On yet another wet weekend, a group of ten braced a downpour to walk along the trails of Strawberry Mansion’s Discovery Center for a wild plant tour. Their journey began at the trail entrance, where an innocuous weed was growing. Tour guide Lady Danni Morinich, a local herbalist and forager, identified the plant as yellow
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John Janick was an obsessive gardener packing every square inch outside his family’s Mount Airy twin home with native plants when I first wrote about him in Grid in July 2014. He had filled his backyard and the area around his driveway, and was running out of space in his front yard. I found Janick,
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By Bernard BrownAmerican kestrels have the grit to live and thrive in Philly.
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By Bernard BrownPhilly researchers recruit American eels to fight invasive crayfish.
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By Bernard BrownA new program aims to control urban deer populations, get more Philly residents hunting–and feed the hungry.
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By Bernard BrownTwo captivating aerial predators love city life.
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“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” –F. Scott FitzgeraldI believe in the eureka moment: the experience of discovering something about the world or yourself that changes everything. This magazine has sought out those stories
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By Bernard BrownWild turkeys are good neighbors, unless they encounter a polished car.
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By Bernard BrownLocal environmental educator builds wildlife oasis in Fishtown.
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By Bernard BrownA white sheet strung up between two trees in Bartram’s Garden glowed blue in the dark August night. It was speckled with hundreds of insects, ranging in size from tiny wasps and midges, whose identity could only be discerned with a magnifying glass, to geometer moths an inch-and-a-half across. A small crowd of children
MoreBy Bernard BrownGardeners who have taken a peek inside the hand-sized yellow flowers on their squash plants have probably witnessed what looks like a bee dance party. On smaller flowers, bees perch themselves and deploy their long tongues to suck up the tiny droplets of nectar inside. By contrast, on winter squash plants (like pumpkins, butternuts
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