One late-August day, Nancy Lawson—or “The Humane Gardener,” as she is perhaps better known—was making a video about a spicebush swallowtail butterfly when something just beyond it in her Maryland yard caught her eye. A green heron was visiting a small pond Nancy had created not long ago—her first such encounter with the bird.

When I saw that video on Instagram it made me think of the late-March morning when I’d stood up from my desk and the familiar view into the backyard included something very unfamiliar bobbing around my own little water garden: a pair of wood ducks.

Every day in the garden is loaded with the potential for such surprises, and the resulting sense of awe—and Nancy is here today to talk about some of the wonders large and ever-so-small we have each been privileged to witness, and some of the garden-management tactics we use that increase the chances of such encounters by welcoming more life to the garden.

Nancy Lawson is the author of “The Humane Gardener,” a naturalist and habitat consultant based in Maryland. Nancy promotes animal-friendly planting strategies, and in another of her books, called “Wildscape,” she challenged us to sharpen our awareness that we are not alone out there in the garden, but actually just one part of a much bigger picture.

Categories: