My friends, Greg and Leah Leffler, have a small fish pond in their yard. A few years back, they were losing fish due to algae build up and too much, or not enough, chemicals. A friend recommended a better way, an ultra violet light system. Greg installed one and within one day, the scum and algae were gone. Hadios. Vamoose. Gone. Greg says that the ultra violet light will make the water clear … [Read more...]

Crepe myrtle was first brought to the United States in 1790 and planted in the warm climate and sandy soil of South Carolina. A native to the Southeast Asia, the crepe myrtle took to the South like grits and country ham. It has since flourished and brought pleasure and beauty to millions of homeowners. Crepe myrtle doesn’t really know if it’s a tree or a bush and no one knows for sure the … [Read more...]

Besides bluebirds, the most welcomed guests in my backyard are Monarch butterflies. They are like miniature, fine-art paintings flitting from bush to bush and flower to flower. They are magnificent creatures and they are threatened. Their fiercest enemies happen to be human beings, who are rapidly destroying meadows and the milkweed plants that Monarchs must have in order to survive. One of my … [Read more...]

We originally had 17 trees on our lot when we bought our home in 1973. Many have since been relegated to the woodpile, but we still have 6 of our original silver maples, now over 50 years old. As such, there are lots of missing limbs and holes in the old trees – and that draws woodpeckers. My son Jimmie called them “woody-peckers” when he was a small child. We still use that name. Through the … [Read more...]

When is the last time you saw a meadow? Not a field of fescue, but a meadow with wild flowers and natural, warm season grasses? The kind of place that a butterfly would call home? There aren’t many around, you know, so my wife Nancy and I decided to make a meadow in our own back yard. It’s a mini meadow, really. Not very big, but it is a meadow of sorts with wild flowers of several varieties. The … [Read more...]

I grew cucumbers last year in my small vegetable garden. They did okay, we had enough to can, but my cukes weren’t happy cukes. That’s because I forced the little fellows up on trellises and lattice work. I thought they’d be happier if they climbed and went up. Turns out, my cukes don’t like to climb. They like to spread. This summer I have a special cucumber patch and the vines are doing … [Read more...]

I saw a praying mantis on our front porch recently. It was the first one I’ve seen in quite a while. Back when there were meadows and open spaces, we saw lots of mantids. As kids, we would catch them, put them in glass jars with holes in the lid, observe the interesting creatures and let them go, but woe be to any kid who let a praying mantis take hold with her pincers. They would bite you! I … [Read more...]

Everyone knows the long enemies list of nesting birds: Cats, snakes, raccoons, foxes, dogs, skunks, ants, and other varmints. But one of the biggest threats to little birds is a bigger bird. My uncle in Charlotte had a hummingbird feeder on the window of his kitchen nook. One summer, he noticed occasional dead birds on the ground near the feeder. He couldn’t figure out the cause of the avian … [Read more...]

I got nailed about three weeks ago. Still itches like the dickens. My wife, Nancy, has had two tick attachments so far this spring. The last one caused redness around the bite and resulted in antibiotics, just in case the little parasite was a Lyme disease carrier. Yes, it’s tick time, so be on the lookout. Not every tick bite results in disease, but many do. There is an average of 40,000 cases … [Read more...]

I don’t get along very well with grass. It grows when I don’t want it to – on weekends and potential fishing and golfing days, and it doesn’t grow when I want it to, like in March, when I’m sick of winter. It also grows where I don’t want it to grow, like in the middle of my asphalt driveway. How does grass do that? Then, of course, it won’t grow where I want it to, like I bald places in my yard. … [Read more...]