Gardening How-to Articles

Experts recommend these ten Malus cultivars for their beautiful blooms, lovely fruit, and disease-resistance. Among the showiest of spring bloomers, crabapples are also wonderful foliage plants in summer and fall, and they provide beautiful fruit displays late in the season. Read › The Best Crabapple Trees for Your Garden

Learn how to create a simple, low-maintenance design that will lure monarchs, swallowtails, skippers, and other beneficial insects throughout autumn. Read › Butterfly Gardening in Fall

Two of the most common groundcovers, English ivy and periwinkle, are invasive. But there are many native plants that make wonderful and sustainable alternatives. Read › Native Groundcovers: Sustainable Choices for Sun and Shade

Wild bird populations are threatened by habitat loss, global warming, collisions with buildings, and much more. You can help ease their plight by turning your city garden, or a portion of it, into a pesticide-free bird sanctuary. Read › A Bird Habitat Garden—Plant Choices and Design Tips

Grow these fascinating carnivorous plants in an outdoor container, and watch how they capture prey. Read › Sarracenia: Native Pitcher Plants

Honey bees are from Europe. The bee species native to North America are very different. They can be black, brown, or green, and the vast majority are solitary creatures that nest in cavities or soil. They are also important pollinators and could use your help! Read › Native Bees

Brooklyn was once a verdant landscape lush with vegetation. Today, Brooklyn is the New York City borough with the least amount of green. Unless in a garden setting, humans barely notice individual plants or consider the fact that they are alive. Read › Lost in the Wild

BBG’s Native Flora Garden comprises of only plants native to New York City and the surrounding area. It provides a glimpse of what Brooklyn could be like in its most natural state. Read › The Native Flora Garden

BBG and the Greenbelt Native Plant Center often partner for joint scouting and seed collection trips to natural areas within the metropolitan region of New York City. Recently we headed to Harriman State Park on an expedition to find Carex appalachica (Appalachian sedge). Read about our hunt for this common but elusive species. Read › An Adventure into Harriman State Park

In all the busyness of installing “green” systems in your garden—drip irrigation, compost bins, solar panels, gray-water recycling—it can be easy to overlook one of the most important environmental decisions you make as a gardener: what you plant. Read › Go Native