Archive for October 18th, 2010

Mario Batali Loves The Garden

Posted in The Edible Garden on October 18th, 2010 by Plant Talk – Be the first to comment
Ann Rafalko is Director of Online Content.

And the feeling is completely mutual!

The celebrity chef and philanthropist came to The New York Botanical Garden on Saturday to do a cooking demo for the finale weekend of The Edible Garden.

Just before thrilling the audience with his amazing food, anecdotes, tips, and tricks, we got a few minutes to ask Mario what he likes about the Botanical Garden.

Turns out: He likes the Garden quite a bit. We’re blushing!

Mario loves us! He really loves us!

Stay tuned for more from Mario’s demo. We’ll be posting another video soon, and recipes, too.

Tip of the Week: Bringing Nature Home

Posted in Gardening Tips on October 18th, 2010 by Sonia Uyterhoeven – Be the first to comment
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education. Join her each weekend for home gardening demonstrations on a variety of topics in the Home Gardening Center.

The lovely title of Douglas Tallamy’s acclaimed book Bringing Nature Home implies that as gardeners and environmentally minded citizens, one of our directives is to invite nature—birds, bees, butterflies, and other critters—into our landscapes.

As I wrote about in the past few weeks, invasive plants change face of our natural landscape, and so do pollution and urban sprawl. In his book, an outstanding homage to biodiversity, Tallamy looks at two other destructive forces: habitat destruction and the loss of species.

Biodiversity is synonymous with a balanced ecological community. Plants, insects, and other animals have all co-evolved in communities with complex, interconnected lives that are dependent on one another.

Many insects are specialists, meaning that they feed on specific plants. This is nature’s way of ensuring that species are not decimated by predators. How do plants do this? read more »