‘ARE YOU SHOVELED OUT?’ It was Ellen Blackstone—my BirdNote.org friend. “Birds are happy that I’m packing feeders and keeping pools unfrozen,” I shot back. “And I got to say Happy New Year to my favorite sly and shy little friend, the brown creeper.” To which she exclaimed, “Brown creeper!” and sent photos, plus a charming story of a woman who loved Certhia americana as much as I do. Here’s why:
The brown creeper is about 5 inches long (much of it tail!), but weighs just 0.2 to 0.4 of an ounce, or 5 to 10 grams—though it never lets being petite get in the way of business. With a beautiful voice and the best camouflage ever, it’s what I’d call a do-er. The brown creeper starts at the base of old trees—preferably with loose or shaggy bark—heading upward in search of insects and spiders. Once it reaches the top, it flies to the base to start again.
Hazel Wolf, a Seattle-based longtime activist for social justice, admired that trait when she saw the bird in action on her first birding trip, at age 64. The creeper’s determination inspired her to take on advocacy projects in behalf of the environment from that day on, until her death.
“I saw it work its way up the trunk, moving quickly, always up, up, up—then fly back to the base…” Hazel said (the full story is in this early BirdNote public-radio segment). “I realized how hard he worked for a living, just like me.
“Yes! I’m a birdwatcher,” she’d say, “because there are some birds in Washington, DC, that need careful watching!”
(And there still are. Oops–sorry for editorializing!)
“Hazel had her foot in three centuries–born in 1898, died in 2000, just as she had hoped,” Ellen told me last week. (Read Wolf’s “New York Times” obituary.) “She worked with labor, the tribes, whomever,
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
A cherry plum, sweet, thin-skinned and very prolific (you’ll also find it sold under ‘Red Grape Sugar Plum’). It was in the top three of our recent taste test and everyone liked it for its strong tomato flavour that’s sweet but not overly so, and its firm not mushy texture. It has a slight acidity running through it which all sweet tomatoes need. It ripens quite late compared to ‘Sungold’ and produces for a long period of time. It’s lovely in a mixed salad with the larger varieties.
Welcome to the wild ride known as parenting teens! If you’ve ever found yourself caught between eye-rolling moments and heartwarming instances of wisdom, these quotes about parenting teenagers will definitely hit the spot.
Birds make a great addition to your garden, they’re great to look at and they’re useful as well. For instance, they will eat slugs, snails, aphids, insects and other well-known troublemakers.
No food signifies summer more than watermelon. We’re so sweet on the hot pink (or yellow) fruit that we designed an entire watermelon bar party showcasing the many ways to snack on, sip, and even centerpiece-ify the hydrating produce item.
If you have an unused room in your home that's mainly being used to store items or it's completely empty, it's time to repurpose it so it can transform into a place that serves your lifestyle and needs well.
No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Virginia creeper is a native North American, deciduous vine, which can easily climb 30 feet or higher. Its tendrils end in oval shaped disks that adhere to surfaces and can damage stucco, the mortar between bricks, and painted surfaces. This highly adaptable plant grows in full sun to full shade. Grown as a groundcover, it can provide erosion control on slopes. Virginia creeper is very drought tolerant and a vigorous grower. To control the spread of this somewhat aggressive vine, prune, mow, or weed whack in the spring.
South Carolina is a very special place. From the coast to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, South Carolina has a diversity of climates and landscapes. The diversity of climates allows for different grasses to flourish. Warm season grasses such as zoysia, St. Augustinegrass, bermudagrass, centipedegrass, and bahiagrass flourish at the coast throughout the year, but those grown in the upstate go dormant in the winter. In the dormant stage, the grass turns brown and looks dead, but new growth will appear in spring. Cool season grasses, such as ryegrass and certain fescues, grow best primarily in the upstate but go dormant, or do not survive the heat of summer. Here too, the grass looks dead, with regrowth appearing as the weather begins to turn cool in fall and flourish through spring. Dormant grass still has live roots in the ground that require water, just not as much as when they are actively growing. Unless it has been uncommonly dry or windy, natural rain events are enough to sustain dormant grasses.
Are you frustrated because there are dandelions and other weeds in your lawn? Did you know that dandelion flowers provide one of the first springtime sources of pollen for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating insects?
MY GARDENING LIFE STARTED with a hedge—cutting one back hard, specifically. It was the threadbare, tall old privet surrounding my childhood home, and I was determined to “rejuvenate” it, after reading about the process in a book. No artful hedge has ever been created by my hands, though—a fact that feels all the more lamentable after watching Sean Conway’s video tour (above) of designer and nurseryman Piet Oudolf’s garden in the Netherlands. What magic.