About Me, This Blog, and the Universe

Okay, perhaps not the Universe.....

Hello!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cornelia Weatherbloomer's Native Plant Gardening Periodical. Your author and guide is a bit quirky and corny, hence this publication will be somewhat reflective of that as we traverse the fields of....oh wait, we're not actually outside.

Ahem. Let's try that again. There are many articles and books and Facebook pages and groups on native plants, but sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming if you're a casual gardener looking to add more native plants to your garden, no matter how big or small of a space you have (yard, patio, balcony!). What's a BONAP map? What plants are good if you're on a budget? What's even a "native plant"?? Do I have to dig up my lawn?!

Mission/Goals

Here, the goal is to be accessible and to help you dive into the wonderful world of native plants and, relatedly, give you some small steps to start creating a little oasis for the various native pollinators and birds in your local community/ecosystem. My hope is you come to enjoy adding native plants into your garden, and that you want not just to expand the native plants that you care for, but also look to making your street or neighborhood a nicer, healthier place to live. Conservation and stewardship are values that you can implement in small ways with a big impact, and I hope this blog helps you in that endeavor.

My Perspective and Experience

What I write here is based on personal experience, including some trial-and-error, and a strong interest in native plants, especially in finding and learning about less-well-promoted ones and more rare and/or threatened species. For instance, if you've ever been frustrated because every popular native plant seems to need well-drained soil, this is the place for you! I built a massive garden in variable-thickness clay soil with differing moisture levels across the whole space that used to be grass and weeds. That experience kicked off a slight obsession with finding creative native plant solutions for less-than-ideal conditions.

My perspective is based out of a love of science and the outdoors, a particular love (perhaps "cute aggression" as the kids say) for bumblebees, and a curiosity in getting to know and understand where I live, including its history. My gardening experience and perspective is also grounded in the eastern United States, including parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Also, as someone with some chronic health conditions, I hope to eventually incorporate content about adaptive gardening and tools to make it easier to keep getting outside and stewarding your little piece of earth, even if your joints are achy or you don't feel very well.

Posting, Membership, Etc.

Nothing here is written with AI – it's all written, edited, and put together by me (including my own photographs unless otherwise noted) out of an interest in and love of sharing what I've learned and keep learning. Unfortunately, because of the lack of AI regulation, any work I invest my time in to make available to you is vulnerable to being stolen. For that reason, and taking guidance from other much larger publications, all substantive content on this blog requires you to subscribe, and under no circumstances will you be allowed to subscribe simply to scrape material for AI or other purposes.

I also would prefer not to have any advertising on this blog because, personally, I'm tired of being hit with ads everywhere and I'd prefer to focus on content. (Remember the early days of the Internet before all the ads? Wasn't it great? Yeah.....) However, no ads means I am substantially dependent on subscriptions to support this blog.

My hope is that, over time, we build a community of like-minded folks via this blog. For now, we're just getting started, so please, hop along for the ride - we're going to be taking the scenic route through the fields of native wildflowers and forests!

Cornelia Weatherbloomer's Native Plant Gardening Periodical is an independent publication launched in August 2024. Your subscription makes this site possible, and allows Cornelia Weatherbloomer's Native Plant Gardening Periodical to continue to exist. Thank you!

Start your own thing

Enjoying the experience? Get started for free and set up your very own subscription business using Ghost, the same platform that powers this website.