Living in Harmony with Nature

  • worm

    Meet the Wiggly Hungry Worm

    Ready for some hands on fun learning experience!
    Date: Saturday, June 8th
    Time: 12:00pm–1:00pm

  • familyprogram

    Healthy and Lush Gardens Begin Here!

    Help your gardens thrive in the summer months!
    Date: Saturday, June 8th
    Time: Noon – 1pm
    Location: Broadlands Nature Center

  • MBF2

    Bring Monarchs Home

    Raise and Release Monarch Butterflies Program
    Date: Sunday, June 16 Time:10:00 a.m.
    Address: Broadlands Community Center 43008 Waxpool Rd, Broadlands Available space: 25/All ages (free)

  • BugMan

    “The Bug Man” Brings Mother Nature’s Miracles

    “The Bug Man” Brings Mother Nature’s Miracles
    Date:Saturday, July 13th
    Time: Noon- 1:30 P.M.
    Location: Broadlands Nature Center

  • sunscreen

    Annual Sunscreen Safety Guide

    Some 65 sunscreens advertised for babies and kids contain oxybenzone, a synthetic chemical that absorbs the sun’s rays but also readily penetrates the skin. It can disrupt the body’s natural hormones.

Seasonal, Healthy & Practical Diet

Strawberries

Fruity Spring Snack

Best time to have some fresh strawberries!

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Alarmingly Unhealthy Snacks

In a perfect world, everyone (kids included) would snack on carrots and kale chips. For those who do, hats off. But for everyone else, once you step away from the produce aisle, the choice of snacks can run the gamut from nutritionally vapid to downright deleterious. And sadly, consumers are often at the mercy of the processed food industry with its seductive yet unhealthy ingredients and powerful marketing machines. It’s all too easy to be swayed by items marketed specifically to children and parents — with enticing prices, misleading labels and the promise of convenience. But when consumers start to dig a bit, they'll get a better picture of what’s going on inside the snacks they…

ketchup

Homemade Ketchup

Regular ketchup usually sweetened with sugar or high-fructose corn syrup.

Meet Your Native Plants

AB

American Beauties

Native plant experts and wildlife experts have teamed up to create four gardens guaranteed to bring life to your landscape by providing food and habitat for a variety of desirable critters.

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Time to Plant Virginia Native Bulbs

Planting in this area starts in mid to late October for most bulbs. Planting after the first hard frost (late October or early November) is best for tulips. Bulbs are not shipped after early December, so plan accordingly.  There are some exceptions to fall planting – Colchicum is best planted by early fall before it blooms. Planting Depth and Width – Use the general three times rule when planting most dormant bulbs Plant about 3 times the height of the bulb (measured from the soil surface down to the tip of the bulb).  Space bulbs at least three times their width apart.  Actual planting depth can vary from about2 times to 4 times the height of the bulb – bulbs…

PP

Getting to Know Paw Paw

Pawpaw season will arrive soon in the Eastern US.  So just what is a pawpaw, other than something many of us sang about as children? And what the heck does one taste like? It’s actually an interesting story… The Common Pawpaw is the northernmost New World representative of a chiefly tropical family, which includes the popular tropical fruits Annona, Custard-apple, Sugar-apple, and Soursop.  It produces the largest edible fruit indigenous to North America. The plant has large oblong leaves and many observers think it looks like a tropical plant, although it is native to over 25 states in the eastern U.S.  It’s generally found in patches in well-drained, deep, fertile bottom-land and hilly upland habitat. The wild…

Penstemon

Beard Tongue

Penstemon albidus Nutt. White penstemon.
A stout, erect, 8-12 in. perennial with broad, rough leaves and a densely flowered spike of large, tubular blossoms. Flowers are white, sometimes with a pale pinkish or bluish tube.