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NEW FOR '23:  NATIVE GROUND COVERS

HEATHER McCARGO,  FOUNDER OF THE WILD SEED PROJECT IN PORTLAND MAINE, offers wonderful suggestions for establishing mixed native groundcover plantings for shade, sun, and various types of soil moisture. Combine plants with similar growth requirements for best results.  Follow the link to read her article at their website -- and look around the site for a raft of ideas on rewilding your property!
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MORE RESOURCES: BEST BOOKS

  • Dove, Tony and Ginger Woolridge, Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States, Charlesbridge Publishing, 2018.  An easy-to-use guide for choosing the best native trees and shrubs for sustainable landscapes.  To help you find species for your particular need, plants with desirable landscape traits are listed in Part I of the book.
  • Lee-Mader, Eric, et al., 100 plants to Feed the Bees, The Xerces Society/Storey Publishing, 2016.  Pollination is a process that has been more than 250 million years in the making. The extraordinary preface of this book traces more than 100 years of alarm as pollinator species have dwindled toward extinction, including the freefall in the population of monarch butterflies. An essential book with best plants for conservationists and children, the gardeners of the future.
  • Maine Forest Service, Forest Trees of Maine, Useful guide to identifying Northeast trees using dichotomous keys for winter and summer., as well as a useful basic glossary of tree parts.
  • McCargo, Heather, Anna Fialkoff and Marina Schauffler. Native Trees for Northeast Landscapes. Wild Seed Project, 2020. Details on growing 31 stunning and stalwart native tree species for urban, suburban and rural landscapes of the Northeast. This 64-page booklet is free with a membership to the Wild Seed Project, -- a wonderful resource. Out May 10:​
  • Murray, Tom, Insects of New England and New York,  Kollath-Stensaas Publishing, 2012. The go-to guide to identify 1250 species of six-legged critters found in the Northeast.
  • Wagner, David L., Caterpillars of Eastern North America, Princeton University Press, 2005.  A go-to home-reference compendium that holds a lifetime of learning, as well as great pictures of both caterpillars and their winged counterparts.