Blog

If you love birds, you have to love bugs

A little bit about what I love and why. Native plants, birds, and bugs!

What It Actually Takes to Raise a Chickadee (And the Books That Changed How I Garden)

  I have been thinking about chickadees. The reason chickadees have been on my mind has everything to do with a book. The Number That Changed Everything Years ago I read Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nat...

The Bumblebee's Secret Superpower (And the Wasp You Should Stop Being Afraid Of)

Last week I was sitting in the long grass on our blueberry hill with Simon the chicken, pretending I meditate. The sun was warm and the hill was full of insects doing their work around me, and I w...

The Bees That Actually Need Your Help (And It's Not Who You Think)

The Bees That Actually Need Your Help (And It's Not Who You Think) Every spring and summer, well meaning people put up little wooden bee houses in their gardens, buy jars of local honey, and share ...

New Hampshire's State Butterfly Is Being Killed by the Flower Everyone Comes to Photograph

It is early June in New Hampshire and the fields are full of lupine. Tall purple spikes rising from the roadsides, whole meadows turned violet, tourists pulling over to take photographs. There are ...

Why You Should Stop Raking Your Leaves (It's About the Fireflies)

It is early June in southern New Hampshire and the evenings are just beginning to hold that particular kind of warm darkness that means one thing: fireflies are coming. I have been thinking about ...

Coming Home - Our Move to New Hampshire from Massachusetts

In February of this year, after more than twenty years in Petersham, Massachusetts, Josh and I packed up our lives, our cats Max and Sadie Jane, our dog Dingo Girl, our sun conures Beep and Sebasti...

We Have Ants to Thank for Our Spring Ephemerals

Did you know that the most important gardener in the New England woods weighs less than a paperclip? Walk into a northeastern hardwood forest in April and you will find something extraordinary happ...

It's feeling like the end of summer

How are you doing over there? It has been a very busy summer for us but we have been able to fit a bit of fun in there, too. And lots of iced coffees. My garden didn't do a ton of great things this...