Category: Gardening & Environment
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Permaculture Perennial Plant Guild Design Plan
I’m excited to share my brand new Permaculture Perennial Guild Design Plan, crafted for gardeners who want more than just a pretty space. This design goes beyond aesthetics — it’s a thoughtfully composed plant guild that supports pollinators, builds soil, provides food, and seasonal beauty. 🌿 What’s Included in the Design Plan? This downloadable 39-page…
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How A Designed Native Plant Garden Differs from the Natural Landscape
A native plant garden and the natural landscape are similar in that they both utilize plants native to a region, but they differ in several key ways. A native plant garden is designed to replicate and enhance the natural landscape of a specific region, but with intentional planning and selection of plants to suit a…
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Spring Garden Clean-Up: Timing for Pollinators’ Emergence
As the days grow longer and the temperatures rise, it’s tempting to jump into garden clean-up mode on the first warm day of spring. However, it’s essential to be mindful of when you clean up your garden to ensure that pollinators, like bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects, have time to emerge and thrive. Pollinators…
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The First Day of Spring: An Annual Beginning for Gardeners
Today is the first day of spring, March 20th 2025. The first day of spring is a time of renewal, signaling the end of winter’s chill and the start of longer, sunnier days. For gardeners, it’s a moment to embrace new possibilities and prepare for the growth and beauty that lie ahead. As the earth…
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Tenalach: A Sacred Connection Between Humans and Nature
In a world where we often find ourselves disconnected from the natural environment, the ancient Irish concept of Tenalach is a reminder of the deep bond we can share with the earth, the air, and the water that surround us. The word is rooted in Irish tradition, and speaks to something more profound than just…
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5 Flowers That Are Symbols of Love and Romance
Flowers have long been used as symbols of love, affection, and deep emotion. Throughout history, different flowers have been tied to various feelings, often serving as a romantic gesture or a way to express the unspoken. From the petals of a rose to the sweet scent of a lily, each flower carries its own story…
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Create a Hummingbird Paradise in Your Garden: Attracting Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds with Native Plants
If you’ve ever watched a hummingbird flit from flower to flower, hovering in mid-air with wings beating faster than the eye can follow, you know just how mesmerizing these tiny creatures are. One of the most incredible sights in nature is watching the iridescent glow of a ruby-throated hummingbird as it zips through your garden,…
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Spring: What Can I Plant & When?
These are general gardening tips, please use your intuition when deciding what the plant and when! For information on when spring is, see this previous blog post: When Is Spring? Very Early Spring. When the ground is workable, it is no longer frozen or too wet. You can plant: Trees as long as they are…
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What Types of Frost Are There?
What is Frost? Frost is a thin layer of ice on a surface. It begins as water vapor (water in gas form) in the air at an above freezing temperature. It becomes frost when the water vapor meets a surface that is below freezing. The water vapor condenses, freezes, and becomes solid. There are different…
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When is the Average Last Frost Date?
Judging when it’s safe to plant plants in the spring can be tricky all due to freeze and frost. The average last frost date is a date gardeners look forward to because it means it’s time to start planting! Even with knowing the average last frost date there’s still uncertainty. As we face climate change…
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Meteorological Spring, Astronomical Spring & Horticultural Spring
Today is the first day of March. To some, today is the first day of spring! There isn’t a one-and-only true way to mark the beginning of spring. It depends on who you ask. For meteorologists, the first day of spring is on March 1st. This is because it is based on climate patterns. The…
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Is Dyed Garden Mulch Toxic?
Dyed mulches seem to be a common material used among homeowners and commercial landscapes today. Unfortunately, dyed mulches in black, red, and even brown is what is most available for purchase at big box stores, gas stations, and sometimes local nurseries. It can be more difficult to find mulch that has not been dyed, but…
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The Annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count
The annual Christmas bird count happens every year from December 14th-January 5th. The Audubon Society hosts the nationwide/worldwide event, but the counts are done by local groups that convene on their own. You can search for a group near you on the Audubon website, or consider developing your own! Each group does one count on…
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Marcescence: When Deciduous Trees Keep Leaves in Winter
If you’ve seen trees hold onto some brown leaves during the winter, this adaptation is called marcescence. We all know it’s normal for trees to loose their leaves in the fall. Cold weather signals the tree to do so. When this happens, the cells around the vein of the leaf stem, which carries the water…
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Fall Garden Chores for the Environmentally Conscious Gardener
Let it Stand… …for the bugs. The more you leave the garden ‘as is’, the better it will provide habitat to all the good bugs and wildlife over the winter. Ladybugs love to nest in leaves and around the base of plants during the winter. Let them be, and they’ll eat the aphids next year.…
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Growing Strawberries
In years past, I haven’t had too much luck growing strawberries. I’ve tried growing them in containers this year and have had a lot better luck. Strawberry plants grow great in the ground, but when I did this I didn’t get any strawberries! I realize now it was because the chipmunks were eating them all.…
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How Light Pollution Affects Bird Migrations
Each spring billions of birds migrate back north to the upper parts of the United States and Canada. Many are traveling from Mexico, South and Central America, or the southern US. Birds migrate at night and they use the sky and the stars as their navigation map. Artificial lighting from buildings, street lights, and towers…
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Late Seasonal Cold Snaps and their Effects on Plants
There’s a joke in Kentucky that goes something like this, “If you don’t like the weather just wait a day”. Yesterday I worked outside in a t-shirt and got hot (and a sunburn!) This morning I’m wearing my winter coat and hat! While most of the time, it’s just a blip to our fashion choices,…
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Free Virtual Garden Tours
2020 was a tough year to get out and do anything, and it looks like the beginning of 2021 (at least) is going to be about the same. I know many parks and hiking trails have been closed, which has made it difficult to enjoy the outdoors beyond the backyard. Thankfully, many gardens have created…
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Fertilize Spring Flowering Bulbs
Here in my area of Kentucky, daffodils, crocus, and spring Iris are flowering! Tulips and hyacinths are also on the rise. Spring flowering bulbs are hungry harbingers of spring. They will benefit from being fertilized in the spring while the green is emerging or when they just start to flower. Tulips in particular can be…