Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens
Healthy Gardens. Healthy Planet
“The path follows an old path which a hundred years ago was used for sleds to bring cordwood down the hill. I found that along both sides of it small hemlocks were predominant. Twenty-five years ago I started cutting out almost all of the deciduous trees edging the path…. It has gradually developed into a [...]
Globalization Our world today has grown so very small. Internet communications have turned once far away strangers into close friends, reality as close as the computer screen. Globalization thrives now even in the remotest of jungles. Peoples and civilizations are mixing, interweaving families, languages and traditions. What started with transoceanic journeys by raft requiring months [...]
I have recently attended three very different garden shows that together reveal a big shift in our society’s gardening attitudes and interests. Yet I also found that a troublesome old belief – the idea that people’s garden dreams are more important than the health of the natural world – not only persists but is being [...]
Were you aware that USDA is sponsoring research at the University of Connecticut to develop sterile varieties of Winged Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) and Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) — both non-native plants spreading aggressively into natural and agricultural areas in many parts of the USA. Sounds like a good idea, right? After all, if the plant [...]
Of all the invasive plants we removed in our own landscape, Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) was by far the worst to eradicate. This pernicious perennial, native to Eurasia is very common in the midwest, growing out of cracks in urban sidewalks, creeping along alleyways, and in the suburbs forming large clusters in partially shaded woodlands [...]
Another post in our series on native alternatives to invasive plants. In 2005, after moving into our current house, we purchased a variety of bareroot native shrubs from the DNR to naturalize in the yard. These shrubs included Nannyberry Viburnum, High Bush Cranberry Viburnum, American Hazelnut and Red Osier Dogwood. With two years of drought [...]
[Guest post by Stephanie Cohen] I know this topic has been covered a zillion times by both the nursery industry and concerned environmental experts. Before we begin, I have given many talks on native plants at environmental conferences. I should also tell you that I have a master’s in Environmental Studies. This makes me sound like a cross [...]
