Native plant butterfly garden planting day in Schenectady, NY. This spring I was delighted to be contacted for a dream project: the volunteers from a nature preserve in Schenectady, NY contacted me to design a butterfly garden for the preserve. The Woodlawn Nature Preserve is a part of the connected Pine Grove ecosystem, [...]
Last year in May I was called to design a new butterfly garden in Glenville, NY, using exclusively NY native plants. This photo was taken the spring of the second year in the Glenville butterfly garden, this May, as it was just starting to develop for the season. And the second photo is the view [...]
At the Children's Butterfly Garden of a Saratoga County Elementary School This week I had the privilege of designing a butterfly garden at a Saratoga County Elementary School. The kids were lots of fun to work with, and they were so excited to learn about habitat gardening and the different species of native plants we [...]
Last summer I began transforming a bland ornamental garden in Burnt Hills, NY into a colorful, low maintenance native plant habitat oasis. We began referring to the newly eco-friendly garden property as, "the bluebird house" because soon after the addition of the first round of native plants bluebirds began frequenting the gardens and yard. One [...]
This past Sunday a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly visited our Saratoga Springs container herb garden. It was the first I'd seen all season. We had a Lindera benzoin "Spicebush," which is the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly's host plant, in a container in the holding area for Monday delivery. Butterfly intuition about host plant location in the garden [...]
Photo from websource Recently I mentioned how Monarch butterflies have declined as a species this year. Ecologists across the country are encouraging home owners, gardeners, landscape designers and proprietors of public spaces to plant more Milkweed. Milkweed, the native plant family Asclepias, is the Monarch caterpillar's host plant. When we integrate it into our gardens, [...]
This week I designed a butterfly garden in Glenville, NY. The bed is in constant dappled sun, so we chose butterfly host and nectar plants acclimated for both full sun and partial shade, as well as some native species shrubs to increase shady effect. Ninebark and Lindera were used, both support butterfly habitat as a [...]
On Sunday May 5th the DEC is holding a native plants festival in Saratoga Springs, NY at the Saratoga State Park. They have invited me to give a presentation on butterfly habitat gardening in the Saratoga region, a topic which is mutually inclusive to gardening with native plants. I am speaking at 1pm at 19 [...]
This past weekend I had the privilege of being asked to teach a workshop on butterfly habitat gardening at the Albany 2013 Capital District Garden and Flower Show. I've since heard from several people who wanted to attend and couldn't; this post will summarize the butterfly habitat gardening presentation. Carole Sevilla Brown recently composed an [...]
This week in the news I noticed a disheartening article that illuminated this year's decline in Monarch butterfly species population. A friend and colleague, Ben Vogt, has created several new online platforms for Monarch advocates to rally together and celebrate milkweed, the Monarch host plant. Encouraged by Ben's positive movements, and also by the spring [...]
I've been invited to give a lecture on butterfly habitat gardening at the 2013 Capital District Garden and Flower Show. I will be speaking at 7pm on Friday, March 22cnd. I'll actually be there all weekend at the Jessecology booth. I'm delighted to have the privilege to share uplifting and empowering information with people about [...]
This week a challenge was posed to imagine turning this sandy pine forest edge into a native plant habitat oasis. Many ecological factors need to be taken into consideration: the complete abscense of any nutrients in the sandy soil, the slope of the hill that lends to erosion, and lack of water retention in quickly [...]
This week I completed installation of a habitat garden in Clifton Park using native plants. Like many gardens in the capital region, adding native plants gives an immediate and noticeable influx of wildlife motion. This property has a forest edge and natural wetland habitat within a half a mile. Butterflies and songbirds are nearby and [...]
This work week continued in a Clifton Park property that's added extensive habitat garden space over the summer. Many native plants for butterflies have been introduced, especially in this featured photo, which will one day be referred to by neighborhood children as, "Butterfly Land." Here we see the quintessential Monarch habitat plant: Swamp Milkweed or [...]
This week I installed a habitat garden design in Queensbury, NY. The project was especially exciting because of the property's proximity to wetland habitat. In every direction around the home in fact, there are wetlands, and 3/4 of the photos used for our wetland habitat post were from within one mile of our ecological garden [...]
This week I designed and installed a native plants garden that will double as a living fence. The home is located in an urban area: the heart of downtown Glens Falls. The homeowner would work in the existing gardens and people would walk by on the street and be able to see in. The new [...]