What to Plant for Pollinators – July into August
Favorite pollinator plants bloom for a long time and attract all manner of beneficial insects. Learn what to plant for July and August flowers for pollinators.
Last Chance for June Cutbacks
Life is too short to fuss with staking perennials to keep them upright and looking good. It's easy to control the eventual height of many perennials if you cut them back early. Cutting back stimulates new branching.
The Art and Science of Mingling
In nature, you don't see plants just sitting there next to each other, politely not touching. They grow together, in community, without wood chip mulch in between, without social distancing. How do they manage to mingle, and how can we emulate natural plant communities in our home landscapes?
Step Up Your Eco-Game: Part 1. Brainstorm and Lay Out Gardens On-Site
How to get rid of lawn - equivalent to an ecological desert - and create perennial beds under trees. An eco-friendly garden coach and homeowner brainstormed together and laid out new beds to create an attractive eco-friendly yard that attracts wildlife and is easy to maintain.
What Are Your Weeds Telling You? And What To Do About It
In my training as a NOFA-Accredited Organic Land Care Professional, I was intrigued to learn a bit about what the plants we call weeds reveal about soil. Wanting to learn more, I called the instructor Michael Nadeau, Wholistic Land Care Consultant at his home in Connecticut. Mike, a leading authority on sustainable organic and ethical [...]
Get the Jump on Invasive Shrubs
Not bound by the same interrelationships, many invasive plants get the jump on natives by greening up earlier, growing faster, photosynthesizing longer. March offers a window of opportunity to recognize and remove them before native plants leaf out and gardeners get too busy to notice.
Native Plant Clues: What Wants to Be Here?
To restore, protect or create habitat, first you need to determine what is already there to preserve and encourage to spread. Even in winter, deciduous trees and shrubs offer a lot of clues about the site and what wants to grow there.
Monarch’s Eye(s) View
As we all know, iconic, fascinating, beautiful (and seriously threatened) monarch butterflies are milkweed specialists. So how do monarch butterflies find milkweed plants? Read how to design gardens for maximum monarch butterfly benefit.
Carpenter Bees at Work in Home and Garden
Bees are smart. They recognize high quality food and habitat. The buzz has gone out that my house is a happening place for carpenter bees. I don't want to kill or drive carpenter bees away, I just don't want them messing with my house. Looking into their habits and life cycle gives clues to peaceful coexistence with carpenter bees.
Ecologically Important Pest Dilemma
I love watching songbirds gobble down bugs and berries on the staghorn sumacs planted outside my front window and listening to owls whoo-ing nearby at night. But some wildlife - voles - have worn out their welcome by eating plants and tunneling through gardens. How do I establish self-sustaining wildlife-friendly plant communities when the wildlife keeps eating my plants? Voles and mice play an important role in ecosystems - but I want them out of my garden.