Humble Habitats: New Exhibit at the Garden

The central theme of Habitat is “Protecting Habitats Protects Life,” but how? Why should we care about these habitats around us? Simply put, a habitat is the natural environment of an organism – it’s where living things live. But habitats are anything but simple. Habitats provide the most basic needs for the beings that live […]

Planning a Garden: Create Your Garden Design

Last week, we covered a few of the initial steps in planning a garden or landscape area, including goals, budgeting, and spacing. Now, it’s time to actually sketch out your garden design. Start with a Simple Design There are a few different ways to go about sketching your garden or landscape design. If you’d like […]

Planning Your Garden: Set Goals, Find Space, & Determine a Budget

Maintaining a perfect garden takes time, effort, and some proper planning. Planning a garden before planting will help you ensure the health and longevity of your plants. Depending on the type of garden you’re planting, you could face different challenges and have different goals than other gardeners. For example, if you’re planting a vegetable garden, you will […]

Keep It Clean or Not: How to Tidy Up Your Outdoor Spaces & Still Protect Wildlife Habitats

Now that spring is on our doorstep, it’s easy to get anxious for greener days. We see all the dead ornamental grass stalks, the spent perennial stems, and the autumn leaves collected in our gardens and they give us spring fever! We want to bolt outside and clean up the yard, garden, or patio as […]

Garden Trends for 2022: From Crisis to Innovation

Each year, Garden Media Group puts together a Garden Trends Report for the upcoming year, which highlights major shifts and things to look for in the gardening, horticulture, and nature-related areas of our life, especially those that work in these types of industries. The Great Reset of 2021 had people switching up their lifestyles, making choices related […]

WPS Garden of Lights Spotlight: The Homes of Beneficial Insects & Pollinators

As you explore the wintry outdoors and see a dazzling 325,000 holiday lights during WPS Garden of Lights, you’ll likely notice that we have a botanical and nature-inspired theme, and this is no coincidence! Each and every one of our hand-crafted displays represent an element of nature in some way, from buzzing bees to spinning […]

The Little-Known & Endangered Karner Blue Butterfly

In 1992, the Karner Blue Butterfly, a subspecies of the small blue butterfly, was federally listed as an endangered species. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s endangered species program has worked to identify, protect, and restore the Karner blue butterfly to prevent its extinction. You, too, can help prevent the extinction of this […]

The Magnificent Migration of Monarch Butterflies & How a Super Generation Makes it Happen

No migration compares to that of the small, black and orange creature you see fluttering through your neighborhood in summer. When you think about migration, you might describe how birds fly south for the winter and return when temperatures warm up again. For a monarch, migration is much more complex and requires multiple generations to […]

Welcome Beneficial Insects into Your Garden with an Insect Hotel

It’s not uncommon to see your garden infested with insects and have the urge to get rid of them. But as Mark Konlock (Director of Horticulture) says, sometimes you have to learn to live with the damage of insects because it likely means you’re supporting a healthy ecosystem full of plants, trees, insects, and other […]

Pollinator Migration Roundup: Who Stays and Who Goes?

When record-breaking cold temperatures hit Wisconsin during our brutal winters, some of us endure the piles and piles of snow that arrive while others travel to warmer destinations. It turns out, pollinators do the same thing: some of them stay and some of them go. Pollinators that migrate to climates that are warmer and closer […]