The message has become increasingly clear: By shifting the palette of what we plant toward native, and refining the practices we employ in caring for our landscapes, we gardeners can make a contribution to the greater ecology. We can create... Read More ›

She has had various job titles in her career, but writer Margaret Renkl says one consistent role in her life for decades has been that of “a window-gazer,” someone who watches what’s going on out there. Even better, she gets... Read More ›

It’s practically December, but like many gardeners I’m already thinking about spring. One big element of that thinking is how to maximize the power of flower bulbs, and though you might have already planted some in the ground earlier this... Read More ›

I was invited recently to be a guest on a podcast called The Wildstory from The Native Plant Society of New Jersey that talks about plants, of course, and ecology … but unlike other garden-related  podcasts, it also explores poetry. I was intrigued,... Read More ›

When cold weather approaches, we humans often have it easy: We can retreat to the shelter of central heating, or pile on more layers of clothing. The path to survival is a lot more complicated for birds, of course, and a new... Read More ›

In the face of shifting weather patterns influenced by a changing climate, the garden can be a really confusing place these days. What stressors are coming next, and which plants will have the resilience required to stand up to whatever... Read More ›

The garden is my favorite escape from stress, of course, but as I have confessed before on the podcast, I sometimes succumb to the lure of swiping my way through Instagram during non-garden hours, like so many millions of us... Read More ›

Today’s guest, Sara Weaner Cooper, and her husband, Evan Cooper, bought their first home a couple of years ago, and before long undertook transitioning the front lawn organically from mown grass into a meadow. Sara’s here to tell us about... Read More ›

It was almost two years ago to the day when today’s guest, Joan Strassmann, last visited me on the show, right around the time her book “Slow Birding” was released. Now, as then, I’ve seen what are pretty much my... Read More ›

When I read the other day that Native Plant Trust, the nonprofit plant conservation organization in New England, had successfully raised the money to complete the endowment fund needed to save its region’s most imperiled native plants in a seed... Read More ›