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  • Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly May 20, 2013
    Butterfly season is finally here in my beautiful wildlife garden !  This week my brother and I finished releasing our winter batch of butterflies that have been hibernating inside their chrysalises since last fall.  All of them were swallowtail species – Zebra, Eastern Black, Spicebush, Pipevine and Eastern Tiger.  They have been emerging almost daily […]
    Judy Burris
  • Being Green in the Wildlife Garden May 17, 2013
    As I do every morning, I was walking around the property enjoying nature at its best.  I took my normal route past the Rusty Lyonia, Pawpaws and Dwarf Oaks, among others and headed down the bank of the pond into the section that dries up during Florida dry season.  I checked two small temporary pools […]
    Loret T. Setters
  • Silver Dune Lupines of California’s Central Coast May 16, 2013
    An Amtrak train announces its arrival at Grand Avenue Station.  The familiar whistle tells us it is 7:10 am.  At the same time, I can hear the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing in. I take a walk on the Boardwalk.. it is early… fog is drifting in from the Ocean in large sweeps.  Silver […]
    Kathy Vilim
  • Progress in My Wildlife Garden May 15, 2013
    You may remember that at the end of last summer I worked with my nephew Lucas to rip out my entire wildlife garden because too many invasive plants had taken over. I had to make some choices about what plants could stay, and which ones had to go. In some cases, the invasive plants were […]
    Carole Sevilla Brown
  • Weird Weather and Winter Weeds May 13, 2013
    “I plowed the peas under,” said one of my farmer friends glumly at the market. “They weren’t doing anything but turning yellow.” The farmers in stalls on either side nodded. One does rabbits commercially, and has a garden rather than a farm, but she added “Lost all the broccoli too.” More nods all around. Unfortunate […]
    Ursula Vernon
  • Pondering New Residents in the Garden May 10, 2013
    Just when I think my home wildlife experiences can’t get any better, THEY DO!!!! What a week it was with the pond.  Four new entries on my wildlife life list.  Okay, aside from my Audubon checklist booklet, I don’t have a formal list that I write on. I pretty much keep track via my blog […]
    Loret T. Setters
  • Tried and True Native Perennials for Sun – SE Edition May 9, 2013
    The southeastern region of the US is blessed with some exceptional growing conditions, and the native plants that have always made it their home are rich in diversity. With a region that encompasses mountain tops and coastal plains, a variety of plants exists to satisfy every condition you could have in a garden. Yet we […]
    Ellen Honeycutt
  • What to Know About Attracting Native Bees May 8, 2013
    I’ve been doing a lot of research about attracting native bees to get ready for my appearance at BeesWeek at the Albuquerque Film and Media Experience week-long festival in New Mexico this June 3 – 9. There’s a lot to learn! So I wanted to gather together some of the best resources to help you […]
    Carole Sevilla Brown
  • American Fringe Tree Chionanthus Virginicus Flowering Tree for Urban Gardens May 7, 2013
    American Fringe Tree Chionanthus virginicus has long been a favorite of mine for small space and urban gardens. It is a stunner in bloom – not much compares, and the summer and fall foliage is attractive enough to be worth incorporating it into a formal landscape design. I am happy to have seen this native […]
    Karyl Seppala

#GardenChat

The New Year

“That’s a pie-crust promise: easily made, easily broken.”

-Mary Poppins

Christmas for my family this year was very bittersweet. My youngest brother was killed early Christmas morning. Our days of celebration have been marred with mourning and yet we have overcome the pain of the tragedy and are stronger for it. [...]

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas surprises

New books from hubby…he likes the idea of chickens!

A gift certificate for currant bushes and a seed library membership.

A surprise portrait from our children. PRICELESS!

Baby okra appeared on Christmas!

The first baby tomatoes appeared on Christmas, also.

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Use your imagination!

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation

and a pinch of creativity.”

It’s not quite January and already several friends and neighbors have asked me what I’ll be planting in the garden. The question comes up every winter and is inevitably followed by “What should I plant?” I don’t mind offering a plant selection for [...]

Hoe, Hoe, Hoe!

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference,

ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up

to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

Marian Wright Edelman

Congratulations to all of the winners of the heirloom seed [...]

Bloom, baby, bloom!

The first indoor garden bloom prize goes to Lobularia maritima (Alyssum).

46 days after the tomato seeds were planted indoors:

Coming in a close second is "Silvery Fir Tree" heirloom tomato.

Happy “First Day of Winter” everyone!

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Christmas

Every burden is a blessing.

-James Allen

Last Friday our daughter turned down dinner and holiday baking at our house because she “had plans”. That’s not surprising. She’s 22, and with her own apartment and a rare weekend off from work at the hospital, (she’s a registered nurse on a med./surg. unit.) dinner [...]

Vegetable gardening 101: (Final)

A last reminder about the heirloom seed give-away. I’ll be drawing names on December 22 to win free heirloom seeds just for visiting my site. To enter, simply leave a comment or send along an e-mail to getinthegarden@gmail.com  and mention heirloom seeds in the subject line. It’s my way of saying “Thanks” for stopping by [...]

Ch, ch, ch, changes...

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces,

and which most men throw away.

-Charles Caleb Colton

“Wordless Wednesday: The indoor garden.”

Eggplant November 2009.

"White Egg" eggplant, December 2009.

Five-color silverbeet, December 2009.

Silverbeet, December 2009.

Dwarf okra, [...]

Snail mail surprise

What timing! Just as I posted the next-to-last entry of the vegetable gardening series… the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog arrived in the mail. One look is enough to send me running for a pen to begin marking notes, by tomorrow the pages will be dog-eared. (And I’ve already placed an order!) This catalog is [...]

Vegetable gardening: 101 (part 5)

In the smallest of yards and the biggest of cities people make room to grow summer’s essential vegetables: tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. (O.K. technically they’re fruits.) In pots or plots everyone loves fresh, juicy tomatoes ripened in the summer sun, crisp sweet peppers and tender eggplant picked fresh for cooking. Seed varieties are available from [...]