native plants

Category: native plants

September 16, 2017

what’s really native where you garden? with elizabeth farnsworth

AT A WILDFLOWER TALK I attended in spring 2017, a lot of the audience questions after the expert finished her slides were ones like this:..

July 30, 2017

11 Comments

bird gardening: powerhouse fruiting plants, with andy brand

IT’S A CLOSE CALL for me and my friend Andy Brand: Do we like plants best, or birds (or butterflies or bumblebees or…)? But I..

July 15, 2017

305 Comments

‘plants are the mulch’ and other nature-based design wisdoms, with claudia west

WHICH OF US doesn’t want to look out at a more resilient, manageable, and sustainable landscape–one that really works environmentally but also aesthetically, that’s not..

May 7, 2017

20 Comments

the optimism of new england wild flower society’s dr. elizabeth farnsworth

I’VE BEEN DIGGING this spring—the expected outdoor kind, and then when it’s dark or pouring or something else prevents the garden variety, I’ve been digging..

June 26, 2016

17 Comments

using native perennials in a formal border, with mt. cuba’s travis beck

THE PHRASE “native plant garden” probably conjures an image of a spring woodland of trilliums and other little gems, or perhaps a meadow blooming from..

August 8, 2015

430 Comments

‘pollinators of native plants,’ with heather holm

BEES HAVE BEEN increasingly making the headlines–but often the conversation is specifically about honey bees, an imported European species that settlers brought over to help..

FROM THE WEEKLY PODCAST

smarter fall (and spring) cleanup, with doug tallamy

WHEN I TALKED to Doug Tallamy in February around the publication date of his latest book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” I didn’t want to go on and on about the advice in it regarding smart fall cleanup, which is one of the ways I know I’ve dramatically shifted the way I manage my own garden compared to 10 or even five years ago. But we were looking ahead to spring then, not fall.

I’m grateful that Doug returned to the podcast in autumn to do just that. Want to plan your most ecologically minded garden cleanup ever, and understand the consequences of each potential action you can take—including next spring?

The subtitle of University of Delaware professor Doug Tallamy’s recent book, “Nature’s Best Hope,” is “A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard.” Meaning: The choices we make all year-round, including the very important one of how we clean up, can help counteract an overdeveloped, fragmented landscape that puts the food web to the test. You and I are nature’s best hope, and I’m glad Doug joined me again to help us learn to support it.

(Stream it below, read the illustrated transcript or subscribe free.)