In 1912, Dr. Henry Forrest Libby created the Libby Museum in order to house his collection of specimens found in nature. He and his wife stuffed and mounted many of the animals and plants still present in the museum today, making them over 100 years old. Today, we continue his fascination of nature by creating […]
This year was the first full growing season at this house with my garden of Missouri native wildflowers and plants. I couldn’t have been happier and I’d venture to say that the butterflies, bees, and birds enjoyed it as well. Sure, I like the occasional mums on my porch next to the pumpkins in the […]
I’ve always lived what I’ve considered an environmentally conscious life-style; living in a dense, urban neighborhood, biking or taking transit to work, shopping local, eating a primarily plant-based diet, recycling, composting and much, much more. I’ve kept a vegetable garden for years and recently started raising backyard chickens, (which has been fun for me and […]
In 2014, students and teachers worked together to create a monarch butterfly garden on the campus of Forsyth School in the city of St. Louis. Fifth grade big friends and junior kindergarten little friends installed 120 milkweed plants, Asclepias incarnata, about one foot apart, to serve as a food source for monarch caterpillars as well […]
A great friend of mine (boyfriend at the time, still great friends) had property in the country that needed some TLC. He had an above ground pool that was taken down, but had left the deck up. He let me design a beautiful butterfly garden in that spot in March of 2011, and by August […]
I was recently faced with landscaping challenges for a weedy and barren new lawn in a strange new climate. And I was overwhelmed, to be honest. I’ve always loved nature, especially photographing wildlife, so I decided I needed something different when I moved to this new location. Something more and something better than a vast green […]
I would like to share with you a walk through my pollinator garden here in Shawneetown, Illinois. Nature is awesome, it is always fascinating at the things you see if you slow down to look. As we step out the door of the sunroom onto the bricked patio to the left, we have blue salvia […]
When we moved to the south end of Burlington in 2008, I dug up almost all the grass lawn in our yard—keeping only a ten-foot diameter section where we had lawn chairs—and replaced it with native plants and cultivars. Because I was concerned by the decline in numbers and health of pollinators like bees, butterflies, […]
We chose native plants because they provide ideal habitat for countless species of wildlife including birds, insects, and pollinators such as hummingbirds and monarch butterflies. Because they are perfectly adapted to local conditions, particularly compared to turf grass, native plants require far less water, less maintenance, no mowing, and less or no chemical pesticides and […]
After living in the home in which we raised our children for 25 years, my husband and I decided it was time to leave homeowning behind. The Allegheny River, which flows past Pittsburgh, PA, has a number of apartment complexes and so we moved in the Fall in 2010, sadly leaving behind a glorious and […]