Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
We share a natural pond with our next-door neighbors. It’s not too large, about a tenth of an acre. It’s out front between our house and the front meadow. To see the layout of this part of property see my post on the meadow, “From lawn to woods: a retrospective.” We think it may be […]
As readers and writers of this blog, we know that we should plant as many natives as possible for many reasons. Some important reasons are: to reduce the need for extra irrigation, to better support native wildlife, and to create landscapes that are authentic for our regions. But this is not the end of the […]
Then and now… I posted this photo of my pinxter azalea (Rhododendron canescens) a couple of weeks ago with the comment that with the exception of the trees next to the pond (behind the top sprout on the right), this area used to be lawn. People were surprised and asked for more details and more […]
No matter how much we study ecosystems and think we know the answers for which plants will grow where and under which circumstances, there are many instances when there is no obvious answer. For instance, there is a 965-acre conservation area adjacent to our neighborhood that’s owned by the St. Johns Water Management District and […]
Saving the southernmost and possibly the most extensive population of dimpled trout lilies… Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. –Margaret Mead I first heard about Wolf Creek Trout Lily Preserve at the 2010 Florida Native Plant Society Conference in […]
Just before Christmas, I started scanning the family slides, when I finished my own slides of our kids growing up and various pre-digital life adventures, I started in on my parents’ slides. They died more than a decade ago, so it was high time to get these images into a digital format. What struck me […]
This is the season to make resolutions for the upcoming year. Some are easy to keep, especially when you have a firm and attainable goal in mind where the results are so rewarding. 1) Turn your yard into a working ecosystem If you want your landscape to support more birds, then you’ll need to invite […]
Mistletoe played an important role during ancient times in the Old World when people brought evergreens inside so the gods of spring would have safe haven for the winter; and they celebrated the beginning of the return of the sun with various festivals. The European mistletoe (Viscum album) played and important role in these pagan […]
Sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t leave enough growing space for her trees and shrubs. Once the plants start growing out in the wild they have to do the best they can with the space they have. The trio of trees in this top photo, a cherry (Prunus serotina) and two longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) have a […]
As I discussed in Adventures in Creating a Native Garden back in June 2013, I’d planted some rayless sunflowers (Helianthus radula) as part of the native garden. Now that they are blooming, I have to say that I’m a bit underwhelmed. Their beauty is too subtle to enjoy from afar and they do not stand […]
