Gardening in Tune with Nature

Learn what it takes to grow healthy plants in healthy soil.

Welcome to BDN Blogs

Be a BDN Blogger

Browse BDN Blogs

Join BDN

  • Home
  • Annuals
  • Insects
  • Ornamentals
  • Perennials
  • Vegetables
  • Contact
  • About

Post navigation

← Older posts

Looking Ahead to Tomato Season

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Reeser Manley

The second week of June is tomato planting time in Marjorie’s Garden.  At present, seven days into May, week-old tomato seedlings grow under fluorescent lights in a warm room.  It will be another week before we transplant the seedlings to … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

The Garden in May: Selective Weeding of Garden Volunteers

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Reeser Manley

Some of the garden’s most striking scenes are the result of selective weeding of volunteers, plants that show up each year with little effort on the gardener’s part. Such self-sowing annuals and biennials will become permanent residents of your garden, … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 4)

Posted on April 26, 2015 by Reeser Manley

In this column, the fourth in a series on functional native shrubs for the garden,  I describe two shrubs well suited to wet areas of the garden, rhodora and speckled alder, and two shrubs for the more mesic sites, witchhazel … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 3)

Posted on April 18, 2015 by Reeser Manley

This is the third column in a series on native shrubs that function in garden ecosystems by providing food, cover, and/or nesting sites for garden wildlife.  The first two essays in this series can be found at http://gardeningintunewithnature.bangordailynews.com/author/rmanley/. The three … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 2)

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Reeser Manley

This is the second column in a series on native shrubs that function in garden ecosystems by providing food, cover, and/or nesting sites for garden wildlife.  The first essay in this series, devoted to black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), diervilla (Diervilla … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs Support Garden Wildlife

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Reeser Manley

You do not need to be a native plant purist to understand the importance of including native plants in an ecologically functional garden.  The four native shrubs discussed below provide colorful flowers and fruits for the gardener’s enjoyment as well … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in Vegetables

Thoughts of “Big Night” Start a New Garden Year

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Reeser Manley

“The beginnings of spring, the true beginnings, are quite unlike the springtides of which poets and musicians sing.  The artists become conscious of spring in late April, or May, when it is not too much to say that the village … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Functional Garden Trees

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Reeser Manley

It is the first day of spring as I begin writing this column while three feet of ice-impacted snow cover the garden.  From a window I can see the blanketed roof of a neighbor’s house, only 500 feet away, the … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Aphids, Treehoppers, and Garden Ants

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Reeser Manley

The insect order Hemiptera contains several sap-sucking herbivores, including aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers, treehoppers, scale insects, and true bugs, all familiar to observant gardeners.  By far the most represented members of this group in our garden are aphids, also known as … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Gardening for Wildness: Garden Flies

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Reeser Manley

When I was a boy growing up on the central Georgia-Alabama border, all doors and windows were screened and a fly swatter hung on a nail in most rooms.  Some folks, like Dr. Lenoir, head of the small biology department … Continue reading →

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Email
  • Print
Posted in ecologicaly functional garden

Post navigation

← Older posts

Don’t Miss a Thing

Enter your email to receive notifications of new posts from Gardening in Tune with Nature.

ADVERTISEMENT | Grow your business

About the Author

Reeser Manley has a BS in Biology, a MS in Botany, and a Ph.D. in Horticultural Science. He'll help you learn more about gardening based on his 40 years of gardening experience, 15 of those years in Maine. He has also gardened in Georgia, South Carolina, Washington State, and Massachusetts. In addition to writing about gardens, He's a garden photographer and many of my photographs appear in his blog.

Popular Blogs

Out There

Act Out with Aislinn

Maine Hunting and Sporting Dog Owners

Recent Posts

  • Looking Ahead to Tomato Season
  • The Garden in May: Selective Weeding of Garden Volunteers
  • Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 4)
  • Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 3)
  • Gardening for Wildness: Functional Native Shrubs (Part 2)
ADVERTISEMENT | Grow your business

This blog has been archived

This blog has been archived and is no longer being updated.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.