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Category Archives: animal life
What bugs me
Don’t worry; this isn’t a rant.
No, I’m just going to talk about bugs. Real bugs. Or, to be more precise: insects.
Let me tell you about the reeducation I’ve been getting as I pivot towards more native plants in the garden. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, pests and problems, plants
Tagged Baltimore checkerspot, black chokecherry, black-eyed Susans, butterfly weed, Canadian hemlock, caterpillars, coral hairstreak, cranesbill, lupine, native plants, native plants nursery, painted lady, pin oak, serviceberry, sugar maple, summersweet, tiger swallowtail, wild bergamot, wild columbine, winterberry
10 Comments
Eleventh Hour
‘Tis the season, at last, for dealing with the last dead or dying scraps before wrapping up the garden for the winter. (Don’t worry: the blog will continue. And I’ll have more time for it!) Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, plants, winter
Tagged allium, aronia, Berkshire Botanical Garden, black vulture, black-eyed Susans, Butterfly bush, carrots, chard, cilantro, coneflowers, COP26, Coreopsis, Cricket Hill Garden, Festiva Maxima, foxglove, frost, garden quilt, garlic, George Orwell, Greenpeace, kale, Kousa dogwood, lettuce, loquat, lychee, mango, mangosteen, medlar, Montauk daisy, parsley, pawpaw, peonies, Rebecca Solnit, reblooming iris, salt-marsh hay, shallots, United Nations, vultures
9 Comments
The Department of You Think You’ve Got Problems
Every once in a while, I learn something that puts my problems into perspective. There are degrees of bad. There’s too much rain in one week, for example, and there’s the Greenland ice cap melting. There’s a very dry June, and there’s the Dixie wildfire and then the Caldor wildfire. But let me take you halfway round the globe and invoke the experience of my friend R. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, pests and problems, plants
Tagged arugula, Bali, basil, bush beans, cabbage moth, carrots, chard, downy mildew, Heliconia, houseplants, late planting, lettuce, Monstera, peas, pest prevention, rabbit, radishes, shiso, snakes, woodchuck
10 Comments
Home Sweet Home
I destroyed somebody’s home about a week back.
Actually, I probably do that a lot without even noticing it, and when I do realize that’s what I’m doing, I stop myself. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, people
Tagged Amazon rainforest, Asclepias tuberosa, bird's nest, birds, bluebirds, climate change, coneflower, deforestation, extinction, homelessness, invasive species, milkweed, robins, spiders
12 Comments
Exceeding Expectations
In a garden, as in life, we think we like predictability. But natural forces are not givens, and sometimes things happen that foil our efforts. And yet, the unexpected in the garden can bring zings of delight. I’ve been savoring many of those. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, garden tasks, plants, spring, summer
Tagged cornflower, crocus, daffodil, Eremurus bungei, foxtail lily, friends, garlic scapes, grape hyacinth, grasshopper, holiday, hummingbirds, mushrooms, penicillium mold, peony 'Charles Burgess', weeds
10 Comments
Spring, Sprang, Sprung
Whatever it is that spring does to the soul, it’s doing it bigtime this year. And even though I owe you a long overdue Post, full of facts and tips and musings (insight is accidental), all I feel capable of is an ode to joy. So here’s to spring! Continue reading
Posted in animal life, garden tasks, plants, spring
Tagged bees, cherry, crab apple, dandelion, forsythia, Johnny jump-up, plantain, rain, tulips, weeds
21 Comments
For the birds
I was wondering whether there’s anything going on outside that you might want to hear about, and I thought: BIRDS! Who doesn’t love them and want more of them around?
So I looked into birds. That’s when it got interesting. Like a train wreck is interesting.
But hang on, because I also found some inspiration. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, pests and problems, plants
Tagged amaryllis, Audubon Society, bird baths, bird feeders, birds, black swallowtail, caterpillar, climate change, Douglas W. Tallamy, extinction, killdeer, milkweed, mockingbird, monarch butterfly, NABCI, narcissus, Native Plant Finder, native plants, North American Bird Conservation Initiative, parsley, peppermint oil, seed catalog, State of the Birds, strawberry, whooping crane
12 Comments
New Year’s (ir)resolutions
Not all surprises are nice surprises. Case in point: 2020.
In the midst of the year from hell’s lower reaches, in which just about everyone lost something precious—mobility, jobs, close contact, sense of security, peace of mind, and worst of all, loved ones—there were still a few sweet blossoms. Possibly more of the literal ones than usual, since so many people turned to their gardens to get through.
But after the past nine months of cascading whack-a-mole disasters, are you making new year’s resolutions this year? My main resolution is not to make them.
Here’s why. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, winter
Tagged brain, cleanup, fence, geranium, holiday, raised beds, water, woodchuck
10 Comments
A whole new world: Beyond the Thanksgiving myth
Before you sit down at the groaning board to tuck into that Thanksgiving feast, pause a moment.
If you’re going traditional, here’s what is probably on your table: Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, people, plants
Tagged Abenaki, achillea, amaranth, American persimmon, asclepias, avocado, beans, blueberry, cassava, chilis, coneflower, corn, cranberry, echinacea, elderberry, ethnobotany, fiddlehead, food groups, giant leopard plant, ground cherry, heritage seeds, holiday, Jerusalem artichoke, maize, Mashpee, milkweed, mole (the sauce), monarch butterfly, Native American, papaya, pawpaw, peanut, pineapple, pollinator garden, potato, pumpkin, quinoa, ramps, raspberry, salmonberry, Seeds of Renewal, smallpox, squash, sweet potato, teosinte, Thanksgiving, tomato, tractor plant, tribal agriculture, turkey, USDA Zone 10, USDA Zone 7, USDA Zone 8, Wampanoag, White Earth Lands, wild rice, wild turkey, yarrow
6 Comments