For about a week there’s been a single Monarch Butterfly flying around our garden, and paying particular attention to the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). After I got a fuzzy picture with my phone, Judy sat outside on the front steps waiting for the Monarch to appear so she could get these photos with her Nikon …
Is gardening a crusade or a hobby? This question occurred to me after reading a New York Times article about a symposium featuring Douglas Tallamy, Chair of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. Tallamy is also the author of “Bringing Nature Home”, in which he argues for the environmental importance of using native …
Scientists have just released this year’s report on the number of Monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico. Those numbers, measured in the amount of land occupied by Monarch colonies, vary from year to year. The last three years, however, have all been at historic lows. There was an increase over last winter, from 0.67 to 1.13 …
So another garden that we visited during the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling was that of Tamara, who writes the blog Chickadee Gardens. I liked that this wildlife-friendly garden is on a 50’x100′ city lot. The front has a pleasing mix of small trees, perennials, annuals, and grasses. In the parkway the mix of plants looks …
Judy saw a coyote trotting down the street in front or our house a few days before Thanksgiving. Hurrah! I like to think that this means we now have our own neighborhood coyote, maybe even our own pack. We need some predators around here to control the number of rodents, especially (speaking as a gardener) rabbits. …
Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurescens) is an excellent garden milkweed that for some strange reason is difficult to find. What’s so unique about Purple Milkweed? First of all, it actually prefers part shade. It will grow in full sun, but will then need more moisture. Secondly, it is very polite, spreading only moderately by seed. Both …
There was a somewhat encouraging but confusing opinion piece in the New York Times on Friday about the decline of honeybees. In the column, biologist Noah Wilson-Rich states that “Scientists I’ve spoken to in both academia and government have strong reason to believe that CCD [Colony Collapse Disorder] is essentially over.” Wilson-RIch claims that there …
Judy shot this video today of a goldfinch eating seeds on the Cupplant (Silphium perfoliatum) in the front garden. Goldfinches love cupplant, and I love to watch them eat. Though they can be messy. This one must drop at least three seeds for every one he swallows. I guess that works fine from the Cupplant’s …
There are a lot more bees in our garden this year than last. That does not mean, I realize, that the crisis of bee survival is abating, but it is nice to know that at least our garden provides bees with good foraging. Here’s a little video of the bees on our anise hyssop (Agastache …
The Island Bed in the front garden really peaks in high summer. That’s when the cupplant (Silphium perfoliatum) and sweet joe pye weed (Eupatorium purpureum) come into bloom. These friendly giants are Midwest natives and great plants for birds and pollinators. In spring the Island Bed is blue – there is squill (Scilla sibirica) in …
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