When I choose plants for my garden I often choose a plant that will supply food or shelter for the wildlife I welcome to my garden.This means I have looked for native plants, but I never fully understood why this was necessary.In his book, Bringing Nature Home, Professor Douglas Tallamy explains that "native plants support a diverse and balanced food web essential to all sustainable ecosystems". In the book he gives the best explanation of the food web…

A friend of mine who has his first tiny flock of chickens heard a great ruckus outside the other day. He ran out of the house and saw two of his chickens fighting each other. Odd. Then he realized one of the chickens was a hawk! He screamed. The hawk flew off. The chicken ran into the hen house and promptly laid an egg. When I told my husband he said clearly the chicken's response to the threat…

In the December 5 issue of The Recorder reporter Richie Davis described a program the Commonwealth is considering for forest owners. Apparently Georgia and Michigan have 'carbon sequestering' programs which allow forest owners to sell the their carbon credits to businesses that are 'under pressure to cut their greenhouse emissions'. Governor Patrick is considering a similar program. I acknowledge that farmland and other open space all over our country is under pressure by developers but I don't understand…

Am I too old (at 67) to Blog? We'll find out, but in any event I thought that the Feast of Saint Nicholas would be the perfect day to inaugurate my blog. There isn't anything going on in the garden outside so when the temperature is only 7 degrees above 0, as it was this morning, my only gardening desire is in books. I just picked up my old copy of Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden…