How to Grow Parsley from Seed

Learning how to grow parsley from seed means you'll have ready access to this versatile herb almost year-round. Named 2021’s Herb of the Year by the International Herb Association, parsley is one of the most recognizable of herbs. If you’ve been to a restaurant, you’ve probably been served curly parsley as a garnish. However, parsley is much more than a garnish and it can be an important herb to grow if you’re selling herbs and produce for profit.

A Pollinator Field Guide

We know that pollinators are important, in fact, they are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we take. This has spurred on a backyard revolution of planting for pollinators. While everyone’s busy making their land animal and insect-friendly, it’s fun to know who’s who in the garden. That way, when you start spotting the pollinators you’ve attracted, you’ll know what you’re spotting and some fun facts about them.

How to Grow Blackberries and Raspberries

Blackberries and raspberries kicked off the 2020's as the Herb of the Year. Scientifically known as Rubus, and referred to as brambles, it would be hard to find a more useful herb for the homestead and self-reliant homeowner. Learning how to grow blackberries and raspberries provides delicious berries that can be eaten straight off the vine or cooked into cobblers, crisps and tons of other dishes. The berries can also be turned into products like jams, jellies or even wines for personal use or for sale to add diversity to farm income. Some even grow the berries and offer them as a u-pick product during the summer months providing customer foot traffic to the farm.

How to Attract & Feed Hummingbirds

When the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds arrive in spring, we celebrate at my house. Each year we set up a protected area by our mudroom door and our kitchen window. The hummingbirds always find it and the air above the feeding station is soon filled with hummingbirds zipping around at all hours. It's a joyous sight!

How to Get Started Winter Bird Feeding

Feeding the birds in winter is a fun way to stay connected with nature, participate in some citizen science studies and maybe learn a thing or two. Winter is naturally a time when we spend more time indoors, but that doesn't mean we have to leave nature behind.
 

A white-throated sparrow.

Pollinators 101 - Fascinating Facts About Butterflies, Moths & Bees

You’ve planted the plants that attract and feed pollinators. Your garden is full of plants like butterfly bushes, Echinacea, parsley, and fennel. You’re sure the pollinators love your gardens. You’ve seen them hanging around. But what do you know about them? Who’s really visiting your gardens?

Pollinators are important and their populations are declining across our country. Without pollinators, we don’t eat. It’s estimated that one in three bites of our food is linked to the work of animal pollinators. It’s also estimated that 75% of all plant species depend on animal pollinators to move pollen from plant to plant.

Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

What is Coltsfoot?

Are you seeing dandelions in the spring? You may want to double check. Those yellow flowers you're seeing could be coltsfoot.

While its flowers are pretty, this plant is actually named after its leaves which resemble a horseshoe in cross section. Coltsfoot flowers pop up in early spring and are often found in poor, disturbed soils. (Which is why it grows next to my driveway!) The leaves don't appear until after the flowers have died back and the plant has gone to seed, so in the spring, the flowers show up with no apparent leaves. 

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

The Backstory on Hornet Nests

Bald-Faced Hornet nests have a story to tell. Through most of the year, hornet nests are barely visible tucked in trees with leaves surrounding them. But in winter, hornet nests are easily found and fascinating structures that can be safely explored without fear of repercussion. Around my neck of the woods, bald-faced hornets make beautiful, teardrop-shaped nests that provide a home base for the colony from spring to late fall.

Sea Turtles; An Egg Layer of a Different Kind

Normally I like to explore common backyard wildlife. But I was recently lucky enough to meet a loggerhead sea turtle as she laid her eggs. For me, this was the treat of a lifetime. And I had to share!

This all started when I was a child. I was fascinated by turtles. It didn’t matter the species, I loved them all. I diligently kept a turtle log, recording the scientific data of all the turtles I found. I had a wonderful science teacher who encouraged my love of nature and allowed me to bring turtles into class to show everyone. She even allowed me to collect everyone’s pennies and dimes to scrape enough money together for our class to join a sea turtle rescue.

Fast forward to 2015, and I’m still just as excited every time I find a turtle. So, I recently visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island with my family. This wonderful facility handles turtle triage up and down the East coast. The center in itself is a treat. The displays are beautiful and informative. Each visitor gets to follow the trek of a turtle through its life finding out where it goes once it’s hatched and beyond. You can see the rehabilitating sea turtles in their tanks and even observe a feeding.

During nesting season, the center offers nighttime hikes to; hopefully, see the females as they come ashore to lay their eggs. Nothing’s guaranteed, but I decided to seize the day and booked my family.

We started at the center for a short video then drove to the beach, which was completely dark since no lights are allowed. The guides radioed to the beach turtle patrol to see if there were any spottings. I held my breath because while nest numbers are up this year, there hadn’t been any sightings for the last week. A voice came over the radio confirming a loggerhead was just coming ashore. They gave us the location and we all took off at rapid speed.

Once we got there, we could see the beach patrol scientists were with the turtle, but we couldn’t get close. We had to wait until she started to lay her eggs. At that point, the turtles go into a trance-like state and it’s safe to get closer. When I first saw her, I was instantly amazed. She was huge! I had seen loggerheads in aquariums, but nothing compared to on land. The scientists estimated she was over 250 pounds.

It turns out our turtle was Felyse and the beach patrol was already familiar with her. Our nest was number 102 and Felyse was becoming a frequent visitor. She was the turtle who laid the first nest of the 2015 season on Jekyll Island and this was her fourth nest of the year. Felyse was originally tagged on Jekyll Island in 2011 while laying one of her five nests that year.

As a backyard chicken owner, I was amazed by this egg laying process. The sea turtle process was so different. Loggerheads don’t start laying until they’re 30 years old and they don’t lay every year. They take a few years off between laying years. Around March, the females mate with the males at sea. The eggs then start to collect in the turtle. Once enough are collected, about 75 to 150, the females crawl ashore to lay. They go back to sea and more eggs start to collect. It’s different with each turtle, the average is three nests a season laid during two-week intervals. And, interestingly, hatchlings in the same nest can be from different fathers.

Once Felyse was done laying, she covered her nest and then we lined the way as she slowly crawled back to the ocean. The turtles get tired during this process, so there’s a lot of starting and stopping. As the waves covered Felyse, I couldn’t help but think how relieved she probably was to be weightless again and swimming. And, I sent her my best wishes. With so many things that could go wrong, from predation to pollution, I wondered if Felyse would ever be back to visit again. I certainly hope so!

As for her eggs, the hatchlings start to emerge about 57 days after being laid. That means Felyse’s eggs will hatch sometime between mid-August and September. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center does have a nest watcher program where you can sponsor a specific nest. I’ve sponsored Felyse’s nest and I can’t wait until they send pictures of her hatchlings! Then, her story will be complete and I’ll hope that 30 years from now, some of Felyse’s offspring are lucky enough to return to Jekyll Island and start the whole process over again.

Bird Feeder Fun - Squirrel Antics

Our bird feeder is always a hive of activity for birds, usually not squirrels. However, this squirrel has found us. And he really enjoys our feeder! Check him out! He's eaten so much that he can hardly move. I had to take pictures looking through our living room door and our screened-in porch, so I didn't scare him. But they definitely tell the story of a full squirrel who was wishing he didn't eat those last few mouthfuls!

Geese And Gulls By The Frozen Ohio River

I couldn't resist a few pictures from my recent visit to our frozen Ohio River. These geese and gulls are permanent residents who decided to haul out on the shore. Of course, friendly locals were feeding them. So the birds were pretty happy with their circumstances.

Bird Feeder Fun - Visitors During the Snow

The weather has been awful here this week, so no pictures of my chickens to share today. They've been staying warm and dry as we've had tons of snow and temperatures in the double-digit negatives. But, along with the nasty weather comes beauty as my feeders have been full of colorful jewels. So enjoy these charming characters!

A blue jay awaits a turn at the feeder. 

This blue jay's a little curious.

A red-bellied woodpecker in the surrounding trees.

This eastern towhee is getting a treat!

Dusty Spider Webs

I couldn't resist this picture of dusty spider webs in an old barn since it's almost time for Halloween. Spooky and beautiful at the same time!

Wildlife Wednesdays: Removing Ash Trees

I hoped it wouldn't happen, but over the summer, we found a few Emerald Ash Borers dead in our pool. Our once beautiful ash trees started to lose their leaves. And then it was time. Our trees were dead and had to be removed so they didn't cause harm to any existing structures.

You can see the tunnels made by the Emerald Ash Borers in the picture above. Eventually the trees couldn't get any food or water.

 Doesn't look too big, right? Check out the pictures below!

Warm Thoughts

Pictures from a day at the beach on Lake Michigan. A warm thought for a cold day like this.

Wildlife Wednesdays: Virginia Creeper Sphinx Moth

A few weeks ago I went into my yard to find my potted grapes decimated and some caterpillars happily munching on the few scraps of leaves that were left. The caterpillars looked so much like tomato hornworms that I put them in a container with some leftover tomatoes with the intention of showing my kids when they got home from summer camp.

But all through the day, it kept bothering me; the caterpillars were smaller than tomato hornworms and what were they doing eating grape leaves? A little research later and I had my answer; they were not tomato hornworms, they were Virginia creeper sphinx moth caterpillars (Darapsa Myron). It turns out they LOVE grape leaves!

So my kids and I set our caterpillars up in our butterfly keeper and fed them leaves until they turned into cocoons. About two weeks later, out popped our beautiful moths. What a cool find and what a cool summer science activity for my kids. And, by the way, my grape plant is getting new leaves.

Wildlife Wednesdays: Gray Treefrogs Making More Frogs!

We found this pair of Gray Treefrogs on the ground beside our pool. I eventually had to move them to a nearby tree since the chickens and our cat, Beth, really wanted to eat them. They were a pretty cool sight to see!

It's amazing the size difference between males and females.

The by-product of their efforts!

Since the pool cover is coming off soon, I've spent the last few days moving tadpoles and eggs to a pond in our local State park. This way they've got a chance!

Wildlife Wednesdays: Gray Treefrog Serenade

Over the weekend, we found this gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) in the backyard very close to where the chickens like to hang out. Trying to be good stewards of wildlife, we took pictures and then let the frog go in a place the chickens can't reach.

The funny things is, we've been serenaded every night by a chorus of treefrogs, but we never could find them; just this little guy. Then, my husband and I went outside after a thunderstorm the night before last. The chorus sounded closer than usual. And it was! Much to our surprise, the pool cover that has water on it during the winter, is now being used as a vernal pond. We found over 50 frogs all over the pool cover and swimming in the water. We even watched them inflate their throats to sing.

Although tree frogs are almost entirely arboreal, in the spring they do congregate to mate. Our frogs have definitely been successful this year judging on the amount we've got in the backyard. So, for the time being, we'll just have to wait to drain that pool cover. Thank goodness we don't have long to wait until it's time to take it completely off the pool!

Wildlife Wednesdays: Eastern Black Swallowtail Emerges

Last October, my kids found a beautiful Eastern Black Swallowtail caterpillar, sometimes known as a Parsley caterpillar, in some weeds next to our driveway. I told them they could keep the caterpillar overnight, but we had to let it go the next day since it was late in the season. We found some Queen Anne's Lace and gave it to the caterpillar to eat. It immediately started munching on the plant and seemed comfortable in our butterfly carrier on the screened-in porch.

The next morning we checked on our caterpillar and found that overnight it had turned into a chrysalis. I was a little apprehensive about this. I knew the chrysalis would not emerge until spring. Would it overwinter on our screened-in porch? I wasn't sure, but I knew I had to give it a try. After all, I couldn't just throw the weed into the woods, that would surely mean death for the chrysalis.

So, all winter I checked on the chrysalis daily. I moved it into our unheated garage when the weather got bad (which wasn't much this winter). I worried when we had 80 degree weather in March. Would the butterfly emerge too soon?

Then, on Sunday, I checked on our chrysalis and was amazed to find a beautiful and healthy Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly.

The chrysalis was still intact, so I took some pictures because you can still see how it was anchored to the Queen Anne's Lace. And, it looked really cool.

We all enjoyed meeting our new butterfly friend, took some pictures and then let her go to start a new generation of butterflies for 2012. Oh, by the way, we know she's a girl by the generous amount of bright blue on her lower wings. A boy is mostly black with the yellow spots.

Wildlife Wednesdays: Spring Blooms

Spring has been beautiful this year. Thought you'd enjoy these blooms...

Sugar Thyme Crabapple

Dogwood

Redbud