September 2010 « Get in the Garden

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
The Tatting of the Lacewing May 3, 2013
Observation in the garden comes easily to me. I meditate each day as I walk around the property, camera in pocket, noting any subtle nuances from other times that I’ve walked the same path. You’d be surprised that just a hint of a different color on something can attract my attention, no matter how small. […]
Loret T. Setters

P-O-P Corn

The laziest man I ever met

put popcorn in his pancakes

so they would turn over by themselves.

W. C. Fields

Fresh popping corn bought from a local farmer each autumn has become a tradition for our family. Each Thanksgiving Day as we eagerly [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

#Gardenchat Facelift: New Format

#gardenchat

Mondays, 9 p.m. (ET) – 10:00 p.m.

What do you get when you add one garden topic, one guest host who specializes in that topic, an avid and friendly group of gardeners and Twitter? The answer is #gardenchat, a forum for sharing all things growing as well as a host of other [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Talking Pumpkins?!

I would rather sit on a pumpkin

and have it all to myself,

than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

~Henry David Thoreau

Our heirloom pumpkin harvest is still a few weeks off. Though the vines are starting to die back a bit and the [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Make Your Own Pectin

“If you have an apple and I have an apple

and we exchange these apples

then you and I will still each have one apple.

But if you have an idea and I have an idea

and we exchange these ideas,

then each [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Conserving Calories In The Garden

“Evolution has not been kind to the bees.”

R. Hellmann

Plant ecologist Robert Hellmann has a lifelong love of studying plants. His passion is now being lived out as he restores six acres of abandoned farm land to reflect the native wildlife areas of New York. His [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Wordless Wednesday:

I’ve watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! – not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
~William Wordsworth, “To a Butterfly”

Share this post

Hide Sites

A Local Gem

A gentlemen is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.

~George Bernard Shaw

I never know what new things I’ll discover when I visit local garden shops. On a recent trip to our favorite nursery we not only found several native plants to consider for [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Where Have All The Gall Flies Gone?

I know the lands are lit

With all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.

~Helen Hunt Jackson, Asters and Goldenrod

Today’s damp autumn weather has kept me indoors tending to the chores I left unfinished the moment spring’s first breath was upon the garden. It’s been [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites

Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate

Is not a kiss the very autograph of love?

~Henry Finck

Have you ever grown a plant for years only to have it slowly disappear, unnoticed perhaps, from your garden? I confess that though I keep a good record of what I have planted every season there’s a lot [...]

Share this post

Hide Sites