Kathleen Groll Connolly, Landscape & Garden Designer, Speaker, Writer
Many of us remember chasing fireflies on summer nights as children. Others wistfully recall listening to hoot-owls, or finding frogs, toads, turtles, newts, salamanders, and, yes, snakes. Learn 8 ways we can put out the wildlife welcome mat.
Question: What animals below prey on tick-carrying white-footed mice and other tick-carriers? A. Owls, hawks, and other birds of prey? B. Foxes, bobcats, fishers? C. snakes? D. opossums? E. all of the above?
Have you turned a new leaf when it comes to land care? Many people have. For instance, we plant for pollinators, choose native plants, reduce lawn sizes, and use electric equipment instead of gas-powered. Most of those changes take place within the confines of our properties without attracting negative attention.
The same is not always true for autumn leaves.
The stray leaf, blowing in the wind on a dry fall day, has pushed more than a few neighbors into standoffs behind their rakes and leaf-blowers. That's true even now, when it’s no secret that we live in a time where lawns, gardens, parks, and street-scapes are meaningful to the survival of regional species.
It's easy to dream of flowers in early spring and summer. But before you put the shovel away this fall, consider adding some late-bloomers.
I live in a coastal town with abundant freshwater wetlands that drain to Long Island Sound. Beavers live here, too, and given their penchant for taking down ornamental trees and flooding driveways, their presence is not without controversy.
They have never caused me trouble, but two beaver lodges on the cranberry bog inside a local state forest raised my curiosity. It was time to improve my beaver I.Q.
