Join Jen McGuinness on tour for "Bird-Friendly Gardening" Official Book Launch Party! May 6, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by River Bend Bookshop and Priam Vineyards, 11 Shailor Hill Road, Colchester, CT Join us at Priam Vineyards to celebrate "Bird-Friendly Gardening"! Learn a bit on how to plant the perfect garden to attract our feathered friends. This is the perfect early Mother’s Day outing or a low-key girls’ night. Get your tickets here!  Attracting Birds to Your Garden May 9, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by the Portland Library, Portland CT I'll be sharing ways to attract birds to ..read more

In the Northeast, gardeners are always pushing the limits.  This is especially true in early spring, when temperatures can fluctuate wildly, such as a recent week we experienced in Connecticut where the daytime temps neared 70 degrees Fahrenheit but then a few days later, dipped overnight into the 20s.  Thankfully cold temperatures do not hold up the planting season for these plant varieties. Pansies and hellebores are the early spring VIP (very important plants) to consider including in your containers and landscapes for a shot of color. Pansies There are a variety of pansies avail ..read more

  Bird-Friendly Gardening is officially available in print and as an eBook! You can access the full list of booksellers here.  What people are saying so far about Bird-Friendly Gardening: Don't forget to claim your preorder thank you gift!!   Send a screenshot of the preorder confirmation receipt to jen [at] frauzinnie.com, along with your mailing address, and I will get the seeds and stickers in the mail to you ..read more

In just a little more than a month, "Bird-Friendly Gardening" will finally be published! Sometimes in the publishing industry, shipping delays happen, which is why this book was pushed out to April 2024. Thank you to everyone who has preordered a copy - some who preordered almost a year ago! ? I can't wait to have it in my hands, and I hope you feel that way, too! TO CELEBRATE: I am working on some preorder goodies as a thank you gift to everyone who has preordered a copy of the book so far! (Hint: It's two of my favorite things!) If you preorder direct through River Bend Bookshop, the thank ..read more

It's no secret that snowdrops (Galanthus) are some of my favorite flowers, and I find that I need them especially in late winter when spring is close but not yet here.  Snowdrops are critter-resistant flower bulbs, so deer, rabbits and rodents will leave them alone. (It's a member of the Amaryllis family.) When planted in clusters, they form a carpet of flowers in your garden. Each year I find room for more snowdrops in my garden, tucking them into existing flower beds or along pathway edges. A honey bee will seek out snowdrop blooms for nectar and pollen. This photo ..read more

An over-the-door shoe holder also doubles as a way to sort seeds. Do you have the gardening itch? Here are some tasks you can complete in January as you prepare for this growing season. My #1 tip: Order your seeds early — especially if you have your eye on a popular variety.  Pansies and violas can be started from seed in early February. (If you are aiming for even earlier bloom times, begin seeds at the end of this month.) Let's get ready for starting seeds indoors Cue the lights! If you use grow lights, clean your equipment. In the past, I used a diluted ble ..read more

These houseplants bring an exotic flair to indoor spaces, and are fairly low maintenance. The plants are epiphytes, meaning that the plant often uses another plant (such as a tree) as its host. The epiphytic plant is able to get all the nutrients it needs to survive from the air and rain. They do not hurt the host plant.  Billbergia nutans in flower. ‘Queen’s Tears’ (Billbergia nutans) is in the bromeliad family, and the pink bracts remind me of flamingo feathers. Native to South America, it is an epiphytic plant that grows primarily on trees. It lives on the top shelf ..read more

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map gets upgrade; data helps gardeners decide what can be grown in the garden. Image source: USDA Gardeners are waking up to the news that they may have shifted into a new growing zone, thanks to updated temperature data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Nov. 15.  The 2023 version of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map features the average annual extreme minimum temperature data of the United States from 1991-2000. On average, there was an increase of 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit overall across the country, according to Dr. Christopher Daly ..read more

Last night Birdcast.info was predicting a high migration night for my area in Connecticut, so this morning, I headed over to the local trail to see if any birds stopped here for the day. I wasn't disappointed! First I found a Common Yellowthroat. Common Yellowthroat Then, while following the Black-capped Chickadees, I also found a Least Flycatcher, a Canada Warbler (a first for me!), and an Eastern Phoebe. Least Flycatcher Canada Warbler Eastern Phoebe I also found a family of Gray Catbirds, who usually spend the summers in our town. Gray Catbird ..read more

One of the perks of using and sharing content on social media is that eventually you are reminded of past garden projects and how far they have come. Today's Facebook prompt to review "my memories" spurred feelings of nostalgia and a little wow factor for how far the front garden has progressed.  Today it showed me photos of the front garden 12 years ago today, when the garden was only two years old, and still in its early stages of development. There was still a large portion of lawn dotted with islands of plants. There was also a lot more sun since the trees had not grown in to full s ..read more