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by Stacey Churchill, June 30, 2026 I will admit to a bit of a panic when I saw we were nearing the end of the month and I wasn't sure which book I would write about this month! I decided to go with a super useful and beautiful plant guide. The Maryland Native Plant Guide Piedmont Region was produced by a partnership between the University of Maryland Extension, the Maryland Native Plant Society, the Department of National Resources and the Maryland Department of Agriculture

by Stacey Churchill, May 26, 2026 I have been fascinated by permaculture concepts for a long time, but it has always seemed too big and too challenging to implement in an established garden space. All the same, I keep reading about it, trying to pull out ideas I can put to use. In her book Think Like an Ecosystem, Amélie des Plantes lays out a vision for gardens that function like self-sustaining wild spaces. She discusses the need to begin permaculture planning by observing

By Stacey Churchill, April 18, 2026 I was captivated by Dr. Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree , and despite (or maybe because of) the criticism her work has received, I knew I wanted to read her latest. While Dr. Suzanne Simard’s research in her latest book, When the Forest Breathes , is rooted in the Douglas Firs and Birch of her native British Columbia, her message carries a truth that resonates for me here in Virginia. Whether you are standing beneath a Douglas Fir in Briti

By Stacey Churchill, March 22, 2026 I feel as though I am always in a hurry and I definitely have fallen into the trap of wanting immediate results in everything I do. Reading Louise Agee Wrinkle’s book, Listen to the Land: Creating a Southern Woodland Garden , caused me to slow down, take a breath and wallow - wallow in the breath-taking photographs of her family’s two-acre property in Birmingham, Alabama. I had picked up the book because I am in the process of creating a n