Foragings:: The latest news, resources, designs and more

 Foragings  No Responses »
Nov 162012
 
Foragings:: The latest news, resources, designs and more

News Bringing natural life into buildings:: Eco-architect Dr Ken Yeang’s attempts to introduce more nature into architecture are highlighted in this article. “Many buildings have been ‘de-natured’. Human beings have simplified and fragmented nature.” Loft ambitions: why green roofs are the future of urban gardening:: This article from The Ecologist discusses the many benefits of green roofs. Do Wildlife Corridors Really Work?:: From the Smithsonian blog is a discussion about whether corridors actually work and a new crowd-sourcing project to find the answer. Citizen scientists vital for wildlife data collection:: A great article about how scientists rely heavily on their volunteer data …continue reading

Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: House Hunting

 Wildlife Plants  No Responses »
Aug 292012
 
Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: House Hunting

This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. My family recently started house hunting. We’ve been apartment dwellers for years, but the situation is right for us to purchase a home since, among other reasons, we’re planning on staying in Seattle for a few years. Plus we’re tired of our rent going up every year. Over the last few months I’ve discovered how much value I place on the outdoor space. We started out looking at condos, then expanded townhouses and now have …continue reading

Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: The Thrill of Seeds

 Wildlife Plants  No Responses »
Jul 272012
 
Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens Post:: The Thrill of Seeds

This is an excerpt from my latest post at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog. Click the link below to visit the full post. I confess, I’ve never been very good with plants. This despite having a fair grasp on their workings; having taken horticulture and plant classes while getting my Landscape Architecture degree. I figure this just means I have to work harder at keeping them alive. Nearly three years ago now, we moved to an apartment in Seattle that included a balcony with great views of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle, and so my gardening ambitions …continue reading

Friday Film:: How best to create a wildlife-friendly garden?

 Friday Film  No Responses »
Dec 232011
 
Friday Film:: How best to create a wildlife-friendly garden?

There are over 3 million gardens in Greater London which offer an ‘untapped potential’ to make the city more resilient to climate change and better for wildlife, according to the London Wildlife Trust. How do we begin to exploit this potential? According to LWT’s expert gardener Elaine Hughes, gardeners should be a ‘bit less tidy’. This short video illustrates many of the key points for creating urban wildlife habitat including using drought tolerant plants and providing shelter for birds and insects by being less tidy and leaving seed heads and leaves in the winter months. The video also illustrates how many …continue reading

Summer Wildlife on the Balcony Habitat

 Balconies  2 Responses »
Oct 262011
 
Summer Wildlife on the Balcony Habitat

This past summer produced a large number of wildlife species on my city balcony. I’ve briefly written about my balcony in the past, but this year I had more plants, the older ones were more established and I surveyed the wildlife with a new hand lens. You can read some of my past balcony posts including Native Plants and Balconies at the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog as well as my documentation of the entire lifecycle of a lady beetle, The Life of the Lady Beetle, the beetle swarms that occurred last fall, Lady Beetle Swarms and finally about my visiting hummingbird, Urban Hummingbird. My …continue reading

Lady Beetle Swarms

 Urban Wildlife  3 Responses »
Oct 212010
 
Lady Beetle Swarms

Just when I thought I’d seen the last of the lady beetles on my balcony this year, I got more than I ever expected. I’d had a good time watching a couple dozen lady beetles grow from larvae to adults and wrote about it recently: The Life of the Lady Beetle. Earlier in the week, on a sunny afternoon, I noticed a number of lady beetles landing on the window of my apartment. So many landed and flew away that I went out to the balcony to investigate. I was surprised to find dozens upon dozens of lady beetles crawling …continue reading

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