Author: Elizabeth McCoy

Carbon Garden / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Garden Design / Heirloom plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Permaculture / Plant Literacy / Tree Identification / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs Every Master Gardener Should Know

Deciduous Shade Trees Quercus spp., Oak Acer spp., Maple Betula spp., Birch Corylus americana, American Hazelnut Fagus grandifolia, American Beach Juglans nigra, Black Walnut Platanus occidentalis, American Sycamore Liquidambar styraciflua, American Sweetgum Carya illinoinensis, Pecan Carya spp., Hickory Salix spp., Willows   Flowering Deciduous Trees   Aesculus pavia, Scarlet Buckeye Amelanchier laevis, Allegheny Serviceberry Cercis canadensis, Redbud Cornus spp. Other Dogwood species Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood Lagerstroemia indica, Crape Myrtle Liriodendron tulipifera, Tulip Poplar Magnolia virginiana, Sweetbay Magnolia Magnolia spp....

Bulb Gardening / Conservation / Container Gardens / Evergreen Perennials / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Geophytes / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Native Plants / Permaculture / Plant Literacy / Sustainable Gardening / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Ornamental Perennials Every Master Gardener Should Know

Perennial plants feature prominently in most gardens.  They may be evergreen or deciduous, have showy flowers or may be grown mostly for their foliage.  Some steal the spotlight for only a few weeks while others remain productive over several months.  Flowering perennials, whether native or not, help support a variety of pollinating insects.  Those that produce seeds may support birds long into the winter. Plants readily available in the nursery trade are most likely hybrids or named cultivars of specific...

Bluebirds / boxwood / Citizen Science / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Invasive Plants / Invasive Plants / Jamestown Island / Learning Gardens / Nuisance Plants / Plant Literacy / Poisonous Plants / Resource Protection / Tree Identification / Weeds / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Common Invasive Plants Every Master Gardener Should Know

  The question of invasive plants is an interesting one, in part because the list keeps growing.  Some of the plants on this list may surprise you because they are so commonly found in our local yards and landscapes.  A few plants have just been added to the list over the past year. While some, like stilt grass are noxious weeds, many of these ornamental plants are still available in the nursery trade.  Several are beloved by local butterflies and...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Carbon Garden / Compost / Fall / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Moss Gardening / Native Trees / Phenology / Poisonous Plants / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Trees / Water Wise / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Options for Autumn Leaf Clean-up

  Leaves float on every strong breeze, covering our walks and driveway just hours after we last cleaned them.  The many different species of trees in our community almost guarantee that we will have a long season of managing fallen leaves and pine tags. Leaves may begin to fall in August or September, particularly when the weather is dry.  And some trees hold onto their leaves until the following spring.  So cleaning up fallen leaves is more of an ongoing...

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Deer / Farm-To-Table / Farming / Food Forest / Foraging / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Identification / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Secrets in the Pawpaw Patch, Quick Notes Version

  Pawpaw  Flowers Pollination Challenges Pawpaw flowers are a dull red to purple color which resembles rotting meat, and they have a putrid odor to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate them , much like native  skunk cabbage and jack-in-the pulpit. Pawpaw’s small flowers have six petals and are rarely larger than a half-dollar.  These are ‘perfect’ flowers, having both male, pollen bearing stamens and a female pistil, whose base will develop into the fruit after about five to...

climate change / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Community Gardening / Conservation / Edible Plants / Farm-To-Table / Food Forest / Foraging / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Permaculture / Resource Protection / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Secrets in the Pawpaw Patch

  If you happen to come across a pawpaw patch in the springtime, when the trees have covered themselves in small, deep red blossoms, please don’t be tempted to step closer to smell the flowers.  Admire them from afar.  Zoom in  to take a photo.  Like skunk cabbage and jack-in-the pulpit, pawpaw flowers have a putrid odor to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate them, and the dull color of their flowers resembles rotting meat. Pawpaw’s small flowers, rarely...

Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Pets / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

National Cat Day and Adoptoberfest, HHS

  Remembering Our Cats in October Many of us who enjoy making gardens and nurturing plants also enjoy caring for our companion animals.  October begins with The Blessing of the Animals, or St. Francis of Assisi Day on October 4, and our awareness of animals, both wild and domesticate continues as we watch birds flock up to migrate, squirrels chase one another across our yards.  We celebrate Global Cat Day on October 16 each year and National Cat Day on...

Carbon Garden / Citizen Science / climate change / Climate Change / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Ferns / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Invasive Plants / Jamestown Island / Mycorrhizal Fungi / Native Plants / Native Trees / Permaculture / Protecting the Chesapeake / Shoreline Erosion / Soil Conservation / Sustainable Gardening / Weather / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Managing Rain and Run-Off with the Right Plantings

The Elements of Life Water, light, and air fuel our lives.  We depend on them, as does every plant and animal.  Light energy powers the chemistry of photosynthesis to transform elements like carbon and hydrogen into sugars, food.  Oxygen fuels the production of life energy in every living cell.  And water fills every cell of every living creature; gives us sap and blood; powers every process of life.  There is no life, not even the tiniest microbe, without water.  ...

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Conservation / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants

 by Elizabeth McCoy

For the Love of Ferns:  Solutions for Our Garden’s Challenges

  The Fern Solution Once upon a time, I considered ferns the magical solution to most of my gardening challenges.  Deep dry shade?  Plant some Polystichum, Christmas ferns.  Soggy shade?  Plant some cinnamon or ostrich ferns.  A wet meadow in partial sun?  Marsh ferns, Thelypteris, will thrive.  Winter color in part sun?  Plant some Dryopteris ‘Autumn Brilliance’ ferns.  Deer?  Bunnies? No worries, grazers normally ignore the ferns, and especially avoid the Cyrtomium holly fern species.  Slopes with too much erosion? ...

Carbon Garden / Climate Change / Conservation / Food Forest / Foraging / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Mycorrhiza / Native Trees / Permaculture / Restoration / Sustainable Gardening / Tree Care / Tree Identification / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Williamsburg Botanical Garden

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Beech, the Mother Tree, Queen of the Forest

A Mythic Forest The American beech, Fagus grandifolia, once covered most of North America from Canada to Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts.  Before colonists cleared our ancient forests for farmland, large beech groves grew as part of the climax forest community.  A single beech tree can live for centuries, and as it ages it surrounds itself with sapling trees growing as suckers from its relatively shallow root system, forming an expanding grove of graceful beech trees....