Nature creates the best planters :)
I will now attempt to use a picture that does not do Mother Nature justice to tell you how Mother Nature has it all figured out.
This was an outcropping I saw on my recent hiking trip. The picture above is of a rock over hang that was covered with lush forest plants. There were ferns [...]
Wild Flowers and Wooly Caterpillars
I know all of you who have a love of gardening also love the wild and natural world. I went hiking recently in the Hocking Hills region of Southern Ohio, and I want to share some pictures of a little critter I met, and a beautiful example of a flower. It is important to know [...]
Sowing the Cosmos
This Summer, I ventured into flower gardening, which I had not really done before. I started my green gardening journey with house plants. Once I felt comfortable with those, I started noticing all the green space outside where I could expand. I forayed into vegetable gardening, then started a shade garden full of hostas. (Those [...]
My Fave :)
I was lucky enough to be visited by my favorite exo-skeletal, ectotherm a few days ago! I found him sitting in my sweet potato plants in my back yard garden (Or, as I like to call it, my Yarden…)
A praying mantis!
These are probably my favorite bugs of all time. So cool looking, so [...]
Back Yard Shenanigans
It may be the hurricanes on the East coast of the US, or Fall may be just around the corner. Or maybe it’s a little of both… It feels like I just got the garden off and running, and the first frost could very well be just around the corner. I’ve been eating well from [...]
Endless Summer
I know, I know, it’s not really endless… But I could live this way forever
I was out in my back yard the other day, lounging in a blue baby pool (don’t judge me) to cool off. My house was built in the 20’s and hasn’t had many updates since. The lack of air [...]
New Addition
Dear Ivy,
I just got a 6″ Celosia plant as a gift. How do I care for it? Where do I place it? How frequently do I need to water and fertilize it?
-Curious
Dear Curious,
I would say that whomever gave you this plant surely thinks you have good taste, and a green thumb! Celosia are beautiful [...]
Bugs Are Some of My Favorite People
One of the things I love about Summer is the influx of life into my little world. Spiders and bugs and their whole miniature food chain, acting out their life cycles right in front of my eyes! Birds swooping in and out, rodents scuttling under the fence to look for shoots and leaves to eat. [...]
Reader Mail
Dear Ivy,
When you dead-head a petunia, can you just pluck the dead flower or should you snip it a little lower? What about those little mini petunias, do you have to deadhead those too?
Thanks very much,
Evary
Dear Evary,
This is a great question! A good opportunity to explain to my readers the practice of “Dead [...]
Hens and Chicks
Dear Ivy,
How often do I water my hen and chick plant?
-Mothering Myrtle
Dear Myrtle,
In a few words… Not often! These plants, known as hens and chicks, because of the way they grow (the “mother hen” sends off little buds exactly like little versions of herself), or, also known as “Semper Vivum” (”always alive”), are a true [...]