Invasive plants flourish in part because in their transition to North America they leave behind the co-evolved pests that help keep them in check in their homelands. Dr. Lisa Tewksbury, Director of the University of Rhode Island Biocontrol Laboratory, describes the painstaking process of introducing to our landscape organisms that can control the invasive plants without harming our native species.
Exploring the Soil Food Web with Elaine Ingham
Biodiversity and Its Importance in the Garden
Innovative Education Programs from a Regenerative Landscape Designer
Botany Made Fun
The International Reach of Rewilding Magazine
Kat Tancock and Domini Clark, founders and editors of Rewilding Magazine (available for free online) explore the restoration of local habitats and ecosystems worldwide, with reports from Asia, Africa, and Australia as well as Europe, Canada, and the United States. A rare, truly international perspective.
A Gardening Calendar For the Era of Climate Change
Drs. Michael Balick and Gregory Plunkett of the New York Botanical Garden share results of their research in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where local informants have shared with them a calendar based on clues from indigenous plants – a calendar that governs residents interactions with nature and which is automatically adjusting to the dislocations of climate change
Leave the Leaves Without Banishing Beauty
The Special Hazards of Systemic Insecticides
They sound great – something you apply to a seed or plant and which spreads throughout the organism to provide protection against any insect attack. The reality, though, as described by Sharon Selvaggio, Pesticide Program Specialist at the Xerces Society, reveals the way these highly toxic chemicals cause indiscriminate death and persist in the soil for years.
Garden-Making for Those Who Own No Land
Native vs. Exotic Plants: Support for Insect Populations
A hot topic in gardening circles is the relative value of exotic versus native plants for supporting native insect populations, a foundation of the food chain for birds and other wildlife. Listen to Dr. Douglas Tallamy, best-selling author and professor of insect ecology at the University of Delaware, explain what the data actually reveals.
Tribute to David Salman
American gardening, which had been for the most part a lesser copy of European landscapes, began an exciting new chapter with the explosion of innovative, regionally adapted gardening styles in the 1980’s. No one played a larger role in this than the late David Salman of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Linda Churchill, Director of Horticulture at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden discusses Salman’s contributions and the tribute garden that the Botanical Garden is planning.
Designing the Dragonfly Garden
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Ecological garden designer Christine Cook discusses the beauties and benefits of dragonflies, and how you can make your garden a haven for these exquisite creatures.
Cityscapes as Native Insect Refuges
“Biodiversity Builders” Cultivates a New Generation of Native Plant Entrepreneurs
An Overlooked Native Fruit Finds Its Niche
Compact, beautiful, and trouble-free, the pawpaw is the northernmost representative of a tropical fruit family, a North American native tree that bears large fruits with a delicious, exotic flavor over an extended season, while also supporting a host of native butterflies and moths. Sheri Crabtree of Kentucky State University’s Pawpaw Program explains why this gem never made it into commercial fruit orchards and why it is ideal for the home garden.
A Brilliant New Book for Gardeners
How Introduced Plants May Behave Like Ecological Time Bombs
When our native flowering dogwood tree was laid waste by an imported fungus in the 1970’s, the east Asian kousa dogwood was widely planted as a disease-resistant replacement. After 50 years, however, it has turned invasive. Dr. Bethany Bradley of the University of Massachusetts Amherst explains that such a “lag period” is common among introduced plants and why this makes plant introduction a very risky gamble.
Benefits Big and Small of Grassland Planting
Policy makers have promoted tree planting as a way to sequester carbon and fight climate change, but grassland advocates say that native prairie is more effective in some circumstances and provides unique ecological benefits. Dr. Jessica Gutknecht of the University of Minnesota examines the opportunities and limitations of this approach, and the potential impact of backyard prairies such as her own.
Greening the Green Industry
Gardening consumes an enormous amount of plastics, 1.66 billion pounds annually in the U.S. according to the most recent figures, most of it in the form of single-use, unrecyclable pots. Ecological landscape designer Marie Chieppo has made it her mission to change this. Learn about how her work is promoting recycling, changes in design to use less plastic, and a switch where possible to biodegradable and compostable substitutes.
