Category: Sustainable Gardening

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Updated: Pesticide Free Nurseries and Seed Suppliers

Neonicotinoids—commonly called neonics—are the most widely used insecticides in the United States. Introduced in 1994, these systemic pesticides are now found in hundreds of products, including sprays, seed treatments, soil drenches, tree injections, and even veterinary products. Over the past three decades, scientific evidence linking neonic exposure to environmental harm—and potential human health risks—has continued …

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Bird Feeding Station From Recycled Christmas Tree

Recycling a fresh cut Christmas tree into a bird feeding station is the ultimate repurposing of your Christmas decorations. Setting up my old tree next to my bird feeders gave me hours of enjoyment watching birds feeding, chirping, and feasting - not to mention the squirrels pigging out!  Just watching the squirrel antics kept us …

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Should I Leave the Leaves?

"Should I leave the leaves? " is a question I am getting more and more frequently. With all the recent information flowing out about "re-wilding" and keeping things "natural", I wanted to address the dilemma of raking or not raking your leaves. You certainly don't want to bag them up and add to a landfill! …

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Pollinator-Friendly Seed and Nursery Directory

This post has been updated in February 2026, at Pesticide Free Nurseries and Seed Suppliers   After picking out dead honeybees from a honeycomb frame recently, I pledged to use only plants that are neonic free. Neonics or neonicitonoids have been implicated in recent bee declines as well as other factors, such as loss of habitat …

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Top 10 Ways to ReWild Your Garden

  This post has ben updated with new information to Top 10 Ways to ReWild Your Garden,  February 2025.   Douglas Tallamy, world renowned and influential ecologist/etymologist, urges Americans to go native and go natural.  Many people shorten this and call it 'ReWilding'.  For a great article on his philosophy, read  all about him in …

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Delaware Botanic Gardens Unveiling

Walking into the Delaware Botanic Garden on a sizzling hot morning in August, the first thing that I spotted was a a bright orange-painted box turtle scurrying down the pathway into the shelter of a nearby log. Being greeted by wildlife is typical at the soon-to-be-opened  37-acre Botanic Gardens that is located on the shores …

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Coffee Ground Science for Plants

If you start the day with a steaming hot cup of java, you're not alone. Americans drink 700 million cups of coffee per day, and we create tons of coffee grounds in the process. Instead of throwing coffee grounds in the trash, why not put them to use in the garden? While there are plenty …

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The Great Sunflower Project – The Backyard Bee Count

Would you like to help out native bees and honey bees? Plant Lemon Queen Sunflowers and start counting bee visits as the flower bloom and mature to add to the data base for North America so that scientists can study bees better.

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Robbing the Bees- A Honey of a Day

It happens every August - honey extraction! After babying the bees, feeding, monitoring, re-queening, splitting, and just plain worrying about them, now is the moment of truth.  How much honey did they deposit in the combs for me to rob from them? I won't leave you in suspense - I extracted 55 pounds from my one …

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Suburban Homesteading – Raising and Preserving Sustainable Food

Sustainable is the new catch word for gardening. I hear it everywhere and I think it is overused without anyone really understanding exactly what it means.  By definition it means -  Conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. And by working gardens, keeping chickens for meat and eggs, preserving food, adding solar panels, …

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Blueberry Bonanza

The Invasion of the Blues I have been growing blueberries for years and this has been a banner year for picking them.  We have had plenty of rain and the weather has been perfect for growing.  I have only 5 shrubs but that is enough to keep us in berries, as well as providing the birds all …

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High Line – Container in the Sky

I just came back from a day trip to NYC where I went to experience the 'High Line'. I have heard so much buzz from the media and friends on this new park in NY that I made a special trip to see it and was totally unprepared for the scope and genius of this …

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