Late summer brought on that old familiar feeling. Bittersweet. Summer is almost over, and fall is on its way. Autumn may very well be the most beautiful season in Wyoming. The wind quiets down. The nights cool. The skies are brilliantly, painfully, blue. Every sunny day (which is most of our autumn) is one more…
Author: wyominglife
National Public Lands Day
This Saturday, Sept 24, is National Public Lands Day. You can find volunteer activities to support the management of public lands here. Wyoming is about 48% public land, meaning over 46 million acres of Wyoming is ‘owned’ by the citizens of the US and managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service,…
Pricklypear Cactus; Look But Don’t Touch
Lewis probably said it best when he referred to Pricklypear as “one of the beauties as well as the greatest pests of the plains.”1 I usually see it with a pale yellow bloom, so this beautiful apricot colored version caught my attention. Opuntia polyacantha, Prickly Pear cactus, or Plains Pricklypear, is a common plant of…
Glass Eyed Pony
Glass eye Wall eye China eye Clydesdale eye Cotton eye “When horsemen speak of a glass-eyed horse, they refer to an eye that is any color other than normal [brown], but the eye is usually some shade of blue. A ‘china eye’ is blue, a ‘wall eye’ is part blue and part white, and a…
Natural Variation: The Stuff of Plant Breeding
It’s the natural variation already present in native plants which allows plant breeders to offer cultivars, selections, and varieties to the home gardener. When I consider purchasing plants billed as ‘native’ I narrow my choices to selections of species naturally occurring in my area. Generally, a selection is propagated by selecting plants grown from ‘wild’…
Sometimes It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better
It’s true of: 1. Training young horses 2. Training young stock dogs 3. Cleaning the house
Wyoming State Fair
We took the short drive to Douglas, Wyoming to catch the Friday night rodeo at the Wyoming State Fair. The state fair has a small town atmosphere where you feel the permission to slow down, view the displays (AMAZING display of hand made quilts), sample some ‘fair food’ and watch the rodeo. Our night at…
Wyoming Butterfly
As I drove past the Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus), a common native plant of the western United States, I saw it was covered with these medium sized orange-brown butterflies. First we had to remember how to tell a butterfly from a moth. The overlapping wings and bulb ended antennae are indicative of butterflies, along with the…
Water Quality in the Arid West
Rural Property in the Arid West: Water Quality Rural property owners in the arid west often face water quality issues. The rock strata holding our ground water often results in saline and alkaline water. If you are a rural property owner with a private well, you should regularly test your water. If you are considering…
Roadside “Wildflower”
As I noted in this post on Wyoming wildflowers that aren’t really wildflowers, here is a better shot of what roadside alfalfa looks like.
Sprinkles of Desert Sandwort
The sagebrush steppe is sprinkled with the native plant Eremogone congesta, or Desert Sandwort.
Wyethia for Landscaping
Native Plants for Landscaping Mule’s Ears or Wyethia amplexicaulis. Ok, tell me again why I have never tried to grow this? What’s not to like? Its large 10-12 inch leaves are very unique when it comes to Wyoming native plants. They would lend an almost tropical feel to a garden. The large (3-4 inches), bright…
Wyoming Life 