It’s spring and it’s glorious. The chipping sparrows, white throated sparrows, robins and bluebirds have returned to the yard to feed on seed in the feeders joined by red-bellied, downy, hairy and pileated woodpeckers on the suet cakes.
It seems pretty crowded out there if you’re familiar with all the popular cultivars in commerce today. Ever wondered who all those people named in plant circles really are?
April Fools Day has come and gone, but April’s weather continues its foolish unpredictability. In keeping with that spirit, herewith is April’s True or False.
Oh, to wander the woods after a spring rain! What wonderful awakenings await? The sight of forsythias blooming in the sunlight penetrating the forest floor with unbounded exuberance.
Each spring bicyclists return to Charlotte’s roads, and in this COVID year they seem to be out in greater numbers than ever. Here are some safety tips for cyclists and motorists.
Katherine Knox purchased her first lambs in 2007, when she got sidetracked on a trip to Fletcher by a girl walking a Jersey cow on Spear Street. Soon, more lambs and other farm critters took up residence at her home in Charlotte.
Did you know that Vermont was the first state to designate a day of the year to clean up litter along the roadsides? And on that day in 1970, 51 years ago (!), participation and results far exceeded expectations.
To understand how to take care of forests, we first need to understand what they are and how they work. Within forests, one of the incredible processes that make forests work—and one that we need to learn to accept—is tree death.
All creatures are endowed with some means of defense. Over time, ancestors of the striped skunk of New England developed a memorable and unique means of warning possible attackers. When it feels threatened, it stomps its front feet and puffs up as much as possible to suggest strongly that you cease and desist from your forward progress.
Some gardeners use chicken tractors to recycle kitchen scraps, help control pests, and to provide organic fertilizer. The chickens live in a house and a run, mounted on wheels or skids, and the entire set up is rotated around the garden.
To understand how to take care of forests, we first need to understand what they are and how they work. While most peoples’ understanding of them starts and ends with trees, forests are complex, dynamic communities comprised of many different organisms and the processes that affect them.
I dream of Opening Day on the shoreline of a swollen stream and of monster holdover rainbows and steelhead like those occasionally caught in Lewis Creek in Ferrisburgh. My inner compass points to a friendship with one of Vermont’s finest fly fisherman, bar none—Mark Wilde.
Even on a frigid day with raging winds, the sun penetrates and warms. Spring! The Vernal Equinox is in the rearview mirror, birdsong fills the air, and crocuses and snowdrops bloom. What else is going on?
University of Vermont (UVM) Extension Community Horticulture Program Master Gardener volunteers are hosting a free vegetable gardening education series on six consecutive Saturdays this spring.
As you hit the trails, take a close look at Vermont’s forests. Some trees are threatened by invasive forest insects, and in some places, you might be the only one to spot them!
Early March is a wonderful time to look for birds in Charlotte, as the resident species are already getting…
As you hit the trails, take a close look at Vermont’s forests. Some trees are threatened by invasive forest insects, and in some places, you might be the only one to spot them!
With the lengthening daylight and the many seed catalogs arriving in your mailbox, it’s hard to ignore the promise of spring. Are you planning to grow your own vegetable and flower transplants this year? You may find that shopping for grow lights for indoor gardening can be mind boggling.
A couple of books got me thinking about how we depend upon and how we share a relationship with nature. One was Philip Caputo’s The Longest Road, a story of his drive from the southernmost point of America—Key West, Florida—across the continent to the northernmost Alaska coastline on the Arctic Ocean and then back again, a round trip of over 16,000 miles.
To a fisherman, the mysteries of what lies beneath the surface, living in a world where we can survive only for a limited duration, speaks of a world vastly different from our own reliance on terra-firma.