A friend showed me a video she had taken in her backyard of hummingbirds swarming around one of her feeders. She loves hummingbirds and works hard to attract and care for them. She plants containers filled with flowers she knows they like, and maintains multiple feeders kept stocked with sugar water. She told me that she has several tiny feeders on stakes that she places among the flowers in her containers. There were so many tiny birds flying about...
Enthusiastic gardeners begin planning, planting, and preparing for the season to come at the first hint of spring. Some of us may still be planting daffodils in December or January and watch for the first snowdrops to appear as the last bulbs go into the ground. There is very little break during winter. We are always watching the progress of our gardens and exploring sustainable gardening practices. And our hearts remain filled with hope for the seasons to come....
The sweet fragrance of Magnolia flowers on a warm breeze announces summer in Virginia. But that wasn’t the case 400 years ago, before European colonists began exploring for interesting tree species, transplanting them to new areas, and exporting them back to Europe. The original native range of Magnolia grandiflora is only from the Carolinas south to Florida and westwards towards Texas along the Gulf Coast. Our iconic Southern Magnolia trees aren’t indigenous in this region, but they have since...
I love finding mountain laurel growing in large, lovely masses in the wild. Its creamy pink flowers glow softly in the forest. Wild mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, sometimes grows along the undeveloped banks of creeks and rivers in Eastern Virginia. It grows as an understory shrub in our oak, beach and pine forests. These evergreen shrubs, almost small trees, simply blend into the fabric of the woods through much of the year before bursting into bloom, suddenly elegant and...
We saw the first green leaf unfolding on a weeping willow tree today. It was a tree growing in the loop of the off ramp from Route 199 onto Mooretown Road. I can only wonder whether the heat from the road and passing vehicles enticed it to unfold so early, or if others all over the area are also opening on this warm, early February afternoon. It can be hard to remember from year to year exactly...
How do you fertilize your garden without buying any fertilizer? That is a key question for gardeners and farmers throughout the world today, as it was a key concern for our ancestors who couldn’t purchase commercial fertilizers for their fields. Soil must be fed to remain productive. Many popular crops, like corn and cotton, deplete the soil after just a few years. Our ancestors learned to use many natural fertilizers to keep their soil productive. The Importance of...
Water may be a blessing or a curse. Gardeners usually want abundant rain to nurture their plantings and generally have a back-up irrigation plan for dry spells. Providing the right amount of water for each plant is one of the keys to a gardener’s success. Working With the Water Cycle Just as leaves absorb carbon from the air, so roots absorb water from the soil. The water, and any chemicals or elements dissolved in it, may be stored in...
Recognizing and identifying trees can be a great pleasure. Knowing trees well enough to understand how they fit into the local ecosystem, and how they can be used, allows us to look around at the trees in our community with even greater appreciation. But there are so many trees! How can you learn to identify them without carrying around a heavy field guide? This was our quandary as my novice Tree Steward colleagues and I began a project to...
In late autumn, the Williamsburg area woods light up with evergreen holly trees as the hardwoods lose their leaves. It is their time to sparkle in the winter sunshine. Their broad, prickly leaves are waxy on top, reflecting what light reaches them through the forest canopy. Unobtrusive throughout the summer, hollies are among the few forest trees, along with wax myrtle, pines, cedars, and magnolias, which remain bright green and covered in leaves throughout the year. Holly King Legends...
Cardinals nest in a large evergreen shrub beside my kitchen window. Though the shrub, Ligustrum, is frowned upon by many contemporary gardeners as invasive, the birds don’t know that. They delight in its abundant berries and the insects that visit year-round. We delight in watching the birds come and go, even as they peer in the windows at us. We amuse one another. Cardinals, titmice and other birds also perch in the crape myrtle tree a little further out...