Welcome to Winding Pathways
Winding Pathways encourages you to create a wonderous yard, whether that yard is an expansive acreage, a suburban lot or a condominium balcony. Go outside and play!
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Outwitting Pesky Deer
Like millions of American homeowners we at Winding Pathways have a love/hate relationship with deer. Few animals are as beautiful as a peaceful doe nursing her fawns or as majestic as a powerful buck sporting husky fall antlers. But a love of deer only goes so far....
Overlands Create a Wondrous Urban Sanctuary
A short winding pathway around the home of Scott and Jan Overland leads to a wondrous backyard that's an oasis of privacy and peace within bustling Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Butterflies flitted about as a hummingbird sipped nectar from an obedient plant as we toured the...
Cast Iron Cookery
Want to buy a product that's inexpensive, American made, can be used every day of your life and then passed on to your children as a legacy? Cast iron cookware fills the bill. One cool August morning Rich collected eggs from our backyard chicken flock, pulled out a...
Jan Watkin’s Sunflower
A short note from Jan Watkins about her summer companion. "This lone sunflower volunteered to be in my garden. It looks in at me and makes me smile each day. It's the little things. The special thing about this flower besides choosing my garden in which to bloom, is...
A Mouse in the House
A long-ago children’s story began something like this, “There is a mouse in my house. It is a very nice mouse. It has a long, long tail and shiny eyes. It pops out of its hole and runs. My mother likes the mouse, but she says, ‘A mouse does not belong in a house.’”...
Rain Barrels to the Rescue!
A Guest Column by Jackie and Peter Hull When we first moved to Virginia fifteen years ago, we had no idea that the entire state was in a drought which had been ongoing for a couple of years. In order to help water the garden we wanted to grow, we decided to construct...
Indiana Labyrinths
August was a time of travel East. On the way to and from we took in labyrinths in towns just off I-80. South Bend and Valaparaiso, Indiana, both have lovely labyrinths. The South Bend labyrinths are located on Ironwood Road, a major north-south route close to Notre...
Butterflies Galore!
Carol Lampe shared these pictures and write up of her wondrous yard and the pollinator action on Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum). This is a particularly valuable fast food stop for migrating butterflies as it lasts into autumn. We have found it a bit difficult to...
The Bena’s Story of the Monarch Chrysalis
Here is a story fro Gordon and Nancy Bena about their interest in Monarchs, their chrysalis find and how they began to tend their property differently to encourage insects. "We went to the presentation given at the library that told us the fate of the Monarch. With...
Yellow Jackets
As Marion was looking out the window recently she saw Rich abandon the lawn mower and race across the yard swatting and jumping as he ran. What was going on? He’d pushed the mower up close to wood mulch around a tree and disturbed a Yellow Jacket nest. They boiled...
Plants Add Lasting Beauty and Soothe Grief
Many years ago word came that a dear friend had tragically died in Utah, over a thousand miles from our Iowa home. With deep feelings of grief of the loss of a vibrant young woman I (Rich) felt the need to “do something for her.” We were in the process of restoring...
Prairie Ballerina
Periodically readers send lovely essays and observations of their Wondrous Yards. Below is a poetic piece by Katrina Garner. "One of the benefits of creating and maintaining burn barriers around prairie areas is that the resulting "pathways" provide the perfect...
Woodpeckers
The Magic of Clovers and Fireflies
A man whom Rich hadn't seen for years recently approached him in a parking lot. “You once wrote a newspaper column suggesting that people not spray their yards for insects or weeds. We took your advice and magic happened,” he said. He explained that a couple of years...
No Rest for Wrens!
Just ten days ago the wren parents fledged the babies from the box on our deck. After we knew they were safely gone, Rich unbolted and cleaned out the next. What an amazing feat of engineering! With just a beak and claws, the wrens fashioned a comfy, warm home to...
Fledging
Late June into mid-August is exciting, dangerous and nostalgic for all creatures fledging - including people! Birds and wild creatures have mated, nested, and are raising young. For some this takes weeks, months or years (kids). This spring has been fun watching the...