WHY AREN”T MY BULBS BLOOMING? Andre the Doodler asked, and (being the sometimes-oblivious type that I am) I said “They can really get exhausted.” Um, yup, apparently literally so, poor dears, or so it sounded to him. All that fighting the big old tree roots for food and water and craning your necks for a bit of sunlight will really do you in. (The details, dearest Andre, of how it works are in this flower-bulb FAQ page.)
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.)
These bulbs are simply adorable…Andre’s gardening doodles may well be my favorites. ^^
Welcome, Claire. His world is full of charming characters, isn’t it? As you can tell, I am a big Andre fan, to say the least. Do visit us again, and thanks for your nice comment.
So very Amelia Bedelia! I love the personification of plant life too, as I’m sure that most of us do it. Who hasn’t talked to their plant babies??
ha. my world is full of catastrophic events like being hit in the head by a blind dog and losing my tooth and planting things and then them dying and being excited about the little blue flowers that are just coming up only to discover when standing in the park that the same little blue flowers are here too and thinking – why did someone plant these lovely blue flowers here… oh no wait a minute THEY ARE WEEDS. Catastrophic events everywhere I look/go.
I know exactly how they feel :)
Andre, I do sympathize about the lovely blue flowers! In my dotage I have decided to embrace my opportunities — i.e., the weeds that show up so obligingly in my garden and my lawn. You know, violets are charming in a lawn and I refuse to poison something so pretty (actually, I refuse to poison anything except the evil Houttynia), and I like creeping charlie because its little purple flowers match the violets, and to me it looks like the ground of the Unicorn tapestries — adorable little flowers peeping out everywhere, and no-one jumping on them and saying “You’re a WEED!!!! Get outta here!”
@Andre: Um, “Catastrophic events everywhere I look/go” sounds bad, but I know (being an “insider” to the Andre world, tee hee) that you are beat up but also brilliant, daunted but dead-on GENIUS. *Ace,* as you always say to me: ACE. Busted tooth? No worry. Busted genius? *That* would be a worry. But as your weekly doodles and all your other expressions demonstrate, there is no shortage of AMAZINGNESS in you, despite the bumps and bruises. Love and hugs to you and the Missus Andre and also to the dog who busted said tooth. xoxoxoxoxxoxoxo