEPLANTSFACEBOOK PAGE.
I can help you create a seed bed of any size or shape using a diverse mix of native plants that are perfectly suited for your location. I can dig out an area, prepare it for seeding, and seed the area. Seeding is the most economical way to bring a large number of native plants to your property. Seeding can be done at almost any time of the year, as long as you have an area cleared out with exposed soil for the seeds to bind to.
The best time to seed for native plants is during the winter months and spring months, from roughly after the first hard freeze (October usually) until summer. Some species can be sown in the warmer months and some need to be sown in the winter to break dormancy.
This was my very first project located in Morrison, CO and is very special to me. When I started my clients purchased a few plants from me, and that led me (and my clients) to eventually begin restoring most of the property back to a native state. We have learned a lot since we began. The property is an important wildlife corridor for mule deer and the occasional elk, and they frequent the property during certain times of the year. Most of the habitat in the area has either been overtaken by cheatgrass, smooth brome, or housing developments, but a few native pockets still exist. My clients and I have worked on this for several years, and we have made significant progress. If you keep scrolling down you can see how everything looks each year up to 2018. The pics below show some of the areas that I cleared and seeded in June & July 2014 in Morrison, CO, which is when I began the project.
NATIVE PLANT ID SERVICES
Below are some pics of native plants that I identified in Morrison,CO in June & July 2014 on my client's property. I then cleared out the invasive plants around them. There were definitely some real jewels located under the invasive canopy of Smooth Brome. In areas of Quackgrass and Cheatgrass we were not so lucky. Colorado was still under there in some spots and those plants are now thriving and spreading.
If you have an area of plants growing on your property, and you're wondering which ones are native and which are not, I am at your service. Do I know how to ID every native plant just by looking at it? NOPE. But I know a lot of them, especially the most common ones, and I won't remove a plant until I know what it is. We can probably key out most any plant, or use the vast resources of the internet to figure out what something unknown is eventually. As long as we can find some distinctive characteristics and maybe what family the plant is in, we can probably be on the road to IDing the plant or plants in question. I can ID natives and remove unwanted vegetation around them for you.
These are some pics of garden beds that I prepared and planted in Parker, CO during the summer of 2015. I cleared the areas and added native plants and mulch. These areas were difficult because of the slopes, but I was able to get some stuff going for sure.
The pics below are of the same areas in July 2015.
This is an area in Morrison, CO that I seeded that was formerly filled with Cheatgrass. It was seeded during the summer of 2014.
Here are some pics of the same beds pictured above in Parker during the summer of 2016. The plants are starting to attain a nice size now and we are starting to get things filled in. These pics were taken in June, July, August, and September of 2016.
This is a project I have been working on in Parker,CO. I planted live plants in these beds in 2015 and 2016. I also seeded these areas. By the second year these areas started to grow in well and we are continuing to add plants. Below are some pics of how these beds looked in the summer of 2015, and further below you can see how they grew in the summer of 2016 and 2017.
Here are the same areas and how they looked during the late summer of 2017.
This is a project I started in late 2016 in Longmont, CO. The area was infested with Crested Wheatgrass and other weeds and I cleared it out, seeded the area, and planted a garden bed as well in 2016. These are some pics from 2016 and 2017 as it was cleared out and they show how the plants grew as well.
This is a project I worked on in Denver that I started in 2016 and continued working on in 2017. This project is located right in the heart of Denver, just blocks from I-25 and a block from Washington Park. In late 2016 and early 2017 I dug up the lawn that was there and seeded the area with a custom shortgrass prairie mix. During the summer 2017 I also added live plants as well during the growing season. I battled some weeds in the beginning for sure, but once the natives started to root it became much easier, and now the weeds have pretty much been eliminated. In 2018 the weeding was minimal and a few new plants were added. This project is also a certified wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation, which is pretty cool considering it's urban proximity.
Invasive Weed Removal
(Cheatgrass, Small Flowered Alyssum, Knapweed, Knotweed, etc.)
This is a project on Lookout Mountain I have been working on in 2016 and 2017. This area was infested with Cheatgrass and Small Flowered Alyssum. I began clearing it out and weeding these areas, and they have shown a dramatic improvement. What is unique about this project is the amount of natives that were present on the property, and once the areas were cleared of cheatgrass and alyssum they really responded. I cleared all these areas by hand and with tools, never would I ever use herbicides. By the end of 2017 I have pretty much eliminated the cheatgrass, and the alyssum are very much on the decline.
I can remove invasive weeds from you property without herbicides or any other chemicals. I can also help you with a management plan to prevent future outbreaks, as well as beautify your landscape. Invasive weeds are a major fire hazard and are not useful to wildlife or insects. They choke out native plants and cause erosion as well.
Here are some pics of how everything was looking in 2017. It is starting to look more natural now, and we are getting some of the native grasses established as well. Some of the flowers have thinned out a little too which is good, and is allowing space for a more diverse array of natives.
Here are some pics of how everything was looking during the summer and fall of 2018. The plants have really matured and are definitely making a statement now. They are absorbing and storing a ton of carbon, as well as hosting a variety of insect life. The first four pics were taken in June 2018, the next six pics were taken in September 2018, and the last two were taken in early November 2018. In 2019 we will continue improving the habitat by adding new plants to improve diversity, as well as thinning out some of the yarrows too.
