Redefining the Beauty of Nature and Wildlife in Our Gardens
I won’t kid you, composting in my high desert, pine needle forested wildlife garden is not easy. Even though I live along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains most of the moisture we receive comes in winter in the form of snow. And as we all know, to make compost quickly you need heat… [Continue Reading]
I live in Florida for seven years now and this week I saw my very first slug. Two in one week! Slugs are mollusks similar to snails but without an external shell. Introducing the Florida leatherleaf slug (Leidyula floridana), a critter native to our fair state. Initially thought to be endemic to Central and Southern… [Continue Reading]
Old leaves in the wildlife garden are like pure organic gold. Nature’s wisdom shines forth again. I will never use hardwood mulch again. Never, ever, ever. I stopped using hardwood mulch years ago when I realized that purchased mulch came with seeds of weeds never before seen in my yard, a major one being nutsedge (also known… [Continue Reading]
Does evil lurk in your wildlife garden? It may if you don’t tend to your pet waste. Not the most pleasant subject, but one that needs to be talked about, nonetheless. A lot of people think of pet waste as “fertilizer” but while it is rich in nutrients, it is also rich in things that… [Continue Reading]
Ahhh, the soil. It’s a world within a world, and learning about it can be a most eye-opening experience. After all, many of us grew up with the idea that soil is just a dark inorganic layer of minerals, but today scientists know that there is an entire ecosystem in existence in healthy soil. The… [Continue Reading]
Given that much of North America is covered by several feet of snow (with more to come, I hear!) a lush, green lawn might be the last thing on many of your minds at the moment! But it’s the dreaming season, and a good time to think about your lawn and ask yourself: Does my lawn… [Continue Reading]
Here in New England, fallen leaves are on everybody’s mind right now. In the past week, heavy rains, gales and even (horror!) the first wet snow of the season have brought just about all the maple, birch, ash and hickory leaves to the ground. Even the oaks, which are usually stubborn about letting go of… [Continue Reading]
Our family spent a few hours last weekend hiking through a local wildlife preserve. Though we saw a few Northern Flickers (and more than a few chipmunks gathering acorns), it wasn’t the animal wildlife that interested us… it was the ‘wild’ life growing on fallen tree trunks and covering rocks along the path we followed…. [Continue Reading]
The beautiful wildlife garden just wouldn’t be the same without the workers of the soil. So far, we’re aware of 4,400 species of worms in the world and although each kind has different characteristics, they’re all valuable to soil in their own special way. Worms play a tremendous role in the decomposition process as macroorganisms… [Continue Reading]
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