Regarding Soil microorganisms: The Tiny Organisms That Keep Our Gardens Alive. Soil Microorganisms When we look at a healthy garden, we notice the wildflowers, trees, butterflies, birds and bees. However, underneath all that visible life is another world. Soil microorganisms are constantly working beneath our feet. Without them, our gardens and ecosystems simply could not
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When Should You Clean Up Your Garden in Spring. When Should You Clean Up Your Garden in Spring? The first warm days of spring can make gardeners eager to grab their rakes, pruners, and leaf bags. But when it comes to native gardens, patience is one of the most valuable tools we have. At Jessecology
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What to Do With Leaves in the Fall: 5 Eco-Friendly Alternatives to Raking. Every autumn, millions of fallen leaves are raked, bagged, and hauled away as yard waste. But those leaves are anything but waste. They’re a valuable natural resource that can nourish your soil, protect your plants, and provide essential wildlife habitat. What to
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Best Fall Flowers for Pollinators As summer fades and temperatures cool, your garden can finally still be buzzing with life. Fall-blooming native flowers basically provide essential nectar and pollen for bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects preparing for winter. Local Recommended Best Fall Flowers for Pollinators. At Jessecology Eco-Landscaping, we design native gardens that generally
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How Late Can You Plant in the Fall? Every autumn, we hear the same worried question: “Is it too late to plant?” Usually, the answer is no. How Late Can You Plant in the Fall? Probably later than you’d guess. At Jessecology, we plant for clients until Thanksgiving most years. At our own wildflower farm
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How to Remove Invasive Plants Without Chemicals Invasive plants can spread quickly, crowd out native species, and reduce wildlife habitat. However, simply killing the visible plants does not always solve the underlying problem. To remove invasive plants without chemicals, we first need to understand why that particular species is thriving there. Invasive plants can communicate
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How to Replace Your Lawn With Native Plants. A traditional lawn may look tidy, but it offers very little food or shelter for native wildlife. It also requires regular mowing and may depend on irrigation, fertilizer, and weed control. Replacing even part of your lawn with native plants can transform an underused area into a
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How to Grow a Native Garden Some people stop mowing, let the weeds take over, and call it “native gardening.” It isn’t. How to grow a native garden is much more strategic. A native garden is a designed, intentional landscape built from plants that evolved alongside your region’s wildlife, soils, and climate. Get the basics
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Native Plants for New York: More Than a Pretty Garden Native plants are obviously having a moment. They appear on municipal planting lists, at garden centers, in glossy magazines, and certainly all-over social media. But native plants are not simply a new gardening style. They are living parts of an ancient, highly interconnected system, and
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Stop Putting Your Garden to Bed for Winter. Regarding fall garden cleanup + ecological reality. Rethinking fall garden cleanup practices. For generations, gardeners have been told that fall means it’s time to “put the garden to bed,” with pretty meticulous fall garden cleanup practices. Fall garden cleanup generally has meant… Cut everything down. Rake everything
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How to Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden. Basically, how to protect your new native plants without declaring war on wildlife. Congratulations straightaway! You’ve presently installed a beautiful new native garden. Unfortunately, the bunnies have also received the announcement. How to Keep Rabbits Out of Your Garden? Note: Independent expertise exists because of your support.
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The 70/30 Planting Rule: What do Ecologists Think? “The 70/30 Planting Rule” is suddenly everywhere. Trendy garden designers are recommending that landscapes contain 70% native plants and 30% introduced plants—as though sacrificing nearly one-third of a garden’s ecological potential is a reasonable goal. Why Be Skeptical of The 70/30 Planting Rule? If we are talking
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Sustainable Landscape Development. What an opportunity we all have ahead of us over the next decade. The future is bright. As eastern NY cities, villages and townships begin to consider sustainability in planning, we all win. Over the years, we’ve observed 5 principles for sustainability in garden construction. Removing invasive species, adding only native plants in
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Natural Gardening. One benefit of a natural gardening practice is closer contact with nature. If you’ve wanted to hold a baby bunny, you may be able to! It depends on the unique nuances in your neighborhood’s ecosystem. And the flow of your land matters. There’s lots of native fauna besides the Eastern Cottontail, too. The
More Rain Gardens. In spring a while ago, Jessecology designed and installed some rain gardens in Lake George. The gardens were created at an inn right on the lake. Later, we added more plants into the design. Recently we stopped by to see the progress of these Lake George rain gardens in their maturity. Native
Do plants have feelings? The mystery intrigues gardeners, ecologists, and anyone who spends time in nature. Ancient Christian legends teach that nature did not experience the fall of man. Thus, the earth’s flora and fauna still exist in a pristine state of paradise. While plants don’t have souls like humans, they exhibit fascinating responses to
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Before + After Photos Before and after photos reveal how a garden grows into itself. They hint at transformation, momentum, and possibility. In native landscaping, though, those images work best when they’re read as part of a longer story. The first year after installation can be especially pleasant to watch, particularly in gardens with clay
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Railroad Ecosystems: The Hidden Conservation Corridors Across the Landscape. When most people think of railroads, they soon think of transportation. Ecologists, however, generally recognize the importance of railroad ecosystems and railroad corridors as valuable components of the natural landscape. As development fragments forests, grasslands, and wetlands into smaller patches, wildlife generally faces growing challenges. Many
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Urban Heat Islands: Why Cities Are Getting Hotter and How Native Plants Can Help. If you’ve ever walked across a blacktop parking lot on a summer afternoon and then stepped into a shaded natural area, you’ve experienced the urban heat island effect firsthand. Urban heat islands are basically one of the fastest-growing environmental challenges facing
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Before and After Photos Before and after photos reveal how a garden grows into itself. The photo series hints at transformation, momentum, and possibility. In native landscaping, though, those images work best when they’re read as part of a longer story. This post is meant to offer that wider view and to show what those
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