Learning to See the Beauty of Nature in Our Gardens
Judy Burris and her brother Wayne Richards are authors, photographers and naturalists. Their gardens focus on host plants to support native butterflies and other insects and critters in every stage of their development. Judy and Wayne live just 3 miles apart from each other in northern Kentucky, just across the river from Cincinnati. Their co-authored books include: The Life Cycles of Butterflies, The Secret Lives of Backyard Bugs, and also Nature's Notes. Their website is Butterfly Nature
It is almost time to start seeing butterflies in my beautiful wildlife garden here in northern Kentucky. One of the first butterfly host plants that I begin to monitor daily is my young sugarberry tree. It can feed the caterpillars of several species of butterflies and moths, including one of my favorites – the Mourning [...]
I decided to get a few shots of my beautiful wildlife garden on a rare sunny morning last week to prove to myself that Spring is in fact a reality this year. As I approached the mini-daffodil flower bed at the far end of my yard I awoke miss “2-faced” kitty taking a cat nap [...]
I love my Kentucky garden and all of the wonderful wildlife it supports. I am especially fond of what I call my “anchor” plants, which are the native trees and shrubs that play host to my lovely butterflies and provide food, cover and nesting sites for the song birds that grace my yard. Pawpaw My [...]
GARDEN DREAMS I’m daydreaming about how my beautiful wildlife garden will look this year. I’ve spent the last few weeks looking through magazines and sorting my flower seeds in anticipation of the arrival of butterfly season. I’m so glad that I hand-raise butterflies. It has given me such joy through the years and a deep [...]
As I look at my snow-covered beautiful wildlife garden, it occurs to me that the winter season teaches us some important lessons about life. At first glance, the landscape appears bleak and desolate. But I prefer to reflect on the joys of the past year’s bounty of flowers and food, and the slumbering potential of [...]
Have you ever gazed out of the kitchen window at your beautiful wildlife garden on a cold winter’s day? It looks so barren and lonely. Have you ever wondered where the butterflies go during this time of year? As humans, we get to bundle up in our fuzzy flannels and spend the winter months indoors [...]
Here we are in November already. Our beautiful wildlife garden holds onto a few lingering coral honeysuckle flowers, as if it knows a stray hummingbird could pass through at any given moment. Our maple trees have already dropped their leaves and the squirrels are raiding the bird seed feeders as if winter has set [...]
It’s that time of year again. Our beautiful wildlife garden is winding down and getting ready for its winter nap. Our long weeks of drought and high 90′s temperatures here in northern Kentucky are already a fading memory. I love the colors and textures of autumn…the sunset colored leaves of yellow-orange-red, the plump pumpkins, striped [...]
Butterflies…the gateway bug Many people know us as the butterfly people, and that’s not a bad thing. We consider butterflies to be our gateway bug, since they were the first insects to spark our imagination and move us from being curious to being serious about studying nature. But now we continue to find excitement in [...]
Well, here we are in the middle of a sweltering hot summer trying to convince people to enjoy the great outdoors. That’s a bit of a challenge considering that we’re ready to retreat back into our air-conditioned house by noon! Our beautiful wildlife garden has suffered from this year’s drought. We try to take advantage [...]
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