Second Nature Herb Farm & Horticultural Services

05/06/2026

05/06/2026

Round the sun again…it’s grow time!☺️💚🌱🌱🌱

05/06/2026

It’s beginning… we’ll have lots of vegetable starts ready in a few weeks!🥦🍆🍅🌶️🫑

04/25/2026

Five caterpillars most gardeners remove on sight. Every one becomes a butterfly or moth worth more alive than the leaf it's eating.

The same organism appears in two books — beauty and pest — and most gardeners never make the connection.

- Tomato hornworm — becomes the five-lined sphinx moth, a hummingbird-sized pollinator that works the night shift. If it's covered in tiny white cocoons, leave it — those are parasitic wasps that handle next year's population for you
- Parsley worm — the green-black-yellow caterpillar on your dill and fennel is a black swallowtail. One parsley plant yields five to eight adult butterflies. The parsley costs two dollars
- Eastern tent caterpillar — the silk web tents in cherry and apple trees feed over 60 species of songbirds during the exact window when they're raising nestlings
- Gulf fritillary — bright orange with spines that look dangerous but are soft and harmless. Strips passionflower vine to bare stems. The vine regrows in a week
- Woolly bear — the fuzzy one crossing roads in October. Eats w**ds. Threatens nothing you planted. Survives winter by freezing solid

The garden that protects the larva gets the butterfly. The one that removes it gets neither.

04/25/2026

Thank you, New York!❤️

You don't see it. That's the point.
Most corn, soy, and wheat seeds get coated in a neonicotinoid insecticide before they ever hit the ground. It's invisible. It's routine. And it's been wiping out pollinators, birds, and soil life for years.
New York just became the first state to ban neonic-treated seeds for corn, soy, and wheat. The Birds and Bees Protection Act phases out what scientists call the most ecologically destructive pesticide since DDT.
Here's why this matters. A seed treatment doesn't stay in the seed. It washes into the soil. It bleeds into field margins. It shows up in the pollen and nectar that bees collect. A single treated corn kernel can carry enough active ingredient to kill a songbird.
Native bumble bees have been crashing partly because every field around them is toxic. New York drew the line. Farmers will have to find other ways to manage pests. And the bees, birds, and butterflies in New York fields just got something they haven't had in years — clean ground.
The rest of the country is watching. Because if the nation's third-largest agricultural state can do this, the question isn't whether other states will follow.

04/25/2026

There's an insect on your rosebush right now that looks like it was designed to terrify you. Half an inch long, covered in bristles, shaped like a flattened alligator. If you saw it, your first instinct would be to remove it.

That's a lacewing larva. And she's the reason your roses still have leaves.

She works through aphids at a pace that no spray can match without hitting everything else on the plant. She clamps on, drains the aphid in seconds, and moves to the next one. Some species take the empty shells and stack them onto bristles on their backs — a layer of debris that disguises them from the guard ants that patrol aphid colonies. She walks into a defended colony wearing camouflage made from her last meal.

Her mother is the insect you actually recognize — a pale green creature with translucent wings and golden eyes that floats around your porch light on summer nights. She lays each egg on a tiny silk stalk hanging from the underside of a leaf. The stalk keeps the eggs separated because the first larva to hatch will eat anything within reach — including unhatched siblings.

Nothing about the larva suggests it belongs to that parent. The transformation is so complete that most gardeners who admire the adult will remove the juvenile on sight.

Same species. Same leaf. One gets protected. The other gets flicked into the dirt.

🌿 How to recognize her:

- Small, dark, spiny, alligator-shaped — found on leaves near aphid clusters
- If she's on a leaf covered in aphids, she's already solving the problem
- The pale green adult with lace wings and golden eyes is the same insect one generation later
- Before spraying any aphid-covered plant, check for larvae first — they may be days from clearing it themselves

The ugliest insect on your rosebush is the reason you still have roses 🌿

04/25/2026

That short trill you've been hearing at dusk for weeks isn't a bird. It's a frog you've never found — because it changes color to match whatever it's sitting on.

I'm a Cope's gray treefrog. My skin shifts from gray to green to brown depending on the surface, the temperature, and the time of day. On gray bark, I'm gray. On a green leaf, I'm green. On your tan siding, I'm tan. The shift takes about thirty minutes. It's not instant like a chameleon — but it's complete enough that you look directly at me and don't see me.

My call is a short, harsh trill — faster and more buzzy than the smooth trill of the American toad. You've been hearing it at dusk from the trees near your house. It sounds like a bird. Most people assume it is.

I climb with adhesive toe pads that work the same way gecko feet do. I can walk up glass. I can hang upside down from your porch ceiling. I spend most of my life in the canopy, thirty feet up, and come down only to breed.

- Check your windows at night — I hunt insects attracted to indoor light. I sit on the glass or screen and pick them off
- Listen for the short trill at dusk from any tree near your house. It's me, not a bird
- Look at outdoor lights — porch lights, garage lights. I sit near them after dark and eat whatever comes to the light
- During the day, I'm on a branch or bark surface, matching its color. You'll walk past me. I'm counting on it

I change color, climb glass, and sound like a bird.

You've heard me most nights this month. You just looked for a bird instead of a frog.

12/10/2025

Want Your Apple Trees to Truly Thrive? Build an Apple Tree Guild 🍎🐝

One of the most reliable, time-tested ways to grow healthier, more productive fruit trees is to plant them as part of a guild—a small, supportive ecosystem designed around the tree.
This is a core principle of permaculture: instead of planting a lone apple tree in turf grass, you surround it with plants that protect, feed, and strengthen it.

The layout in the image you shared is an excellent example. Every plant in the guild serves a specific function, creating a self-supporting system that reduces pests, improves soil, and boosts pollination.
Below is a breakdown of why each companion plant is included and the role it plays.

Chives (or other Alliums such as garlic)
Role: Pest and disease deterrent
Why it works:
Alliums naturally help suppress fungal issues like apple scab, and their strong scent confuses common pests, including aphids and deer. When allowed to bloom, they also draw in pollinators.

Yarrow
Role: Beneficial insect attractor
Why it works:
Its flat flower clusters attract predatory insects—ladybugs, lacewings, and parasitic wasps—that feed on harmful pests.
Yarrow also pulls minerals from deep in the soil and returns them to the surface as its foliage breaks down.

Borage
Role: Pollinator magnet and soil enhancer
Why it works:
Bees of all kinds are drawn to borage more than almost any other flower, which increases your apple tree’s pollination rate.
Like yarrow, borage mines nutrients from deeper layers of soil, helping enrich the topsoil around your tree.

Nasturtium
Role: Trap crop and living ground cover
Why it works:
Aphids prefer nasturtiums over nearly anything else, keeping them away from your apple tree.
This spreading plant also functions as a natural mulch, shading the soil and suppressing w**ds.

Marigold (Tagetes spp.)
Role: Root protector
Why it works:
Specific marigold varieties release natural compounds from their roots that deter root-knot nematodes—microscopic pests that damage tree roots. Their strong scent also discourages several above-ground insects and even browsing animals.

Artemisia (such as wormwood or southernwood)
Role: Strong-scented repellent
Why it works:
Artemisia species produce aromatic compounds that confuse and deter pests, including the codling moth—a major apple pest. Their scent also discourages deer and rabbits from approaching the tree.

What This Guild Achieves
Together, these plants create a powerful support system that:
Brings pollinators to the orchard (borage, yarrow)
Reduces pest pressure above and below ground (chives, marigolds, artemisia)
Attracts natural predators to control harmful insects (yarrow)
Improves soil structure and fertility (borage, yarrow)
Minimizes w**d competition (nasturtium)
Helps maintain tree health and disease resistance (chives)
This combination allows the apple tree to devote its energy to growth and fruit production instead of survival.