Catchfly Commons

Thankfully, Still in Eden

In her last post “Stop What You’re Doing”, Terri referenced Margaret Renkl’s book, The Comfort of Crows. Renkl ends the book’s introduction with these words: We were never cast out of Eden. We merely turned from it and shut our eyes. To return and be welcomed, cleansed, and redeemed, we are only obliged to look….

Stop What You’re Doing

In her newest book, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, Margaret Renkl begins the prologue with “Wherever you are, stop what you’re doing.” This is a call to attention in words to savor. I have been awed in the last few weeks by the colors of fall this year. The leaves of so many…

Appreciate Flies

Many types of flies are actually beneficial insects but are instead considered pests. Some types of flies are certainly pests as annoyances, transmitters of disease, and damagers of crops. However, beneficials types like hover, robber, snipe, and tachinid flies are creatures we want in our landscapes. Flies can function as pollinators. If you like chocolate,…

Identifying a Persistent Weed at Catchfly Commons

Hairy Bittercress or Lesser-Seeded Bittercress? Don’t take your eyes off the ball! A ubiquitous weed in our landscape is hairy bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta. Now begins the time of year for scouting these tricksters, just as much of the gardening work winds down. The first time I saw this plant in our landscape beds was probably…

Appreciate Wasps!

Wasps are beneficial insects!! Yes, they are creatures we want in our landscapes. Certainly, there are good reasons to be careful about being stung by wasps and hornets. As in our appreciation of bees, we need to move past our fears and understand wasp behavior and their contributions. Wasps are pollinators and help control other…

Native Groundcovers: On the Sunny Side of the Street – the long and the short of it Part III

Groundcovers for sun are a bit trickier if we’re looking at the very low growing options. (A list of our taller groundcovers can be found at the end of this post.) Often the surrounding plants, being taller, end up shading these low growers, so they’re no longer in the full sun they prefer. This limits…

Helping Pollinators Overwinter (Part II)

In Part I of Helping Pollinators Overwinter, I concluded by saying the dormancy of pollinators varies a lot. They are dormant in different ways and in different stages. The location of nests and shelters are also varied. This means as we garden in fall and winter that we need to give care to ground disturbances,…

Helping Pollinators Overwinter (Part I)

Ensuring our landscapes have host plants, nectar, and other aspects of native habitat during growing seasons is very important for biodiversity. The increased awareness of this is making a positive impact on how people garden. Unfortunately, this progress can be undermined if we do not also help insects and other creatures survive fall and winter….

Native Groundcovers: Made in the Shade Part II

This week we’re covering additional shade-loving, low-growing plants which provide the functions of groundcovers as described in Part I. Here are five more short native groundcovers that do well in shade and that grow here at Catchfly Commons: Pachysandra procumbensAllegheny Spurge Native pachysandra is an important early spring source of pollen for native bees. To…

Native Grasses

Grasses are important plants to include in native landscape plantings. They can provide structure in a design and can provide beauty with their foliage and blooms. Functionally, grasses can support other plants, fill gaps between plants thus suppressing “weeds,” host Lepidoptera, and provide wildlife shelter. (1) Native grasses are either “warm-season” or “cool season.” Most…