The creamy blossom beckoned to me that early Sunday morning and when I opened the petals, I saw her. My first yucca moth! Nestled near a pollen-heavy stamen, she shifted her position as the sun flooded her hideaway. My job as a volunteer naturalist at Cheyenne Mountain State Park had immersed me in the amazing […]
Of Yucca Moths and Four-Leaf Clovers Read More »
A garden full of sweet odours is a garden full of charm, a most precious kind of charm not to be implanted by mere skill in horticulture or power of purse, and which is beyond explaining. It is born of sensitive and very personal preferences yet its appeal is almost universal. Fragrance speaks to many
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“Widespread frost expected,” warns the forecaster. It’s past sunset. We’ve already had a morning of shimmering windshields. Hauling containers full of fragile plants into shelter for the night takes a lot of effort, and for what few days until the next crystalline visit. So, I decide to take my chances by draping everything in old
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the unsung beetle. We share the planet with over 400,000 species of beetles. (For perspective, there are only 50,000 animals with backbones: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined.) In fact, according to Berkeley entomologist Jerry Powell, beetles make up “almost 25% of all known life-forms.” How many kinds
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Of all the potential insect visitors gardeners may encounter, perhaps none has more charisma than the praying mantis. “The ultimate insect assassin” is how famed British filmmaker David Attenborough describes it. You can forgive Sir David a bit of hyperbole when you realize that this is the only insect in the world with a martial
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A couple of years ago I read about the seed packages at Hudson Valley See Library designed by a number of local artists. I visited the site at once, and it was there that I first saw Sheryl Humphrey’s work, on an Art Pack design for Rainbow Chard. I was wowed. I remember happily whiling away a
Sheryl Humphrey and the Sisterhood of Flora Read More »