You can have a beautiful, productive garden while working with nature to manage insect pests. As you incorporate various eco-friendly pest management strategies, you will encourage songbirds, beneficial insects and pollinators to visit your gardens. You will find slight variations of definitions, but … read more

Rabbits are year-round and frequent visitors to gardens and landscapes. As children, we read about and adored these furry critters. This love of rabbits often fades as we grow older and experience damage to our gardens and landscapes. Employing various management strategies allows … read more

Deer are common visitors to landscapes even in urban and suburban areas. Fencing is the most effective way to protect your plants but is not always practical or desirable. Your community may have restrictions on fencing, your budget may not support this option … read more

She tiptoed across my yard on slender legs. Pausing demurely, she batted her big, doe eyes at me. Such a pretty thing. Such grace. I wanted to be her friend. “Have an apple,” I said, and shook the tree until apples rained down. … read more

It’s time to get outside and enjoy summer barbecues, gardening, hikes and much more. Don’t let mosquitoes keep you inside. Instead, enlist chemical-free strategies to manage these pests in your landscape. Start by eliminating the mosquitoes’ breeding grounds. Drain the water out of buckets, old … read more

Ask any gardener, hiker or picnicker — the region’s wasp population got its sting back. “Compared to recent years, the number of wasps is considerably up,” said Richard Zack, Washington State University entomologist. Equipped with sharp stingers, craving sugar and searching for water … read more

The first land plant evolved a little over 400 million years ago. A few million years after that, the earliest known insects appeared. Then came land-dwelling slugs, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, birds and mammals — all of them hungry and looking for a meal. … read more

The sight of moss on a roof is as common in the Puget Sound region as the sight of a Starbucks coffee shop. It’s the inevitability of the wet weather and shady environment — sooner or later, you’ll likely spot those telltale green … read more

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that, upon moving to Bainbridge Island after growing up in southern California, followed by a dozen years in parched Houston, Carol Folse would become enchanted by woodland spring flowers. Folse and her husband, Parker, fell in … read more