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Get your roots and seeds from us tomorrow at the swap! Then go get the bread and milk 🥶 Snow won’t start here until late Saturday night.

Keep roots in your fridge/unheated garage — someplace cool, but not below freezing. Plant as soon as the ground thaws.

Seeds can and should go down as soon as possible. Many species need 60 days of winter weather “cold moist stratification” in order to germinate this spring.

#nativeplants #noblesville #fishersindiana #Indiana #carmelindiana #indianapolis

An event flyer for the Central Indiana Seed Swap, scheduled for January 24, 2026. The event will take place at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds in Noblesville, IN, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Big Quilcene part 8. The winter sun barely clears the ridge top, making all day seem like sunset. Photo 2: This isn't the estuary of the Big Quilcene but it's close; these are the tidal flats of Dosewallips, just a few miles away. They provided an enormous quantity of oysters and clams for Native Americans for millennia, and still do today. It's now a state park. Oysters are in season but clams are not. Too bad I hate oysters.
8/8
#PNW #mosstodon #PNW #hiking #getoutside #River #nativeplants

The low winter sun slants through a grove of small conifer trees and illuminates the gravelly path leading away from the viewer. Sword ferns are backlit by the sun.

A very wide iPhone panorama showing a tidal flat at low tide with sea grass and exposed and small channels full of salt water meandering through it. The edge of a raised wooden platform is visible in the foreground. Beyond is Puget Sound, a large expanse of salt water, and beyond it, the farther shore covered in trees. It's nearly sunset and everything is golden tinged including the sky at the horizon.

Hiking Big Quilcene part 7.
Photo 1: this is our native squirrel, the Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii). The gray squirrels around our #PNW houses are Eastern gray squirrels and only showed up here after white settlement. Douglas squirrels are smaller and have a distinct call. They vary in color, but the ones I see most often are nearly black. Photo 2: Perhaps I spoke too soon about the flood damage.
7/8
#mosstodon #PNW #hiking #getoutside #River #nativeplants #squirrel

A squirrel on a branch in a conifer tree looming down at us. It has very dark gray fur and fairly small ears and so looks different from the typical suburban squirrel in North America. It is holding a fir cone in its mouth.

A small creek with clear water flowing over a stony gravel bed. A bridge that was made of a single large log flattened on top with a chainsaw crosses it. It has a single rustic railing made of smaller branches nailed together. But it has snapped in two and lies angled into the water. Other fallen logs complicate any potential risk way across.

Hiking Big Quilcene part 6. Photo 1: Dramatic winter foliage of Mahonia nervosa (aka Berberis nervosa), one of our three species of Oregon grape. Photos 2-4: More moss. There are so many kinds here and I can't identify them at all. It's #mosstodon heaven.
6/8
#PNW #hiking #getoutside #River #nativeplants #Mosstodon

Overhead view of a plant with long compound leaves arrayed in a precise opposite geometrical pattern on stems that radiate out from its main stem. The leaves are glossy and hard and bright red on its uppermost parts but others farther down by the ground are green. The winter sun illuminates it and makes the colors pop.

Closeup of some large - leaved miss of unknown type. Each leaf looks like a miniature fern frond.

Another close up photo of a different kind of miss, more finely dissected than the previous, and a more amber or olive green

Another closeup of the sawn end of a fallen log with moth growing over the edges from the bark covered sides and starting to encroach on the cut area.

Hiking Big Quilcene part 5. The river here doesn't seem to have been badly affected by the December "atmospheric river" (massive rainstorm), which devastated a lot of river lowlands in the Cascades. One can see evidence of torrents of water coming down the slopes of the valley but the riverbanks are only eroded in a few spots and the shore vegetation is mostly intact. Moss and lichen are on every tree branch here.
5/8
#PNW #hiking #getoutside #River #nativeplants #Mosstodon

Shot of the same river taken from behind a mossy tree. Undergrowth is dense around the river banks. Slanting sunlight illuminates the moss on the vegetation.

Closeup of miss clinging to a drooping branch. The sunlight from the side shines through it making it seem a brilliant yellow green color.

Another closeup of a branch with hair like moss all over it lining as if it's glowing because of the sun shining beyond and the white foamy river flowing beneath.

Just finished pulling some invasive grasses from the yard. Lots of worms and larva present. Hopefully can get down more native seed before the next rain—I’ve collected plenty of them!

#gardening #NativePlants

Hiking Big Quilcene part 4. Salal (Gaultheria shallon) is looking very happy in January. The damp fog overnight has left a glossy wet sheen on the leaves and you can see why it's prized by florists for foliage in flower arrangements.
4/8
#PNW #hiking #getoutside #River #nativeplants

A salal bush with oblong pointed and leathery leaves, near a stream bank. The leaves are wet and glossy.

Closer view of Salal foliage. The stems are reddish and zigzag between the alternating leaves which are very shiny

Aquilegia coerulea var. ochroleuca, our White Colorado Columbine, blooming above Crested Butte. That area’s the best place to find this all white variety, the blooms can be nearly as wide as a coffee cup. #nativeplants #FallBackFlowers #FallBack to July 23 🌿

All-white columbine flower, five-lobed with numerous exserted stamens

#nativeplants friends - I have a friend with a Ring camera 😮‍💨 that he uses in part because it captures video of neighborhood wildlife and cats. Does anyone use an alternative that has similar convenience and video quality to a Ring but isn't connected to some form of surveillance network?

Humming bird on a Royal Catch fly flower. Taken last summer in my native garden.💙
#photography #nativeplants #nature #pixelfed #birds #hummingbird #darktable

Well, the Wild Ones confirmation link for tonight's webinar doesn't work. Keeps timing out.

The YouTube link works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q62Np6h39Gk

#WildOnes #NativePlants

That bright yellow isn’t decoration — it’s timing.
Missouri Evening Primrose opens when the heat fades, feeding pollinators that work the night shift.

Some plants bloom loudly.

Others know exactly when to speak.

Oenothera macrocarpa https://www.cernunnosfoundation.com/nature-pictures/oenothera-macrocarpa/ #NativePlants

A single yellow flower opens wide at the center of the image, its petals broad and softly folded like thin silk catching the sun. The color is rich and luminous, the kind of yellow that feels warm rather than sharp. At the flower’s center, pale filaments curve inward, delicate and precise, like fine threads gathered gently together.

Surrounding it is a dense weave of green leaves—long, narrow, and slightly glossy—layered over one another in quiet motion. The foliage presses close, framing the bloom without crowding it, as if the plant has made space for this moment. Light falls unevenly across the scene, creating small shadows and highlights that give the leaves depth and texture.

The flower feels grounded and calm, not ornamental but purposeful, opening into the day with the confidence of something that belongs exactly where it is.

🐦‍⬛Join the GARDEN FOR BIRDS Project to Boost Backyard Habitat

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology wants to help you see more birds out your window! Its new Garden for Birds program shows you to how to add native plants to your space.

✅ practical advice
✅actionable steps
✅support for all skill levels
✅FMI go to site below

👉 Signup Today

[Edit: U.S. and Canada only]

#WildlifeWednesday #SolarPunk #Birds #Biodiversity #HabitatGardening #NativePlants #Environment #Thrutopia #Gardening #Habitat

https://www.gardenforbirds.org/

I saw lovely flora and fauna on Santa Cruz Island this weekend. Highly recommend this National Park if you haven’t made it out yet!
Featured: the scrub jay, California grapevine, bluedicks (dichelostemma capitatus ), and island morning glory (calystegia macrostegia)

Didn’t get a pic of the famous foxes, but we did see a shadowy figure of the bushy tailed canid nosing around a neighboring tent at night.

#ChannelIslands #bloomscrolling #birds #NativePlants #California

An island scrub jay posing gracefully on a brush-top, against a blue and white sky

A flowering grapevine curving down from its barbed wire horizontal support, the white flowers and green leaf in focus against a softer unfocused green background

Pretty purple bluedicks flowers standing up in the grass

Close up of two white and delicately pink morning glory flowers

Tiny harbingers of spring: blooms of my native hazelnut, Corylus americana.The left photo is the male inflorescence, which you can see is starting to open up in preparation for releasing pollen. The right photo, taken a couple inches further up the same branch, is the itty-bitty female flower.

You really need to be looking closely to notice these.

#NativePlants #spring

A long, skinny, light yellow-green catkin is dotted with dozens of small reproductive parts shaped like flattened hearts on top of two tiny crablike arms folded beneath. There’s a dusting of deep maroon tint, and at the edges you can see a smattering of small, pointy, maroon projections.

A twig with one single bud that is just opening at the very top to reveal a half-dozen small,
lash-like, rose-colored reproductive parts.

The yarrow is blooming over a month earlier than last year. Thank goodness it's here for the fritillary visiting today in SoCal

#NativePlants #ClimateDiary

A large, flat, flowerhead of many small white flowers among green leaves. Achillea millefolium

This black squirrel is busy rediscovering seeds hidden beneath the snow dropped by birds under the feeder.
#photography #nativeplants #nature #pixelfed #birds #hummingbird #darktable

Support the Arts! I put my money where my mouth is. #art #nativeplants #coloring

A poster at an event that my coloring book company sponsored

If you're a new follower, the Watering Can was a series I started in 2023 when I first started planting some native plants around this property and tending to them during a brutal summer.

It was a great learning experience, despite the struggles.

Check the whole series out here: https://daniel.observer/journal/tagged/the-watering-can

#TheWateringCan #NativePlants #gardening

As part of our trip to Louisiana, we visited the spot where we lived for 2.5 years and where I learned a lot about growing plants.

Unfortunately it wasn't a great time checking out those plants.

An update to my Watering Can series, 15 months later

https://daniel.observer/journal/the-watering-can-january-2026

#TheWateringCan #gardening #NativePlants

#Nativeplants

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