After living in the home in which we raised our children for 25 years, my husband and I decided it was time to leave homeowning behind. The Allegheny River, which flows past Pittsburgh, PA, has a number of apartment complexes and so we moved in the…
When we moved to the south end of Burlington in 2008, I dug up almost all the grass lawn in our yard—keeping only a ten-foot diameter section where we had lawn chairs—and replaced it with native plants and cultivars. Because I was concerned by the…
We chose native plants because they provide ideal habitat for countless species of wildlife including birds, insects, and pollinators such as hummingbirds and monarch butterflies. Because they are perfectly adapted to local conditions, particularly…
I was recently faced with landscaping challenges for a weedy and barren new lawn in a strange new climate. And I was overwhelmed, to be honest. I've always loved nature, especially photographing wildlife, so I decided I needed something different…
In the 1950s and ‘60s, I was one of four children in a small, three bedroom ranch on the edge of town. My mother was the gardener with her daylilies, tulips, mint, Touch-me-not, roses, portulaca, and marigolds. I’m sure there were others. In the mid…
Sarah Hedean is the Living Collections Manager at Smithsonian Gardens. I sat down to talk with her on August 9, 2017 about bluebird nesting boxes at the Smithsonian Gardens greenhouses. For part one of our interview, on the subject of her career, the…
Brothers Tom and Louis have gardening in their blood. How did it get there? They have fond memories of growing up with gardens. During their childhood, it seemed that everyone in the family grew a vegetable garden and many home gardens had…
Until late winter of 2007, my only productive interactions with plants had been with the most common houseplants. Neither our family's efforts during my childhood to grow tomatoes nor my obstinate individual ones to grow watermelons in conditions I…
