tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009Wed, 04 Feb 2026 13:06:16 +0000gardennonfictionenvironmentPoetryje ne sais quoimonarchsenvrionmentoklahomacreative nonfictionmemoirmonarchswallowtailsfictionnational poetry monthwithout such absencebirdscranesje ne sai quoiswallowtailteachingunlChristmas 2010TwinsVawpbirthdaychapbookcoachingcompostconeflowerfountaingarden tourgardeningggw contestgreen funeralice fogje ne sais qouiorionreligionsnowspring affair plant salesunflowerstour20072008 shrub list20112011 cut down6780s musicA-TeamBPABlyCFLsDr. Famous PantsI don't get itI hate my mailboxKathleen NorrisKunitzLEGOLincoln sucksLinda HoganLouvMFAMerwinNational parksNebraskaNebraska ArboretumNyeOmaha Summer Arts FestivalPBSPhD graduationTim O'BrienUEV8Vanilla IceVoltronWalkena-haaddress labelsairplanesamerican life in poetryanal scrapeb-52baseballbearbeesbirthday 2011black weevilbloodbluebirdboombridgebrrrrrbutterfliescampus shootingscardinalscatschristmas 2007clematiscollegeconeflower barfcoppercrazy state trooper mancrocusdamndancing prisonersdandeliondefensedie rabbit diedissertationdogwooddon't drink anythingdrunk coneflowerdudeedgingemployementen hiverethel glovesetsyfacebookfall colorfall gloryfirst budfirst buds 2008flagsflickerforay into politicsfractalsfreaking early snowfrogfrog 2garden artgarden evolutiongarden rantgardenchatgarfield minus garfieldgeeseglovesgoat peoplegolfgrasshoper carnagegrrrrrhawkhorseshoehow old am I I am this manyiceice fishingje ne sais quouje ne sau quoijellyjokeskansaslawnmowerlilac cakelinky linkliteraturelst-325mary olivermascotmennonitemeowmexicominnesotaminnesota twinsmonarch gardensmonarchs in spacemoomorning gloriesmowingnativesnature deficit disordernoncfictionnot reallynuderpropnurseriesoilorganic fertilizerspacificpapers everywherepeep dioramaplant rightspoetypooppraise be to variois deitiespreying mantisrabbit hellrabbit scatrabbits must die easyradiorainrain barrelrats and catsred knotred-spotted purplered-tailed hawkrejectionsreligion and environmentrenegade gardenerrobinrockrock around the gardenrock my gardensadnesssandhillschool yoscott's logosculpturesedumseed flingingsesame streetsexsheldonshippingsleep creep leapslow deathsnow globesoil testsorespikerboxspring creek prairiestar trek stinksweet autumntall plantstap waterteacherlynesstoo hottraveltreestulipsturkey dayusb stickvaultveggie bedverify thisvernoniaviagra vegetablesviburnumviceroywaspswavy 80s hairwebwidget freakwind powerwritingyatsuhashi | Gardening and Writing in the Prairie Echo |http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)Blogger970125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-5681726530673443104Sun, 02 Nov 2025 17:22:00 +00002025-11-02T11:22:09.833-06:00 If you haven't yet, join me at the new hub for tons of empowering resources. It's time to rethink pretty. It's time to unlawn America. http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2025/11/prairie-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-1875312905548153232Fri, 22 Sep 2017 16:15:00 +00002017-09-22T11:15:50.745-05:00I'm giving a presentation and having a book signing and raffle in Lincoln, Nebraska. You in? Saturday 9/30 from 2-4pm Hardin Hall auditorium 3310 Holdrege UNL's east campus Raffle prizes include signed books, t-shirts, local goods, seeds, plants, and garden tools. Party on! If you want to order a signed copy of the book and have it mailed to you go here.  And if you aren't following http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/09/book-launch-signing-raffle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-288431653130376566Tue, 20 Jun 2017 14:12:00 +00002017-06-20T09:12:18.949-05:00Over on the new site I've got lots of images exploring our backyard meadow and the front prairie beds. http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/06/come-to-new-blog-see-suburban-prairie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-9085427244436555316Mon, 05 Jun 2017 16:23:00 +00002017-06-05T16:07:15.423-05:00The Deep Middle has moved! I'm trying to consolidate my life and make it more streamlined. So the blog will now be at my main website linked here. It's been 10 years on blogger at this web address, sharing my poems and memoir here and there, and certainly tons and tons of garden pics. Not to mention environmental / garden philosophy. Now all of that will be at Monarch Gardens LLC, as well as my http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/06/new-blog-address.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-5638038233713371064Thu, 01 Jun 2017 14:43:00 +00002017-06-01T09:43:46.129-05:00The fescue lawn to meadow conversion, summer #2, keeps plowing ahead. As the 2,000' of fescue blooms, native forbs and grasses among it continue to overtake and outshine. It's only a matter of time now. Tall coreopsis, meadow blazingstar, pale purple coneflower, nodding onion, aromatic aster, smooth aster, calico aster, wild columbine, golden alexanders, black-eyed susan, purple prairie http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/06/lawn-to-meadow-year-2.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-3874484641925858627Mon, 29 May 2017 13:54:00 +00002017-05-29T08:54:29.359-05:00Today we remember those who sacrificed their freedom so we could follow our dreams, and it's not just humans we should be talking about. Prairie dogs, bison, lesser prairie chickens, grassland songbirds, turtles, frogs, bees, black-footed ferrets, orchids, soil microbes, etc. If we want to talk humans, we should also include hundreds of Native American tribes. Happy Memorial Day to the last http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/in-memorium.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-3950746512256872879Mon, 22 May 2017 14:59:00 +00002017-05-22T09:59:45.197-05:00Two weeks ago I heard a calling from under the ceder trees. I swear, local cats must put hobo signs on our fence. There he was, a scrawny kitten about 4 months old, meowing his head off. Of course I befriended him. He'll sleep on my lap purring for as long as I can hold still (current record 45 minutes), follow me around to check on plants, and he loves chasing sticks and eating grass. I'm not http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-garden-needs-your-help.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-7229611844047920202Thu, 18 May 2017 13:22:00 +00002017-05-18T08:22:49.750-05:00This week I was installing a pollinator garden at a local school with the help of volunteers -- mostly some awesome kids from that school. The small garden will not only support wildlife, but increase vegetable yields in nearby raised beds. But all around the school, against every wall, I saw this: A hired crew sprayed Roundup -- we never discovered if it included a pre-emergent or what http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/spraying-away.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-8982582449676586384Wed, 10 May 2017 13:42:00 +00002017-05-10T08:42:51.510-05:00Every plant matters. In a time of climate change and mass extinction, when our culture is disconnected from wildness in our ecoregions, every plant holds the power to reconnect us -- to revive ourselves and the world around us. You can see this effect on a smooth or calico aster in early fall, when dozens and hundreds of pollinators cloud the blooms. You can see it on milkweed with bugs, beetles,http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/joy-is-fewer-plant-cultivars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-482351322492142837Sun, 07 May 2017 15:51:00 +00002017-05-07T10:52:21.538-05:00A few shots of how things are looking. I still prefer autumn and winter -- spring is so blah. And everyone is mowing, blowing, and mowing again. Main garden turn 10 this summer Geum triflorum I don't know on chokeberry. I am far too in love with my slab of steel. Summer #2 for the meadow sown into fescue lawn. 500+ seedlings! http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/spring-images.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-8310985570124192815Tue, 02 May 2017 13:18:00 +00002017-05-02T08:18:30.637-05:00In my forthcoming book I discuss how having hope is not as empowering as we might think, particularly on issues of climate change and social justice for all species. I quote a little Derrick Jensen in that book, but I'm quoting more below. I think it's important to understand that living without hope is not hopelessness; that the condition of not having hope is liberating, not stifling or http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/05/living-without-hope-is-freedom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-5588416193423405811Thu, 20 Apr 2017 13:30:00 +00002017-04-20T08:38:21.203-05:00Whenever I see the word "beauty" used to describe a plant or garden, I cringe on the inside. Beauty is an abstract term based on highly personal and complicated emotions, which are filled with subjective human experiences. While one person may perceive something -- a landscape, a moment -- as beautiful, another may be witnessing ugliness or discomfort. This is true for other species. Which http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/04/gardens-are-not-beautiful.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-5058742493768301454Fri, 07 Apr 2017 13:43:00 +00002017-04-07T08:43:52.548-05:00 "We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-we-see-animals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-4318168111380846745Wed, 29 Mar 2017 14:17:00 +00002017-03-29T09:17:21.610-05:00There are times people think I'm too extreme or passionate about native plants, wildlife, and conservation. But if you read this article you'll see why, and it's totally based off of where I'm from. I live on the edge of the tallgrass, an ecosystem pretty much wiped out by our arrogance and misunderstanding. But just to the west is the most well-preserved prairie ecosystem, the Sandhills. As landhttp://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/03/rebuilding-prairie-at-home-and-beyond.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-4371638179104688482Sun, 19 Mar 2017 22:39:00 +00002017-03-19T17:39:48.583-05:00Every year we drive 90 minutes west to view one of the coolest bird migrations on the planet. And every year before we go I wonder -- why bother? Why do people go year after year just to see the same thing? And then you stand out there among wave after wave of tens of thousands of birds, each calling out to the other with loud, ancient voices that echo from horizon to horizon. You feel the coolhttp://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/03/oh-so-many-sandhill-cranes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-1222532248285844051Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:08:00 +00002017-03-17T10:08:57.221-05:00The recent Cheerios-sponsored wildflower giveaway to save the bees was fraught with problems. First, saving the bees does not mean honey bees, which are imports and globally stable. Honey bees also out compete are more valuable native bees for resources while spreading disease. Second, many of the seeds were exotics, some invasive. And of the native seeds included, they may or may not be native http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/03/cheerios-might-be-bad-for-you-and-bees.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-2224898290716372378Tue, 14 Mar 2017 16:25:00 +00002017-03-14T11:25:02.600-05:00You've probably heard the term "native plant Nazi" used in one context or another. Over the last few years I've heard it used less and less, thankfully, but someone recently used it in a social media comment and, well, it really set off some triggers for me. Almost always the term is used in a passive aggressive / defensive context, particularly in a highly emotional thought. There's nothing http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-troubling-phrase-native-plant-nazi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-3451713249632906957Wed, 01 Mar 2017 14:57:00 +00002017-03-14T13:54:09.261-05:00Are you ready for fall? Pre-order and get 20% off. Releases October 10! http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/03/its-coming.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-6428797052429382473Sat, 25 Feb 2017 16:05:00 +00002017-02-25T10:06:36.649-06:00Lots going on this spring, and I hope we'll be meeting up or working together soon. So, let me share with you a lovely start to 2017: Speaking I'll be appearing at a few places. 3/6 -- Michigan Wildflower Conference -- Lansing, MI -- A New Garden Ethic 4/4 -- Spring Creek Prairie -- Denton, NE -- Gardening for Backyard Birds 4/29 -- Garden and Landscape Expo -- Gillette, WY -- Urban Prairie http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/02/spring-action.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-1317922212752382028Sun, 19 Feb 2017 15:15:00 +00002017-02-19T09:16:40.880-06:00Daffodils, crocus, snowdrops, and tulips do not signify spring to me. Here in the central and northern Great Plains, that role usually falls to pasque flower, which blooms sometime in late March to mid April. While flower bulbs from half a world away may be an aesthetic delight to us, for wildlife and ecosystems they are often as devoid of function as plastic bottles. In garden design circles thehttp://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/02/daffodils-and-hollow-nature.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-6492842992642294052Tue, 14 Feb 2017 15:15:00 +00002017-02-15T08:47:54.796-06:00Our species has long had privilege over other species. Slowly, our privilege has begun to feel like a right -- something preordained. We can see this with white middle and upper class privilege. When anyone starts talking about the rights of others -- the poor, the immigrant, the transgender -- suddenly equality feels like discrimination for those with privilege. Perhaps the same thing happens http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/02/privilege-in-ethial-garden.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-1227142276020443614Sun, 29 Jan 2017 20:32:00 +00002017-01-29T14:32:53.485-06:00I see my garden as an act of compassion and justice. Instead of the tyranny and supremacism of lawn or mulch, there are diverse beds of flowers, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Wide varieties of wildlife throughout the year call the garden home, and I am enriched by their presence and their cultures, not diminished. Together the world and I meet in the garden, we embrace, we commune, we share http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-garden-refugee.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-4756375381720593825Thu, 26 Jan 2017 17:10:00 +00002017-01-26T11:10:12.825-06:00From chapter 5 of my forthcoming garden / nature / philosophy book: "Native plants are the tip of a much larger iceberg. The conversation goes well beyond what is native and why or how gardens work. The very fact that we keep having this conversation in writing and seminars and podcasts, and that it makes some in horticulture uncomfortable, is evidence that we need to be having even larger http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/01/quoting-new-garden-ethic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-5687046640124948191Fri, 13 Jan 2017 15:13:00 +00002017-01-13T09:13:09.528-06:00In most cases, people will tend to believe what they already believe, unfortunately. A core part of my forthcoming book explores the psychology of climate change and environmental issues, which I link up to what often becomes a very heated, very polarized conversation around native plants. I postulate that one reason the native plant conversation becomes either / or relates to how our minds have http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/01/native-plant-activism-social-justice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9218275625589637009.post-7617146328574938305Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:44:00 +00002017-01-01T12:44:39.558-06:00Many new garden design opportunities are coming up, which excites me as I marry that burgeoning practice with the activism I profess in my forthcoming book. I'd still like to get a summer speaking gig on the books, and even one in the fall, as I have three in spring (Iowa, Wyoming, Michigan). In the meantime, I'm celebrating my favorite social media platform -- Instagram. Here are the top 9 http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/2017/01/what-year-it-will-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Benjamin Vogt)1