Skip to main content

Blog
Sustainability

What’s In Bloom Today?

The pink Missouri Primrose is in bloom here in Kansas City.       This tough little native perennial, also known as pink ladies, eagerly rambles over tough terrain and rewards you with masses of fragrant flowers that begin as white blooms and gradually change to pink, blossoming profusely from early to mid-summer. This primrose loves the …

What’s In Bloom Today?

Physocarpus opulifolius, commonly known as  Ninebark  is currently in full bloom here in Kansas City.     Ninebark is an easy to grow deciduous shrub that adds interest to the landscape all year long . It thrives in average, but well-drained soil in the full sun or partial shade, but will also tolerate dry periods …

Go Native -- In Your Container Garden

I was bound and determined to get my patio pots planted last weekend. I had all ten of them cleaned and ready to be filled, my color scheme picked out and each placement imagined. I knew exactly how many would have to survive in the brutal midwestern sun and which ones would sit in complete …

Not My Mother's Vegetable Garden

  I’ve recently noticed a pattern in our home-buying habits. Each time we buy a house, and we are on our 5th now, our yards get smaller. On one hand that seems like a plus —  much less space for routine maintenance chores. On the other hand, there’s much less space for planting. That’s where …

Invite An Insect: Green Lacewing

A truly Jekyll and Hyde insect, the Green Lacewing is both a fierce predator as a larvae and a delicate beauty as an adult.   Adult green lacewings are slender insects with lacy-looking, transparent wings and round, golden-colored eyes. During the day, green lacewings are usually found resting in open spaces  around grassy or weedy …

Invite An Insect: Praying Mantis

    Some say that finding  this insect in your home means that angels are watching over you, while others say that if one looks at you with a menacing glare, it foretells your death. The French thought it would lead a lost child home again. Folklore aside, the praying mantis is a fascinating visitor …

Invite An Insect: Bumblebees

Fast moving, noisy, yellow and black bumblebees are part of our native insect population. Here in North America there are currently 46 species of bumblebees, while worldwide there are 250 species. Because of habitat fragmentation and loss, pesticide use and diseases, the number of bumblebees is declining.     Although they are large and look …

Invite An Insect: Fireflies (Lampyridae)

    Those of us who are “of an age” have fond memories of quietly witnessing, or perhaps breathlessly chasing, the glow of hundreds of fireflies as they flitted across the grass on a summer’s evening. It was pure magic. Unfortunately, because of habitat destruction, overuse of pesticides and light pollution, this magic is disappearing …