This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. For the last post in my series of plants in the arts, we’re going to look at the importance of plants in children’s art. The rest of the series included [...]
Friday Film:: Bringing biodiversity back into cities
This video discussion took place at the recent ICLEI Urban Nature Forum in Belo Horizonte, Brazil this month and discusses the value of urban biodiversity and how to bring that diversity back to the cities. It’s presented by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Oliver Hillel discusses how nature used to be in the cities and how we simply have [...]
Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: Plants in Design
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. This is the third post in a short series about the importance of plants in the arts. The first post was Plants in Poetry and looked at the various ways plants were [...]
On Being Misunderstood:: House Centipede
On Being Misunderstood is a new feature at The Metropolitan Field Guide which will look at the variety of flora and fauna we live with which are too commonly misunderstood. From plants to wildlife, many of our daily interactions with these species are often negative or confused. Many of these reactions are based on misinformation. This [...]
Friday Film:: New Wild Garden
Today’s Friday Film features an inside look at the New Wild Garden from the 2011 Chelsea RHS Flower Show designed by Nigel Dunnett filmed by Dusty Gedge. The garden features a great many elements for wildlife including a stone wall for habitat with built-in insect shelters as well as an insect wall for solitary bees and [...]
Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: Plants in Paintings – Vincent van Gogh
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. If one really loves nature, one can find beauty everywhere. -Vincent van Gogh This is the second post in a short series about the importance of plants in the arts. [...]
Friday Film:: “The Vertical Garden – from Nature to Cities” An Interview
Today’s Friday Film features green wall designer, botanist and author Patrick Blanc, perhaps the best known designer of green walls. His book, The Vertical Garden: From Nature to the City is getting a revised and updated edition which will be out in April. This video is part of the Greenroofs.com Greenroofs & Walls of the World Virtual Summit 2011, which [...]
Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2012
Last year when I wrote about the Northwest Flower and Garden Show I talked a lot about how the gardens didn’t feature wildlife habitat, but could have easily done so and I featured specific examples. I also expressed hope that a nature organization would partner on a display garden. This year, my hope was realized [...]
Friday Film:: Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action
Today’s Friday Film features a fascinating and enlightening TED talk by Janine Benyus, natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, author, co-founder of the Biomimicry Guild and founder of the Biomimicry Institute. One reason nature is so important to us as humans is the lessons we take from it. Observing the workings of the flora and fauna in our own backyards and daily [...]
Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: Plants in Poetry
This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. Plants are beneficial for a lot of reasons such as providing habitat and food for wildlife. However, lest we forget, plants are also important to humans, not just for food [...]
Foragings:: The latest news, resources, designs and more
News Bloomin’ lovely gardens brighten up London’s East End:: A competition for residents of London’s East End, the winners were chosen for showing “ what they can do with plants, wildlife and the environment.” Can biodiversity be accommodated in today’s urban environment?:: Posing the question, this piece from The Ecologist looks at recent efforts including the International [...]
Friday Film:: The Muse Green Roof
Today’s Friday Film features a green roof in Islington, London designed by Bere Architects, Kim Wilkie and Dusty Gedge. It’s been a great success in attracting wildlife including goldfinches, house sparrows, butterflies and a variety of bees. The video features photos of a variety of plants from the roof and many of the insects which make [...]

