Thousands of folks visit North Georgia each fall to take in the beauty of the fall foliage. I love to do that myself but you’d be surprised at how seldom that happens, even for retired folks! Poor weather, errands, being sick, volunteering – these all get in the way of a timely visit and then the leaves are gone. That’s why I like to recommend incorporating good fall color plants into designed landscapes so that you bring some of that beauty home. A photo taken by my friend Sheri; it is a shopping mall parking lot  As I write this on a crisp fall day, a light wind is blow ..read more

  I love the views and the wildlife interactions that I get right outside my own front door. Watching the trees turn color this week in the front was just one more reminder of how important it is to me to put the plants I love where I can see them the most. This week's view: Viburnum prunifolium (purple) with the orange foliage of serviceberry (Amelanchier) I've written before about considering that your front yard can be every much a part of your habitat garden. You can read that post here. For me, the front yard is the part of my yard that I see the most. My back yard is entir ..read more

  Monarch on fall-blooming aster When I go to the grocery store, I’m happiest to find a good selection of foods: different choices of bread, more than one kind of pasta sauce, and enough yogurt selections to make one cry (so many choices!).  In some cases – such as having plant-based milks in addition to dairy milk choices – it can make a difference for specialized diets.  When wildlife comes to your garden, a diversity of plants helps improve the chances that there will be a little something for everyone too. Here are three reasons why it’s important to have a divers ..read more

This month's #amomentinnature is a bit of a look forward, a preview of fall color. I spotted this sassafras tree on the small road that leads to my neighborhood and the pop of color caught my eye. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is generally a medium-sized tree that is one of our earliest trees to color up in the fall. If you're looking for good sources of color for your own landscape, visit my earlier blog on Dependable Fall Color. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for early color and enjoy it while it lasts ..read more

  I have been anxious to get outside of my own yard for several weeks (but not willing to go too far) so this week I visited one of the Chattahoochee NRA hikes in East Cobb County: the Gold Branch Trail. It is one of 15 metro Atlanta area units of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA), part of the National Park Service. This park is just down the road from the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell. This trail is 3.8 miles long with options to make it a shorter experience. It traverses mostly easy paths (but tree roots require careful treading) in a classic Piedmont f ..read more

  The abundance of plant life seems to be at its peak in late summer. My beds are full of foliage, and the stems spill out onto the path to the front door, no doubt vexing the folks who deliver packages. One such person told my husband that it looks ‘snaky,’ but I rarely see snakes in my yard. Bidens aristosa in my yard The roadsides are also lush with plants and I delight in trying to figure out what’s there as I drive by. In both cases – the roadside and my yard – much of the vegetation belongs to native annuals. In the case of roadsides, there is a lot of ragweed (Ambrosia ar ..read more

This month’s #amomentinnature celebrates one of those happy moments when one of your plants looks awesome! My hearts a bustin' shrub (Euonymus americanus) is under constant deer pressure. I'm used to finding only a few clusters of fruit on a plant that has been heavily browsed. This year was different and when I walked past this particular plant, I was so surprised and grateful. This photo doesn't do justice to the dozens of fruits it was sporting. Euonymus americanus This is a great plant to support birds. This month is Georgia Grows Native for Birds, an initiative sponsored by Geor ..read more

  I love learning new things, especially about Georgia’s native plants. It’s the beginning of goldenrod season and for years I’ve assumed (yes, assumed!) that all of the spreading roadside goldenrod near me is the species known as tall goldenrod (Solidago altissima) – now considered Southern late goldenrod (Solidago altissima var. pluricephala). Several things happened recently that made me take a look at a species I’d never considered: giant goldenrod (Solidago gigantea). On a long roadside near my house - the same one with the elderberries that I wrote about in June - I noticed a tall ..read more

  Citizen science projects can really contribute to the data needed and used to understand how a wild organism is faring. There are annual bird counts and butterfly counts nationwide. In Georgia, now wrapping up its fourth year, there is a Pollinator count. This year’s count happened amid a spell of rainy weather but it cleared up enough in my area to count on Saturday. Despite working with me for the last two years, my grandson was too impatient this year to sit for 15 minutes. He started to count but could not finish and I had to discard his count. I will try with him again next year ..read more

This month’s #amomentinnature was not captured in film and lives only as a beautiful memory. One of my favorite shrubs is my plumleaf native azalea (Rhododendron prunifolium) which blooms in late July and often into August. The shrub sits next to my front porch. Rhododendron prunifolium This week, as the last of the azalea’s blooms opened, I passed the window as a hummingbird checked each bright red flower for nectar. It was such a special moment to see her enjoy one of my favorites. I do have a sugar hummingbird feeder but seeing them use the native plants is so rewarding.  Oth ..read more