News, Tips and Updates
Seating Walls: Water-wise & Wildfire Resilient Architecture Landscape design is at its best when beauty and function come together. A seating wall does exactly that — it’s a place to sit, a piece of architecture, a water management tool, and a fire-resilient landscape element all
Rock & Roots: Crevice gardens in the Southwest Caroline Golarz, Landscape Designer, Columbine Landscapes Co. Crevice gardens are having a moment as many of us look at ways we can lessen our ecological footprint. An accessible place for us to do this is
Tips on Winter Garden Maintenance Natali Ittenberg, Landscape Designer, Columbine Landscapes Co. One of the questions I hear often from clients is, “Do I need to take care of my plants in winter?” And the answer is always yes—especially here in the Four
A Smarter Solution to Steep Slopes and Fire Risk: Fungal Solutions In our final newsletter for 2025, we continue our firewise theme offering a new, eco-friendly solution for many of us who own hillside property. You already know the struggles—erosion, thin soils, unstable
Living in the Wildland Urban Interface, I’ve always been aware of the wildfire risk around my home. As our summers get hotter and drier that risk feels more urgent and I realized I couldn’t take it on alone. Fire doesn’t stop at property lines. One house
In my role running a company like Columbine, I often think I should have all the answers, but the fact of the matter is, I don’t. One thing I love about the work we do is that there’s always more to learn. As our understanding
Choosing the right plants for your firewise landscape goes a long way to increase fire resiliency when combined with the guidelines I’ve detailed in the last 3 articles regarding defensible zones 1, 2, and 3. Firewise means fire resistant, or less flammable. Although some plants
There are so many opportunities in each of the 3 firewise defensible zones. As I’ve detailed in the previous months’ articles for zone 1 and zone 2, zone 3 has it’s own guidelines that will help you have a beautiful, graceful, and firewise landscape. It’s
If you haven’t already noticed after reading our last firewise article, my intention is to fill you with hope and inspiration regarding your firewise landscape. I know it is easy to have a rather dour demeanor in regards to the matter, and no wonder,
In this third installment of our year-long series on firewise landscaping, we are going to define defensible space and go into some detail on zone 1, the nearest and dearest of the 3 zones. Defensible space refers to the managed area immediately surrounding a home
Let’s start from the ground up. I insist that my team refer to what is underfoot as soil, not dirt. It is the basis of life on earth after all, let’s give it some respect. Dirt is something undesirable that we want to get
What does Firewise Mean & Why is it Important? You can bet fire is on my mind after this dry winter. You can look at the Drought Monitor and see that currently we are on the edge of D1 (Moderate Drought) and D2 (Severe
