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Category Archives: animal life
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
Reconstruction, garden variety
Here it is November, edging into the middle of the month, and for a brief and lovely week, the march of the seasons hit pause-and-rewind.
The warm spell put me back on the hook, though: things I had thought were past praying for, all of a sudden weren’t. Things I thought would just have to wait till spring, now became not only possible but even, perhaps, mandatory. After all, there were (and still are) piles of mulch and topsoil in the driveway, waiting for me to do something with them. They must be dealt with, or horrors will happen…. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, pests and problems, soil
Tagged cedar, chard, chicken wire, geranium, hardware cloth, herbs, mulch, raised beds, tarp, woodchuck
6 Comments
Division and diversity: A gardener’s tale
In the garden, diversity is the way to go.
I love peonies, but a whole yard full of them? Glory-be would break out in late May, last two to three weeks, and then… nada.
… in honor of election day, I figured it was a good time to start looking at some of the diversity in our country that spans red states and blue states. When you get right down to it, we gardeners all live in green states.
So this past Friday, while two inches of wet snow fell relentlessly on my surroundings, my friend Hillary gave me a tour of her thriving garden in Charleston, South Carolina. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, plants, seasons, soil
Tagged aloe, bird feeders, butter butt, cleanup, coastal gardening, crape myrtle, hibiscus, hummingbirds, hurricanes, hydrangea, lantana, lawn signs, magnolia, Meyer lemon, papyrus, rock garden, roses, sandy soil, Siberian dogwood, snow, squirrels, USDA Zone 4, USDA Zone 5, USDA zone 9, vegetables, wild ginger, yellow-rumped warbler, zen garden
10 Comments
Things get squirrely
Lately, I’ve been wondering a lot about squirrels.
You know those busy bushy-tailed rodents, whether you have the gray kind, or the black or the red or some combination thereof. Hereabouts, they’re gray, they nest up in the trees (at least, I’ve been told those are squirrels’ nests up there, the big messy ones), they run up and down the trees and along fences and across porches and decks and tables.
Occasionally, if you have a bird feeder, they raid it. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, fall, garden tasks, plants
Tagged bees, cayenne, cleanup, coneflower, gardening websites, geranium, mulch, squirrel
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