Inspiration

Ideas from our monthly newsletter

Design
Nick Lawler

Landscape Design During Drought

Design · Firewise · Water Harvesting Thinking About Landscaping During Drought? Here’s What We’ll Talk About Making your home safe, beautiful & resilient Before & After: From neglected, unwatered lawn to biodiverse, native and adapted waterwise plantings. When the land is dry and water restrictions

Read More »
Plant Pick
Nick Lawler

Color Guard Yucca

▶ Vlog Plant Pick of the Month Color Guard Yucca Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’ Your browser does not support the video tag. Eva on why Color Guard Yucca earns its place in any firewise, water-wise, or high-altitude garden. Water needs Very low once established Hardiness

Read More »
Design
Nick Lawler

Seating Walls: Water-wise & Fire Resilient Architecture

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

Read More »
Hand-made earth pigmented paints on canvas of La Plata Mountains, Colorado
Design
Columbine Landscapes

Rock & Roots: Crevice Gardens in the Southwest

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

Read More »
Appreciating the beauty in winter garden maintenance
Gardening Tips
Columbine Landscapes

The Quiet Beauty of Winter

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

Read More »
Conservation Tips
Columbine Landscapes

FungiSmiles: A Smarter Solution to Steep Slopes and Fire Risk

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

Read More »
Firewise
Columbine Landscapes

Community Efforts for Firewise Landscapes

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

Read More »
Fall Clean Up
Columbine Landscapes

Firewise Fall Clean up Conundrum

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

Read More »
Design
Columbine Landscapes

Firewise Plant Selections

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

Read More »
Design
Columbine Landscapes

Natural Transitions: Zone 3

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

Read More »
Design
Columbine Landscapes

The Goldilocks Zone: Defensible Zone 2

  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,

Read More »
Firewise
Columbine Landscapes

Defensible Space: The Wonders of Zone 1

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

Read More »