My gardens are alive with memories of plants and people. When grandpa’s peonies bloom every June, deep-in-my-bones recollections come bubbling up. Even as a toddler, I was irresistibly drawn to the gigantic compost pile inside a crumbling old stone foundation behind his barn. Lusciously fragrant, audaciously magenta peonies bloomed beside the steaming, teeming life-filled mound.Maybe that’s where I caught the gardening bug so early on.
Humans are hard-wired to receive sensory input from nature. Our yards – gardens, landscaping and wild places – offer boundless opportunities to learn from and engage with the natural world. Join Karen Bussolini on June 9 and learn how to engage kids' minds, bodies and senses to create yards that will delight kids and grownups alike...
Providing nesting material helps birds save energy otherwise expended looking for it, but what materials? Birds will construct nests with whatever they find. When filling nesting balls or leaving nesting material outdoors, make sure it's non-toxic, untreated materials that don’t absorb moisture, degrade or entangle baby birds ...
Because we have diverse bee species (long-tongue and short-tongue bees, big ones and small ones, specialists and generalists) with different needs and life cycles, we need diverse kinds of plants - with different sizes, shapes, bloom times, scents, markings, reproductive structures. Read about what's blooming in May and special plants for specialist bees...
As a young gardener getting a whole lot of hands-on experience wrestling out rocks, poison ivy, invasive shrubs and vines, I began doubting the wisdom of traditional garden books - especially regarding double-digging. I could see that plants grew over, around and between rocks in natural areas. Why not find a better way to prepare beds on my rocky mountainside, quit pulling out stones and put plants in the right niches?
Please join me for a day to explore photography, gardening and stewardship of the land we live in at Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center in Litchfield on May 4 - and let's pray for rain. If it's too wet to dig in our gardens, we can feel good about digging into garden photography, environmentally conscious gardening and the art of seeing well.
Willows are unsung heroes when it comes to year-round wildlife support and thoughtful plant selection.
Learn about liberating herbs from the herb garden and how to use them throughout the landscape with garden speaker Karen Bussolini and The Herb Society of America - Long Island Unit on May 9
Climate change has put many co-evolved plants and pollinators out of sync. Beekeepers can monitor their hives and do supplemental feeding. What plants feed early emerging native bees?
If you're eager to support pollinators and other wildlife by planting native shrubs, it's important to know a little bit about their sex lives.