gardening
Monarch Sightings: A Joyful Call to Action!
Yesterday, I spotted my first Monarch Butterfly of the season! Today, I reported it to Journey North. Journey North is a website for Citizen Scientists, like myself, to report observations in nature that help scientists study naturally occurring phenomena. Those phenomena related to Monarch Butterflies are: The first Monarch (adult) sighting of the season Any…
Lovely Lilac Memories
Lilacs are some of my favorite flowers. Their heady fragrance is heavenly in the fresh spring air that still has a cool bite in the morning. Growing up outside of Rochester, New York, lilacs were among the first flowers I was able to identify and appreciate. There has been an annual Lilac Festival in Rochester…
When Volunteerism is Sprayed in the Face: Two Years Later
Current Day & Lessons From being a Volunteer Today, I am reposting a blog I wrote two years ago after something happened to me as a long-time volunteer. Luckily, the garden and monarch habitat persists, but I have moved on. In hindsight, despite the difficulty I had leaving this group of students who attended an…
Planning the School Garden
It’s that time again! Time to think about gardening! I am excited to once again be planning to plant a school garden with the entire student body of an elementary school. I like to do have a theme in the gardens I plant with school aged children. The reason is that this gives me and…
Silent Sunday: Buds
Orchid Buds, by Carol Labuzzetta, 2017.
Imbuing Excitement
The following post is a reprint of a paper I wrote five years ago this spring, during my very first course for graduate studies in the field of Environmental Education. Much has changed since then, namely the cessation of Evergreen Garden Club, a group to which I refer in this post. However, I find myself…
Seed Starting: It’s that time of year.
For being a long time gardener, I am not the best at starting plants from seeds. Last year was probably my most successful year, and sadly, I attribute that to my cats dying the year before. The cats, interested in the smell of dirt, and subsequent germinating seedlings, pulled the new plants out before they…
Silent Sunday: All Things Green
Milkweed Mission
It is a little early to start thinking about the arrival of my favorite butterfly, but I read that the Monarchs have started to leave their overwintering site in Central Mexico’s Sierra Madre Mountains. If you have a chance and want to listen to a scientist who has devoted her whole life to this incredible…