black-eyed Susan-like flowers in dry ground with browned grasses surrounding them, all against a pink stone side of hill in Badlands
Curing the Gardening Phobia

How to Create a Wild Space in Your Backyard

marycarolghislin

Since this COVID WFH situation for a lot of us will continue at least until January, the need is constant for us to polish our delicate work/life balance. Reports are in from the booming gardening industry proving that thousands of you are digging around in your backyards. And lots of you smart new gardeners are also looking up to watch the birds.

Now …as you wrap up the hoses and stack the rakes into the shed, you might be at a loss for how to keep kids engaged outside in the coming weeks. Besides building snowmen and snow angels, what else is there to do?

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small royal blue bird, with white breast on moss-covered wood
What's the Buzz?

Update: Why Are the Birds Dying?

marycarolghislin

If you’re one of the many WFH, who have become a COVID gardener, I want to alert you to an article that popped up in the news a few weeks ago. It was picked up by the Smithsonian magazine folks who ran a story about it in their 9-17-20 issue.

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brilliant orange Fall color on serviceberry shrub
Curing the Gardening Phobia

2nd Lesson in Pruning: Cut Out Extra Canes

marycarolghislin

Do you have a shrub that seems to have legs? That is, it’s creeping into a different spot in your yard? It’s got so many little “shoots” that the position is actually moving?

A couple of things could be happening here. And without going into too much science—I want to keep your life simple—the issue with your traveling shrub is basically that it constantly sends up shoots looking for light and water.

Continue reading “2nd Lesson in Pruning: Cut Out Extra Canes” →