Gardening

Planting a garden is a good way to study nature. Choose a spot in your yard that you will see often. Don’t make it a back corner that never gets noticed. You can also plant in containers placed on your patio or deck. Plant wildflowers, cultivated flowers, annuals, perennials, or vegetables.

Planting flowers will not only give you opportunity to study plant life, but will also allow plenty of opportunity to study insects and spiders. It is amazing the variety of insects that are attracted to flowers! Some flowers will even help attract birds to your yard. Certain flowers, such as petunias, lilacs, and geraniums, will attract hummingbirds. Other flowers, such as sunflowers and daisies, will attract chickadees, blue jays, and American goldfinches to your yard.

Planting vegetables has its practical side by allowing you to enjoy fresh vegetables in season. Vegetables also provide plenty of opportunity for studying plant life and insects. There are many insects that are attracted to vegetable plants that you will not see in a flower garden. Many of these bugs, such as tomato horn worms, Colorado potato beetles, cucumber beetles, and squash bugs, are “undesirables,” but that does not make them any less interesting to study.