There are thousands, millions of weed seeds lying dormant in your garden soil – the “weed seed bank” – waiting for a chance to emerge and invade your plantings. Listen as Dr. Bryan Brown of Cornell University shares strategies for drawing down the account before those seeds become a problem.
Roots Revealed
Rebecca McMackin and the Innovative Beauty of the Ecological Landscape
As Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Rebecca McMackin played a leading role in transforming 85 acres of abandoned piers and pavement into a series of vibrant ecosystems that are a model of what an urban park can be. We talk with her about her subsequent year of study at Harvard and her new endeavors to make ecological landscaping the mainstream.
Biocontrol – Beating Back Invasive Plants
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.
