Category: Outdoors

Edible weeds

4/11/2025

Eat your weeds. Seriously, dandelions, purslane, and other common garden weeds are highly nutritious and can be eaten raw or cooked.

Dandelions are rich in vitamins A, C, and K. They also contain vitamin E, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and B vitamins. Every part of them can be eaten raw or cooked. The list goes on.

Read more at TreeHugger.com

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Mulch mow leaves into lawn

4/4/2025

Mow leftover leaves into your lawn to provide a natural source of nutrients, reduce weeds and insects, and require less water.

Spread out piles of leaves or simply go over fallen leaves with your mower. They will settle down into the turf and be decomposed by valuable microorganisms within the soil.

Read more at MSU Extension.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Find an app to ID plants

12/5/2024

Leafsnap is an app that identifies plant species of all kinds, including flowers, fruit, and trees. It's a collaboration between Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution and it’s free on the App Store.

Go on a walk, take a photo of a leaf, and Leafsnap will identify it and give you all kinds of additional information, including guidance for care. Its creators describe it as “the most high-tech, comprehensive, and accurate plant identification app ever created.”

Read more on Treehugger.com

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Stop using gas-powered lawn equipment

10/11/2024

The inefficient technology of gas-powered lawn equipment makes them, pound for pound, more polluting than trucks and cars and exposes gardeners who operate them to carcinogenic exhaust fumes, including the concerning pollutant known as PM2.5.

Collectively, gas-powered lawn equipment contributes about 5% of U.S. CO2 emissions annually, according to the EPA, a shockingly high amount. The inefficient small engines disproportionately cause pollution and health problems. Make the switch to electric equipment and expand your landscaping to decrease the size of your lawn. In Swarthmore, you can help others make the switch to electric lawn equipment by contributing to our new initiative (Sw,eLL: Swarthmore Electric Lawns) to fund the purchase of electric technology.

Read more about the effects of gas powered equipment here at Grist.org

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Sow greens in late summer

8/10/2024

August is the ideal time to plant vegetables that thrive in cooler weather, including leafy greens, radishes, carrots, beets, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts.

August may seem like the tail end of the growing season, but it’s an ideal time to plant many vegetables that will produce fresh vegetables well into the autumn months.

Read more here:
https://ourstoneyacres.com/9-crops-you-can-plant-in-august

Don't spray broad insecticides for mosquitoes

7/19/2024

Do not spray your yard with insecticides for mosquitoes as these also kill beneficial insects including pollinators and drive away insect predators such as birds.

Spraying or fogging your yard for mosquitoes also kills beneficial insects, including important insect pollinators and dragonflies, which are mosquito predators. Knocking out all insects also destroys the natural food web and food sources for many other animals such as birds that may otherwise have visited your yard. Overspray carries this effect into your neighbors yards as well. Since mosquitoes are weak fliers, eliminating their breeding sites in your own yard will have a great impact on local population levels. Find all sources of standing water and either empty them or use Bti dunks to kill the larvae. Fans and sprays made with essential oils are also effective at keeping adults away. Set out Bti traps to keep populations low by luring females to lay eggs where they won’t survive.

See more ideas from the National Wildlife Federation at nwf.org.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Mulch grass clippings

7/12/2024

Recycle grass clippings by mulching them into your lawn or placing them as mulch around plants in your landscaping.

Grass clippings add fertilizer and organic matter to your lawn when left in place. When trimmed at 1 inch or less in length, clippings do not contribute to the buildup of thatch in the lawn, contrary to the commonly held belief that they do. When clippings are longer than 1 inch, they work well as a 1-2 inch layer of mulch around your plants to control weeds and retain water in the soil.

For more information, see University of Minnesota Extension

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Dispose of fishing line properly so it does not become a hazard to wildlife

5/31/2024

Marine birds, mammals, and other wildlife can become entangled in abandoned fishing line, resulting in injured limbs, starvation, and a slow death. The material in fishing line takes 600 years to break down, so proper disposal is crucial to protecting wildlife. The best practice is to cut old fishing line into pieces no longer than one foot to prevent accidental entanglement and collect it in a bag. The most common types of line, monofilament and fluorocarbon, are recyclable (braided line is not). Many boat launches, piers and fishing access locations provide fishing line collection sites. Some bait and tackle shops also have fishing line recycling bins.

Learn more about recycling fishing line at takemefishing.org and BoatU.S.Foundation websites.
Photo by Susan O'Donnell

Make use of logs, branches and rocks in your yard and garden

5/24/2024

Use natural materials from around your yard as part of your hardscape. Fallen branches make an attractive trellis for climbing plants in your landscaping or vegetable garden.

Make use of the free natural materials that you find in your yard or salvage them from a friend or neighbor. Branches and logs create a natural look while also benefiting wildlife: stones and logs in the landscaping add visual interest as well as providing cool, moist shelter for salamanders and small arthropods. Use fallen branches to build a trellis for climbing vines or in the vegetable garden for pole beans or cucumbers. Make a fun hide-a-way for kids by positioning the poles in a circle like a teepee to create a shelter of green. Sections of logs placed upright make a great natural seat, and large branches can be used to line edges of landscaping or walkways. As they break down, the decomposed wood boosts the nutrients in the soil.

Photos by Susan O'Donnell

Certify your yard as a Backyard Habitat or Pollinator Garden

5/17/2024

To counteract the loss of habitat for wildlife, we can restore suitable spaces in our yards.
Going through the certification process for any of the various backyard habitat programs will help guide the design of your yard to make it more wildlife friendly. Just by planting appropriate plants provides shelter and sustenance for entire ecosystems. Displaying signs that designate your property as pollinator friendly or bird friendly is visual encouragement for others to do the same.

Start a movement in your neighborhood! Bird Town PA has this list of programs and resources to help you get started.

Photo by Susan O'Donnell

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