Gardeners are strange people. All gardeners know this, but sometimes it’s a secret. The beauty of our strangeness is that we can hide it very, very well. We can smile and look perfectly normal while people admire the pretty landscape we have created. What others don’t see is the darker – or weirder – side [...]

This month’s Bloom Day is a native plants for native bees theme once again. I’m a lazy gardener I’ve decided. All of the shrubs presented here are low maintenance, prune and shape if you wish or let go if you don’t feel like it. Basically I just dig a hole (having good soil in the [...]

I dedicate my bloom day photos to native plants for native pollinators. Aronia melanocarpa Chokeberry Autumn Magic. Can a habitat garden have too many native chokeberries? Not only is Aronia a spring food source for bees, in the fall they produce berries which are a preferred food source for birds. The autumn color is stunning. [...]

Wildlife gardeners naturally plant berries, berries and then some more berries to provide food sources for critters. I don’t even want to count the number of chokeberries, viburnums, shrub dogwoods, serviceberries, hollies and other fruiting plants which have gone into my garden. It might alarm me. All of those food shrubs are going to need [...]

When a box of mail ordered plants arrived I was instantly charmed by a tiny Swamp Titi (pronounced tie tie) Cyrilla racemiflora packed in there. This native shrub was ordered from Nearly Native Nursery to go in my habitat garden based upon reading about it, not by knowing the plant personally. I’d never seen one, [...]