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Articles from ‘June 2022’ Issue

Are You a Flower Lover? – Create Your Own, Fun Fantasy Flowers

By Linda Wiggen Kraft, Healthy Planet Green & Growing Editor

Can’t have enough flowers? Do you swoon at the sight of the miracle of a flower’s colors and shapes? Do you love spring through fall because that is when your garden blooms? Do you  want flowers around you all year round?  

Why not create some unique […]

ARTful Living: Much To-do About the ARTS!!!!

By Michelle “Mike” Ochonicky, Healthy Planet Arts Editor

It’s back! Forest Park cheers the return of full-seat capacity for St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, June 1-26. Much Ado About Nothing promises delightful summer evenings at St. Louis’s fav picnic-theatre-in-the-park! Press release states, “6:30 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. performance.” While there are no “doors,” there are plenty of […]

Astrology and Tarot Workshop Virtual Event June 18: A Look at Our Core Wounds

By Dr. Gail Cloud, D.C.

Welcome to another astrology and tarot workshop. In this event, we look at our core wounds, our evolutionary path, and ways to walk down that path to our healing.

The purpose of this class is to look at our shadows and our blind spots and find healing in ways that are unique […]

Conservation Corner: Forest Felines that are Spot-on

By Dan Zarlenga, Missouri Department of Conservation

Photo Caption: The bobcat is a most secretive forest feline. Photo by Noppadol Paothong, Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Many of us live with cats in our homes. The furry felines can make excellent human companions. But did you know there are native wild cats that live in the woods of […]

Earthworms’ Castings

By Jean Ponzi

Self-Talk Slugfest

For many years, about myself I said, “I’m a slug.” 

Meaning preferring to fart around, fundamentally lazy. Disinclined to do stuff, especially what I’m expected to do – and how I believe I’m expected to do it. 

As an inner criticism, it’s not totally true. But worse: this description maligns a whole genus of […]

Essential Native Plants

By Abby Lapides

If you only have room for a few, these long-lived perennials are the ones to plant.

Butterfly Milkweed – Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, serves as an adult nectar source and a larval food source of the Monarch butterfly. Brilliant tangerine orange or vibrant yellow flowers appear for most of the summer. Its showy seed pods are […]

Founder’s Forum: Retirement After a Career Well Lived

By J.B. Lester

As I transition into retirement after 45 years in the publishing world, I am a bit reluctant to let go of those things I have created. Sort of like when a parent sees their child leave home for the first time. You know they have to leave the nest, but when they walk […]

Garden Dreams Come True With Forrest Keeling Natives!

by Judy Good

I like to say, “People don’t buy flowers, they buy butterflies in the garden.” And it’s true. We tend to plant our landscapes for the benefits of our dreams. We plant anticipating birds and butterflies, cooling shade and lush cutting gardens.

But not all plants are equal. Some have the advantage of RPM-production. RPM […]

Help Wanted: A Million+ Pollinator Gardens

By Linda Wiggen Kraft, Healthy Planet Green & Growing Editor

If bees, butterflies, birds, bats and other pollinators could put an advertisement out for the help they need, it would read: “help wanted– desperately needed pollinator gardeners”.Pollinators need us now more than ever to help them thrive and survive. In response to this need, groups of […]

Irresistible Community Builders, LLC presents: The St Bonaventure Greenway

By Tom Braford

The egrets and other big wading birds are back at the urban rookery at Arizmendi Ecovillage for the 4th year in a row! Just like the blossoms act as a barometer of climate change, they are arriving a few days earlier each spring.  They seem to be growing in numbers as well. 

The great […]

It is Time to Transform our Food System Through the 2023 Farm Bill

Melissa Vatterott, Policy Director

www.moenvironment.org

Good food policy means a healthy, fair, and sustainable food system from farm to fork. From farm to fork, our food system should be something we are proud of, making the safest and healthiest food available for everyone. One avenue through which we can see good food policy for the United States […]

Publisher’s Corner: I’M SO HAPPY TO BE HERE!

I first met J.B. Lester and The Healthy Planet Magazine in the late 90’s. I was an instant fan of both. At the time I was teaching advertising and other media classes at St. Louis Community College -Meramec in Kirkwood. I called J.B. while doing an advertising class assignment in which I wanted to incorporate […]

St. Louisans Encouraged to Take Action for Cleaner Air Based on Latest “State of the Air” Results

Article courtesy of the Clean Air Partnership

The recently released American Lung Association’s 2022 “State of the Air” report reveals that, despite decades of progress on cleaning up sources of air pollution, more than 40% of Americans – over 137 million people – are living in places with failing grades for unhealthy levels of ozone or […]

Sustainability Institute for Educators — Celebrating “The Joy of Nature”

By Ben Freiman, Missouri Green Schools AmeriCorps VISTA

The Sustainability Institute for Educators returns to onsite programming in the St. Louis area this year on June 20 and 21, 2022 with the theme of “The Joy of Nature”. This two-day event which is designed for K-12 and informal educators from all roles and environments will center […]