Did you observe evening flashes of fireflies this summer? Did you catch any to take a closer look at their lights or to share with a youngster? These bright little critters are members of the beetle family. When you see their evening glow, it means they are communicating with other lightning bugs, letting them know of danger and, more importantly, trying to find a mate. Scientist have only been studying their population for the past few years so there is much inconclusive evidence at this time, but we are seeing less and less of these illuminating friends light up our night skies.

Here are a few things you can do to help the population of lightning bugs:

1 - Turn off outside lights at night so there isn't light pollution and the little buggers can continue communicate with their light signals to mate and create more fireflies.

2 - Lightning bugs lay their eggs on the leaves that fall to the ground. Instead of completely cleaning up all the leaves, broken branches or sticks from your yard this fall and disposing or burning them, leave an area of your yard undisturbed. Let the leaves fall and gather there. Let broken branches rest in that area as well. If we all do just this one thing we could increase their population by 35-60% in one year!

3 - When lightning bug's eggs hatch, some of their little larvae glow. These are called glowworms and they are very beneficial as they feed on other small insects and grubs!

4 - Lightning bugs enjoy dark summer evenings for mating, a little taller grass for living and undisturbed areas for starting their families. Sides of ponds, marsh areas, river walls, underside of leaves and decomposing wood make a great place for the little glowworms to feed and grow up, bringing us dancing lights in the summer night skies.

5 - Not proven for these beetles yet, but we all know the misuse of pesticides and weed killers can cause problems for the environment.

Always follow the manufacturers instructions and use caution with pesticides and weed killers.

Maybe next summer we will all enjoy a little more illumination!

  

Congratulations to our September Newly Weds!

Here at Countryside we like to change things up a bit. A suggestion was made that maybe we could share a favorite 'read' with our customers! Great idea Kim and Lou!! Here is our first "Favorite Read":

Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman is a lovely story about how plants and gardens can bring people together.  The book is a series of character vignettes, each about a different person in the inner city of Cleveland.  They all make their way to a garden, some willingly some not, that w as created accidentally by a little Vietnamese girl trying to connect with her late father.

I read this book to lots of middle school kids in Chicago, year after year.   Seedfolks was the

	Lori "Lou" Humbles Perennial Sales Associate

inspiration for the gardens that we built and cared for. I was thrilled to  share the book with my four year old this summer!  In this story you see the restorative power of plants and their value as therapy, income, community, and much more.