A New View of our Earth American soldiers and scientists working at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico took the first images of Earth from space in late October of 1946 when they attached a 35-millimeter movie camera to a confiscated German V-2 missile they were testing. The missile reached an altitude of 65 miles, just above the limit of ‘outer space,’ before crashing back to earth with the film protected in a steel container. Subsequent missile tests...
Dogwood trees explode into a profusion of flowers each spring. They grow wild along the forest edge, in clearings and along highways throughout Virginia, transforming from grey woody skeletons into graceful clouds of pink or white flowers as winter melts into spring each April. The State Tree of Virginia Flowering dogwood trees are cultivated in neighborhoods, around schools, in old church yards, and in private and public gardens, wherever they can shelter in the afternoon shade of taller...
Let’s celebrate some of our more unusual and lesser-known native wildflowers in 2025. The Virginia Native Plant Society has chosen the Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, as its 2025 Wildflower of the Year. The Perennial Plant Association has also chosen a native wildflower, indigenous to Virginia, as its pick for 2025. Perennial Plant of the Year for 2025 The 2025 Perennial Plant of the Year is clustered mountain mint, Pycnanthemum muticum, a native wildflower in the mint, or Lamiaceae family. It...
Transform Your Garden with Expert Advice from Certified Master Gardeners Do you dream of a flourishing garden but aren’t sure where to start? Or perhaps you’ve run into some gardening issues that need expert intervention. The James City County Williamsburg Master Gardener Association has just what you need! We offer free, environmentally sound, research-based recommendations for your home’s trees, lawn, landscape, and water-saving practices. Our teams of 2-3 certified Extension Master Gardeners are ready to visit your home, discuss your...
A Public Service Announcement James City County is launching a new initiative to provide residents with free tree seedlings. The seedlings are all native species and will be available in various sizes according to their mature height (small, medium, or large). If you want a few tree seedlings for your property, please sign up using the link below. They may be out of the small trees but have medium and large trees available. They will go quickly, so if you...
A Beacon of Spring A blooming redbud tree grabs my attention like no other spring flowering tree. It just suddenly lights up like a neon beacon glowing brightly in the edge of the wintery forest; transforming from non-descript to gorgeous in the space of a day. Unlike other spring blooming trees which show visibly swelling buds for weeks, while they wait for winter’s cold to pass; clusters of redbud blossoms simply break directly out of its bark, anywhere and...
Have You Eaten? Animals engage in the business of eating; there is no common ground between our desire for a beautiful and productive garden and a deer or rabbit’s need for lunch. While we may garden in harmony with birds harvesting berries from our shrubs and bees harvesting nectar and pollen from our flowers, it is mainly because they can assist us with our gardening tasks and feed themselves without destroying our plants. Birds and spiders eat mostly insects, helping...
This photo, used for our late January 2025 webpage header, was taken along the National Colonial Parkway at Glebe Gut. It features a bald cypress tree and other native vegetation. Glebe Gut is a narrow, tidal channel that flows under the Colonial Parkway, between College Creek and Mill Creek, near Jamestown Island. The waterway itself forms the western boundary of a 100-acre tract of land known as the Glebe Land, set aside after 1619 for the use and support...
Fallen leaves carpet the ravine behind our home, broken only by thick green stems of bamboo, taller than most of our trees; a few young pawpaw and scarlet buckeye trees; and the thick trunks of century old beech trees. There are also a few fallen, decaying trunks of trees lost to storms, but none of the undergrowth you might expect to find in a wild ravine bordering a small lake. The soil is rich and deep. Dappled sunlight illuminates...
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...