Notes

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.

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.

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.

First sighting of the season, in the brushy edge of the back garden, just before sunrise. A short note on what her return means.

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.

A common eastern bumblebee, a week earlier than last year. A short note on what it means to keep records.

Why the spring lawn-cleanup ritual is killing things you'd want to meet. A small case for not raking.

The phrase gets used loosely. Here's what ecologists actually mean by it — and why the bar is higher than common use suggests.

Not because of any one ad. Because of one specific morning, in one specific backyard.

A short history of how American backyards came to look the way they do, and why "neat" almost always means "empty."

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.

A real magnifying glass. Not a plastic toy. The good kind. Here's why it changes everything.