Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: February is an in-between month
February is an in-between month for wildflower enthusiasts. It’s still winter, but there are glimmerings of life in ...
Latest Mother Nature's Garden
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Column: Stillness and quiet
For my family, the period from Halloween until the end of the year can be a wild, crazy, ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: The importance of trees
When we moved into our current home 35 years ago, our street was lined with dogwoods, and nearly ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: The Hardy Citrus
Several times this past summer, strangers stopped me to ask about an odd plant they’d seen off Milnwood ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: The Chinese Yam: Friend or Foe?
There are two kinds of alleys in my hometown: The neat, tidy ones with pavement and carefully trimmed ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: Honeyvine: Friend or Foe
Several days ago, I took a very early morning walk through my neighborhood because I was hoping to ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: Who was Bouncing Bet
Who was Bouncing Bet and what was she doing? And how did black-eyed Susan get her name? The ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: Talking about some ‘unloved’ wildflowers
Every year people get super excited when the first Virginia bluebells appear. And when the pink lady’s slippers ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: Let’s talk about serendipity & cream violet
There’s a certain amount of serendipity involved in taking people to see wildflowers. You just never know whether ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: The amazing things that plants do
While plants don’t move around like animals, that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of reacting to their environment. For ...
Lifestyles
Mother’s Nature Garden: In search of Twinleaf
The earliest spring ephemerals have finished blooming, but there’s still time to see twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla.) Several years ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: The Skunk Cabbages are back
“If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spear ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: What makes a plant native?
“Ditch lilies are native. I know they are; I saw it on the internet!” “Dandelions must be native. ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden: A much needed hike and old friends
It’s Boxing Day, and life has mostly returned to normal here at Mother Nature’s Garden. The dogs are ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden — Japanese Knotweed: A seriously tough plant
Since the late 15th century, we humans have moved around 13,000 species of plants from their native habitats ...
Lifestyles
Mother Natures Garden — Goldenrods: Tenacious and beautiful
“You can see the goldenrod, that most tenacious and pernicious and beauteous of all New England flora, bowing ...
Lifestyles
Mother Natures Garden — Turtleheads: Flowers with an interesting shape
Even though the days are still warm, there’s a chill in the early morning and late afternoon air. ...
Lifestyles
Pickleweed: A great natural condiment
Way back pre-pandemic, when travel was easy, I spent some time in Cornwall with friends. It was a ...
Lifestyles
Common grass pink: An interesting native orchid
We tend to think of orchids as fragile, delicate plants requiring pampering, but they are extremely resilient and ...
Lifestyles
Mother Nature’s Garden — Magnolias bloom offering fragrant pleasure
It’s magnolia time! The sweetbay magnolias have finished blooming in the wet lowlands along the High Bridge Trail, ...
Lifestyles
Mother Natures Garden — Hexastylis: A plant with a steep learning curve
For years I’ve found heartleaf (Hexastylis spp.) all over Cumberland, Appomattox, Powhatan, and Prince Edward Counties. There are ...
Lifestyles
Fireworks in the woods
One of my favorite spring ephemerals, the eastern shooting star (Primula meadia), has a variety of common names ...
Lifestyles
Wildflower Symposium celebrates spring
Spring is definitely here. The days are longer, the temperatures are warmer, and there are blooms appearing everywhere. ...
Lifestyles
Appreciate the rare beauty of blue flowers
A poll done by YouGov revealed that blue is the favorite color in almost all countries. Ancient Egyptians, ...
Lifestyles
Rainbow pools in the Cypress Swamp
No matter when you visit, bald cypress swamps are magical places. In late spring and summer, there’s green ...
Lifestyles
The Adder’s Tongue: An unusual looking plant
It doesn’t look like a fern, and it really isn’t one, but it’s fern-like in some respects. Meet ...
Lifestyles
The fanciful turkey tail fungus: nature’s recycler
“Nature doth thus kindly heal every wound. By the mediation of a thousand little mosses and fungi, the ...