Avatar photoMargaret Any

The Pollinator Powerhouse – Plants That Attract Bees, Butterflies, and Hoverflies All Season Long

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A cottage garden border in full bloom with catmint and open-faced flowers buzzing with bumblebees and hoverflies on an overcast summer day

I still remember the summer my garden fell almost completely silent. I’d been so focused on keeping things tidy that I’d cut back the “weedy” patches along the fence, pulled out the sprawling catmint, and replaced the old lavender hedge with something neater and more architectural. By July, I realized I’d hardly seen a bumblebee … Read more

Stop Deadheading Everything – How Leaving Seedheads and Stems Feeds Wildlife Through Winter

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Frost-covered Echinacea purpurea seedheads standing in a winter garden border with a goldfinch perched and feeding on the seeds

I have to be honest with you: I spent the first thirty years of my gardening life convinced that a tidy garden was a good garden. Every October, I’d be out there with my secateurs, snipping back the coneflowers, cutting the sunflower stalks to the ground, bundling up the ornamental grasses, and hauling it all … Read more

Go Native – Why Replacing 20% of Your Garden With Native Plants Changes Everything for Local Wildlife

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A young native white oak tree growing in a residential backyard garden, with broad lobed leaves and a small bird perched among the branches

I’ll never forget the summer I planted a single native serviceberry at the back of my border — a scrubby little thing that my neighbor said would never amount to much. Within two seasons, I was standing at the kitchen window watching a pair of cedar waxwings strip every berry from its branches while a … Read more

Trench Composting: The Buried Secret Behind the Most Productive Beds in the Garden

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A freshly dug composting trench in a vegetable garden bed with kitchen scraps visible at the bottom and a spade resting against the edge

After fifty years of gardening, I’ve tried just about every composting method under the sun. I’ve turned piles until my shoulders ached, fussed over carbon-to-nitrogen ratios like a chemistry professor, and spent more money on bins, tumblers, and activators than I’d care to admit. But the method I keep coming back to — the one … Read more

What’s Wrong With My Compost? The Complete Troubleshooting Guide for Every Common Problem

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Wooden three-bin compost system in a backyard garden showing different stages of composting

After fifty-some years of composting, I can tell you this with absolute certainty: every gardener, no matter how experienced, has stood over a compost pile at some point and thought, “Well, that’s not right.” I’ve had piles that smelled like a swamp in July, piles that sat there cold as a stone for months, and … Read more

Bokashi Composting: The Japanese Fermentation Method That Handles Meat, Fish, and Dairy

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A bokashi composting bucket on a kitchen counter beside food scraps and an open bag of bokashi bran

Bokashi Composting: The Japanese Fermentation Method That Handles Meat, Fish, and Dairy I’ll be the first to admit, when my friend Patricia told me about fermenting her kitchen scraps in a sealed bucket under her sink, I thought she’d lost her mind. I’ve been composting for over fifty years using every method you can think … Read more

Worm Composting: How to Set Up a Vermicomposting Bin That Fits Under Your Kitchen Sink

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A dark plastic worm composting bin tucked under a kitchen sink with a small scrap collection container beside it

I still remember the look on my daughter’s face the first time I told her I was keeping worms under my kitchen sink. She thought I’d finally lost it. But after fifty years of composting every way imaginable—hot piles, cold piles, tumblers, trenches—I can tell you that nothing converts kitchen scraps into rich, dark plant … Read more