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February 2012
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Library Thing

  • When Birds Recycle February 3, 2012
    I was out and about on Sunday, cleaning up after the dogs and looking for wildlife of interest. January is not always the best time of year to find things, but Florida has experienced a relatively warm winter and spring is in the air so we have our fair share of resident wildlife meandering around.... [Continue Reading] […]
    Loret T. Setters
  • Orange Moon and The Grandmother Tree February 1, 2012
    Exploring the wonders of nature with the children who come to visit my wildlife garden is one of the greatest joys of my life. We turn over rocks to look for the Worm Snake who lives there. We watch the bugs with our hand lenses. We are amazed when the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis.... [Continue Reading] […]
    Carole Sevilla Brown
  • Green Healthy Lawns and Yards without Chemicals January 31, 2012
    In cased you missed it, last week our very own Carole Brown took the wildlife gardening world by storm with her exposure of the National Wildlife Federation/ScottsMiracle-Gro partnership, which quickly escalated into a widespread social media storm of protest by organic gardeners, farmers and environmental writers. On Sunday, amazingly, the NWF’s reversed th […]
    Ellen Sousa
  • Counting Birds in the Garden January 30, 2012
    I could not have guessed how timely this post would turn out to be.  I thought, I’ll get a head start promoting the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).  After all we want to see more birds in the garden.  But who would have guessed that while I was gazing out my window this past gray... [Continue Reading] […]
    Donna Donabella
  • Feels Like the First Time January 29, 2012
    [Guest post by Jan Bills] “For me the only things of interests are those linked to the heart” ~Audrey Hepburn When I read the email from Carole asking if I would like to write a guest post for her highly regarded, well-respected website, I nearly dropped my teeth! Me, I thought to myself. I am... [Continue Reading] […]
    Guest Author

#GardenChat

Now Harvesting: Heirloom Beans

My green thumb came only as a result

of the mistakes I made while learning

to see things from the plant’s point of view.

~H. Fred Dale

As long as I’ve been growing vegetables in our backyard, I will never tire of harvesting beans. Beans, be [...]

Victory Beans!

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

~William Shakespeare

This is a gardening season has a rallying cry “Rise to the challenge!” The weather has been changeable, unpredictable and just plain odd. The critters are working in tandem a they tour the garden at will and [...]

Now harvesting: Fava Beans

Rain, rain go away… the favas need to be harvested today! Thankfully the afternoon weather turned out to be nicer than the morning’s and I spent time in the garden harvesting the fava beans. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the day of picking for this new-to-my-garden crop ever since the black and white blossoms appeared a few [...]

My New Fava-rite Plant

“Let us cultivate our gardens.”

~Voltaire

My (now retired) hairdresser is to credit with my new fondness for favas. It was his fun and vivid description of his extended Italian family’s annual tradition. Aunts and uncles, cousins young and old, all marching out to their huge shared garden in [...]

Vegetable gardening: 101

I walked in the season’s first snowflakes today. Their visit was fleeting, just a hint of what’s to come by week’s end. I wish they’d stayed, the day was otherwise quite gloomy. That aside, it was a chance for one last visit to the garden for kale and the rest of the parsley. The blonde [...]