All-season gardening's historical meaning is \;selecting plants like trees\, shrubs\, and flowers so when one pl ant or garden area ceases \;flowering \;colorfully\, another takes over. In the past\, plant choices were often made on the basis of neighbo rs&rsquo\; gardens and the limited selections available in local nurseries or generalized mail order catalogs. Today&rsquo\;s gardeners\, living in the information age\, face many challenges \;unknown to earlier genera tions but which are relevant to the responsible and meaningful gardening t hat is \;important \;to \;today's gardeners. \;
\nFo r example\, today&rsquo\;s gardeners have access to scientific information \, so - without sacrificing colorful flowering aesthetic beauty - \;we can determine which plant species are true natives and thus adapted\, all -season\, to our local climate and soil conditions. Today's gardeners can learn that\, unlike the natives\, most popular nonnative garden plants and nativars \;(cultivars derived from native species) that are available in local nurseries do not provide adequate food or energetic rewards for insect visitors like bees\, butterflies and other pollinators. \;Intel ligent and caring all-season gardening can provide our charismatic \;w ildlife with the \;human help they need to survive and thrive and our gardens with all-season aesthetic beauty. \; \; \;
\nCha rlotte Adelman is an author and native plant lobbyist. When Charlotte Adel man and Bernie Schwartz married\, they moved to Wilmette. This is where th ey spent their marriage practicing law\, bird watching\, and \;transfo rming their backyard into an urban prairie. The success of this project in spired a more intense interest in the environment and the North American p rairie. \;
\nAdelman spent more than a decade advocating for and successfully passing Wilmette's gas-power leaf blower ordinance. She work ed with the Park District and initiated regularly scheduled removals of in vasive nonnative garlic mustard at Keay Park. She advocated successfully f or two units of Wilmette government to stop applying harmful pesticides to public lawns that were used by residents of all ages. Adelman initiated a nd helped create Wilmette's 2-acre Centennial Park Prairie. By giving many prairie tours\, Adelman introduced the ancient prairie ecosystem to numer ous local people \; and encouraged gardening and landscaping with \;native Midwestern prairie species instead of with nonnative plant specie s that originate mostly in Eurasia. \;The couple co-authored \;sev eral books \;including The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Altern atives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants\, \;An Illustrated Guide\, Midw estern Native Shrubs and Trees\, Gardening Alternative to Nonnative Specie s\, \;An Illustrated Guide\, and \;Prairie Directory of N orth America &ndash\; The United States\, Canada\, and Mexico.
\n< p>Monica Buckley\, owner of Red Stem Native Landscapes\, spent most of her childhood summers playing near her Chicago home where giant silk moths em erged from homely brown cocoons\, yellow tiger swallowtail butterflies gra ced the treetops\, and beautiful songbirds dive bombed for caterpillars. L ife would take Monica into the world of publishing for many years until he r passion for native gardens and the wildlife they support demanded her fu ll attention and she opened Red Stem in 2013. \;\n\;
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