Long-horned beetles (mating) on goldenrod

 Long-horned beetles A wonderful excursion to a private garden capped off (for me) a delightful experience at the Highlands Native Plant symposium. Great folks and an excellent native plant garden - what could be nicer! A great cause to contribute to, for sure.A meadow visit found a couple of...

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A September nocturnal symphony

Coming back from an evening walk just as night was settling in, the nocturnal symphony was cranking up.  The night-singers, especially the crickets, are still melodic (and loud). Katydids and related insects are also part of the nocturnal symphony this time of year, in late summer towards fall and the first frost.It reminds me that the shrill calls of cicadas have largely dropped out of daytime...

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Hummingbirds and evening

It's been a hummingbird circus around here - there are at least three ruby-throated hummingbirds currently whizzing around the old red oak, through the porch, visiting the feeder, etc.This evening, eating dinner on the porch, the whirr of wings was constant. I didn't manage to get a photo of a...

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Fall edibles

Newly planted fall garden next to the garage. This bed next to the garage has been sitting fallow for the summer. I've buried kitchen scraps, as they became available, about six inches under the surface, until about four weeks ago.On Labor Day, our unofficial beginning of fall, I planted...

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Native Plant Issues: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This is a fall round up of current issues relating to native plants. They highlight some of the issues that native plant enthusiasts should address to move forward in our goal of more regionally appropriate natives being planted more widely. I. USDA: Good: USDA is sponsoring the first ever National...

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Garden vignettes

At this time of the year, I'm concentrating on harvesting (and preserving) vegetables, sowing seeds for fall veggies, worrying about getting the rest of the garden in shape (yikes! it's a lot of work!) and enjoying the unexpected pleasures of the garden.Here are a few images that I enjoyed this morning...

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Arbor Day Foundation & Florida...

The Arbor Day Foundation has played a big part to help people, cities and towns plant more trees since 1865 when J. Sterling Morton started this foundation. In Florida alone there are 165 Tree Cities. We've discussed this organization in these previous posts: Florida's Arbor Day: Third Friday in...

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