The Science Behind Nature - in Layperson Speak
I've written a number of articles on how native plants usher in wildlife. I read an interesting article, "Grow Native Plants" in The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Spring 2014 Living Bird Magazine, which gives a simple recipe for attracting warblers, the well-loved but evasive group of songbirds. …
Continue Reading about Why Native Plants? Attracting birds is another important reason
I've been besieged with a lot of email petitions recently about a pesticide called neonicotinoids (neonics for short), found in some plants sold by nurseries, which has been shown to kill bees, butterflies and other pollinators - so the word is definitely out. When pollinators visit the flowers or …
Continue Reading about Pollinator killing plants: questions to ask nurseries
I was up camping in the San Bernardino Mountains this weekend and one joy was coming across a muddling area, next to the stream my friend Christine and I were camping near. It was lush with butterflies -- also called a puddle party. For those who don't know, a muddle is a mud puddle, or in this case …
Continue Reading about Now’s the time to see butterflies – and what’s better than a ‘puddle party’
I did a presentation on GMOs for our local AAUW discussion group and thought ‘why waste all that reading’ – so here’s a quick overview of what I learned. I read the following books: Mendel in the Kitchen by geneticist Nina Federoff, which was ranked more anti-GMO in this …
It's nearing October and I'm still seeing some butterflies around - a few Western Tiger Swallowtails although they're much fewer, some Cabbage Whites and a variety of those little orange ones that I've given up identifying. I checked in with a couple butterfly aficionados on what plants were …
Continue Reading about Butterflies: Plants to attract them, and concerns
Sure, they lower water bills and usher in more wildlife, but I admit it’s much easier to entice folks with the benefits of native plants in spring when the sages (salvias), wild lilacs (ceanothus) and many others are in full bloom. It’s a tougher argument in the hot summer through fall …
Continue Reading about California Native Plants with Summer Color
