Category: Citizen Science

Citizen Science / Conservation / Evergreen trees / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Sustainable Gardening / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Winter / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Celebrate the Winter Solstice by Honoring Our Earth

The Shortest Day of the Year On Saturday, December 21, 2024, indigenous people and others who practice nature based spiritual paths celebrate the Winter Solstice.  Winter Solstice has been observed as a holy day for millennia, since before humans kept records, because it marks the shortest day of the year and the return of the sun to warm the Earth for the growing season ahead.  Historians have found that ancient stone circles, pyramids, and other prehistoric stone constructions are oriented...

Citizen Science / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Garden Maintenance / Master Gardener Home Visits / Native Trees / Pruning Clinic / Sustainable Gardening / Tree Care / Trees / Trees in Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Annual Pruning Clinic

  Woody plants remain healthier, more productive and more beautiful with strategic, well-timed pruning.  Pruning young plants guides their growth into a strong and balanced structure.  Pruning older plants opens them up to sunlight and airflow, limiting the opportunities for disease to infect them.  Proper pruning can also rejuvenate them with new, more vigorous growth. Pruning wisely is both an art and a science.  Some homeowners and gardeners may have questions about how and when to prune the many shrubs...

Citizen Science / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Master Gardener Home Visits / Native Trees / Permaculture / Tree Care / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Pruning: Dos and Don’ts

  Pruning woody shrubs is both art and science.  Selecting which branches to leave and which to remove allows a gardener to train a woody plant into a pleasing, balanced shape that fits the available space.  Some gardeners use pruning techniques to create neatly trimmed topiary, elegant hedges, or espaliered fruit trees.  Gardeners may also prune roots and branches and remove leaves and buds to train trees to live as bonsai in shallow containers.  Woody plants are extremely adaptable and...

Citizen Science / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Tree Identification

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Plant Literacy: Common Landscape Plants to Know and Love

Plant Literacy Many people assume that Master Gardeners know a lot about plants.  When neighbors request a home visit from the Landscape Love or Tree Call team, they often have three questions about certain plants in their yard:  First, “What is it?” Some will follow up with, “Is it a native plant?”  And then finally, “Will deer eat it?”  If the homeowner already knows that deer will eat certain plants, then they may ask for advice about how to either...

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...

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 / Citizen Science / Compost / Conservation / Food Forest / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Mycorrhiza / Mycorrhizal Fungi / Permaculture / Restoration / Soil Conservation / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Mysteries of the Mycorrhizae

  “To use the world well, To be able to stop wasting it and our time in it, we need to relearn our being in it.” Ursula Le Guin   A friend and I were chatting about recipes one afternoon.  She is a talented cook and loves to feed her friends and loved ones.  I asked for the recipe for something delicious she had served, and she avoided disclosing the details.  Finally, she gently explained that among her family, no...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Citizen Science / climate change / Conservation / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hummingbird Gardening / Keystone Species / Larval Host Plants / Lepidoptera / Native Trees / Phenology / Weather / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Beyond Flowers: How to Support Pollinators in Your Own Yard

  Have you ever planned a party, set up the bar and buffet, and then felt disappointed by how few people turned up to enjoy your hospitality?   We are left wondering what went wrong.  Curious gardeners planting flowers to support pollinators have sometimes been left feeling that way in recent years.  We plant a tempting array of all the right plants and then sit watching and waiting for hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other winged pollinators to swoop in to enjoy...

Animal repellant products / Birds / Bulb Gardening / Citizen Science / Conservation / Edible Plants / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Herbs / Native Plants / Native Trees / Nuisance Plants / Poisonous Plants / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Plant Knowledge

  “Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless?”  Dr. Carlos Castaneda     When a young graduate student in anthropology wanted to learn more about the medicinal uses of plants for his academic research in the early 1960s, so the legend goes, he sought out an old Mexican native, a brujero, known simply as don Juan, who lived in the Sonoran Desert.  Carlos asked to interview him about...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Citizen Science / climate change / Climate Change / Conservation / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Invasive Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Resource Protection / Shoreline Erosion / Soil Conservation

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Phragmites in Local Wetlands- Updated

  “… despite its bad reputation, Phragmites provides many benefits that are generally unknown and unappreciated. After studying salt marsh ecology and the impacts of stressors, including invasive plants, for many years, I have concluded that removing this invasive species wherever it is found – especially along vulnerable coastlines – is a very expensive and often foolish procedure.” Dr. Judith Weis, Professor Emerita in Biological Sciences Rutgers University   Historically, Phragmites Are Part an Important Part of the Ecosystem Our...