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Category Archives: animal life
Unnatural Acts
Gardening is an unnatural act. Here we are, lovers of nature, birds, bees, green stuff, and what do we do? We go outside and dig it up, turn the tiny world of our gardens upside down, and start interfering every which way. Continue reading
Posted in animal life, garden tasks, plants, seasons
Tagged achillea (yarrow), aster (Symphyotrichum), balloon flower, Baptisia, bearded iris, bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), black swallowtail, blazing star (Liatris spicata), blue star (Amsonia tabernaemontana), blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium), Butterfly bush, cardinal flower, Carolina lupine (Thermopsis villosa), coneflower (Echinacea), fall cleanup, foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), Garden in the Woods, golden Alexander (Zizia aurea), hibiscus, hori hori, hyssop (Agastache), Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium), Leave It Lie, lupine (hybrid), milkweed (Asclepias), moss phlox (Phlox subulata), Native Plant Trust, native plants, No Mow May, prickly-pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa), red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), sneezeweed (Helenium), sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis), tickseed (Coreopsis), trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens), wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)
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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
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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
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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
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