The notebook
Field Notes
Shorter, more frequent. A thing seen this week, a question worth thinking about, a recommendation worth passing along. Most read in five minutes.
The seed mix in the hardware-store packet was mostly filler.
A small bag labeled "Wildflower Mix — Beneficial for Pollinators" turned out, on close reading, to be 80% non-native, 12% inert filler, and 8% actual native seed.
Goldenrod is innocent. Ragweed is the one that makes you sneeze.
For decades it has been blamed for autumn allergies it does not cause. The actual culprit is ragweed. Goldenrod, meanwhile, is the most valuable late-season plant in the eastern food web.
No yard? Three things you can still do from a kitchen window.
A pot, a window box, and one daily minute of looking. The three smallest moves anyone can make — and the order in which to make them.
The fox came back. She brought a kit this time.
First sighting of the season, in the brushy edge of the back garden, just before sunrise. A short note on what her return means.
Four books, in the order I wish I'd read them.
Tallamy, Kimmerer, Heinrich, Haskell. What each one is actually for — and why this is the right order, even though most people start with the wrong one.
The first bee of the year.
A common eastern bumblebee, a week earlier than last year. A short note on what it means to keep records.
Leave the leaves. The luna moths are sleeping in there.
Why the spring lawn-cleanup ritual is killing things you'd want to meet. A small case for not raking.
What "keystone species" actually means.
The phrase gets used loosely. Here's what ecologists actually mean by it — and why the bar is higher than common use suggests.
Why I stopped using pesticides, told without scolding.
Not because of any one ad. Because of one specific morning, in one specific backyard.
The myth of the tidy yard.
A short history of how American backyards came to look the way they do, and why "neat" almost always means "empty."
What's blooming in March, and why it matters.
For the bees that emerged on the first warm day, what's open is a matter of survival. Here's what to plant for them.
The most useful purchase you can make for a seven-year-old.
A real magnifying glass. Not a plastic toy. The good kind. Here's why it changes everything.
Field notes go out roughly twice a week, alongside the Sunday letter.