Tagged: Sustainable gardening

Birds / boxwood / Carbon Garden / climate change / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Hedge / Hedgerow / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Ornamental Shrubs / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

 Hedges and Hedgerows for a Healthier and More Peaceful Life, Part 1

  The Living Fence Gardening is the art of domesticating the wild, of creating living geometry within our landscapes.  Order, symmetry, lines, and boundaries please the eye and soothe the spirit.  We are inclined to organize and define our spaces by dividing them up into smaller pieces we can manage, to protect them within walls and behind gates.  We contain what is ours, setting aside sacred space, our own ‘paradise,’ from the wider world.  We exclude the unwanted wildness living...

Carbon Garden / Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Yaupon, A Native American Tea

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet v. Q2 1599     What is in a name?  How does naming a thing affect its destiny and how later generations will view it?  The story of how a popular native holly came by its name, and how that name destroyed a promising Colonial American industry, demonstrates that names have incredible power to shape the future....

Beneficial Insects / Bulb Gardening / Carbon Garden / Conservation / Container Gardens / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Geophytes / Heirloom plants / Poisonous Plants / Soil Conservation / Spring / Wildlife Gardening / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Why Bother With Bulbs?

  Bins of papery brown bulbs appear in every garden center and big box store right after the back-to-school displays disappear for another autumn.  I love to study the photos of bright spring flowers on the bins, bags, and boxes of bulbs. They invite the ultimate impulse purchase.  “Where to plant them?” you may wonder.  No matter, you’ll find a spot. As trees turn gold and scarlet, we feel the chill in the air, and know that the long summer...

Carbon Garden / Conservation / Edible Plants / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Food Forest / Foraging / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Native Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

A Tea Story: Past and Future

  The Long Story of Tea in America Have you ever wondered where your tea comes from?  Tea is one of those everyday things that we can always find at the grocery or convenience store.  You may remember that tea was imported to Boston in the Colonial era.  Maybe you also remember the story of how colonists, dressed as Native Americans, dumped the British East India Company’s cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor in December 1773 to protest unfairly...

Birds / Carbon Garden / Climate Change / climate change / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Fragrant Plants / Garden Design / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Native Trees / Resource Protection / Soil Conservation / Tree Identification / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Myrica Is Mostly for the Birds

  A Mystery and A Memory We found several large evergreen shrubs in our new yard that we couldn’t immediately identify, when we moved here over a decade ago.  We could pick out the boxwood and Camellias, but we were especially curious about the very tall, open shrubs that the birds loved the most.  It was August, and tiny bluish gray drupes were ripening along this shrub’s woody stems.  Its leaves were fragrant.  Birds gathered in its dense and twiggy...

Beneficial Insects / Birds / Bulb Gardening / Carbon Garden / climate change / Compost / Conservation / Deer / Evergreen Perennials / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Ferns / Flowering Shrubs / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Larval Host Plants / Ornamental Shrubs / Perennial Care / Phenology / Trees in Winter / Watering / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Winter in the Garden: To Do, To Do Less, and What to Avoid

  We can consider winter as the ‘weekend’ of the gardening year, both the last month and the first months of the year when we can enjoy a much-needed rest from the regular routine.  A period of rest and renewal restores energy to both the garden and the gardener.  It allows us time for reflection on the successes and challenges of seasons past and an opportunity to plan and prepare for the seasons to come. If winter is the weekend,...

Conservation / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Trees / Soil Conservation / Tree Care / Tree Identification / Trees / Trees in Winter / Wildlife Gardening / Winter

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Beauty and Promise of Trees in Winter

  There is a special beauty in the form and structure of a bare tree after it has dropped its annual crop of leaves.  Like the beauty of a classical statue, one can see the truth of its bones.  Leaves, for all of their movement and color, veil the beauty of branches and buds. Looking at a bare tree is a study in pure potential.     All of the tree’s life  draws inwards to the wood and roots as...

Beneficial Insects / Carbon Garden / climate change / Conservation / Evergreen Shrubs / Evergreen trees / Flowering Shrubs / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Phenology / Pollinators / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / USDA Hardiness Zone Map / Wildlife Gardening / Winter Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Updated 2023 Plant Hardiness Map

  The United States Department of Agriculture released an updated Plant Hardiness Zone map on November 15 that reflects changes for about half of the country.  This updated map, the first since 2012, is based on the average coldest winter temperature, on the coldest night of the year, for each region of the country.  The trend shown on this map paints an accurate picture of how many parts of our country are warming.  The USDA cautions, however, that the data...

Birds / Evergreen Shrubs / Flowering Shrubs / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Holiday Plants / Invasive Plants / Nuisance Plants / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

The Problems with Nandina

  What’s the big fuss about Nandina? It is attractive, easy to grow, and can be found growing throughout older neighborhoods in our area. Its berries (drupes) turn bright red in October, just in time to brighten up the winter landscape.  Some people cut the red fruit for use in holiday decorations. Nandina’s foliage may even turn bright scarlet after frost, depending on the cultivar. It can be a beautiful and useful plant. Nandina is so tough and versatile that...

Carbon Garden / Evergreen Perennials / Garden Design / Garden Maintenance / Gardening on the Wild Side: Working in Harmony with Nature / Heirloom plants / Hummingbird Gardening / Invasive Plants / Larval Host Plants / Native Plants / Nuisance Plants / Permaculture / Poisonous Plants / Sustainable Gardening / Trees / Wildlife Gardening

 by Elizabeth McCoy

Climbing Vines in Coastal Virginia

  Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate.  Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day.  They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb.  Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds.  While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...