Category: Gardening & Environment
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Restore Your Land with a Pocket Prairie
Take a moment to look outside your window, or take a stroll in your backyard. Imagine what that very land used to look like before it was ever settled on or used for agriculture or development. The land may have been any type of landscape such as; a meadow/prairie full of grasses, a wetland with…
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Black Eyed Susans & How Microclimates Affect their Growth and Bloom
When out shopping for plants, a plant label (when written well!) will tell you how tall and wide a plant will mature to. However, there is no guarantee a plant will be that size. (One reason is lack of fully testing the size of a newly released cultivated plant, but that’s another story!) Usually the…
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March Garden Chores
Weather in March can be quite unpredictable! It’s like going on vacation as a kid and asking, “Are we there yet?!” For gardening in March, you want to be nimble and quick for certain tasks, but patient with others. Don’t be fooled by abnormal warm days. Start too soon, and work/expense may be lost due…
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January’s Garden Chores
If you’re a gardener, there’s always some kind of gardening that can be done any time of the year. While I won’t be doing any kind of outdoor gardening in January, I will be doing lots of garden planning and designing sitting inside by the heater. Here is the list for January’s Garden Chores. 1.…
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Proper Tree Care Means Healthy Trees
Some trees can live healthy lives even with some damage to them. Certain species can be more resilient than others, like oak trees for example. Some trees can receive only slight damage and decline very easily. There are often clear indicators that a tree is unhealthy. This can be evident with obvious damage to the…
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The 2018 Annual ‘Great Backyard Bird Count’ Feb 16-19th by Audubon and Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Thursday, February 16th- Monday February 19th 2018 Every year this time of year there is the Great Backyard Bird Count! It is sponsored by Audubon, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Bird Studies Canada. You will be taking part of citizen science, which is helping scientist study birds. All you need to do is count…
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The Winter Garden As Habitat for Beneficial Insects
It may not seem like it, but gardens are still full of life even in winter and fall. Most if it is hibernating, but if you look close enough you can find evidence. I got out in my garden last November and played detective, finding a few fun things in the garden. This lady bug…
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Bulb Planting Season
It’s a month into fall and that means there’s one last chance to get spring bulbs planted in Kentucky! November is nearing and so are chances of frost, so we have a couple of weeks left to get bulbs in the ground. This year for my own garden I picked out some snowdrops and a…
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How to Save Tomato Seeds to Plant Next Year
Some plants are easier to save seed than others. Tomato seed is easy to collect, but there are a few more steps to getting viable seed than just allowing the seed to try. Just follow these simple steps and you’ll be saving seed in no time! Why Save Seed? Although it’s a lot of fun…
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Kentucky Heirloom Green Beans & Tomatoes: Berea Sustainable Agriculture Center
I love growing green beans; they produce a lot of food in a small space. If you don’t have a vegetable garden, they’re easy to grow even in an ornamental garden bed on a nice looking trellis, and it’s unlikely anyone would even realize you’re growing food. By growing your own beans, you’ll be getting…
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Easy Composting with Coffee Grounds & Eggshells
If you’ve thought about composting, but have been apprehensive to try it, there a couple of very easy ways to improve your soil (for free!) without having a compost heap. (Although composting is very easy, easier than dealing with stinky trash!) These easy things simply begin with two magic things… These two specifically don’t necessarily need to…
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How to Make Insecticidal Soap for Houseplants
Every winter spider mites seem to get worse on my indoor plants. However it’s easy and inexpensive to keep them at bay! You can make a simple insecticidal soap that will kill only soft-bodied insects such as spider mites, aphids, and mealybugs. In my home, my Croton and Arrowhead plants fall victim to spider mites.…
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Is Mosquito Spraying Affecting our Pollinators?
The following article was written for Wild Ones Lexington newsletter September 2016 We seem to be seeing an increasing amount of advertising for mosquito spraying services in our area. We are also noticing lower numbers of pollinators, especially butterflies. While populations of our pollinators are suffering due to many factors, could the chemicals used to kill…
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Monarch Waystations: Certify Your Garden
What is it about butterflies that we love? Their colors and patterns are striking, they fly elegantly in the air and drink nectar from colorful flowers. Not only do they bring a lot of joy, pollinators are an important part of our ecosystem. They pollinate flowers and food, and they are a building block of the food…
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Frost Creates Beauty in the Winter Garden
One reason of several I love leaving perennials standing during the wintertime is because of the interest they create, especially during frost and snow! The heavy frosts we’ve had in early December created really neat effects in the garden!
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Preparing the Garden for Winter
Preparing the garden for winter consists of cleaning up and covering. Although it may seem not much is going on in our garden over the winter months, there is still abundant life going on underground and inside nooks and crannies we can’t see. Properly preparing the garden for winter will ensure a lively one in…
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Fall Cleanup: Leaves & Perennials
Want to save a lot of time and work? Leave those leaves be! And the perennial stems in your garden too. Now, I know it’s considered normal to cut down all the old perennials, grasses, in your yard once they become dried up. It’s also kind of normal to rake up all the leaves in…
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Turning the Lawn into a Garden
Photo from http://www.thegardenglove.com I no longer have to mow my front yard and it’s wonderful! One problem I had with my front yard is that I could not get grass to grow. The previous summer I tried to revamp the lawn with no luck. I purchased a chemical recommended by a Home Depot employee…
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DIY Copper Rain Chain
A couple of months ago I got the notion that I wanted a rain chain. This notion lead to some great ideas on creating a water collection basin underneath it, and more ideas for rain gardens. What is the benefit of a rain chain? Rain chains were first used in Japan where they doubled as…
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Rethinking Urban Trees
It is said that Buddha found his enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The tree is an ancient symbol and that has been highly symbolized as bringer of life to the planet. “For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers.” said Hermann Hesse. If that’s true, then I’d hate to hear some of the…