hope is the thing with cotyledons, and other spring 2020 instagram thoughts

I can easily spot rose-of-Sharon or shrub althea (Hibiscus syriacus) at this time of year, even when traveling at 55 mph. This deciduous shrub flowers during the torrid months of July, August, and early September.

Most people can benefit from drinking more water. Here’s how to make it more exciting!

Quick backstory: You may remember Charley, co-author of my most-used field guide “Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates,” from our recent interview about galls and leaf mines, two of his specialties.(I’m giving away two more copies; enter by commenting in the form way down at the bottom of this page, after reading the entry details in the tinted box just before that. The book can help you to know what you are seeing when you look closer, too—kind of like always having Charley by your side.)When that story ran, Charley had noticed a photo I used to accompany it–of a squiggly “leaf mine” I’d observed in my Asian-native big-leaved perennial called Petasites. He’d wondered if it was caused by the insect that feeds in a few different genera in the tribe Senecioneae (including some native American botanical cousins of Petasites).  Why don’t you come try to find out, I’d suggested—and while you’re here, why don’t we have a

Like all of Ken’s 18 books (!!!), “Making More Plants: The Science, Art and Joy of Propagation” is rich in instruction, but also visually arresting, since he’s an award-winning photographer, too.  It covers the botany of propagation—the why’s behind how you can make more plants of a particular species sexually or asexually or both—because as Ken says:“It is not essential to learn about botany to garden well; it’s inevitable.”Then in words and intimate pictures he covers virtually every tactic for doing so, from seed-sowing to leaf and root cuttings, to layering, grafting, division and more.  The photos are so beautiful, and Ken’s obvious enthusiasm so evident on every page, that I want to try everything. (Just what I nee

I PROMISED I WOULDN’T ADD EVEN AN EXTRA TRIP TO THE CURB WITH THE TRASH to my schedule, with all the mowing I have to do, but (big surprise) I layered on a couple of events, and I want to make sure you know about them, in case you are in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires vicinity this summer. Another container-gardening class, a 365-day garden lecture with an extra focus on water gardening and the frogboys, and a tour here in August (that last one you already might know about). Details, details:Sunday July 12, Containing Exuberance, container-gardening workshop, with Bob Hyland at Loomis Creek Nursery, near Hudson, New York, 11 AM to 1 PM, $5.

Each of her 150 recipes is delightfully prefaced with what amounts to its provenance: a juicy and sometimes hilarious back story that Clark tells in as simple yet deft a fashion as the style of the dish that follows. I sat right down to chapters like “Better Fried” and “It Tastes Like Chicken” and “My Mother’s Sandwich Theory of Life,” the perfect mix of a good read and a good meal.For me—a flavor-fearing kid who rinsed most of her entrees off at the sink conveniently positioned halfway between the Garland range and the family dinner table—Clark’s childhood tales are positively hair-raising: Summer vacations were spent touring France with her psychiatrist parents, gourmands determined to eat at every Michelin-starred restaurant there. Worse yet (or to Clark, more thrilling): Th

Katrina and I have celebrated our similarities and differences since we met a couple of years ago at a book-industry trade show(read the whole story on her website). We both have corporate-publishing backgrounds, but then chose country, not city, as backdrops for our “second half” of life. Our differences aren’t really so different, we learned when reading the manuscripts last year to each other’s new books-to-be, “Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment,” and“The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life.”Katrina has been nurturing a husband and two sons for 25 years, the same time I’ve been mothering a sometimes-unruly gaggle of plants. (Yes, the garden has proven to be as worthy and complicated a life partner as any human mate.) Her new book isn’t about gardening, like mine is; it’s about finding herself with an empty nest. But we both explore themes like impermanence, adaptability, and the “what’s next” question we all find ourselves facing over and again—in the seasons of a garden, or a human life.Maybe owing to decades of cooking for her three hungry guys, Katrina is the kind of guest who always arrives

Besides the free love among the wood frogs, there was cross-species peace and harmony–like the thing-to-thigh giant male bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) and much smaller female green frog (Lithobates clamitans clamitans), above, neither of whom seemed aware that he could swallow her in one froggy bite. At one point–though it is far too early for him to be ready for any action–one of the four big bulls who spent the winter in my little backyard pool actually mustered a round of sex talk, as if he was in the mood for love. Ribbit!Click on the first thumbnail below, then toggle from slide to slide using your keyboard arrows or the arrows beside each caption. Enjoy.Categoriesfrogboys slideshows

Marzluff is a renowned ornithologist and urban ecologist, and professor of wildlife sciences at the University of Washington. He is author most recently of “Welcome to Subirdia”—his fifth book. He has written other titles specifically about his area of particular expertise, the corvids—crows, ravens, jays and their relatives—including one in collaboration with illustrator Tony Angell that I just read called “Gifts of the Crow,” the subject of our discussion.Read along as you listen to the Dec. 21, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).my crow and raven q&a with dr. john marzluffQ. It has been raining here today. We haven’t had much rain in the Northeast lately, though I know you’ve been having crazy, crazy rain in the Pacific Northwest.A. It is very, very

(The polenta can be made and formed well ahead, then finished in the sauté pan at mealtime.)ingredients:6 cups water 1 teaspoon salt 2 cups cornmeal 1 large carrot (or more), grated bleu cheese crumbles, about ½ cup (more or less to taste) pepper grated garlic to taste (start with 2 cloves) 2 tablespoons olive oil (plus additional amount to sauté the onions) onions, cut into slender rings, for topping flour, enough to toss and coat the raw onion rings steps:Bring the salted water to a boi

IF YOU DON’T HEAR FROM ME for a month or three, don’t worry: I simply got lost on a magical mystery tour of the Horizon Herbs website and catalog, a global collection that the Cech family of Williams, Oregon, has been growing organically and selling since 1985.  I’ve purchased some gift certificates to share with you—but most exciting, I had the pleasure of a Q&A with Horizon founder and herbalist/seedsman Richo Cech, on matters ranging from the world’s basils to medicinal Eastern woodland wildflowers.

How do birds get their food, and what do they eat, anyway? Well that depends on the bird, and Ellen Blackstone of BirdNote.org has some answers. A million people a day and more than 200 radio markets hear the 2-minute public radio show called BirdNote, and now “BirdNote” is a book too, which Ellen edited.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 20, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).how birds find foo