Japanese barberry. Why do people plant a shrub with vicious thorns and no pretty flowers to make it worth the pain? To add insult to injury, Japanese barberry is invasive in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Birds eat the berries, which are less nutritious than other sources, and disperse the seeds. Deer do not [...]
Purple loosestrife Aliens in old science fiction movies arrive in space ships, look frightening and threaten to take over the world. Well, aliens are real. But they look beautiful and you drive them home from the garden center in your own car. They do take over the world, however. National Invasive Species Awareness Week is [...]
What a poetic sounding name: rain garden. A rain garden looks like a flower garden filled with colorful natives. The magic of a rain garden lies beneath the surface. A rain garden has been excavated deeper than is typical for a flower bed. Some of that excavated soil is moved elsewhere on the property. The remaining topsoil [...]
Who decided that insects do not belong in the garden? Producers of exotic plants brag that their plants are “pest free.” Gardeners who find a little bite mark in a leaf run to the poison shelf to obliterate the offending arthropod. Why? Your garden is part of nature, not a sterile laboratory separate from it. [...]