Nature, wildlife, and how gardening affects the environment.
My 2023 Gardening Christmas List
Maybe the biggest miracle of all is that there is enough bounty, beauty, and love for everyone if we tend our world as we tend our gardens.
That time a white Christmas became a nightmare
It’s beginning to look a lot like a green Christmas here in Buffalo and nobody’s complaining. Not after last December’s blizzard. My husband and I were lucky. We were home, [...]
Some leaves I’m not leaving. And I’m confused about leaving the stems
We know a lot more these days about how our gardens can support (or harm) wildlife and, like no doubt many of you, I'm leaving as many leaves in place [...]
King of the Wild Frontier?
I wore a Davy Crockett coonskin hat as a kid and played in the neighborhood woods, singing “King of the Wild Frontier.” Davy Crockett, the song tells us, was born [...]
I’m Getting “Pollinator Steward-Certified”
Concern for pollinators is getting a lot of attention these days, thankfully, but are all the pollinator-supporting programs equally good? As in, supported by science and actually effective? One glaring [...]
Bury me in Nature’s Sanctuary at Laurel Hill Cemetery – My Ideal Green Burial Site
If you recall my rant about the utterly sterile, sad graveyard I noticed in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in this post I'm raving about the exact opposite cemetery. Its founder envisioned [...]
State Department’s Smart, Biodiverse Landscaping is Spreading Around the World, One Embassy at a Time
Entrance garden includes Hesperaloe parviflora, the pink flower seen here. It's a favorite of hummingbirds. I'm back with another Ed Snodgrass story, this one about a tour of [...]
Apocalypse at the garden gate? Not if I can help it.
I wanted to write a garden story with a dozen pictures of pulchritude, but it felt somehow dishonest. Dragging hoses around for weeks has worn me out. At least [...]
Catching up with Green Roof Guru/Citizen Scientist Ed Snodgrass
Ed Snodgrass is best known for the green roof plants he grows at his nursery in Maryland and his green-roof consulting around the world. After first visiting his "farm" in [...]
Bellingham’s garden of beauty, bounty and purpose
I am often grateful when I visit community gardens where there are generous gardeners willing to share and who follow a few rules. Where there is a scarcity of [...]
Enlightened municipal food scrap pick-up is the way to go
Some of us just aren’t composters. Either we don’t have the space or we don’t have the time or we don’t have the inclination. I’d say all three of those [...]
Smokey skies and late season dahlias
A favorite dark-leaved dahlia with fiery single blooms that pollinators love. I don't know about you, but it's easier for me to do something every day than [...]