Pollinator WeeK: June 18 --24

A tiger swallowtail on goldenrod in a natural meadow.The US Senate unanimously approved the motion to designate the last week in June as pollinator week. Who says the Senate can't agree on anything? In the past five years the pollinator week celebration has become an international event. This year it's...

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A fledgling robin

A couple of robins near the feeders caught my attention late this afternoon.  They were hopping around in an unusual fashion.It turned out that they were mom and older fledgling.  She would do a bit of foraging and then return to her offspring, who was complete with the lovely spotted breast...

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Productive raised beds

mid-June, 2012, WNCMy raised beds in the mountains have been amazing.  Filled with commercial compost, topped up with bags of mushroom compost, and enriched with Espoma organic slow-release fertilizer, they've continued to produce. This spring, it was greens, snow peas, sugar snap peas, and lettuce....

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Business Advice that's Bad for the Birds

Washington Post business article is off base.In yesterday's Washington Post business section, "Value Added: Mosquito-control business scratches this entrepreneur’s itch" describes a $300,000 business which is a franchise of the mosquito squad and the owner is a full time firefighter. This article is...

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Moving Away from Transplanted Gardener

Back in 2004 when my husband and I moved to northeast Florida, the gardening here was weird for me. Even though I have a masters degreee in Botany and have gardened all my life, almost everything I knew about gardening did not apply. So I started a gardener's log of what I learned and shared it on a...

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Update to the yard

So here is the new front yard. I really like the twin centinal boxwood planters, they add a lot of elegance to the front walkway. Before the box woods there was only one pot on the right hand side and while it didn't look bad, this looks way better. Plus it was all super cheap. The boxwoods were on...

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DIY Day

Tea boxes. Do you ever get annoyed with how they just clutter up your cupboards with random half filled boxes and the occasional loose tea bag that wanders around? You can never seem to find the teas you want because they are never where you put them last. Well leave it to me to attempt and fix this...

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