Natural Garden
A Water Source for Birds and Insects: Cat-Safe, Clean, Lifesaving
How to set up a water source that carries birds and insects through summer: shallow, cat-safe, with an escape aid and cleaned every day.
Gartenkern Magazine
Notes from the garden.
What's new, what's growing, what we're learning. Updates, guides and stories for people who take their garden seriously.
From the magazine
200 postsNatural Garden
Insect Hotels: What Actually Moves In
Why most insect hotels stay pure decoration, and how the right drill holes and the right material get you a nesting aid that wild bees genuinely move into.
Natural GardenContains advertising
How to Build a Deadwood Pile and a Benjes Hedge: Beetle Cellar and a Living Hedge from Dead Wood
A heap of pruning offcuts becomes a deadwood pile for beetles and hedgehogs, or a Benjes hedge that turns green over the years.
Natural GardenContains advertising
Attracting Butterflies: Caterpillar Food and Staggered Nectar
A butterfly bush alone won't do it: how to plan both menus, host plants for the caterpillars and nectar from March through October.
Natural Garden
A Garden Pond for Amphibians: Three Zones, a Gentle Slope, No Fish
How to build a natural spring pond where frogs and newts truly settle in: three zones, one gently sloping bank, and deliberately no fish.
Natural Garden
Build a Dry Stone Wall as a Habitat
Stacked without mortar, a dry stone wall becomes a home for lizards, mason bees and joint-dwelling plants.
Natural Garden
Insect-Friendly Garden Lighting: Warm White, Shielded, on a Motion Sensor
How to keep your garden beautiful after dark while sparing moths, fireflies and bats: warm white, aimed downward, and only on when someone actually walks by.
Natural GardenContains advertising
Peat-Free Gardening: Why It Matters and How to Do It
Why peat is a drained bog in your flower pot, which alternatives actually work, and how to keep even blueberries happy with no peat at all.
Natural Garden
Start a wildlife garden: five building blocks by effort and impact
Five building blocks for a wildlife garden, from a less-often-mown lawn to a small pond, sorted by effort and impact.