A few summers ago, the Kraus family noticed a steady increase in monarch butterflies visiting their backyard native wildflower garden. One day after an overnight rainfall, Paula Kraus was stunned to see the black walnut tree in her family’s backyard overflowing with monarch butterflies sunning their wings.Read More
About 15 years ago, MaryJo and Charlie Skemp started noticing unusual activity in a hosta planting that runs along the back side of their home. Beginning each spring, the garden would become an energy-filled flurry of what appeared to be bees, or perhaps wasps or hornets, hurriedly flying in and out of anthill-like holes in...Read More
Build an Aldo Leopold Bench While Aldo Leopold is best known for his writing, teaching, and work regarding his forward-thinking “land ethic,” back in the early part of the last century, he also designed a nifty little bench. His design is a reflection of simplicity, functionality, oneness with nature, and surprising timelessness.Read More
It’s hard for many gardeners to resist “cleaning up” their gardens in the fall or spring. But many moths and butterflies overwinter as caterpillars, pupae, and even adults in the soil surface, leaf litter, dead plants, twigs, and other hiding places in the garden. Other insects such as native bees, beetles, and more, need “messy”...Read More
Living Next Door to the Avian Superhighway Those who live near rivers in our metro area are fortunate to live alongside one of the world’s most amazing bird migratory routes: The Mississippi Flyway. Every year, over 325 bird species migrate from their breeding grounds in Canada to their wintering grounds in the Gulf of Mexico,...Read More
Pictures tell most of this story. Property owners in an east suburb carved out a section of their property and transformed it into a wildlife haven in just a year. Milkweed that had always grown on the property were supplemented with a variety of Minnesota native plants. The following season, the planting was bursting with...Read More
Did you know that Minnesota is home to over 400 species of native bees? One native, the squash bee, has an especially symbiotic relationship with plants in the squash family. Your pesticide-free cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelons, squash, and cantaloupe will be bigger and tastier if visited by this bee. Squash bees often mate,Read More
Throughout the millennia, the astounding beauty of the butterfly has inspired the imagination, the arts, literature, and poetry. Attracting these magnificent creatures into our own yards requires just three basic ingredients:larval host plants, nectar plants, and sheltering habitat.Read More
