Making Gardening Fun for Kids
As a master gardener, I work with kids of all ages on projects like tree planting and caring for beds of flowers and vegetables in neighborhood community gardens. Since I don’t have kids of my own, I’ve had to learn by trial and error what gets them excited about gardening and what pushes them into boredom and the dreaded eye-rolling mode. I’ve also learned to carry a box of Band-Aids — in case of earthworm bites. (More about this later.)
People talk a lot these days about how kids just want to sit in front of computers and never go outside. But my experience has been that most kids love the outdoors just like we did back in the prehistoric technology days of CB radios and eight-track tapes. All they need is a little help getting acquainted with what nature has to offer.
Read More»Butterfly Gardening
I saw my first butterfly of the season the other day. I am but a rookie lepidopterist, so I don’t know what kind it was. All I saw was a streak of black, not nearly enough to be of help when looking it up in my field guide. As it swooped over my brown, sleeping garden, I worried about what in the world it would find to eat in these early days of spring. What was it doing here so soon?
The only thing I’m sure of is that it wasn’t one of our Eastern black swallowtails. It’s wings didn’t have the right yellow spots and blue patches. I say “our” swallowtails because for the last two summers my husband, Mike, and I have tried raising swallowtails on our front porch. We got the idea, or I should say I got the idea and my ever-patient husband went along with it, from a man named Jim.
Read More»Dealing With Ice, Snow and Winter’s Hungry Critters
Here are a few tips for helping your landscape make it through the winter unscathed by freezing temperatures, snow, ice and critters.
Let’s start with those de-icing salts people use to make sidewalks safer. These products are great for cutting down on slipping, but they wreak havoc on plants. Salty injury to deciduous trees and shrubs takes many forms but usually includes things like bud and twig dieback, stunted growth, and leaf scorch. Conifers, like spruces, pines, and firs often have mild to severe needle browning when exposed to salt spray.
To remedy the situation you could, of course, just skip the de-icer. But if you’d like to be nice to your plants without fear of breaking your neck, try taming your de-icer a bit by mixing it with another abrasive material like sand (50 pounds of sand to one pound of salt is a good ratio). You might also try a salt-free, de-icing compound made from calcium magnesium acetate or kitty litter. Rather than just throwing down a lot of de-icer on top of packed snow and ice, try sprinkling enough to loosen the ice and snow and then remove as much as you can with a shovel. Take care not to pile salty snow from driveways and sidewalks around plants and trees. Salt accumulation at the base of plants can force them into an early decline and eventually kill them.
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