Redefining the Beauty of Nature and Wildlife in Our Gardens
Habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation due to human activity is the leading cause of bird population declines. Birdscaping your garden will create an oasis in a desert of development. My favorite author, Doug Tallamy (Bringing Nature Home) puts the importance of your birdscaped garden this way: Now, for the first time in its history, gardening [...]
“Lone and erect, beneath light’s primal flood, A lily! and pure as any one of you.” - Mallarme One of the most beautiful sights for me in spring, is driving the highways and back roads to work through rural areas and catching a glimpse of a sea of white beneath the just budding trees. I [...]
Like it or not, we gardeners have a hobby that puts us right on the front line of international wildlife protection during what scientists are calling the Sixth Age of Extinction (the last extinction age 65 million years ago marking the end of the dinosaurs). At this point, there may not be much we can [...]
Ok, it isn’t a duck, but it does hang out in a pond. It’s always a great day when you glance out the window and spot an endangered species hanging around. It must mean I am doing something right in my beautiful wildlife garden. In my case, the endangered one is of the avian variety, [...]
People come to the Santa Monica Mountains to be with nature, to get away from the concrete jungle of Los Angeles. They know wildlife lives here, too, that squirrels will be their neighbors, and that coyote & owls will call out in the night. But there are many critters that are rarely seen, even by [...]
[Guest post by Ellen Honeycutt] Feeding the birds with backyard bird feeders is a popular thing to do. It’s a “feel good” activity that gives joy to those that watch the birds from their window and delights the birds that are willing to visit them. The more birds that visit, the happier the humans are. [...]
Spring Wildflowers-Part 2 Last week we looked at some of the early spring wildflowers that can be found in the moist woods throughout the United States and Canada. Many of these wildflowers are known for their beautiful flowers. And then there are the unusual wildflowers, those whose flowers are not always the highlight of the [...]
“Now’s the time to plant those,” said the clerk at the feed store, as I slid a half-pound of tiny pearl-onion-sized bulbs into a paper bag. “Good to know,” I said. I wasn’t lying. I have never quite figured out vegetables, coming at gardening from the I-want-one-of-every-native-plant side as I have. I try to make [...]
On Valentine’s Day, I was finally treated to seeing dove babies. Mom and Dad must have been out for Valentine’s Day dinner as the nestlings were all alone, one staring out at me wide-eyed. I’ve had camera in hand for days in anticipation of seeing mom and dad feeding the bird babies once they were [...]
[Guest post by Becky Hillick] It’s been warm enough here for me to take a walk around the garden. There on top of Ed’s low stone wall I was delighted to see this woolly bear caterpillar. Perhaps he had left his winter home in the leaf litter to enjoy the sunshine too. Maybe he thought [...]
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