Education — Lenhardt Library

Rain Gardens: Beautiful, Beneficial, or Both?

Not only can rain gardens soak up 30 percent more water than a typical lawn, they minimize erosion. Through plant absorption, rain gardens also reduce water pollution by cleaning up 80 percent of its chemical composition. Put rain from your roofs, gutters, driveways, or lawns to good use!

Kitchen Gardens, or do you say "Potager"?

Kitchen gardens are undergoing a rebirth, "le renaissance du le potager jardin," due to rising costs of food, concern with food safety, and food sourcing. Other advantages of having your own kitchen garden are being able to grow vegetables year-round and the overwhelming reward of self-sufficiency.

Is the meaning of xeriscaping escaping you?

Try drought-resistant gardening, dry gardening, or just plain old gardening with less water. As our climate continues to change and expanding populations strain water supplies around the globe, drought is one of our biggest concerns.

Petscaping: Designing with Furry Friends in Mind

Gardening is always fun, but think about how much more fun it can be when you add your pets into the mix; especially since they probably spend as much time in the garden as you do, if not more.

Pump up the Jam: Preserving the Harvest

Canning and preserving fruits and vegetables are an economical and delicious way to ensure you have vitamin-rich, tasty foods throughout the seasons.

Butterfly Gardening on the Rise

If you're planning on creating a butterfly garden it's good to know a few things before you get started. Identifying these beautiful pollinators will help you determine the plants you'll need in your garden.

Vertical Gardens Teach Us to Grow Up,
Especially when the Stakes are High

Space is a huge issue for many gardeners. With vertical gardening, you only need the bed to be as large as the root system. A little bit of space, planning, and planting, and you'll be growing up in no time.

Saving Heirloom Seeds, a Great Return on Investment

If you've ever gotten seeds from your grandparents or your neighbor's aunt twice removed, and were told they were from the sweetest tomatoes they'd ever eaten or the most beautiful columbine they'd ever seen, chances are these seeds were heirlooms.

Urban Farming

Whether you'd like to grow your own vegetables, curb your carbon footprint, or get involved in a community garden and bring about socio-economic change, urban farming may be for you.

Eating Local

Everywhere you turn you hear the expression, "Think globally, eat locally." What does that really mean? Buying locally means it takes less time to arrive from "farm to fork." Find out what it means for you.

Green Roof Gardening

Planning a green roof project? Bone up on your green roof knowledge before you build. Depending on the plants in a green roof garden, it may be a sustainable landscape, a habitat for migrating birds and pollinators, or a native plant garden. The many benefits of green roofs include lowering air temperature and reducing the effects of urban heat islands in summer, collection of rain water, and improvement of air quality.