Ahhh, nature.  Sometimes a little hard to take, but always an adventure. Recently I had two mockingbird nests with four eggs each, one in the front yard and one in the backyard.  I spotted the one in the backyard, built in a Leyland cypress shrub and rather close to a narrow pathway that runs along […]

Yesterday I began telling the story of how I came to be the garden designer for a celebrity’s wildlife garden. I was as surprised as anyone in the summer of 2012 when my phone rang and on the other end was an internationally known actress and activist who had heard of my ecological garden design […]

I’ve been observing a special visitor to my wildlife garden lately, one that my two Plott Hounds get especially excited about–the raccoons that have taken up residence in the abandoned house next to my property. My Plott hounds are quite adept at helping me spot birds in the wildlife garden, but these raccoons are just […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]