We have a lot of hungry birds out there from November to March. They have four basic needs in order to flourish: 1) Food to eat, 2) Water to drink and for bathing, 3) Cover for protection from the elements and enemies and 4) space to have their young and…

I’m still waiting for the autumn rains. We have had some cooler nights, but the lack of rain has me depressed. I have stopped walking through the yard since every plant needs a drink of water. I do have a few plants that still look okay: Cosmos, Golden Rod and…

If you have lived in the South for longer than 3 years, there is an unwritten rule stating that you must own an azalea. Azaleas arrived to the South from Japan in the 1800s and became an instant favorite. Azaleas are not your polite, retiring Southern belles; they are in-your-face…

Each Christmas we sing about the beautiful star of Bethlehem that shines in the eastern sky. We often find ourselves looking in the heavens for that star. Here in Athens, we might not find the star of Bethlehem when we look up toward the east, but we will see something…

Years ago I got to visit Vancouver, British Columbia. I was so excited about getting to see the Butchart Gardens in Victoria. It was delightful; Butchart Gardens covers fifty-five acres in beautiful floral displays. With a gardening staff of 30, there wasn’t a weed in sight and all the flowers…

Let us start with a little American bee history. As English and Spanish settlers came to North America, they brought with them their native honey bees Apis mellifera mellifera and Apis mellifera iberica, respectively. As Europeans colonized and spread across our continent, Native Americans recognized the “white man’s fly”, or…