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  • 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

#GardenChat

Wordless Wednesday: Vegetables

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep
contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody
could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process
of creation.  It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to
observe a hill of [...]

It's Bean Wonderful!

Weather means more when you have a garden.

There’s nothing like listening to a shower

and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.

~Marcelene Cox

Do you remember the first seed you ever planted? Mine was a bean seed. I grew [...]

Our Song of Spring

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.

~Lou Holtz

Spring’s arrival is heralded not only by the sweet scent of blossoms and the melodies of birds, but the full choir of nature. Our yard is awakening a bit more each warm day that passes [...]

April Garden Chores

“April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go.”

~Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe

March is nearly at an end, it’s time to look ahead to April garden chores. Though temperatures rise throughout the month, rain is the norm in many parts of the country. It’s important to remember not [...]

Spring Fever

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

~Soren Kierkegaard

I don’t know why I let it happen every spring, but I do. The beautiful sunshine beckons me outdoors where I’ve longed to be all winter. Sowing seeds in warmed soil, relaxing outside with a book [...]

A Bee In My Garden

It’s wonderful to me that bees have this simple, age-old thing going on.

~Peter Fonda

I knew when I heard the soft sound of buzzing it was officially spring in the garden. If the bees are awake and foraging what other proof could we demand? At once the transformation from winter to spring [...]

Green and Easy, Down the Row I Go

Have you got a problem? Do what you can where you are with what you’ve got.

~T. Roosevelt

Every now and then a random conversation will spark an idea for a blog post.  Yesterday I mentioned that liquid kelp is a valuable and nutrient rich fertilizer for plants to a vegan friend who [...]

I like rain, actually.

~Bill Rodgers

The rains have moved in and happy outdoor seed sowing days have come to an end for now. It was wonderful to be out in the sunshine (in short sleeves no less!) turning over the winter rye and marking furrows for tiny seeds. The warm [...]

March Garden Chores

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

~Theodore Roosevelt

With the “official” first day of spring merely eleven (!) days off,  it’s a good time to plan monthly garden chores. It’s helpful to keep track of progress and record [...]

The Dandelion and Me

“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass,

just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.”

~Henry Ward Beecher

Every gardener has given thought at [...]