#AMomentinNature was appreciating this morning's thunderhead sunrise from our morning's walk. Maybe we'll get some much-needed rain this afternoon. Every sunrise indicates a new day when we can all do something positive for ourselves, our family, & for our only planet. Today, I will plant natives.

#AMomentinNature was this dramatic sunrise across the St. Johns River in North Florida.

#Pollination Squashes have separate male & female flowers & pollination between them must occur for fruit to develop. This vine sabotaged its own pollination by closing off access to this male flower. Seminole pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata): greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2017/09/end-...

#HappySunday #Sunflowers are cheerful even on a rainy day.

#GrowMoreFood Lime basil(Ocimum americanum) loves Florida's hot, wet summers! Sweet basil (O. basilicum), the traditional basil for Italian cooking including pesto, is susceptible to fungal diseases once the wet season begins here in Florida. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2020/05/lime...

Salt marshes are natural shoreline buffers & make coasts more resilient in the face of climate change. They buffer storm surges, trap nutrients, & provide important habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. One beautiful species of salt marshes from TX-NY is saltmarsh mallow(Kosteletzkya pentacarpos).

#DDay June 6, 1944, allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, which began the liberation of Europe from Hitler’s Nazi regime. "In Flanders fields, the poppies blow..." This should have been the end, but yet today, there are still fascists (some in our own country) that need to be defeated.

Starry rosinweed (Silphium asteriscus) is native from TX-NY. The starry rosinweed is an outlier in the daisy family (Asteraceae). The flower head looks like daisy, but the showy ray florets produce fruits while the disk florets are sterile. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/08/star...

Celebrate #PollinatorMonth by converting sterile, poisoned lawns to pollinator-friendly and bird-friendly habitat filled with native plants. Some can only fly a short distance to find nectar, so your yard may be their entire universe. Read: beautifulnativeplants.blogspot.com/2025/04/desi...

This Robert Reich quote came up in my Facebook memories today. Unfortunately, the reality two years later is all this and more. The state of our country is worse than we feared in so many ways.

Southern arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum) is a medium-sized shrub that attracts & supports both pollinators & birds. It's also the larval host for the spring azure butterfly (Celastrina ladon). It’s native to most of eastern North America. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2025/09/sout...

This made me laugh. Many years ago I taught Microbiology at a community college. This helped me see why the students may have struggled with this topic.

#AMomentinNature was this Florida native, scarlet rosemallow(Hibiscus coccineus)next to our pond. There are 432 Hibiscus species worldwide. With their beautiful flowers, many are grown in gardens & some are used as crops. Read my Hibiscus article: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/05/hibi...

#AMomentinNature was a sunset rainbow from our North Florida yard.

Coontie(Zamia integrifolia), an ancient plant native to Florida, has an interesting history of over exploitation & the near extinction of the Atala butterfly (Eumaeus atala). Today, it's widely planted because it's attractive & easy to grow. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2026/06/coon...

#SequesterMoreRainwater Florida's 5-month wet season begins tomorrow--June 1. Rain gardens & rain barrels help us to keep more of the storm water on our properties & this reduces water pollution in nearby waterways & aquifers. Let's get started! greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2025/04/rain...

A better question is, “HOW did the simple concept of leaving the planet a better place for our kids & grandkids become a partisan issue?” IMHO, the answer is, “So rich old men could siphon off & hoard even more money regardless of the environmental costs.” #VoteBlue at all levels of government.

#BloomingNow! Buttonbush(Cephalanthus occidentalis) has amazing fragrant, globular flower heads that attract many pollinators. A tall shrub in gardenia family(Rubiaceae), it's native to all but the most western of the lower 48 states. It does best in reliably moist soils in sun or partial shade.

A creamsicle sunset. The wet summer season has started here in Florida.

What is the birds-eye-view of your yard & your community? This Red-shouldered Hawk(Buteo lineatus) provided its opinion on how humans have altered its habitat. But, we can make our yards & our communities more #BirdFriendly. Read to get started: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

Pillbugs are not insects, but are isopods, a type of crustacean capable of living on land. They live about 3 years. They also display some parental care by carrying eggs and young in their brood pouch (marsupium).

Moonflower (Ipomoea alba), a night-blooming morning glory pollinated by moths. When the sun rises, the flowers wilt. This vine played an important role stabilizing the Mesoamericans' rubber balls centuries before Goodyear's vulcanization invention. greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2025/02/morn...

Hairy laurel (Kalmia hirsuta) in North Florida on 5/24/26 was a new plant for me. Farther north, I am familiar with mountain laurel (K. latifolia), but this is quite a bit smaller. The pink flowers have the same structure with the anthers embedded in the petals, set to hit the backs of pollinators.

Steve Turnipseed is a native landscaping hero. He transformed a lawn-heavy yard into a native plant habitat in a 55+ HOA, The Villages, Florida. www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Eb...

#Nature is resilient. We just need to give her a chance.

#PlantMoreNatives and the butterflies will come. In Florida & other SE states, Stokes asters (Stokesia laevis) are a beautiful & easy-to-care-for native. Here's the link to its FNPS plant profile to learn more & to find Florida nurseries with this plant in stock: www.fnps.org/plant/stokes...

#MemorialDay is for remembering & honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I hope that the world moves away from endless wars, which are often just meaningless grudge matches between rich old men, so that we will have many fewer new dead soldiers to honor in the future.

A golden #Sunrise over the St. Johns River in North Florida. Every day is a golden opportunity to accomplish something positive for yourself, your family, and for our only planet.

#GardenPredators Normally, I pick off all tomato hornworms, but in this case, where the worm is covered with braconid wasp pupae, I let it stay so the wasps can mature to attack more hornworms. Read for more on tomatoes & its history as a crop: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-...

I love Peter May's wonderful image of a ladybug larva eating an insect. 1 ladybug consumes ~5,000 insects in its life. Sustainable gardeners invite beneficial insects to their yards by not using any landscape-wide pesticides or soap to kill aphids. greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2016/08/soap...

Cute joke about coleslaw, but did you know that several crop plants are the same species, a wild mustard? They were bred by European farmers. Kohl is German for cabbage & these crops are the Cole crops, which is why cabbage salad is coleslaw. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2014/09/cole...

May 22 is “International Day for Biological Diversity” by the United Nations with a goal to “increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.” So #PlantMoreNatives, stop all landscape-wide pesticide applications, & replace unused lawn with naturalistic groupings of native plants.

The first female flower on this year’s Seminole pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata). Male flowers for 2 weeks to attract pollinators. If it's not pollinated today, it will dry up and fall off the vine. Read more about this amazing Mexican squash here: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2017/09/end-...

#KidsinNature A pink oakworm moth caterpillar(Anisota virginiensis) captured my granddaughter's attention a few years ago in Grassy Waters Conservation Area in South Florida. It's never too early to get kids interested in Mother Nature.

#BotanicalFactDay: Strawberries are not berries, they are an accessory fruit and the seeds are achenes and are the actual fruit.

#AMomentinNature was this turtle (probably a Florida cooter(Pseudemys floridana)) laying eggs in the front meadow area not too far from our pond. No crows were watching this time, so maybe we'll have new turtles for the pond. Read about this meadow: beautifulnativeplants.blogspot.com/2016/07/from...

#PlantMoreNatives! Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum), a shrub that is native to eastern North America is a larval host for Red-Banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) & Luna Moth (Actias luna). It attracts butterflies, bees, birds, & other animals. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/07/wing...

#Sunrise over the St. Johns River in North Florida with a cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto) silhouetted in the foreground. This is Florida's state tree, but it isn't a tree since palms are monocots & don't produce wood. More about palms here: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2025/01/flor...

#AMomentinNature was this beautiful fox who gave us wide berth on our neighborhood walk this morning.

An interesting observation about coffee, but in reality, only the soy is a true bean in the legume family. The coffee fruit is a 2-seeded drupe in the gardenia family & vanilla is an orchid, so neither of them are beans. More about coffee here: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2023/07/why-...

#Marigolds are beautiful, useful, & attract pollinators. In Florida, now is a good time to plant a cover crop of marigolds in vegetable beds to reduce the nematode damage to future crops. Read my article on the history and uses of marigolds. greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2022/11/mari...

Doug Tallamy's years-long research has shown that one pair of Chickadees requires 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to raise one clutch of young. To support birds, stop all landscape-wide poisons & plant more natives, particually oak trees. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...

"The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, & apathy. To deal with those we need a spiritual & cultural transformation." This is indeed a terrible situation, but we are not helpless. Read, “It's Time to Think Globally, but Act Locally” greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2024/12/its-...

#GrowMoreFood The Seminole pumpkin(Cucurbita moschata) has produced only male flowers so far. Squashes of all types produce male flowers first to attract pollinators. Fruit at the base of female flowers will dry up if they are not pollinated. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2017/09/end-...

#AMomentinNature was noticing this fasciated blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella). Fasciation or cresting is an abnormal growth where the growing tip, which normally is a single point becomes elongated perpendicularly to the direction of growth & producing flattened, ribbon-like, crested tissue.

A nice article, but the photo is NOT a fungus. The ghost pipe (Monotropa uniflora) is a herbaceous, parasitic, non-photosynthesizing, perennial flowering plant in the heath family, Ericaceae. This is a lesson in how to lose credibility.

#GrowMoreFood Seminole pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) is native to Mexico, but was being grown in FL when the Spanish arrived. Butternut is a cultivar. This is a female flower with an immature fruit. It needs to be pollinated for the fruit to mature. greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2017/09/end-...

#Black To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the release of "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones, here is a photo of two very black ravens in Bryce Canyon. We had a fun conversation. I told them how beautiful they were and asked how they kept their feathers so shiny & they murmured back to me.

#Spiders are Nature’s predators and keep pest bugs in check in our unpoisoned yard. No landscape-wide pesticide applications since 2004. More than half the lawn has been replaced with woods, meadows, & pollinator gardens. We've created habitat: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2022/10/habi...

Florida betony (Stachys floridana) is an aggressive perennial wildflower native Florida & the SE states. It's aka rattlesnake weed because of its rattle-like tuber. Florida betony tubers are edible with the crispness of a water chestnut. Read: greengardeningmatters.blogspot.com/2026/01/flor...