What’s a Gardener to Do When the Groundhog Sees His Shadow?

Jo Ellen Roe February 3, 2014 0 Comments

snow pic 1 2014

Yesterday, February 2, in celebration of Groundhog day, Punxsutawny Phil came out of his burrow in Pennsylvania, saw his shadow, and darted back in. According to the Groundhog Day legend, that means six more weeks of winter. (Groundhog Day began as a Pennsylvania German tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries. “It has its origins,” says Wikipedia, “in ancient European weather lore.”)

Be that as it may, my goodness, what a winter it has been! Michigan, where Serendipity Gardens is, has had one of the coldest on record, with temperatures well below zero on many mornings. According to Michigan meteorologist Mark Torregrossa, in an article posted at MLive.com,  it may have the most snow cover of any state, with as much as 40 to 60 inches on the ground near Lake Superior. ... Read More

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Three Reasons to Work Toward Making an Eco-Friendly Garden

Jo Ellen Roe January 25, 2014 0 Comments

Butterfly

Reason#1: Bring Life to Your Garden

It’s a heck of a lot more interesting to sit in a garden buzzing with life than it is to sit in a still one. You can watch the birds bathing, see butterflies and bees up close, and count the frogs.

The truth is, if your garden is missing its wildlife, you probably won’t be sitting in it very often, either.

Liz Primeau, a Canadian gardener and author, describes the difference between a lively garden and a lifeless one in her book, Front Yard Gardens. “Esthetics may have been the primary reason I finally dug up the lawn and planted a front yard garden,’  she writes, “but I did have other more lofty considerations. Over the years I’d come to consider our lawn more than merely boring, there seemed to be something wrong with it. The birds and the bees shunned it, the bugs stayed away in droves. There was no movement, no rustling, no chirping Jiminy crickets to leap up in front of me as I passed by on the pathway … ” ... Read More

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The Shocking Truth about the Moles that Tunnel in Serendipity Gardens

Jo Ellen Roe January 18, 2014 2 Comments

Mole 2 - map

Leave It Alone!

Creating a backyard ecosystem is a good thing to do for many reasons. One reason is that you, the gardener, have less work to do. Why? Because someone else does it for you. Thus, an important part of having a backyard ecosystem is leaving the parts of it alone to do the work they are there to do.

Welcome the Diggers

Despite a somewhat shady but largely undeserved reputation, as well as their less-than-beautiful looks, moles like this one are an example of an ecosystem player that provides benefits a gardener wants. ... Read More

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Frogs Hide at Serendipity Gardens

Jo Ellen Roe December 14, 2013 0 Comments

Frog in Pond 3

Frogs are everywhere at Serendipity Gardens. Real frogs, like this one on the rock, and fake frogs, too. They hide in the leaves, they welcome visitors, and they decorate the walls. Here is my story about how I got started with frogs.

Several years ago, I spotted a frog birdbath on sale at Dixboro General Store, a favorite place to buy interesting garden items, and I purchased it for my new grass garden. That stone frog has been there ever since, sturdily holding up its bowl for the avian wildlife. ... Read More

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No One Rakes Leaves at Serendipity Gardens

Jo Ellen Roe December 2, 2013 0 Comments

Leaves on ground 3

We see many people raking and bagging their leaves at this time of year, and we understand that they have good reasons for doing so. However, we have never raked them at Serendipity Gardens, despite the fact that over 50 trees grow here.

Here are three reasons why we do not participate in this annual autumn activity:

  • As the wind blows, the leaves blow, too, until they get stopped by a plant, like these plants in the photos below. It’s almost as though the plants are gathering the leaves around them, somewhat like a cloak. We like to think that the leaves serve as a small bit of insulation to help the plants weather the winter.
  • Our gardening philosophy is, as much as possible, to emulate the greatest gardener of them all, Mother Nature. She never rakes leaves, but rather leaves them to build the soil. How the leaves turn into soil remains a mystery. Sara Stein, author of Noah’s Garden, says, “It takes trillions of [tiny] to microscopic organisms of thousands of species to decay to soil those leaves … we haven’t identified more than a tiny fraction of these organisms, much less understood their individual contributions or imagined the complex relationships among them by which the task is done.” We like the idea that we are helping this mysterious process by leaving the leaves alone.
  • Piles of leaves provide habitat and nest-building material for small creatures, including some birds. We want those creatures in our garden, so it makes sense to lend them a helping hand.

The Last, Best Reason

The last, best reason for not raking is that we are, at heart, lazy gardeners. Like all gardeners, we like to look at our garden and appreciate it. Of course, there’s much work to do …  but raking leaves is not a chore that makes the list. Luckily, we live out in the country, so we have no suburban standards or town rules that our garden has to meet. We can be as messy as we like! ... Read More

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