Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
Master Gardner Sue Sweeney, a life-long naturalist and gardener, specializes in non-chemical, minimally-disturbing conservation area restoration. She is a freelance nature photographer, and author of numerous articles on urban flora and fauna, chemical-free gardening, and similar subjects. A passionate environmentalist, Sue lives in a downtown high-rise, and does not own a car. Her indoor and balcony container garden has shrunk over the years, from a high point of around 500 plants, as her responsibility for Stamford-area conservation work has grown. Currently, she is Volunteer Head Steward of the Scalzi Riverwalk Nature Preserve near the heart of downtown Stamford CT and teaches conservation restoration to Master Gardeners Interns and other interested parties. Email Sue for more information.
Stamford CT There are a few native vines that get all the press. These are good choices for use as groundcovers and as “drapes” for walls, fences, arbors, and trellises. The good news is that there are several more excellent choices for the garden. In addition, there are some native vines that aren’t as well suited for the [...]
Stamford CT New England is known worldwide for its hardwood forests and brilliant fall color. Last month, I published a list of shrubs and small trees for Southern New England; this is the companion list of 40+ medium to tall local native trees. All are valuable to wildlife, are good shade trees, and most have [...]
Stamford, CT February 2012 I’m often asked: “I want to go native but what to plant?” I like to start with shrubs and small trees – they provide structure, plus year-round habitat and interest, while maturing faster than full-sized trees. The local list is amazingly long, thus the length of this post (don’t blame me – blame the number of plants). [...]
Stamford CT, December 25, 2011 Right now, New England wild areas are alive with birds and color. No winter “drab” here! This winter, walk in the wilds on nice days, appreciating what we have been given; and consider some garden enhancements that reflect what works for nature – might as well learn garden design from [...]
Stamford CT, November 25, 2011 While our street-wise eastern gray squirrels probably still dream of the ocean-like expanses of unbroken forest where they once lived, gray squirrels are thriving in the sub/urban environment, where many other native species fail. How do they do it? SKILL SET: For starters, squirrels have impressive physical abilities. Squirrels are, admittedly, [...]
Stamford CT, October 25, 2011 Story 1: At a lunch-time educational seminar, I overheard some expensively-dressed attendees talking about ridding their property of woodchucks (a/k/a groundhogs, Marmota monax) by, in one case, gassing, and, in another, sealing up the den (with the woodchuck inside? I didn’t dare ask). One of the women said she “had no [...]
Stamford CT, September 25, 2011 The NPWG group discussions are a great benefit, at least to me. Accordingly, this month, I thought, we could address another critical but controversial ecological issue: white-tailed deer. Don’t we all wish that there was a single, simple cure for white-tailed deer overpopulation? Even inner-city gardeners are now experiencing the [...]
Stamford CT, August 25, 2011 To continue last month’s discussion on determining what’s native, etc., I’ve saved the most frustrating part of this discussion for last: nativars. “Nativar” is handy term becoming popular to describe “near natives” of various sorts. The term covers any plant that is somewhat closely related to a local native plant [...]
Stamford CT, July 25, 2011 Is any plant that grows out of control in the garden “invasive“? Is any plant from a foreign place “invasive”? How close to home does a plant have to grow to be “native”? I have observed a lot of confusion, even among the so-called “experts”, about these seemly simple words. [...]
Stamford CT, June 25, 2011 Have you ever enthusiastically dug out a new garden bed but then had the weeds explode out of control over the next few weeks? Believe it or not, the major cause of garden weed sprout is soil disturbance by the gardeners. Indeed, every time we pull a weed, we encourage [...]
